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Serbia Today 96-05-27
Serbia Today
27 May 1996
CONTENTS
[01] INFORMATION INTEGRATION OF THE BALKANS IMMINENT
[02] THE INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL FAIR ENDS WITH SUCCESS
[03] PRIORITY GIVEN TO THE DAYTON AGREEMENT
[04] KOLJEVIC: THE ELECTIONS MAY START
[05] MOSLEMS ARMED TO THE TEETH
[06] STOLAC - A FORBIDDEN TOWN FOR THE MOSLEMS
[07] TUDJMAN WILL NOT PERMIT AUTONOMY
[08] SLOVENIAN CRITICISM OF THE POPE
[01] INFORMATION INTEGRATION OF THE BALKANS IMMINENT
Information integration of the Balkans is a special basis for all other forms of integration,
representing a preliminary stage in the new relations in the region. This has been stated in the discussions of
the leadership of the Association of the Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) with TANJUG journalists. After
the consultations concerning the establishment of a of Balkan news agencies pool, the ABNA chairman and
general manager of the Greek news agency ANA, Andreas Hristodulides, Stefan Velev, Secretary of the
Association and General Manager of the Bulgarian Agency BIP and Slobodan Jovanovic, General Manager
of TANJUG pointed out that the further agenda of the Association has won the support of the European
Union. The EU is going to allocate five million ECUs for the project of a multilateral information
integration of the Balkans, in several stages. Our purpose is to evade the monopoly of the biggest world
agencies, said Jovanovic, and to offer everyone information which will be more detailed and objective than
the ones they are receiving now. (POLITIKA, MAY 27).
[02] THE INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL FAIR ENDS WITH SUCCESS
The nine-day-long 63rd International Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad has been visited by more than
450.000 people and business agreements worth several hundred million dollars have been signed. "This
year's Fair was a chance for our producers to define their position in the world, after the four-year-long
sanctions. The traditional evaluation of the quality of our products in l6 commodity groups has shown that
our products are of a high quality and that producers from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are ready for
the world market", said Dusan Manojlovic, Assistant General Manager of the Novi Sad Fair. The Fair has
proved that our knowledge, science and innovations do not lag behind those in the world even a bit.
Particularly encouraging is the fact that this time, Yugoslav producers have offered final products, and the
interest the foreigners have shown is the best indication of the value of the products. (POLITIKA, May 27).
[03] PRIORITY GIVEN TO THE DAYTON AGREEMENT
We give our priority to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, because it is the only
possible solution to the situation that has arisen in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated Ivica Dacic, member of
the Executive Board of the Main Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia. " Yugoslavia and the Serbs will
keep making their constructive contribution to the implementation of the Agreement, which is just with
respect to all the three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and which can guarantee peace, in our opinion,
provided that it is implemented completely", he said. Dacic underscored the significance of the elections in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are to provide for the constitution of the authorities, as provided by the
Dayton Agreement, adding that it is important for the forces supporting the peace option to win in the
elections instead of those whose policy could jeopardize all that the Serbian people have achieved in the
previous period, with a great sacrifice. (BORBA, May 27).
[04] KOLJEVIC: THE ELECTIONS MAY START
We have completely carried out the necessary preparations and as far as our party is concerned, the
elections may start, said Nikola Koljevic, Vice-President of the Republic of Srpska, emphasizing that the
elections represent a full legitimization of the authorities in the Republic of Srpska and that the carrying out
of the elections will also mean "lifting" of the sanctions. Referring to the announcement about the
possibility of imposing sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia again should Radovan Karadzic
and General Ratko Mladic not be removed from the political scene in the Republic of Srpska, Koljevic said:
" We have met all the requirements of the international community and the High Representative. President
Karadzic will not address the public and will not appear on the public scene". (VECERNJE NOVOSTI,
May 27).
[05] MOSLEMS ARMED TO THE TEETH
The Moslem-Croat Federation Army will receive the first large deliveries of modern weapons
immediately after June 14, when the embargo on the importation of arms in the former Bosnia and
Herzegovina is to be lifted, said the Bosnian Moslem representative to the United Nations, to the Slovenian
DELO. According to the newspaper, in the first huge-quantity lots of destructive arms for the Moslem-Croat
military formations there will be "some forty ABRAMS tanks, one hundred armoured vehicles, a number of
howitzers and heavy mortars and as much as 3O attack helicopters". There is no mention of who will pay for
the arms and how they will reach Bosnia. DELO warns of the possibility of an even more destructive and
fierce conflict in the area of the former Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the broader region, which, as
it is estimated, could break out soon after the departure of a majority of the peace-keeping forces in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. (VECERNJE NOVOSTI, May 27).
[06] STOLAC - A FORBIDDEN TOWN FOR THE MOSLEMS
The Croat police did not permit Moslem refugees, who circled around their native town of Stolac
the day before yesterday, to establish any kind of communication with the local population, the Moslem
Radio Sarajevo broadcast yesterday. Some 200 Moslems, who were expelled by the Croats three years ago,
entered Stolac yesterday for the first time, together with a strict police escort , and after two hours of stay
there, came back with very painful impressions, the same source claims. "The people feel no optimism about
returning home", said Mehmed Dizdar, president of the Municipality of Stolac in exile. He claims that Croat
extremists have destroyed 1.500 i.e. 80 per cent of Moslem houses in Stolac and all religious Moslem
facilities, among which there are also eight mosques. (EKSPRES, May 27)
[07] TUDJMAN WILL NOT PERMIT AUTONOMY
Croat President Tudjman has stated that Croatia supports the normalization of relations with the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but that it will under no circumstances allow "an autonomy of some kind or
other" for the Serbs in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem. He added that Croatia would also not
agree to "any or even a moderate form of the Z-4 plan". Referring to the peace process in this field, Tudjman
said that Croatia has agreed to a peaceful reintegration "to show the world that it accepts democratic
solutions" and that it "does not want all the Serbs to leave Croatia. (VECERNJE NOVOSTI, May 27).
[08] SLOVENIAN CRITICISM OF THE POPE
Reactions concerning the visit of Pope John Paul II to Slovenia show no sign of subsiding. Instead,
from day to day they acquire different contents, and so, analyses mainly focus on the negative connotations
of the Pope's sojourn among the Slovenians. Slovenian newspapers, veterans' organizations and numerous
citizens note the tendentious character of the Pope's "blunders" when he spoke about the "fratricidal, civil
war", and particularly when he identified communism with Nazism and fascism. The Pope's historical
treatment of communism irritated certain editorial boards so much that certain comments go as far as
defending communism and the former system from the Pope's attacks. Moreover, there is a repudiation of
the theses about the Pope's being poorly informed about the events during the course of World War II and
the negative role of the Catholic Church in them. The information on the role of the Catholic Church was
sent to the Pope by the Slovenian Veterans' Organization, on the eve of his visit. Also, the Slovenian
National Party and Slovenian Evangelists submitted their request to the Pope on the eve of his visit, asking
him to apologize to the Slovenian people because of the "crime committed by the Catholic Church against
the Slovenian people". As a result, many people consider the Pope's "blunders" to be extremely tendentious.
He is reproached for having sided with one side of the actual Slovenian political confrontation by going over
the crimes in silence and by adopting a unilateral ideological approach, thus aggravating the conflict among
the Slovenians themselves. In his speeches in Slovenia, the Pope proclaimed martyrs even those who
collaborated with the fascists and the occupiers, whereby he caused embitterment in the veterans'
organization because of his "efforts to reclassify the people's liberation struggle into a civil and fratricidal
war, thus negating the occupation of Slovenia". As the Slovenian public notes, the Pope would like to
rehabilitate the political Catholicism, whereby he is
directly offending the Slovenian national feelings and national dignity". (POLITIKA, May 27)
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