YDS 11/15

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

SREM - BARANJA REGION AGREEMENT - SERBS DEMAND THAT RUSSIANS BE DEPLOYED IN SREM-BARANJA REGION - SERB PARTIES IN ZAGREB WELCOME SERB-CROATIAN AGREEMENT - SREM-BARANJA AGREEMENT TO HELP ACHIEVE DURABLE PEACE

WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION - FORMER YUGOSLAVIA - WEU MINISTERS BACK PEACE PROCESS IN BALKANS

SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA - MOSCOW INVITES U.N. TO ALLOW YUGOSLAVIA'S WHEAT EXPORT

CROATIA - INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL IN THE HAGUE - TUDJMAN PROMOTES A GENERAL INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES - MUSLIMS SURPRISED THAT TUDJMAN PROMOTED WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

GERMAN MERCENARIES IN BOSNIA - GERMAN MERCENARIES CHARGED WITH MURDER OF COMRADES IN BOSNIA

SREM - BARANJA REGION AGREEMENT

SERBS DEMAND THAT RUSSIANS BE DEPLOYED IN SREM-BARANJA REGION E r d u t, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - The head of the Serb negotiating team for the Srem-Baranja region, Milan Milanovic, said Tuesday that the Serbs are not opposed to the arrival of NATO troops, but that they demand that Russian troops be also deployed there during the transitional period. Milanovic told a press conference that 'serious consideration is being given to proposals that Russian and Belgian troops remain here, since they have so far been neutral, and that they are joined by U.S. troops.' After the signing of the agreement with Croatia, the U.N. Security Council should pass a resolution practically confirming the agreement, Milanovic said. He added that the Serb side would most certainly demand the extension of the one-year period for another year, as the agreement stipulates. Milanovic said that in the Srem-Baranja region the Croatian administration will not be in function, and the Yugoslav currency, dinar, 'will remain the official currency.' The Commander of the local Serb forces, Gen.Dusan Loncar warned that 'the international community, before demilitarization, will have to give firm guarrantees for the safety of the population and the territory.'

SERB PARTIES IN ZAGREB WELCOME SERB-CROATIAN AGREEMENT Z a g r e b, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - Serb parties in Zagreb on Tuesday welcomed the agreement signed on Sunday by representatives of Croatian authorities and Serbs from the Srem-Baranja region (Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem). The Serb National Party, led by Milan Djukic, said in a special statement that it wholeheartedly welcomed the agreement, which was conducive to a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The party Vice President Veselin Pejnovic said that the agreement would help restore peace in all of the former Yugoslavia. Pejnovic said the party believed that this model should be applied to all of Croatia, including Krajina and Western Slavonia, because ethnic cleansing policies would otherwise be pardoned. President of the Serb Independent Party Milorad Pupovac told a news conference in Zagreb that after a period of fears that the war would resume, the agreement represented an important, if not even final, step towards a political settlement of the region's status. The agreement is important in many aspects, because it ensures lasting peace and leads to a normalization of all relations between Zagreb and Belgrade, Pupovac said. He added that the most important thing was to ensure full observation of human rights in the region and open communications which would benefit both peoples.

SREM-BARANJA AGREEMENT TO HELP ACHIEVE DURABLE PEACE Z a g r e b, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - About the agreement on the Srem-Baranja region, Head of the Yugoslav Government Office in Zagreb Veljko Knezevic has said that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia accepts those solutions which will be adopted by the Serbs from this region, said the Split daily Slobodna Dalmacija on Monday. Knezevic said that his Office, 'in the role of a representative of the Government of the F.R. Yugoslavia in Croatia, in its statements has always insisted on the stand of the leaders of the F.R. Yugoslavia - endorsed would be every agreement achieved at the level of the Republic of Croatia and the leadership of Serbs from the region concerned.' He added that 'at the time this happened, or, when the agreement was signed, we can only accept it as the fact that should help achieve durable peace in these areas.' Knezevic went on to say that the international community, which was overseeing the signing of this agreement, should also direct its future activity to watch over the implementation of the provisions in this agreement. 'We are confident that this agreement - to the extent it means the genuine and durable peace in these areas - will be accepted also by people who live in these areas,' said Knezevic in conclusion. Slobodna Dalmacija, in carrying Knezevic's statement under the headiline 'Peace At Last', uses quotation marks for the term 'the F.R. Yugoslavia', showing once again that the usual propaganda matrix by far outweighs the professional ethics of journalism according to which the 'other side's words' must be respected.

WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION - FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

WEU MINISTERS BACK PEACE PROCESS IN BALKANS M a d r i d, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - Western European Union (WEU) Ministerial Council fully backed the peace process for resolving the crisis on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The Foreign and Defense Ministers ended a two-day Council meeting in Madrid on Tuesday night by adopting a declaration to this effect. The Ministers also stated satisfaction over the signed agreements on the Muslim-Croat Federation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and on the Srem-Baranja region, the so-called U.N. Sector East, and expressed hope that this led to a denouement in the Balkans as a whole. The Ministers underscored the significance of refraining from the use of arms and set out the trust they placed in the outcome of the ongoing peace process. Spanish Defense Minister Suarez Pertierra told a press conference after the meeting that considering the current peace process he expected the embargo against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to be lifted soon as well as the policing of the Adriatic Sea and the Danube river. The WEU, said Pertierra, was committed to seeking new formulas in its work which meant support to the peace process and participation in post-war reconstruction in the former Yugoslavia.

SANCTIONS AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

MOSCOW INVITES U.N. TO ALLOW YUGOSLAVIA'S WHEAT EXPORT M o s c o w, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Grigory Karasin on Tuesday invited the U.N. Security Council to respond positively to Yugoslavia's request to be allowed to export wheat to secure funds for import of natural gas and other fuels. The U.N. Sanctions Committee on Nov. 10 gave the green light for Yugoslavia's monthly import of 186 million cubic meters of Russian natural gas, Karasin said. Sources in Moscow said they expected the relevant document to arrive there before gas was actually dispatched. Russia has also requested an approval of humanitarian oil, heating oil and liquid gas deliveries to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and expects the demand to be considered in the near future. Karasin told reporters that the Committee's decision indicated readiness on the part of the international community to meet the needs of the civilian population in Yugoslavia, who suffered the effects of the economic sanctions imposed in May 1992. Karasin expressed confidence that the decision would have a beneficial influence on the current peace talks in Dayton.

CROATIA - INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL IN THE HAGUE

TUDJMAN PROMOTES A GENERAL INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES Z a g r e b, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - Only one day after the International Tribunal in the Hague indicted the Chief of Staff of Bosnian Croat Army, Gen.Tihomir Blaksic, for war crimes, the President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman appointed him last Tuesday inspector in the Croatian Army Inspectorate. In addition to Gen.Blaksic, Commander of the Croat Defense Council (HVO), whom Tudjman had earlier recalled to Zagreb, the Hague Tribunal also indicted the President of the ruling party of Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and military and civilian officials Mario Cerkez, Ivan Santic, Pero Skopljak and Zlatko Alekovski, for crimes against Muslims. The Parliament Speaker of the Bosnian Croat Republic of Herceg-Bosna Ivan Bender said Tuesday evening on Croatian Television that Kordic and Blaksic were 'honorable and honest men whowere doing their jobs in accordance with their prerogatives with responsibility and conscientiously.' Parliament will take 'all legal measures for legal and every other formof safety and protection of all persons, especially the highest officials of the Croat people', Bender said. Bender expressed hope that Croatian delegation in Dayton, headed by the President of all Croats (Tudjman) would once again find the best solutions which will satisfy all Croats'.

MUSLIMS SURPRISED THAT TUDJMAN PROMOTED WAR CRIMES SUSPECT B e l g r a d e, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - The Muslim Sarajevo Government is surprised by the decision of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to promote Tihomir Blaskic (Bosnian Croat military commander) only one day after he had been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. Reuters cited a statement by 'a senior Bosnian Government official in Sarajevo', who said 'Croatia scored a goal against itself with this move.' 'I'm surprised, but it just points out that Tudjman doesn't have any advisers who can stand up to him. He thinks he's invulnerable and infallible,' said the official, who asked not to be identified. In view of this Muslim senior official, 'it appears Tudjman is rewarding Blaskic for having followed (Tudjman's) orders in Bosnia'. He believes that the Hague Tribunal must uncover from whom came these orders that Gen.Blaskic followed. The official also said 'Blaskic will probably be transfered to Croatia now and it will be up to them to hand him over to the Tribunal or face international sanctions.'

GERMAN MERCENARIES IN BOSNIA

GERMAN MERCENARIES CHARGED WITH MURDER OF COMRADES IN BOSNIA B e l g r a d e, Nov. 14 (Tanjug) - Two soldiers of the former East German Army went on trial in Memmingen, in Germany's Bavaria Province, charged with murdering two fellow Germans while fighting on the side of Croatian troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993. The AP news agency named the defendants as Falk Simang, 31, and Ralf Mrachacz, 41. Mrachacz admitted to the court his involvement in the murder of a man identified only as Heinz, after he had been ordered by his commanding officer, identified only as Gen.Tuta, to stop the victim defecting to the Muslims. After the crime, Mrachacz robbed the body, doused it in petrol and set on fire. Simang is charged with murdering a man near Mostar, the biggest city in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. The affair came to light last year, after one of the defendants boasted in a Television interview of having killed at least one person in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Investigators say that the defendants belonged to a group of about 80 German mercenaries, mostly Rightist Radicals, who fought on the side of the Croats and against the Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina.