Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-09-06

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S SUPREME DEFENSE COUNCIL HOLDS SESSION

[02] YUGOSLAV MINISTER SEES GOOD PROSPECTS FOR NORMALIZING IMF MEMBERSHIP

[03] NEW ROUND OF TALKS ON THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA SUCCESSION

[04] INTER-STATE ACCORDS NECESSARY TO REOPEN TRAFFIC

[05] YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL WISHES TO TAKE BALLOTS TO SARAJEVO

[06] MORINA MEETS KLEINER

[07] YUGOSLAVIA PLACES GREAT IMPORTANCE ON AGREEMENTS WITH MACEDONIA

[08] YUGOSLAV-MACEDONIAN TRADE ACCORD ABOLISHES CUSTOMS DUTIES

[09] CROATIA SUSPENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

[10] BILDT'S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON BOSNIA ELECTIONS

[11] OSCE EXTENDS DEADLINE FOR POSTAL VOTE OF BOSNIAN REFUGEES

[12] SERBS, MUSLIMS AND CROATS TO MEET IN SARAJEVO OVER EXHUMATION

[13] IFOR: RS ARMY WAS AUTHORIZED TO MOVE ONLY TWO VEHICLES

[14] BOSNIAN MUSLIM WAR CRIME SUSPECT LAUNCHES NEW ACTIONS

[15] IZETBEGOVIC'S AGGRESSIVE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S SUPREME DEFENSE COUNCIL HOLDS SESSION

The Yugoslav President's Military Cabinet said the Council had considered the current military-political situation in the Region and Yugoslavia's contribution to consolidating peace and cooperation in the territory of former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in general.

The Council also considered personnel issues which are within its jurisdiction and adopted decisions on appointments in the Yugoslav Army. The Council considered also other personnel matters from within its Constitutional jurisdiction.

At the proposal of the Yugoslav Army General Staff, the Council adopted new Yugoslav Army Service Regulations on internal order and relations within the Army.

In addition to Council members Presidents Slobodan Milosevic of the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia and Momir Bulatovic of the Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro, the Session was attended also by Federal Prime Minister Radoje Kontic, Federal Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic, Yugoslav Army Chief of General Staff Gen. Momcilo Perisic, and Supreme Defense Council Secretary Major-Gen. Slavoljub Susic, said the statement released by the Yugoslav President's Military Cabinet.

[02] YUGOSLAV MINISTER SEES GOOD PROSPECTS FOR NORMALIZING IMF MEMBERSHIP

Raicevic heads the Yugoslav Government's Delegation in a new round of talks with IMF senior officials on normalizing Yugoslavia's membership in this International Financial Institution.

Raicevic told Tanjug that the talks were being conducted in a favourable climate, and added that prospects were realistic for normalizing Yugoslavia's status. 'Things are moving in the right direction,' he said.

The Yugoslav Delegation submitted to the IMF legal documents necessary for normalizing Yugoslavia's membership and documents whereby the Government and Parliament undertake to meet the Statuary obligations stemming from membership.

[03] NEW ROUND OF TALKS ON THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA SUCCESSION

The head of the negotiating team of the High Representative of the International Community for the implementation of the civilian part of the Dayton Accords British law professor Sir Arthur Watts met with the Yugoslav negotiating team behind closed doors. Watts exchanged views with academician professor Kosta Manojlovic, professor Oscar Kovac, Vladan Kutlesic and Dragana Gnjatovic on the Memorandum of July 17, in which international experts presented their views on the problem of the economic succession of the former Yugoslavia.

According to the Yugoslav team, the wishes of the former Yugoslav Republics were mostly respected in the Memorandum which was composed on the basis of talks between representatives from Yugoslavia and Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

As their contribution to the final solution, Yugoslav experts offered their Draft Memorandum in which all aspects of the economic succession of the former Yugoslavia were taken into account. The Memorandum will be presented to Watts during the negotiations.

The basic misunderstandings mostly arise from the insistence of the former Yugoslav republics that common property which is now in the Federal Republic of Yugoslav should be divided, but not that which belongs to them, while it is the Yugoslav stand that the property of all of former Yugoslavia should be divided since all sides had invested in it.

[04] INTER-STATE ACCORDS NECESSARY TO REOPEN TRAFFIC

Conditions for reopening transportation links differed from State to State, said the Secretary of the Association for Transportation and Communications, adding that negotiations with Macedonia had gone the furthest.

Spasoje Spasojevic said it was necessary to provide transportation as soon as possible, as there was huge interest in Yugoslavia and the former Republics for the free flow of goods and capital.

[05] YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL WISHES TO TAKE BALLOTS TO SARAJEVO

'I wish to take the ballots personally when the shipment leaves for Sarajevo. I believe it would be correct for me to accompany the election material, and also that it would be safer to avoid possible manipulation, even more so, because it would mean support to the refugees,' Morina told Tanjug.

Morina said the postponement of Local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina has made refugees apprehensive because it means the resolving of their vital issues will have to be postponed also.

The Belgrade Office of the OSCE received more than 60,000 votes of refugees for the Bosnia elections by Thursday afternoon, which means that 71.6% of all registered voters in Yugoslavia who decided to vote in absentia have done so, OSCE Office head Zivota De Luca told Tanjug. Some more ballots are expected to arrive by mail by Friday morning from the more distant places, he said.

All the election materials will be sent to Sarajevo by plane on Friday. The shipment will be accompanied by 30 OSCE supervisors who monitored the Bosnia vote in Yugoslavia from August 28. until September 3. and probably Yugoslav Government Commission head Bratislava Morina, De Luca explained.

[06] MORINA MEETS KLEINER

In a talk with Chairman of the Yugoslav Commission for assisting refugees in the exercise of their rights at the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina Bratislava Morina, Kleiner announced that the Municipal elections there would probably be held on November 17.

Kleiner, who is advisor to OSCE Chairman Flavio Cotti, set out that Amendments to the Election Rules were being prepared and that it was not yet known what solutions would be offered. He added that the OSCE was expecting a decision on an extension of its Mandate, so as to continue work until the holding of Municipal elections.

Morina thanked Kleiner for the hitherto cooperation in the registration of refugees and their votes, which ended this week for Bosnian refugees who decided to vote in absentia. She set out that the vote of refugees in Yugoslavia ended without any incidents and that ballots, including those sent by mail, received by Thursday morning amounted to nearly 70% of the registered number of voters.

Morina informed Kleiner that the Yugoslav Commission would continue its work until the September 14 elections. She said about 100,000 refugees were expected to leave Yugoslavia for Bosnia and Herzegovina on Election Day to cast their votes there.

Kleiner promised that IFOR would guarantee security and absolute freedom of movement during the elections in both Entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[07] YUGOSLAVIA PLACES GREAT IMPORTANCE ON AGREEMENTS WITH MACEDONIA

A number of directors of Macedonian firms and representatives of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce are expected to visit Belgrade soon, Milojevic said, commenting on the visit by Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic to Macedonia.

Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce official Mira Lukic said that, with the signing of the Inter-State Trade Agreement, Yugoslavia and Macedonia had opted for a liberalization of commodity exchange in stages with the ultimate objective of setting up a Free Trade Zone by the end of the year 1998.

Mutual commodity exchange will be liberalized by abolishing customs and non-customs duties on most products, so that they should be reduced to just 1% in the shortest possible time period, she said. With such facilities, the value of commodity exchange between Yugoslavia and Macedonia should reach a billion dollars already in 1997, said Lukic, who is a member of the Chamber's Foreign Trade Committee.

[08] YUGOSLAV-MACEDONIAN TRADE ACCORD ABOLISHES CUSTOMS DUTIES

Fiti told the Privredni Pregled business newspaper that all customs and other duties would be abolished, except expenses of customs records amounting to about 1% for all goods. Regular customs will remain, however, for the sensitive goods quotas, he said. Fiti said the Macedonian list of sensitive goods had been too broad, and it was agreed that it be reduced to six or seven items in 1997.

He stressed the importance of the signing of other Accords that provided a legal framework for the further development and intensification of overall bilateral economic cooperation.

[09] CROATIA SUSPENDS SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

A statement said the Government had also approved a Bill on ratifying the Normalisation Agreement signed between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and submitted it to Parliament for adoption.

Foreign Minister Mate Granic told the Government Session that the Agreement was provisionally being implemented since the day it was signed, and would take effect officially when ratified by both States' competent bodies.

[10] BILDT'S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ON BOSNIA ELECTIONS

The Committee consequently hopes that the elections for Central Bodies and for the two Bosnian Entities would be held as scheduled on September 14. and without major problems.

The Committee meeting was chaired by the High Representative of the International Community Carl Bildt and was attended by Ambassador Robert Frowick, Head of the OSCE Mission in charge of Bosnian elections.

Bildt said that the three future Bosnian Presidency Members would meet three days after election results are made public, and would hold their first meeting with the newly elected Bosnian Parliament Members within ten days of that date.

A Ministerial Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina should also be created in the beginning of October, Bildt said, so that the new Federal Authorities can start functioning as soon as possible and assume their executive power.

According to the timetable proposed by Bildt, Presidency Members might attend the UN General Assembly already in the second half of September which would confirm their International Legitimity.

In November, the new Parliament should start passing major Bills regarding budget, citizenship, economic relations and transports, especially air traffic, Bildt proposed.

A Peace Conference on Bosnia should be held in December this year, Bildt said adding that in addition to recovery and reconstruction activities, a process of economic reforms and industrial recovery should be initiated in Bosnia with large-scale investments.

[11] OSCE EXTENDS DEADLINE FOR POSTAL VOTE OF BOSNIAN REFUGEES

Reporting from Sarajevo late on Thursday, Reuters said that the initial deadline for the Postal vote was midnight on September 3. The deadline was extended because of problems in the organization, Reuters said and added that it was still unknown how many refugees had problems in the Postal vote before the original deadline.

Reuters said that the OSCE would still have to explain how it would avoid that the refugees vote twice, once through the Post from the country where they currently are and then by arriving to the Polling Stations in Bosnia on the day of the elections.

[12] SERBS, MUSLIMS AND CROATS TO MEET IN SARAJEVO OVER EXHUMATION

An announcement to this effect was made from Bildt's Office in Banja Luka on Thursday, together with the text of an Agreement on exhumation of and search for unburied bodies, signed by both sides on Wednesday. The Agreement envisages for drawing up a preliminary list of priority exhumation sites, including those where exhumation has begun but has not been completed. The Joint Commission will define priority localities in order to verify the locations of mass graves and places where unburied bodies are to be found. The Agreement further provides for defining a time schedule for the exhumations.

The signatories to the Agreement have undertaken personally to supervise the exhumation work, and certain rules have been laid down for exhumation and search of the terrain for unburied bodies.

[13] IFOR: RS ARMY WAS AUTHORIZED TO MOVE ONLY TWO VEHICLES

Authorization was given for only two vehicles, whereas a weapon towing truck, a carrier and an M-53 air defense system were not authorized to be moved, said Brook and added that the entire convoy was halted in order to seize the unauthorized vehicles. An undeclared rocket launcher and a heavy machine gun were then discovered on the truck and their removal was consequently ordered, he said.

A group of 150 to 200 civilians meanwhile surrounded IFOR Military Police and tried to overturn one of their vehicles, Brook said, charging Serb Civilian Police with doing nothing to prevent this, which is why an IFOR member fired a shot in the air.

[14] BOSNIAN MUSLIM WAR CRIME SUSPECT LAUNCHES NEW ACTIONS

The Belgrade daily Politika said on Friday that International Police in Bosnia confirmed that Oric had led the group of armed Muslims who entered the villages of Mahala and Dugi Do in the Eastern Republika Srpska, provoking an incident with local Serb Police and Bosnia Peace Implementation Force intervention.

Politika said that Oric had been the Commander of Muslim units in Srebrenica, one of the U.N. 'Safe Areas', which had never been demilitarized as agreed. In this context, Politika said that during the Dayton Peace Talks in November 1995, Reuters quoted sources close to the Delegations to the talks as saying that Oric would soon be charged with the killing of Serbs in Srebrenica. Politika said that The Hague Tribunal had not commented on this issue and that Oric's name had appeared in media again only after his recent return to Eastern Bosnia.

The daily said that Serbs accused Oric's units also of crimes in the Eastern Bosnian villages of Kravica, Bratunac and Skelani.

[15] IZETBEGOVIC'S AGGRESSIVE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Analyzing the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina ahead of its September 14. elections, the Paper described the SDA as a typical Nationalist Movement. The Paper accused the SDA of not hesitating to use all means, including intimidation and violence, in discouraging opposition parties, whose leaders it said were designated as Bosnia's enemies.

Izetbegovic backs hardliners among Moslem nationalists as his goal is to preserve the SDA's hegemonistic rule, the Paper said. Moreover, Izetbegovic and the SDA are no longer trying to create a multi-ethnic Bosnia-Herzegovina but are rather trying to turn Bosnia into a Moslem-controlled unitary State, the Paper said.

Radio France commented on what it called Moslem nationalism late Wednesday, stating that Moslems were doing all they could to create a one-party system that would be under SDA control.

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