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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 245, 19 December 1995
From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@cdsp.neu.edu>
CONTENTS
[1] A FEDERAL MODEL FOR SARAJEVO?
[2] SUSPECTED WAR CRIMINAL ARRESTED.
[3] WORLD BANK REQUESTS FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR BOSNIA.
[4] BELGRADE BLAMES BOSNIAN MUSLIMS FOR SREBRENICA MASSACRE.
[5] TETOVO UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY.
[6] ROMANIAN REVOLUTION ANNIVERSARY SPARKS CONTROVERSY.
[7] ROMANIA TO TIGHTEN CONTROL ON CIVIL AVIATION.
[8] MOLDOVAN REACTIONS TO RUSSIAN ELECTIONS.
[9] SEVEN BULGARIAN JOURNALISTS FIRED.
[10] KOZLODUY COULD AFFECT BULGARIAN TIES WITH EU.
[11] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT IN GERMANY.
[12] FIRST GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ON NAME ISSUE.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 245, Part II, 19 December 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] A FEDERAL MODEL FOR SARAJEVO?
Boza Kljajic of the Serbian Civic Councilhas suggested that Sarajevo be set up as s special federal district on
the model of Brussels, Mexico City, or Washington. The Council
represents the anti-nationalist Serbs who have spent the entire war in
the part of Sarajevo controlled by the Bosnian government. Nasa Borba on
19 December quoted him as saying that the city should remain a united
and undivided one in which all citizens and peoples would enjoy total
equality. Reuters said the previous day, however, that the Serbian
nationalist leadership in Pale has other ideas. It met with Belgrade
architects to plan a new city consisting of Serbian refugees from
Sarajevo who refuse to live under government rule. Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic said that rump Yugoslavia will foot the bill. --
Patrick Moore
[2] SUSPECTED WAR CRIMINAL ARRESTED.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on
19 December reported that an unnamed man was arrested in Dusseldorf on
the suspicion of having assisted in genocide. The 48-year-old Serb was
supposedly the leader of a chetnik gang that committed atrocities in
Bosnia in the spring and summer of 1992. The paper added that a sniper
in Sarajevo fired on a tram and wounded a woman. -- Patrick Moore
[3] WORLD BANK REQUESTS FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR BOSNIA.
The World Bank is
asking Western countries to finance a $100 million assistance initiative
for Bosnia, Hina reported on 16 December. The money would go for
establishing state institutions, financing small and medium-sized
enterprises, and funding social welfare. The bank estimates that
reconstructing Bosnia will cost $5.1 billion. -- Michael Wyzan
[4] BELGRADE BLAMES BOSNIAN MUSLIMS FOR SREBRENICA MASSACRE.
Reuters on 18
December reported that official Belgrade has defended the Bosnian Serbs
against charges of massacring Bosnian Muslims and forcing some 5,500
people to go "missing" when Bosnian Serbs overran the Muslim enclave of
Srebrenica in July. In a letter to the UN Security Council, Belgrade's
representative to the UN and former Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic
charges that the Bosnian Muslims were themselves responsible for the
atrocities. He asserted that as the Bosnian Serbs approached Srebrenica,
"those [Bosnian Muslim] units which wanted to continue fighting were
mercilessly killing those who wanted to surrender and were in favour of
a ceasefire." Reuters suggests Jovanovic's remarks may be an effort to
"head off" an expected UN resolution condemning the Bosnian Serbs for
the atrocities. -- Stan Markotich
[5] TETOVO UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY.
The illegal Albanian-
language university in Tetovo celebrated its first anniversary on 16
December, MIC reported two days later. At a ceremony attended by Culture
Minister Eshtref Aliu and ethnic Albanian legislators, university dean
Fadil Sulejmani called 17 December, the day the university was founded,
a "day of Albanian liberation in Macedonia." Police earlier this year
destroyed parts of the self-proclaimed university's premises and
prevented students from entering the building. Nonetheless, according to
Sulejmani, the university has underground faculties of math, natural
sciences, law, economy, philology, philosophy, and the arts. The
university claims to have 1,300 students and 150 professors. -- Fabian
Schmidt
[6] ROMANIAN REVOLUTION ANNIVERSARY SPARKS CONTROVERSY.
Valentin
Gabrielescu, head of the Romanian Senate's Commission of Inquiry into
the Events of December 1989, has accused President Ion Iliescu of being
responsible for the bloodshed that followed the fall and execution of
communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian and international media
reported on 18 December. Iliescu was also accused of having used the
revolt to stage a coup and of ordering Ceausescu's killing to prevent
him from revealing what he knew about the country's new leaders. Some
participants in the December 1989 events have decided to stage a
posthumous retrial of Ceausescu because, they maintain, none of the
charges against him holds water. President Iliescu told Mediafax that he
may sue Gabrielescu. -- Matyas Szabo
[7] ROMANIA TO TIGHTEN CONTROL ON CIVIL AVIATION.
Romanian Transport
Minister Aurel Novac, speaking on Radio Bucharest on 18 December,
announced plans to tighten control on the country's civil aviation
following two fatal crashes involving Romanian airliners this year.
Novac said that aviation officials would conduct stricter controls to
determine pilot errors or technical deficiencies. He expressed the hope
that the new measures "will prevent accidents in the future." An
Antonov-24 charter plane belonging to the Banat Air company crashed near
Verona, in Italy, last week, killing all 49 people aboard. -- Dan
Ionescu
[8] MOLDOVAN REACTIONS TO RUSSIAN ELECTIONS.
The outcome of the Russian
parliamentary elections will not influence Moldovan foreign policy, an
adviser to President Mircea Snegur told Infotag on 18 December. He
described Russian Communist Party Chairman Gennadii Zyuganov's statement
that the restoration of the USSR was inevitable as "irresponsible" and
out of touch with reality. Another presidential adviser was quoted as
saying that Moldova hoped that the new Russian State Duma would adopt a
more realistic stance on both the ratification of the Russian-Moldovan
Army Withdrawal Agreement and the settlement of the Dniester conflict.
In a related development, leader of the Moldovan Communist Party
Vladimir Voronin hailed the Communists' strong showing in the Russian
elections. According to BASA-press, Voronin plans to discuss the
Dniester conflict with the communist Duma deputies soon. -- Dan Ionescu
[9] SEVEN BULGARIAN JOURNALISTS FIRED.
Seven of the Bulgarian National Radio
journalists who signed a declaration on 21 November accusing BNR's
management of censorship were dismissed on 18 December, Bulgarian
newspapers reported the following day. The dismissals occurred despite
assurances from BNR Director-General Vecheslav Tunev that none of the
protesters would be fired. Tunev said their actions would lead to a
split within the radio. According to Trud, he accused them of "complete
disloyalty." Among those dismissed are two deputy directors of BNR's
Radio Horizont. Duma reports that the director and the editor-in-chief
of BNR's [international] Radio Bulgaria were also replaced. -- Stefan
Krause
[10] KOZLODUY COULD AFFECT BULGARIAN TIES WITH EU.
French European Affairs
Minister Michel Barnier on 18 December said Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear
plant could be a major obstacle in Sofia's efforts to join the EU,
Reuters reported the same day. Speaking to a news conference in Sofia
after talks with Bulgarian officials, Barnier said that "without wishing
to point the finger at anyone . . . , [the nuclear issue] is an
important one . . . and could be a determining factor in the process of
EU enlargement." The decision to restart Kozloduy's Reactor No. 1 in
October 1995 led to sharp reactions from Western countries that question
the reactor's safety. Barnier said that Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Trade Kiril Tsochev told him the reactor will be shut down
in April for further checks. -- Stefan Krause
[11] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT IN GERMANY.
Sali Berisha, on an official visit to
Bonn, met with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus
Kinkel on 18 December, the Albanian-language service of Deutsche Welle
reported. Berisha discussed economic cooperation between the two
countries and urged Albania's integration into the European Union and
NATO. Berisha will also meet with German President Roman Herzog, Finance
Minister Theo Waigel, and Economic Cooperation and Development Minister
Carl-Dieter Spranger as well as representatives of the German Chambers
of Commerce and Industry. Berisha urged international support for a
resolution of the Kosovo crisis that respects internationally recognized
borders. -- Fabian Schmidt
[12] FIRST GREEK-MACEDONIAN TALKS ON NAME ISSUE.
Greek Ambassador to the UN
Christos Zacharakis and his Macedonian counterpart, Ivan Toshevski, met
in New York on 16 December for first talks about the disputed name
issue, Nova Makedonija reported on 18 December, citing Greek media
reports. According to those reports, the talks took place in a positive
and "very encouraging" atmosphere and lasted more than four hours. Both
sides said the problem should be solved as soon as possible and both
made suggestions for a possible solution. Further progress is expected
after both sides report to their governments. UN mediator Cyrus Vance
called the meeting "extremely interesting" and said similar meetings are
expected to take place after the Christmas holidays. -- Stefan Krause
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz
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