YDS 9/18

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)

18 SEPTEMBER 1995

C O N T E N T S:

FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - MILOSEVIC, RIFKIND END TALKS - MILUTINOVIC, RIFKIND DISCUSS SITUATION IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA - RIFKIND BELIEVES THE PRESENT TIME THE BEST CHANCE FOR PEACE - MILOSEVIC, HOLBROOKE TALKS - MILOSEVIC CONTINUES TALKS WITH HOLBROOKE

FORMER BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - BOSNIAN SERBS SAY ARMS PULLOUT AROUND SARAJEVO GOING ON AS PLANNED - BOSNIAN SERBS OPEN ANOTHER LAND ROUTE TO SARAJEVO - KARADZIC SATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT ON WITHDRAWAL OF HEAVY WEAPONS - KARADZIC SAYS BOSNIAN SERBS TAKE HEAVY LOSSES IN NORTHWEST

REFUGEES FROM KRAJINA - 1,180 REFUGEES FROM SERB KRAJINA ARRIVE IN YUGOSLAVIA

THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA - SERB KRAJINA'S HADZIC: 'WE ARE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH CROATIA'

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - FRENCH MEDIA SAY BOSNIAN MUSLIM LEADER BLACKMAILS WESTERN POWERS - MILOSEVIC ONCE AGAIN DEBLOCKS PEACE PROCESS, SAY ROMANIAN PAPERS - CZECH PAPER BLAMES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR BOSNIAN TRAGEDY

MILOSEVIC, RIFKIND END TALKS Belgrade, Sept 17 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia is making a constant contribution to the peace process and to efforts for a political settlement, said a statement from talks between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is making a continued contribution to the positive course of the peace process and to the creation of the necessary conditions for finding political solutions, the statement said. With its political approach, Yugoslavia has crucially contributed to the acceleration of the peace process, in the belief that peace must be restored to the Balkans as soon as possible to let its peoples turn to development and equality-based cooperation, it said. The statement said Rifkind had shown a special interest in the present moment in and the future course of the peace process, which is gaining in intensity. Rifkind conveyed to Milosevic the British Government's support for the latest efforts and successful moves being made with the aim of ending the crisis in former Yugoslavia by peaceful means in the shortest possible time, it added. In this context, it is of special importance to effect a general cessation of hostilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and begin dealing with other questions outstanding in the peace package in preparation for the upcoming international conference, the statement said. It added that special attention in the talks was devoted to promoting relations between Yugoslavia and Great Britain. Both sides noted that the resumption of all-round relations, development of economic and cultural cooperation and directing of overall Yugoslav-British relations towards increasing and creating mutual gain was in the interest of both sides, the statement said.

MILUTINOVIC, RIFKIND DISCUSS SITUATION IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Belgrade, Sept 17 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav and British Foreign Ministers Milan Milutinovic and Malcolm Rifkind discussed in Belgrade on Sunday the current situation in former Yugoslavia and bilateral relations.The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said that the latest developments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, progress in the peace process and the need for ending hostilities and all offensive operations throughout that former Yugoslav republic had been among the chief topics of the talk. Bilateral relations were discussed in the light of an expected suspension of the United Nations' sanctions against the Yugoslavia. Conditions are being created for a speedy normalistion of the political dialogue and cooperation between the two countries in all fields and especially in the economic field, it was noted during the meeting, according to the statement.

RIFKIND BELIEVES THE PRESENT TIME THE BEST CHANCE FOR PEACE Belgrade, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said after talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic he believed there was an opportunity for the present time of peace in Bosnia. He told reporters he discussed with Milosevic possibilities for achieving peace in Bosnia, adding that reports on the withdrawal of Serb heavy weaponry from around Sarajevo were encouraging. Should the withdrawal end within the given deadline, that would enable all efforts to concentrate on the diplomatic process, he said. Rifkind said he hoped conditions would be created for the lifting of the anti-Yugoslav sanctions, adding that creating conditions for a peace process was the best way to achieve the lifting of the sanctions. Asked of the threat to the peace process from the current Muslim-Croat offensive against the Bosnian Serbs, Rifkind merely said the solution can be found only in negotiations. He said many questions had to be settled before arriving at an official decision on the Bosnian peace conference, although he hoped that would be soon. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said the Muslim-Croat offenseive could jeopardize the peace efforts. Milutinovic said the offensive could not solve anything, althoughit caused grave concern, as well as the NATO bombing of Serbs in Bosnia which enabled the advancement of the Muslims and Croats. He said Rifkind had come to Belgrade at the right moment, adding though there was much work ahead after the Geneva conference, at which foundations were laid for all solutions, 'we are on a good way to coming quickly to a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Bosnia.'

MILOSEVIC,HOLBROOKE TALKS Belgrade, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. Assistant State Secretary Richard Holbrooke, who heads a U.S. Government delegation, said here on Saturday the international community should use its authority to stop the participants of the latest offensives in Bosnia and curb their attempts to obstruct a political solution and once again turn the situation towards war. The offensive actions of combined Muslim-Croat forces against Bosnian Serb positions escalated at the moment when the necessary political conditions were created for no longer postponing an end to the civil war and reaching a political solution for Bosnia, Milosevic and Holbrooke said. The Serbian President's cabinet said that Milosevic and Holbrooke underscored Yugoslavia's important role and constructive contribution in the search for reaching a political solution within the peace talks on Bosnia, initiated and conducted by the United States. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is convinced that this is the path towards a final and positive settlement aimed at estabilshing peace and stability in the Balkans, Milosevic and Holbrooke said. The talks were also attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic.

MILOSEVIC CONTINUES TALKS WITH HOLBROOKE Belgrade, Sept. 18 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic here on Monday continued talks commenced on Sunday evening with head of the U.S. negotiating team Richard Holbooke. Holbrooke said on Monday that Sunday's talks had been benefitial and that the peace process was making progress, although there were many difficulties. He said Monday's talks were also to that aim, and it was encouraging that the Bosnian Serbs were meeting the U.N. demand to pull back heavy weapons. Holbrooke said he expected the Bosnian Serbs would comply with the demand by the set deadline. Holbrooke did not reply when asked whether the Muslim-Croat offensive against the Bosnian Serbs could jeopardize the peace process.

FORMER BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

BOSNIAN SERBS SAY ARMS PULLOUT AROUND SARAJEVO GOING ON AS PLANNED Belgrade, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - A local Bosnian Serb army command has said that the withdrawal of heavy weapons around Sarajevo will be completed by 10 p.m. local time (2000 gmt) on Sunday, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported.Bosnian Serbs are withdrawing their heavy weapons from a 20-km exclusion zone around Sarajevo under an agreement made in Belgrade on Thursday.

BOSNIAN SERBS OPEN ANOTHER LAND ROUTE TO SARAJEVO Belgrade, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serbs have opened another land route to Sarajevo, via their suburb of Hadzici, news agencies reported on Sunday. 'A U.N. convoy carrying 165 tonnes of mainly flour passed through Hadzici today for the first time in the war and entered Sarajevo,' Spokesman for the UNHCR mans Nyrberg said, Reuters reported. U.N. sources said that Bosnian Serb authorities had told them there was no need for combat troops to escort this convoy.

KARADZIC SATISFIED WITH AGREEMENT ON WITHDRAWAL OF HEAVY WEAPONS Belgrade, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - The President of the Bosnian Serb state Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, said Saturday he is satisfied with the agreement for the withdrawal of Serb heavy weapons from around Sarajevo. Karadzic said he believes that the war in Sarajevo is nearing an end. 'We have made a good agreement owing to help by President Milosevic who proposed this to the United States and the international community,' Reuters quoted Karadzic as saying in Pale. Karadzic said that the proposed ceasefire agreement for Sarajevo would ensure the safety from Muslim attacks of the Serb parts of the city. 'This means that the war in Sarajevo is close to an end,' he said.

KARADZIC SAYS BOSNIAN SERBS TAKE HEAVY LOSSES IN NORTHWEST Belgrade, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic said on Sunday that Bosnian Serbs had taken heavy losses in the latest massive Muslim-Croat offensive in the northwest that had been encouraged by NATO raids on Serb military and civilian targets. Karadzic said that the events in the region were a continuation of World War II, when Muslims and Croats were exterminating Serbs. 'That's why our population cannot remain on the territories held by the Muslims and Croats who have hated the Serbs for centuries,' he said. He added that 'women, children and elderly people are leaving and soldiers are leaving with them, too, for some time, in order to escort them to a safe place.' Speaking about the situation around Sarajevo, Karadzic said that if the Muslims attacked Bosnian Serb sections of the city, the Serbs would quickly bring back in the heavy guns they were currently pulling out of the 20-km exclusion zone around Sarajevo. Karadzic said it was deplorable that the 'international community... cannot give the guarantees' that Muslim forces would halt their attacks. 'We have enough small-calibre guns to defend the Serb part of Sarajevo. If there is an attack, we will quickly return our heavy guns,' he added. 'We have some hope that the Muslims will keep their word they have given to the U.S. mediators' and will not carry out an aggression on the Serb section of Sarajevo', Karadzic said.

REFUGEES FROM KRAJINA

1,180 REFUGEES FROM SERB KRAJINA ARRIVE IN YUGOSLAVIA Sremska Mitrovica, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - A large group of 1,180 refugees from the Republic of Serb Krajina on Saturday night arrived in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tanjug learned on Sunday from Stevan Rosic, the Director of the Sremska Mitrovica Refugee Distribution Centre. Busloads and trucks carrying the Serb refugees, who spent more than one month in the U.N. base in Knin, entered Yugoslavia under U.N. escort near Lipovac, on the Yugoslav-Croat border. Rosic said that the columns of refugees stopped coming at 2 a.m. local time (midnight Gmt). He said that about half of them were greeted by relatives and friends who then took them to their own homes, while 600 will on Sunday be sent to the towns of Bor and Uzice. This large group was preceeded by 250 Krajina Serbs, mainly made up of old people, the ill and exhausted, including a mother with six small children. These people were captured by the Croats during the aggression on Serb Krajina in August and taken from villages in the Knin and Lapac regions. Until Saturday they were held prisoner in the Croatian Adriatic town of Zadar. The handing over of this group of refugees was very slow. Groups of 7-8 people were transferred by jeeps belonging to the UNHCR and the U.N. troops because the Croatians refused to allow entry into its territory to Yugoslav buses, although this is a provision of last week's agreement on their evacuation between the United Nations and the Croatian authorities. These refugees from Serb Krajina, carrying their worldly possessions in their hands, look exhausted and many are in a seriously damaged mental state. Their drama has lasted more than one month because the Croatian authorities said they would be released in exchange for some of their compatriots who had allegedly committed war crimers.

THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA

SERB KRAJINA'S HADZIC: 'WE ARE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE WITH CROATIA' Novi Sad, Sept 16 (Tanjug) - Chairman of Serb Krajina's Srem-Barania region Coordinating Committee Goran Hadzic says that a settlement must be arrived at by peaceful means, through talks with the international community and Croatia. Speaking for the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik's Sunday issue, he said that 'we must pursue a policy that will take us to the desired objective, which is to remain part of Yugoslavia and avoid war at all costs.' In the current negotiating process 'we are showing that we want peace, and we want to achieve it at the conference table, naturally in such a way that it would satisfy both warring parties, with some concessions,' Hadzic said. He said that 'we shall not live under the (Croatian) checkered flag, because Croats did not want to live in Yugoslavia, they flouted the 1943 decision that set Yugoslavia up, but want to keep the territories awarded them under that decision.' Hadzic believes that, after the threat of war has been removed, the Srem-Barania region should elect a Parliament of honest people tested in war and peace, and perpetuate the Republic of Serb Krajina. He said he was not against the repatriation of both Serbs and Croats, but that, on the strength of past experience, he did not trust the Croatian government. He was therefore of the opinion that it was more realistic to 'make the region a U.N. 'blue zone' for a period of five years.' 'We must admit that we wish to live in Serbia and Yugoslavia, but this is not a realistic proposition at this time. However, this must be our future,' he said.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

FRENCH MEDIA SAY BOSNIAN MUSLIM LEADER BLACKMAILS WESTERN POWERS Paris, Sept. 17 (Tanjug) - Dissatisfied with the latest efforts for settling the Sarajevo crisis, Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, who harbours new war ambitions, is trying to blackmail western powers into continuing the policy of military pressure against the Serbs, French media said on Sunday. Commenting on Izetbegovic's attempts, French Defence Minister Charles Millon said after returning from Sarajevo that it would be harmful to take any steps that would jeopardize the peace process. Despite noting that the Muslim-Croat offensive continues, the majority of leading newspapers says that there are good prospects for ending the cruel civil war and reaching the final settlement of the conflict in former Yugoslavia. France is especially concerned about the way in which multinational forces, whose arrival is being urged, would act in Bosnia. The forces' task is said to be to ensure the implementation of the peace agreement once it has been reached. Commenting on this, French press said that the United States and France had started to disagree. Washington wants NATO to take the leading role in the force, while Paris demands that the United Nations have the final say, because it is the only way to ensure Russia's constructive participation within the 'Contact Group', without the unity of which it will be difficult to reach peace, it can be heard in Paris.

MILOSEVIC ONCE AGAIN DEBLOCKS PEACE PROCESS, SAY ROMANIAN PAPERS Bucharest, Sept.16 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic once again deblocked the Bosnia peace process, Romanian papers wrote on Saturday. Milosevic proposed a surprise agreement acceptable to all, which paves the way for signing a peace accord by September 25, as announced by US mediator Richard Hobrooke, the independent Adevarul daily said. The withdrawal of Bosnian Serb heavy weapons from a 20-km zone around Sarajevo meets the demands set by the United Nations and eliminates the threat of further nato air raids, the paper explained. The Milosevic-Hoolbroke agreement reached on Thursday practically ends the blockade of Sarajevo, on which the Muslims have continuously insisted, and their leader Alija Izetbegovic will have real difficulties justifying his possible rejection of the plan, it added. This will certainly help ease tension in relations between Washington and Moscow, which has complained of playing a marginal role in resolving European security problems, siad Adevarul. The opposition Ziua daily hailed 'Milosevic's brilliant diplomatic move' but warned that the negotiating process might be seriously undermined by Bosnian Muslims.

CZECH PAPER BLAMES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR BOSNIAN TRAGEDY Prague, Sept. 16 (Tanjug) - The Czech ZN daily said on Saturday that the powers which had energetically supported the break-up of the former Yugoslavia were largely to blame for the Bosnian tragedy. ZN in that context mentioned Germany's interest for an independent Croatia, but said this was only the tip of an iceberg. World politicians have been informing us about the significant steps for resolving the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, but they have pragmatically forgotten the plight of refugees who have lost everything because of diplomatic games with the devil, said ZN. For many people of the former Yugoslavia, the United Nations, in which the big powers have the main say and consequently bear the biggest responsibility for what goes on in the world, has become the worst nightmare, the paper said. The superpowers in the un are indeed responsible, primarily because they have created a fertile ground for legally and politically unresolvable conflicts, including the one in Yugoslavia, it added. NATO air raids against Bosnian Serbs, which indirectly enabled the Croat and Muslim forces to drive out thousands of Serbs from their homes, has dispersed the last illusions about the unbiased role of the United Nations, the paper said. Quoting a prominent Russian human rights activits, the paper said that the bombings only encouraged those who favour war at the time when the representatives of the Bosnian warring sides were meeting in Geneva to discuss a political settlement of the crisis. This can only mean that the chief goal of the air raids was not to punish the Serbs but to divert attention from the failure of the UN policy in Bosnia and the true causes of the war in the former Yugoslavia, it added.

- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --