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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 248, 22 December 1995
From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@cdsp.neu.edu>
CONTENTS
[1] MUSLIM-CROATIAN FEDERATION SETS UP UNIFIED COMMANDS IN BOSNIA.
[2] UN CONDEMNS SERBS FOR SREBRENICA MASSACRES.
[3] INTERNATIONAL POLICE TASK FORCE LAUNCHED.
[4] IFOR COMMANDER MEETS WITH LOCAL CHIEFS OF STAFF.
[5] SWISS NAMED HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN FOR BOSNIA.
[6] SERBIAN RADICAL LEGISLATORS LOSE MANDATE IN MONTENEGRIN PARLIAMENT.
[7] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT SAYS HE WILL RESUME DUTIES.
[8] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ON 1989 REVOLUTION.
[9] IMF EXTENDS, INCREASES ROMANIA'S STAND-BY CREDIT.
[10] ZYUGANOV ADDRESSES TRANSDNIESTRIAN ELECTORATE.
[11] KOZLODUY TO HELP SUPPLY BULGARIA WITH ELECTRICITY.
[12] GREECE TO SEND TROOPS TO BOSNIA.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 248, Part II, 22 December 1995
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[1] MUSLIM-CROATIAN FEDERATION SETS UP UNIFIED COMMANDS IN BOSNIA.
The
federal parliament met in Sarajevo on 21 December and established joint
commands for the army and police--just after the 20 December deadline
set down in the Dayton treaty--the VOA's Croatian-language service said
the next day. There will be a joint defense ministry and command, but
recruits will be able to choose whether they want to serve in the
Croatian or mainly Muslim part of the army. AFP added that the two
police forces will also report to one center. The Muslim-Croat
federation is treated as one entity in the Dayton agreement, but the
allied armies to date have had only coordinated activities and do not
have an integrated command structure. On the contrary, the Bosnian Croat
army is closely linked to the Croatian military. Elsewhere, the
International Herald Tribune on 22 December reported that the U.S. has
named Pentagon Bosnia expert James Pardew to head the project to upgrade
government forces with Turkish assistance. -- Patrick Moore
[2] UN CONDEMNS SERBS FOR SREBRENICA MASSACRES.
The Security Council has
rebuked rump Yugoslav representative Vladislav Jovanovic, who tried to
claim that the Muslims killed their own people in Srebrenica in July.
The resolution clearly blames the Serbs for the murder, rape, expulsion,
and conscription into forced labor of civilians, and mentions
Srebrenica, Zepa, Banja Luka, and Sanski Most. It also singles out
Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic as
indicted war criminals, news agencies added. The massacre of around
5,000 mainly Muslim men has often been referred to as the single biggest
atrocity in Europe since World War II. A report by Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros Ghali and investigations by the Christian Science
Monitor, independent Serbian journalists, and others clearly point to a
mass killing, possibly led by Mladic himself. -- Patrick Moore
[3] INTERNATIONAL POLICE TASK FORCE LAUNCHED.
The Security Council also set
up a 1,721-strong international police force to train and monitor local
police and assist them as need be. This will be the biggest armed UN
presence in the area following the disbanding of UNPROFOR. The UNHCR
will supervise the upcoming exchange of prisoners. Meanwhile in Pale,
Karadzic told Red Cross officials that he will do all he can to make
sure that Dayton's 20 January deadline for releasing prisoners is met.
Elsewhere, Serbian villagers in Dojici, near the Croatian front lines,
gave a rousing welcome to British troops, Reuters reported on 21
December. They credited the Dayton agreement with saving them from a
Croatian occupation. -- Patrick Moore
[4] IFOR COMMANDER MEETS WITH LOCAL CHIEFS OF STAFF.
The chiefs of staff of
the Muslim, Croatian, and Serbian forces--meeting in Sarajevo on 21
December with the commander of the NATO-led implementation force (IFOR),
Admiral Leighton Smith--promised to cooperate with IFOR, Western
agencies reported. They said that they would restrain their forces,
leave the "zones of separation," and allow unrestricted access for IFOR.
Smith said after the meeting that the local forces have so far proved
extremely cooperative with IFOR. -- Michael Mihalka
[5] SWISS NAMED HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN FOR BOSNIA.
The OSCE on 21 December
named Swiss diplomat Gret Haller as human rights ombudsman for Bosnia,
Western agencies reported. The Dayton peace accord created the post and
invested it with responsibility for investigating alleged human rights
abuses and initiating proceedings against those involved. Haller
currently serves as the Swiss representative to the Council of Europe.
-- Michael Mihalka
[6] SERBIAN RADICAL LEGISLATORS LOSE MANDATE IN MONTENEGRIN PARLIAMENT.
Eight former Serbian Radical Party legislators were suspended from their
duties in the Montenegrin parliament on 21 December, Nasa Borba reported
the following day. The parliamentary commission on immunity and mandates
was abiding by a decision taken by the Justice Ministry and the
Montenegrin election commission to ban the legislators from the
parliament. The commission concluded that following a split in the
Serbian Radical Party, the legislators were no longer members of the
registered Serbian Radical Party but of an unregistered
extraparliamentary party with the same name led by Drago Bakrac. --
Fabian Schmidt
[7] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT SAYS HE WILL RESUME DUTIES.
Kiro Gligorov has said
he will return to office at the beginning of 1996. In his first
interview since the attempt on his life on 3 October, published in Nova
Makedonija on 22 December, he rejected speculations about a successor
and said he is "convinced that the citizens of Macedonia will elect
their president in the next regular elections." He noted that the
attempt on his life "will [possibly] remain a mystery for a long time."
Gligorov said there is no change in the Macedonian position on the name
issue. He said that "after Dayton and Paris, Macedonia adheres to its
well-known position of being an independent and sovereign country
oriented toward European integration." He added that "Macedonia
maintains the standpoint that it is one of the six equal successors of
the former Yugoslavia." -- Stefan Krause
[8] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ON 1989 REVOLUTION.
Ion Iliescu--in an address to a
21 December symposium on the 1989 revolution broadcast live on Radio
Bucharest--denounced attempts to "denigrate and mystify" the
significance of the uprising. He said revolutions should be defined not
according to how they were carried out but according to what they
achieved. Viewed from this perspective, he said, the December 1989
overthrow of the communist regime was indeed revolutionary. Iliescu
denied accusations that he had in any way attempted to bring about a
Soviet intervention in Romania at the time. He said Washington wanted to
give Moscow a green light to intervene but Moscow refused. He also
denied accusations that he staged the shooting and killing of civilians
as part of a scenario to justify the takeover. Iliescu said he regretted
the quick trial and execution of Nicolae Ceausescu but argued that the
decision was necessary to stop the revolution from turning into a civil
war. -- Michael Shafir
[9] IMF EXTENDS, INCREASES ROMANIA'S STAND-BY CREDIT.
RFE/RL's correspondent
in Washington on 21 December reported that the IMF has agreed to extend
Romania's current stand-by credit line and to add $280 million to the
funds available. The extension follows lengthy negotiations. Earlier
this year, Romania was denied access to the remaining $110 million from
a 1994 stand-by loan because it had not met the original agreement's
performance criteria. The renewed program and the additional credit,
available through April 1997, will be used to support Romania's
adjustment and structural reform policies. -- Michael Shafir
[10] ZYUGANOV ADDRESSES TRANSDNIESTRIAN ELECTORATE.
Gennadii Zyuganov,
chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which emerged
victorious in the recent parliamentary elections, has called on
Transdniestrian residents to take an active part in the elections to the
region's Supreme Soviet and the referendum on the region's constitution
scheduled for 24 December. Infotag and BASA-press on 21 December
reported that Zyuganov expressed his party's support for "the
Transdniestrian people's wish to be masters of their own destinies" and
said they should "demonstrate to the CIS people the common wish to live
in one family." Romanian President Ion Iliescu on 21 December remarked
that Zyuganov's address showed "flagrant disregard for non-interference
in the internal affairs of the new independent states." -- Michael
Shafir
[11] KOZLODUY TO HELP SUPPLY BULGARIA WITH ELECTRICITY.
Trifon Tsvetkov,
chairman of the Bulgarian National Electrical Company (NEK), said at a
press conference on 21 December that the country will not experience
problems with its electricity supply this winter, Bulgaria media
reported the next day. All three blocks of the coal-fired Maritsa Iztok
plant are functioning, as are all but one at the Kozloduy nuclear plant.
On 18 December, the French European Affairs minister had warned that the
country's chances of entering the EU were jeopardized by keeping
Kozloduy in service (see OMRI Daily Digest, 19 December 1995). It was
also announced that electricity consumption will rise by 1.2% in 1995.
Due to low prices, the NEK will lose 2 billion leva ($284 million).
Industrial enterprises owe the company 2 billion leva, while the factory
producing coal briquettes owes it 1.2 billion leva. -- Michael Wyzan
[12] GREECE TO SEND TROOPS TO BOSNIA.
Greek government spokesman Tilemachos
Hytiris on 21 December said the cabinet has decided to send three ships,
three helicopters, and 250 men to Bosnia as part of the multi-national
peace-keeping force, Reuters reported the same day. Greece, which
maintains good ties with Serbia, refused to participate in any
international missions to the former Yugoslavia before the signing of
the Dayton and Paris agreements, saying Balkan countries should keep out
of the conflict. -- 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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