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Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-05-06Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>Yugoslav Daily SurveyCONTENTS
[01] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVED RUSSIAN OFFICIAL IVANOVTanjug, 1998-05-05Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ON Tuesday received Russia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. The talk focused on questions of a further successful development of Yugoslav-Russian relations and cooperation and also on other topics of common interest. It was also noted that bilateral relations were very good and that all conditions existed for their further promotion. It was jointly noted that international relations should be based on principles of equality, sovereignty and non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and also that openness, understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation between states and peoples should be affirmed. It was noted that there were no grounds whatsoever for making Yugoslavia's participation in the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations and other international organizations and institutions conditional on any of its internal issues. Taking part in the talk were also Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and Russian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Youri Kotov. [02] PREMIER DODIK ON THE FORTHCOMING DONORS' CONFERENCETanjug, 1998-05-05The Republika Srpska (RS) Government will be well prepared for the Donors' Conference scheduled for May 7-8 in Brussels, RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday. Dodik, who is heading a ten-member delegation, said at a press conference that the Finance Minister Novak Kondic, Minister for Refugees and Displaced Persons Milorad Dragicevic and several economic experts will be also going to Brussels. He added that he expected that at the Donors' Conference in Brussels one half of the donations will be intended for RS. Dodik assessed that the conference will show what was the real position towards the RS Government and voiced hope that the gathering will secure funds for financing recovery and development projects in RS, especially the building of apartments for refugees and displaced persons. Dodik considered that the RS Government will complete successfully its term by the elections in September. The RS Prime Minister said that the issuing of new passports in RS will start by May 20, and that by the end of May the border with Croatia will be opened. Dodik confirmed that he was in Sarajevo on Monday, to take part in the work of the Congress of the social-democrats of central and eastern Europe. He announced that he will take part in Oslo, May 18-19, in the work of the Conference of the Socialist International. The RS Prime Minister said he met in Sarajevo on Monday with the President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, and added that on that occasion they talked about the exchanging of lists demanded by the Interior Ministries of RS and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the prevention of inter-ethnic crime and about the connection of the railways of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through Croatia, with Europe. The RS Prime Minister announced that he will meet with the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethem Bicakcic, to discuss the realization of these issues. [03] ASSOCIATION FOR ASSISTING REFUGEES IN YUGOSLAVIA * NEWS CONFERENCETanjug, 1998-05-05Participants in a recent conference in Banja Luka on the return of refugees were unanimous as regards the refugees' right to return home and their tenancy rights, but conceded that the return of Serb refugees from Yugoslavia and the Republika Srpska was most uncertain, according to Milorad Muratovic, head of the Association for Assisting Refugees in Yugoslavia. Speaking at a news conference in Belgrade, Muratovic said the premiers of the Moslem-Croat federation and the Republika Srpska had exchanged at the conference, held on April 28, plans on the repatriation of refugees. Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic was the only one to urge individual return reiterating his Government's stand that Serbs were leaving Croatia of their own free will, Muratovic said. He said the association took the view that Granic's statement was yet another proof of Croatia's refusal to accept responsibility for the expulsion of Serbs and to comply with the Dayton Peace Accords. Muratovic said a statement by Jacques Klein, the High Representative for Bosnia's deputy, to the effect that only between three and five percent of Serb refugees could return to Croatia had upset the refugees, saying the association had strongly responded to Klein's statement at the news conference. He said the association had also strongly responded to German official Dietmar Schlee's statement to the effect that 140,000 refugees from Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija were sheltering in his country, saying the association had made it clear that these were no refugees but persons who had emigrated for economic reasons. Association representatives who attended the conference said that the confederal alliance of Moslems and Croats constituted a major obstacle to the repatriation of Serbs. They drew attention to the fact that no one had insisted on the return of 50,000 Krajina Serbs sheltering in the Republika Srpska although all had insisted on the return of Croats and Moslems to the Republika Srpska. In this connection, Radenko Popic, one of the representatives, said the international officials' reports were not specific although the international community had all the instruments at its disposal for exerting pressure on Moslems and Croats. Refugee associations strongly criticised High Representative for Bosnia Carlos Westendorp for doing nothing to help the refugees return home, Popic said. Braco Andric, another representative, said the international community and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were doing their job poorly, because of which he feared that this year would not be what he called the year of repatriation, either. The association has therefore sent a letter to Westendorp and UNHCR proposing that regional conferences on the repatriation of refugees be held also in Knin, Tuzla and Mostar. The association reminded the international community in its letter that nearly 700,000 refugees were sheltering in Yugoslavia and that sanctions and other economic obstacles affecting the country aggravated their position still further. [04] KORAC RECEIVES REPRESENTATIVES OF INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MISSING PERSONSTanjug, 1998-05-05President of the Yugoslav Commission for humanitarian issues and missing persons Maksim Korac received the head of the Sarajevo Office of the International Commission for missing persons in former Yugoslavia Erwin Bochi on Tuesday at his request. Bochi wanted to know the precise data and how many protocols the Croatian side has submitted to the Yugoslav Commission on Serbs killed in Croatian army operations Flash and Storm in 1995 on the Republic of Serb Krajina, a statement by the Commission said. Korac informed Bochi that Yugoslavia is searching for 3,134 missing persons - 112 cases in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the rest in Croatia. Korac reminded Bochi that most of the killed persons in Croatia were Serbs killed in these two operations. However, the submission of the 1,079 protocols which the Croatian Commission has and which pertain to these two operations, is proceeding very slowly, Korac said. The Croatian Commission has so far submitted only 404 protocols, he specified. Bochi told Korac that the Croatian authorities have undertaken the obligation to present all protocols on Flash and Storm by the end of May this year. Korac told Bochi about violations of international conventions and the agreement between the Yugoslav and Croatian commissions in Sid on April 24 this year. It was agreed during that meeting that exhumation will be carried out at the Vukovar cemetery with the approval and in the presence of families of the killed Serbs. Since families of several hundred Serbs were not enabled to attend exhumations, or Serb representatives of Vukovar or Yugoslav representatives, Korac asked Bochi to inform the President of the International Commission for missing persons Bob Dole about this. Korac presented to Bochi a letter for Dole, asking Dole to use his influence with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to stop the exhumations at the Vukovar cemetary until Serb families are allowed to state whether they want exhumation to take place, and if so, that they are allowed to attend. Korac especially pointed out the interest of Yugoslav representatives also to attend exhumations at the Vukovar cemetary, as Yugoslav citizens and members of the former Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) are also buried there. [05] NO MAJOR INCIDENTS NEAR PONOSEVACTanjug, 1998-05-05There were no major incidents on Tuesday in the Djakovica part of the border area, near the village of Ponosevac, where police and armed groups of ethnic Albanians clashed over the past two days, the Media Centre said, quoting the local authorities. There was sporadic gunfire again today, the sources said, but it is being exchanged from a greater distance. Armed groups of ethnic Albanians from neighbouring villages are firing at police in Ponosevac, who are forced to return fire, the Media Centre statement said. [06] YUGOSLAV INFORMATION SECRETARY PROTESTS TO GERMAN RADIO DIRECTORTanjug, 1998-05-05Yugoslav Information Secretary Goran Matic sent a letter to German Deutsche Welle radio station Director-General Dieter Weirich and also to the German Foreign Ministry, protesting over the radio's continued false reporting on the situation in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Matic said in the letter that, on April 30, the German state and propaganda short-wave radio station Deutche Welle broadcast through its Tirana correspondent that two Serb soldiers had been arrested in northeastern Albania. He said that the news had been strongly denied by both Yugoslav Army sources and Albanian Defense Ministry officials. As a professional, you must be very well-aware that any published lie has a far more resounding effect than any of its subsequent and unbiased denials and you did not miss yet another opportunity to take advantage of this, Matic said in his letter to Weirich. It is obvious that the Deutche Welle, aspiring to be a protector of free press and to maintain its reputation as a semi-official and impartial radio of the Federal Republic of Germany, continues to wage a media war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said. What we have here are cold-war methods applied in the post cold-war period, Matic said. He also said that behind such insinuations, lied world power centres' realistic geopolitical interests, while exaggerated reports came from some reporters or alleged reporters of the Deutsche Welle as a well-trained team inspired by methods of the past, which all true democrats in the world should forget as soon as possible. [07] POLICE DISCOVER A NEW CRIME IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJATanjug, 1998-05-05The body of a fifty-year-old male, who was tortured before being killed, was discovered by the Glogovac-Srbica road in Kosovo and Metohija on Tuesday, the police confirmed in a statement to the Media Centre in the provincial capital of Pristina. The police said there were quite a few head injuries on the body. Four bullet shells were found next to the body. According to what has been established by the investigation so far, the murder was committed elsewhere and the body was dumped were it was found. It is suspected that the bullet shells were planted so that it would seem that the body was lying at the scene of the crime. [08] COUNCIL OF EUROPE MINISTERS URGES DIALOGUE IN KOSOVO-METOHIJATanjug, 1998-05-05The Council of Europe Ministerial Committee on Tuesday urged Belgrade and ethnic Albanians in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province to renounce all forms of violence and open constructive dialogue, with third party mediation. The Committee made the call in an official document at its meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday, a press release at Council of Europe headquarters said. The 40-nation body, whose session was chaired by German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, discussed the situation in southeast Europe, among other things, with special emphasis on the deteriorating situation in Kosovo- Metohija, the document said. Kinkel, whose country is the outgoing chairman of the Committee, described the situation in Kosovo-Metohija as highly volatile, inviting Yugoslavia to open direct talks with (Kosovo-Metohija's) Albanians and inviting Albanians to renounce violence and terrorism. He recalled that the "Contact group" had last week imposed additional punitive measures on Belgrade, while offering concrete prospects for a normalisation between Belgrade and international organisations. Kinkel said that the purpose of Tuesday's session was to send a clear message that respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, as well as a satisfactory settlement of the Kosovo-Metohija problem, were conditions for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's membership in the Council of Europe. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia applied on March 19 for membership in the Council of Europe, and the application has officially been taken under advisement. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly had discussed the situation in Kosovo-Metohija in April. The Yugoslav Parliament's delegation, headed by Chairman of the Chamber of Citizens (lower house) Foreign Policy Board Ljubisa Ristic, took part in the debate. The session was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who told Russian reporters in Strasbourg that Russia advocated dialogue and the settling of the Kosovo-Metohija issue within Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia. Primakov specified that solutions to questions of the status of Kosovo- Metohija could be sought only within the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia. He said that Kosovo-Meothija should have self-rule only within Serbia and Yugoslavia, and that Russia was firmly against the efforts to make Kosovo- Metohija a third federal unit in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. [09] COUNCIL OF EUROPE MINISTERS DISCUSS YUGOSLAVIA'S MEMBERSHIPTanjug, 1998-05-05The Council of Europe Ministerial Committee reaffirmed in Strasbourg on Tuesday that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's membership application was valid and that the country should be reintegrated in the international community. Yugoslavia's application for membership in the oldest European political organisation, which celebrated its 49th anniversary on Tuesday, was not challenged at the Tuesday session of its executive body, except by Albania. However, Albania remained completely isolated in its protest, according to reports from Council of Europe sources. Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo repeated Tirana's demand that NATO deploy forces along the border between Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia officially applied for membership in the 40-nation Council of Europe in March. The participants in Tuesday's session agreed that conditions for Yugoslavia's membership were respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law - applicable to all candidate members - and a satisfactory settlement of the Kosovo-Metohija issue. The same conditions were made at the April session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. [10] SPS OFFICIAL PERCEVIC RECEIVES LORD HARLECHTanjug, 1998-05-05Member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Executive Committee Goran Percevic received on Tuesday Lord Harlech, Member of the House of Commons and Secretary of the British-Yugoslav Parliamentary Group. Percevic set out that some members of the international community should publicly, in words and deeds, condemn separatism and terrorism in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, demonstrate their commitment to the basic principles of the U.N. Charter and in that way contribute to peace and stability in the Balkans, an SPS statement said. Unprincipled pressures on and threats of a state which is safeguarding its sovereignty and integrity and which accepts and in practice applies highest international standards in terms of minority rights are only an encouragement to separatist activities and terrorist operations in Kosovo and Metohija, Percevic stressed. He said that state authorities were capable of efficaciously combating terrorism and all other attempts at undermining the legal order and that they enjoyed the united support of all citizens of Serbia in that. Percevic stressed in the talk with Lord Harlech that the Serbian Government had unequivocally shown its will for all issues in Kosovo and Metohija to be resolved peacefully, through dialogue. The promotion of political relations and development of economic cooperation between Yugoslavia and Great Britain were also discussed in the meeting. [11] JAREDIC TORTURED AND KILLEDTanjug, 1998-05-05Police found the body of Serb Nenad Jaredic (28) a Dobra Voda Post Office employee, on the road Pristina-Pec near the village of Orlate, at 5:30 hr local time on Tuesday morning, the Pristina Media Centre said. Jaredic's family reported him missing late Monday after he failed to return home from work. Investigative organs of the Pristina District Court confirmed that Jaredic's throat had been slit and that he had been shot in the head from an automatic weapon. There were torture marks on his body, and his hands had evidently been tied. The investigators estimate that Jaredic had been tortured and killed somewhere else and that his body was then dumped from an automobile near Orlate, the Media Centre statement said. [12] RUSSIA-BELARUS PARLIAMENT STRONGLY UPHOLDS YUGOSLAV STANCETanjug, 1998-05-05The Russia-Belarus Parliament on Tuesday strongly condemned certain western circles' efforts to exacerbate the situation in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province and upheld Yugoslavia's efforts to preserve Serbia's territorial integrity. The resolution was passed at the 8th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus in the Belarus town of Gomel. At the invitation of the two states' Parliaments, the session was attended by a Parliamentary delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav delegation comprised Chairman of the Chamber of Republics (upper house) Board for Foreign Political and Economic Relations Tomislav Nikolic and Chairman of the Chamber of Citizens (lower house) Defence and Security Board Milutin Stojkovic. Nikolic and Stojkovic told Tanjug's Moscow correspondent that the resolution had been adopted unanimously and that the Russia-Belarus Parliament fully supported Yugoslavia's positions in dealing with the problem of Kosovo-Metohija. The resolution condemns, among others, the anti-constitutional activity of Kosovo-Metohija separatists, which is supported by foreign destructive forces and which is directed at dismembering the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It also expresses support for the efforts of the Yugoslav leadership to preserve the territorial integrity of the state and combat terrorism. [13] ARMED TERRORISTS KILLED NAZIF BASOTTanjug, 1998-05-05An armed gang of ethnic Albanian terrorists attacked Tuesday the house of the Basot family in the village of Bobovac, municipality of Klina, and killed Nazif Basot, Pristina Media Center said. Basot was known in his surroundings as a loyal citizen of Serbia. Family members told the police that a dozen armed men opened automatic gunfire on the house. They are presumed to be the same terrorists who have carried out a number of attacks on the police and civilians in surrounding villages. Police is searching for the perpetrators of the attack. [14] FEDERAL MINISTER OF DEVELOPMENT ON A VISIT TO CHINATanjug, 1998-05-05A delegation of the Yugoslav Commission for Scientific-Technological cooperation, headed by Federal Minister of Development Jagos Zelenovic, ended a working visit to the Chinese autonomous region of Guangxi on Tuesday. Minister Zelenovic is on a several-day visit to China, during which a session of the Mixed Committee for Scientific-Technological Cooperation between the two countries will be held. During the visit to Guanxi, the Yugoslav delegation conferred with the region's Deputy Mayor and in Naning and Guilin with the town Deputy Mayors. The delegation visited the Guanxi University, high-technology industrial zones in Naning and Guilin, and a number of research units. In the held talks, the further directions of the development of cooperation with Gaungxi were decided. In addition to participating in the session of the Mixed Committee in Beijing, Minister Zelenovic will have a number of meetings in which the promotion of Yugoslav-Chinese scientific-technological cooperation will be discussed. [15] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVED RUSSIAN FIRST DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTERTanjug, 1998-05-05Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic received on Tuesday Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov who is on a working visit to Yugoslavia. Both countries will continue developing and promoting bilateral relations and cooperation in line with their traditional friendship and on the basis of common interests, it was underlined during the meeting. Ivanov informed Jovanovic of Russia's views on the recent Contact Group meeting in Rome and on the need for resolving the problem of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija only through dialogue and political means within Serbia. Russia strongly rejects separatism and condemns terrorism and advocates Yugoslavia's equality and reintegration in European and other international organizations, and will not agree to any measures against Yugoslavia and Serbia. The meeting was attended also by Russian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Yuri Kotov. [16] YUGOSLAV STATE ATTORNEY ADVOCATES TRIAL OF SAKIC IN YUGOSLAVIATanjug, 1998-05-05Yugoslav State Attorney Vukasin Jokanovic said in an interview to the Belgrade daily Borba that the FR of Yugoslavia did not forgo the prospect of organizing a trial of World War II criminal Dinko Sakic, although Croatia was the first country to demand his extradition from Argentina. Unlike Croatia, which intends to try Sakic for war crimes against civilian population, Yugoslavia charges him with a more serious crime - that of genocide. Jokanovic said he expected Yugoslavia's demand for extradition to be considered on an equal footing in due time, and added it would be morally right to bring Sakic to trial in Yugoslavia, as the majority of the inmates killed in the Jasenovac death camp under his command were Serbs. [17] SERBIAN DEPUTY PREMIER MARKOVIC RECEIVED AMBASSADOR GRUBERTanjug, 1998-05-05Serbian Deputy Premier Ratko Markovic received German Ambassador to Yugoslavia Wilfried Gruber on Tuesday, a statement said. The talks covered possibilities and modalities for settling the crisis in Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija using political means and finding solutions through talks between representatives of the Serbian Government, Kosovo Albanians and other national communities on the grounds of experience in the world today and through the democratization of life in Kosovo and Metohija, as an integral part of the Republic of Serbia, said the statement. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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