YDS 11/1

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

01. NOVEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

ON THE EVE OF DAYTON CONFERENCE - MILOSEVIC: THE AIM OF OUR TRIP IS PEACE - CLINTON SEES OFF U.S. MEDIATORS IN DAYTON TALKS - TUDJMAN: THERE MAY BE HOPE FOR PEACEFUL SOLUTION - AKASHI: PRESPECTS FOR PEACE BETTER THAN BEFORE

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - NO CAMPS FOR MUSLIMS OR CROATS IN BANJA LUKA OR ITS VICINITY - GRACHEV PROPOSES BOSNIA PEACE CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW

ALLEGED CRIMES IN SREBRENICA - UNHCR WITHOUT EVIDENCE ON CRIMES IN SREBRENICA

CROATIA - SERB-BARANJA REGION - SREM-BARANJA COUNCIL SUPPORTS REJECTION OF AGREEMENT

REFUGEES IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA - ICRC: WAR IN TERRITORY OF EX-YUGOSLAVIA FORCED 400,000 INTO EXHILE, MAINLY SERBS

O P I N I O N S - LORD OWEN MAKES GRAVE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST U.S. AND BOSNIAN MUSLIMS

CROATIA-ELECTION - WORLD TAKES A DIM VIEW OF CROATIAN ELECTIONS

ON THE EVE OF THE DAYTON CONFERENCE

MILOSEVIC: THE AIM OF OUR TRIP IS PEACE B e l g r a d e, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic said Tuesday before leaving for Dayton, Ohio, that he was optimistic regarding the outcome of the peace talks. 'The aim of our trip is peace. I am firmly convinced that all conditions exist for precisely defining at the forthcoming talks all significant elements of the future peace agreement on Bosnia-Herzegovina', Milosevic told the press at Belgrade airport. 'We expect, as I am sure do all peoples and citizens in the region, that there will be a lasting and just peace at last', said Milosevic, who heads the Yugoslav delegation to the talks in Dayton. Milosevic underlined that peace 'will be lasting and just to the extent to which the peace agreement will equally protect the interests of all three peoples and all citizens living in Bosnia-Herzegovina'. 'This makes imperative that the conference be held in an atmosphere of impartiality and objectivity towards the warring sides'. Milosevic expressed conviction that 'the host-country, above all, and the international community, too, will strive to secure such spirit of impartiality and objectivity at the conference'. 'I am optimistic about the success' of the conference, the President said. The Yugoslav delegation, which left for Dayton on a special flight, also comprises Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic, and representatives of Republika Srpska (R.S. - Bosnian Serb State) - Vice-President Nikola Koljevic, Parliament Speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha. The delegation was accompanied to the airport by the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zoran Lilic and highest Yugoslav and Serbian political and military officials, as well as by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation and the Charges d'affaires of the U.S., Great Britain, France and Germany.

CLINTON SEES OFF U.S. MEDIATORS IN DAYTON TALKS W a s h i n g t o n, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - U.S. President Bill Clinton Tuesday said, after the last briefing of his team for the peace talks on Bosnia in Dayton, that the summit there was the best chance to establish peace. Seeing off the U.S. negotiating team, headed by Assistant State Secretary Richard Holbrooke, Clinton told reporters at the White House that unless this opportunity was made use of there would not for a long time to come be another such chance for peace. Clinton said it was necessary for his country to continue its participation in the talks, especially in the implementation of peace agreement. He said Bosnia-Herzegovina would remain a state of two entities - the Muslim-Croat and the Serb - and emphasized that U.S. troops would be sent there only after talks in Dayton on delimitation between the two entities ended and peace agreement reached.

TUDJMAN: THERE MAY BE HOPE FOR PEACEFUL SOLUTION Z a g r e b, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman Tuesday said prior to leaving for peace talks in Ohio he hoped for a peaceful solution to the crisis on the territory of former Yugoslavia. He said that since all the conference held after 1990, now, after world powers have been engaged - the U.S., Europe and Russia - it appeared that there was hope for finding a peaceful solution. As regards eastern Slavonia and Baranja region, Tudjman briefly said he expected this question to be resolved 'either separately, or within the overall solution' and concluded that Croatia remained committed to its stands.

AKASHI: PRESPECTS FOR PEACE BETTER THAN BEFORE N e w Yo r k, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Outgoing U.N. Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi Tuesday said that after nearly two years in the Balkans he still thought peace could be achieved only through political negotiations, mutual trust and political compromises. He said he was ending his mission in former Yugoslavia with mixed feelings of pain and satifaction. He said he was leaving behind a job undone, but was happy to learn that the prospects for peace were now better than before. The Japanese diplomat said in a farewell letter that when assessing the U.N.'s contribution in the Balkans one must take into consideration that the U.N. had limited resources in seeing through the role it was entrusted with. The international community has tried to find new ways to implement the U.N. Security Council resolutions and opened an unprecedented cooperation with NATO. For this reason, in his view, this 'has pushed the limits of classical peacekeeping.' However, no matter how much on certain occasions one could resort to force this was no substitute for diplomacy in peace efforts, especially regarding peace missions such as the one in the Balkans, said Akashi.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

NO CAMPS FOR MUSLIMS OR CROATS IN BANJA LUKA OR ITS VICINITY B a n j a L u k a, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Spokesman for the General Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (the Bosnian Serb Republic) Lt.-Col.Milovan Milutinovic said that there were no camps for Muslims or Croats in the territories of the towns of Banjaluka and Prijedor in northwestern Republika Srpska. Denying certain world media which are spreading such stories, Lt.-Col. Milutinovic said this was yet another propaganda campaign based on utter falsehoods and aimed at condemning the Serb side ahead of the Bosnia peace talks in Dayton, Ohio. A number of representatives of the press and humanitarian organizations were able to see for themselves that the claims about the existence of such camps were just a new wave of unfounded accusations against Serbs, he said. 'The elementary goal of this propaganda campaign produced in the world's workshops which turn out lies is not just to accuse the Serb side, but to cover up the terrible truth about the 200,000 Serb refugees from western parts of Republika Srpska, who have been expelled from their homes by Croats and Muslims in the latest wave of ethnic cleansing following the autumn offensive,' Lt.-Col.Milutinovic said. 'The real truth is that these are refugees who live in difficult conditions, that accommodation has not been found for many of them, or food, let alone other qualities of living,' he said.

GRACHEV PROPOSES BOSNIA PEACE CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW A t h e n s, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev proposed Tuesday that a peace conference on Bosnia be held in Moscow with the participation of all sides involved in the conflict, neighboring countries, and the group of the seven most industrialized nations. Grachev presented the proposal during talks with Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias in Athens. Grachev said a Bosnia peace conference could be held in any country, as initiated earlier by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

ALLEGED CRIMES IN SREBRENICA

UNHCR WITHOUT EVIDENCE ON CRIMES IN SREBRENICA G e n e v a, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - Spokesman for the UNHCR Ron Redmond in Geneva on Tuesday could not present to journalists any tangible proof that in the region of Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs had perpetrated a massive massacre of Bosnian Muslims. Since the UNHCR lacks firm evidence about the alleged crimes of Bosnian Serbs against Muslims in Srebrenica, except for individual statements by Muslim refugees from Srebrenica, on the basis of what can be heard at the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, one could conclude that what is involved are calculated speculations and manipulations on the eve of the tripartite meeting in Dayton. The case is relied on an alleged number of inhabitants of Srebrenica. Redmond said that the UNHCR took 40,000 inhabitants as the basis. Since it is reliably known that out of this number around 30,000 had gone to the Tuzla and Zenica regions in northern and central Bosnia, it follows from this calculation that anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 inhabitants 'vanished', while, according to some odd logic, it was the easiest thing to do to blame this on the Bosnian Serbs. Asked by journalists about the accuracy of the said number of inhabitants of Srebrenica, Redmond said that in fact this was an estimate the UNHCR made in 1993 as the basis on which humanitarian aid had been planned then. It is odd that even today the UNHCR brings to the fore, in addition to Srebrenica, 'great concern about drastic violations of human and minority rights in the region of Banjaluka,' the biggest city in the Republika Srpska (RS, the state of Bosnian Serbs). These accusations, too, are substantiated solely by individual statements made by Muslim refugees. The remaining Muslims and Croats in the Banjaluka region, Redmond told journalists, are living in very difficult conditions as many of them are sleeping out in the open or in deserted houses. The UNHCR Spokesman, however, not even mentioned the trouble of around 200,000 Serb refugees just in the same Banjaluka region where they had sought shelter from the latest Muslim-Croat offensive against the northwestern parts of Bosnia.

CROATIA - SERB-BARANJA REGION

SREM-BARANJA COUNCIL SUPPORTS REJECTION OF AGREEMENT V u k o v a r, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - The Council of the Srem-Baranja region on Tuesday unreservedly supported the decision not to accept a draft agreement with Croatia proposed by international mediators Thorvald Stoltenberg and U.S. Ambassador in Zagreb Peter Galbraith, but supported the continuation of the negotiating process. The head of the negotiating team, Milan Milanovic, said that the draft agreement does not guarrantee a quiet life for the about 200,000 Serbs in this sole remaining part of the Republic of Serb Krajina (state declared by Serbs in Croatia). The Serb side managed to fulfill only one aim - to avoid war, Milanovic said. He said that Galbraith and Stoltenberg had only partially accepted two Serb demands - that the transitional period lasts two years (the Croats insisted on one Year, and the Serbs on five years) and that U.N. troops remain in the region, instead of NATO, as Croatia demanded. All other articles of the agreement meant the 'immediate, total and unconditional reintegration of the region into Croatia,' Milanovic said. Srem-Baranja Council President Slavko Dokmanovic said that article nine of the draft agreement allows Croatia, 'immediately after the agreement comes into force, to deploy its police and customs along the internationally recognized borders.' The police force would answer to the Croatian Government since under the agreement it 'would not be a part of the transitional police force.' Dokmanovic said that for the Serbs it is unacceptable that the Srem-Baranja region is demilitarized in only 30 days.

REFUGEES IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA

ICRC: WAR IN TERRITORY OF EX-YUGOSLAVIA FORCED 400,000 INTO EXHILE , MAINLY SERBS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - The war operations carried out over the past few months in the territory of the former Yugoslavia have caused the mass movement of more than 400,000 civilians, mainly Serbs, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its latest report published in Geneva and carried by the Belgrade ICRC Bureau on Tuesday. While the warring sides and the international bodies involved in the search for a political solution are now focusing on the start of the rehabilitation process, and even the reconstruction of the war-ravaged regions, ICRC believes that the peace process should not draw away attention from the current need for urgent humanitarian action. ICRC warned the international humanitarian organizations that it is not the time for 'curtailing intervention programs and reducing aid' to the treatened regions in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. ICRC said that in the Banjaluka region alone, the number of displaced Serbs exceeds 150,000. ICRC said that for the coming months it would secure the most urgent aid in food, non-consumable goods and materials for building shelters for 200,000 people. ICRC said that special aid is needed for the about 50,000 people at the highest risk, mainly children and pensioners. Their homes have been extensively damaged both by September's NATO air strikes and by the recent Croat-Muslim offensive on northwestern Bosnia. ICRC will specially provide for nearly 6,000 old and ill Serbs, who have been stranded without any means in the remote villages in Krajina following Croatia's aggression on the northern and southern parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina in early August when about 250,000 Serbs were forced to flee this region. Aid is also needed for about 6,000 Croats and Muslims who came to central Bosnia from the Banjaluka region, ICRC said. ICRC quoted the 1949 Geneva Convention saying it believes that all civilians who have been forcefully evicted from their homes, should be helped to return when these regions are free and safe, or they should at least receive compensation if they explicitely express a wish for this. Concerning the Serb population who fled the Republic of Serb Krajina, at present there can hardly be any talk about their return. 'Can there be any mention of the security conditions being fulfilled when the arson of homes, various forms of harrassment and killings have continued after the Croatian authorities took over control over these territories and which lasted until recently,' ICRC wondered.

O P I N I O N S

LORD OWEN MAKES GRAVE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST U.S. AND BOSNIAN MUSLIMS L o n d o n, Oct 31 (Tanjug) - Former E.U. peace negotiator Lord Owen has accused the Muslim Government in Sarajevo of sacrificing its own citizens for media manipulations, and the incumbent U.S. Administration of undermining the peace process in Bosnia. In a special BBC Television broadcast on the upcoming peace talks in Ohio, Lord Owen said Monday evening that the so-called Vance-Owen peace plan had failed not only because of Bosnian Serb rejection but mainly because of Washington's refusal to back it. Lord Owen said that the Muslim Government had manipulated the lives of its own citizens for the sake of its war propaganda, which was worse than actual war. For the sake of its propaganda war against the Serbs, the Muslim Army intentionally opened fire on its own citizens, Lord Owen said and added that all that was going on while he was E.U. peace negotiator. Lord Owen cited the example of the shelling of the Sarajevo hospital. He said that the Bosnian Serbs were held responsible although U.N. monitors established that the Muslim Army had shelled the hospital. He said that the truth had never reached the public. Moreover, Lord Owen spoke about the shelling of the Sarajevo market of Markale in February 1994 in which 68 civilians were killed. The Serbs were again accused but it has never been determined who really shelled the market, Lord Owen said. The BBC TV broadcast for the first time a report on the findings of U.N. experts on the Markale shelling. The U.N. experts said that there was irrefutable evidence that the Serbs were not responsible and that all facts indicated that the Muslims had shelled the market. The report never reached the public because of Washington's insistence and decisions on aggresive and punitive actions against the Serbs were made on the basis of untruths, the BBC Television said. Lord Owen said that he had insisted in vain at the U.N. on the need to publish these reports in time. He said that it had become evident after the Markale shelling that the U.S. had sided with the Muslims in the Bosnian civil war.

CROATIA-ELECTION

WORLD TAKES A DIM VIEW OF CROATIAN ELECTIONS B e l g r a d e, Oct. 31 (Tanjug) - The outcome of Sunday's elections in Croatia shows that President Franjo Tudjman's policy failed to win the kind of support he had expected and hoped for, a Spokesman for the ruling coalition said in Bonn on Tuesday. Spokesman Karl Lamers, in charge of foreign policy affairs, said that the fact that Zagreb had allowed Bosnian Croats to vote in the elections increased Germany's fear that Bosnia's territorial integrity would not be assured for a long time to come. The Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said on Tuesday that the Croatian election law discriminated against the Serb voters, forcing them to use ballots of a different colour and depriving of the franchise those who had left Croatia. There are less than 300,000 Serbs remaining in Croatia out of a 580,000-strong Serb community living there before the current war, according to official figures, while the Serbs themselves put the size of their community at less than 100,000 members, the daily said. Israel's Hebrew-language Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday that the strengthening of Tudjman's position strengthened the nationalist aspect of Croatia's political life, since Tudjman had played a big part in lighting the flame of war in both Croatia and Bosnia. Tudjman's rigid anti-Serb policy roused the Serbs in Croatia to resistance, the newspaper said, adding that those well-versed in the situation do not rule out the possibility that Tudjman might have had dreams of annexing much of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia. The Vienna daily Die Presse stressed on Tuesday that the first and biggest test of Croatia's maturity for Europe would be the way it deals with the dilemma of whether to give up the planned offensive against the Srem-Baranja region or go ahead with it. Virtually the entire Italian press writes that the early parliamentary elections in Croatia were teeming with irregularities. Corriere Della Sera of Rome said that the election victory of Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union, in as much as it signalled a worsening of the position of the minorities and of democracy at home, might produce further complications in the sensitive Balkan region. Tudjman wants further victories, he is impatient to conquer eastern Slavonia (the Srem-Baranja region), the daily said.