YDS 11/3

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

03. NOVEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - FRY PRESIDENT ON INDISPENSABILITY OF PEACE - CROATIAN AUTHORITIES EXPELL 550,000 SERBS - AUSTRIA UNFREEZES YUGOSLAV AIRLINE'S ASSETS

REFUGEES IN SERBIA - SERBIA NEEDS HELP OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFUGEES

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - BOSNIAN SERBS, CROATS EXCHANGE CIVILIANS - U.N. WARNS IT WILL NOT TOLERATE MUJAHEDDIN THREATS TO UNPROFOR - OVER 19,000 SERB REFUGEES WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION IN BOSNIA - CROATS FORBID RETURN OF MUSLIM REFUGEES - BOSNIAN MUSLIM RADIO

SERB KRAJINA - UN SAYS SITUATION IN SREM-BARANJA AREA IS TENSE - U.N. SAYS MORE THAN 1,000 SERB GRAVES REGISTERED IN KRAJINA

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - ROME DAILY WRITES ABOUT PRACTICE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN SERB KRAJINA

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

FRY PRESIDENT ON INDISPENSABILITY OF PEACE B e l g r a d e, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - The President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Zoran Lilic, said on Thursday that stable and durable peace was indispensable for the economic renewal and the development of that country and for all the republics of the former federation. Visiting the Federal Authority for Trade for Special Purposes,Lilic stressed that peace remains the strategic and national goal of the FRY. He said that at this point our most important duty is to support the efforts of the Yugoslav delegation in Dayton to persevere in reaching a peace agreement. That is why, Lilic said, our duty must be to preserve our internal stability and prevent any intention to provoke any kind of conflict during the talks both in the crisis areas of the former Yugoslavia and in the FRY, which could spark a wider war. Stressing the historical importance of the Dayton talks for the Balkans, FRY President said that any attempt to sabotage them should be penalized. Talking about the lifting of the three and a half year long comprehensive and mandatory U.N. sanctions against the FRY, Lilic said that there was no place for pessimism and that their lifting was a matter of days. 'We believe in the sincerity of the U.S. initiative within the negotiating process and the desire and interest of America that peace be finally estabished in the territories of the former Yugoslavia', Lilic said. Adding that a common economic interest must be found in view of industrial plants constructed and the natural potentials located in the seceded federal units, Lilic said that he was confident 'that the day is not far when we will have to cooperate out of our own economic interest with the republics of the former Yugoslavia'.

CROATIAN AUTHORITIES EXPELL 550,000 SERBS B e l g r a d e, Nov. 1 (Tanjug) - After the Croatian authorities expelled 550,000 Serbs from the region of Serb Krajina and Croatia, thus reducing the number of Serbs in this former Yugoslav republic from 12.5 percent to a mere 2-3 percent, the Serb people are facing extinction and the obliteration of all traces of their existence in these lands. The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a memorandum warning about the genocide carried out by the Croatian Government over the Serbs in Croatia and the Republic of Serb Krajina. The documant was sent to the U.N. last week. The memorandum on the ethnic cleansing of and genocide against the Serb people of Croatia and Krajina is the most detailed report so far on the horrendous crimes committed by the Croatian Army against the Serbs in the 1991-95 period. 'Employing brutal military and police force the Croatian Government has been and is forcing Serbs to abandon their ancestral homes and regions which they have managed to safeguard and preserve in the face of all earlier cataclysms,' the memorandum said. The 20-page document supplies proof and testimonies which offer a complete insight both to political forums and humanitarian organizations, as well as to leading world media networks, into 'Croatia's repeated genocide against the Serbs, much like the one from the period of the nazi puppet state 'Independent State of Croatia (NDH)'.' 'Deliberately planned psychologocal and physical pressures were exerted on the Serbs for decades in preparation for repeated genocide,' the memorandum said recalling that in the Jasenovac concentration camp alone over 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Romanies were liquidated during World War Two. The memorandum warned that at the biggest risk are the Serbs in the Srem-Baranja region, the only part of Serb Krajina not occuppied by the Croatian Army and where numerous Serb civilians found refuge after being expelled from the occuppied parts of Serb Krajina. 'Croatia has carried out the largest ethnic cleansing since World War Two,' the document said and underscored that it has thus achieved the strategic objective of its secession from the former Yugoslavia - the creation of an ethnically pure state. 'In less than four years Croatia has managed to carry out what the quisling NDH and its leader Ante Pavelic failed to do in their time,' the document said. Supporting claims that Croatia is ruthlessly turning a deaf ear to all existing norms of international law and civilization standards, the memorandum said that 'by confiscating the property of all Serbs and yugoslavs in Serb Krajina and in Croatia, the Government of the Republic of Croatia has violated the universal and sacred right on the inviolability of private property.' 'Considering that it has carried out this act guided exclusively by national criterion, this represents a glaring example of national, racial and religious discrimination and hatered,' the memorandum said. The Federal Foreign Ministry said that nobody from Croatia has so far been called to account for the brutal violation of numerous international conventions, followed by mass killings and the planned expulsion of the entire Serb population and the systematic destruction of all traces of their centuries-old existence in these territores. In an appeal to the world, sent via the U.N., the Federal Foreign Ministry called on all progressive forces of humanity to stop Croatia's strategy to prevent the Serbs to return to their ancestral homes. The memorandum said that this primary political aim of a regime which ruthlessly carried out the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, is particularly evidenced by 'the widespread examples of destruction of monuments of culture, churches, monasteries and cemeteries, as well as the confiscation of the immovable property of Serb owners from krajina, Croatia and F.R. Yugoslavia.'

AUSTRIA UNFREEZES YUGOSLAV AIRLINE'S ASSETS V i e n n a, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav National Airline JAT will be allowed as of December 1 to use its assets in Austria to pay fuel, airport taxes, advertising and other expenses, the Austrian Government has decided. After a two-year pause imposed by the economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, JAT resumed its flights to Viennain late March but was forced to make its payments in cash. Austria has decided to unfreeze JAT's assets after several calls made by JAT officials and the Yugoslav Ambassador to Vienna.

REFUGEES IN SERBIA

SERBIA NEEDS HELP OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFUGEES B e l g r a d e, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina said Thursday this Yugoslav Republic needed major aid from international humanitarian organizations to take care of over 600,000 refugees from the territory of former Yugoslavia. Morina and Yugoslav representatives met with Special Envoy for former Yugoslavia of the UNHCR Anne Willem Bijleveld and head of the UNHCR mission to Yugoslavia Margaret O'Keefe. Both sides expressed the wish to continue cooperation, especially on emergency aid for refugees and exilees in Yugoslav territory and in the region of the northwestern town Banjaluka in Republika Srpska (the Serb State in Bosnia). The Yugoslav side has proposed that the Working Group for humanitarian issues, which is working within the Geneva-based Conference on former Yugoslavia, hold a special meeting devoted to the problem of the return of exilees and to respect of human rights. Bijleveld agreed with this proposal, and pointed out that the UNHCR had earmarked an extra 25 million dollars for refugees in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since August, and had secured 10,000 tons of liquid and solid fuel for assembly points.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

BOSNIAN SERBS, CROATS EXCHANGE CIVILIANS B a n j a l u k a, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Serbs and Croats exchanged 278 civilians in the presence of representatives of the UNPROFOR at Bocac, about 30 km south of Banjaluka, on Thursday. Radovan Glogovac of the (Bosnian Serb State) Republika Srpska's Commission for civilian affairs said that this was the first in a series of planned exchanges between the Serb and Croat sides in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Glogovac said that on this occasion, 94 civilians had crossed over to the Serb side, and 184 to the Croat side. The exchanged Serb civilians were captured in the course of Croatia's latest offensive in western Bosnia. They were old men, women and children from the towns of Glamoc, Drvar, Mrkonjic Grad and Srbobran.

U.N. WARNS IT WILL NOT TOLERATE MUJAHEDDIN THREATS TO UNPROFOR B e l g r a d e, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - The U.N. on Thursday warned that its Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) would act against the mujaheddin from Islamic countries in Bosnia if they continued to menace U.N. peacekeepers there. The U.N. will not tolerate threats from the mujaheddin, news agencies quoted Cris Vernon as telling a press conference in Sarajevo. Vernon said the mujaheddin had captured an UNPROFOR liaison officer from New Zealand and had kept him for three hours at a Zenica base. The mujaheddin did not threaten him directly but said they believed he was a part of a 'western capitalist plot in Bosnia,' Vernon said. He said RRF troops and artillery were on UNPROFOR's disposal and would act to protect the mission in Bosnia.

OVER 19,000 SERB REFUGEES WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION IN BOSNIA B a n j a l u k a, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - The Assistant Commissioner for Refugees of Republika Srpska (R.S. - Bosnian Serb State) Slobodan Ecimovic said Thursday that over 19,000 Serb refugees from Muslim-Croatian offensive in western Bosnia-Herzegovina were without proper accommodation in the Banjaluka region, in pouring rain and sub-zero night temperatures. Nearly 18,000 reguees are sheltering in inadequate reception centers, and about 1,200 people are still without any roof over their heads, in their animal-drawn carts and other vehicles along roads around Banjaluka, Ecimovic stated. At least 172,000 Serbs fore forced to leave their ancestral homes due to Muslim-Croatian offensive, Ecimovic said, underlining that humanitarian conditions in this area were extremely difficult inspite of increased international aid and that provided by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

CROATS FORBID RETURN OF MUSLIM REFUGEES - BOSNIAN MUSLIM RADIO B e l g r a d e, Nov 2 (Tanjug) - As talks are under way in Dayton, Ohio, to find a peaceful settlement for Bosnia, including the question of refugees, fresh problems are emerging on the ground between Muslims and Croats, Bosnian Federation partners. Muslim Radio Sarajevo said on Thursday that Croat forces had forbidden the return of Muslim refugees to the towns of Kupres and Jajce in southwestern and central Bosnia, which had been under Serb control until the Croats seized them recently. On the other hand, Bosnian Croat Radio has reported that 10,000 Croats have returned to Jajce and another 2,000 to Kupres. The Muslim Radio said that Bosnian Croat forces and troops from neighbouring Croatia, when they seized the southwestern town of Glamoc three months ago, expelled more than 200 of the Muslims who had lived trouble-free in the area while it was under Serb control. Both Muslim Radio Sarajevo and Bosnian Croat Radio Herceg-Bosna said that 55,000 Muslims had fled the Bosnian Croat state of Herceg-Bosna, and that 180,000 Croats had fled the territories under Muslim control.

SERB KRAJINA

UN SAYS SITUATION IN SREM-BARANJA AREA IS TENSE B e l g r a d e, Nov 2 (Tanjug) - U.N. Spokeswoman in Belgrade Susan Manuel said on Thursday that the situation in the Srem-Baranja area, Sector 'East', is tense. The Croatian Army fired five mortar shells Wednesday evening north of Vinkovci toward Serb positions in the area, and Croatian troops opened fire two days ago on some U.N. outposts, Manuel warned. Manuel announced the reduction of U.N. forces in Bosnia and the Srem-Baranja area by the middle of January 1996. Manuel specified that, instead of the present 27,000, there will remain in Bosnia 21,500 UNPROFOR troops, while in the Sector 'East' the number of blue berets will be reduced to 1,500.

U.N. SAYS MORE THAN 1,000 SERB GRAVES REGISTERED IN KRAJINA B e l g r a d e, Nov. 2 (Tanjug) - U.N. Spokeswoman in Belgrade Susan Manuel said on Thursday that more than 1,000 Serb graves had been registered in Sector South of the Republic of Serb Krajina alone since August. Reports indicate that graves contain more than one body, Manuel told a news conference. The U.N. Spokeswoman said that very few things that could be looted had remained in Krajina. She mentioned as interesting an elderly woman's report to U.N. civilian police in Sector South that the front-door of her house had been stolen. Only the few remaining Serbs can report the plundering. The others, who fled the region empty-handed, do not have this possibility.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

ROME DAILY WRITES ABOUT PRACTICE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN SERB KRAJI NA R o m e, Nov 2 (Tanjug) - The practice of ethnic cleansing has triumphed in new Croatia, enabling undisturbed looting in Krajina after the expulsion of Serbs, the Rome-based daily La Repubblica said Thursday. In a lengthy report from Knin, the administrative centre of the Republic of Serb Krajina, the daily wrote about numerous attrocities that Croatian troops and civilians had committed against Serbs and their property in early August. 'When Croatian troops captured Krajina, they started looting, and then came reservists and civilians and destroyed all the houses,' lL Repubblica said. The daily said that even today, 'large groups from Dalmatia come to Krajina to take a table, a chair, a curtain. Some smaller construction firms have dismantled and taken away roofs and doors.' 'Everything that was of any value has been destroyed, thousands of houses have been torched, piles of various household items, pillows, furniture, have been thrown out of the houses, which are now occupied by new owners,' the daily said. La Repubblica said that life was hopeless for 3,000 Serbs, mostly the old and ill, that stayed in Krajina. Pointing out numerous reports by international observers about attrocities committed by regular Croatian troops against Serbs in Krajina during and after the aggression, La Repubblica said that 'Serbs were cruelly killed, mostly from behind.' The daily said that Serbs in Krajina experience visits by foreign journalists as holidays, telling them that 'the real hell started for them when Croatian reservists and civilians came to Krajina.' A typical illustration may be a story of a 50-year-old, the daily said. 'He stayed alive because being an invalid he was unfit for the (Serb) army, but he suffers daily torture and threats because a calendar printed in cyrillic was found in his house,' La Repubblica said. The daily said that the Croatian Government had given Serbs 90 days to prove their ownership over property in Croatia, but at the same time placed impossible conditions.