YDS 11/9

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

9. NOVEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

CONTENTS:

BOSNIAN SERBS - U.S.A. - SERB AUTHORITIES RELEASE U.S. CORRESPONDENT

BILATERAL TALKS - ROMANIA BELIEVES IN PEACE AND NORMAL RELATIONS WITH YUGOSLAVIA - MONTENEGRIN PREMIER MEETS WITH U.S. CONGRESSMEN

R E F U G E E S - ABOUT 15,000 SERB REFUGEES WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION

CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS - PRESIDENT OF CROATIAN HELSINKI WATCH: CROATIAN CRIMES IN KRAJINA CONTINUE

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - GENSCHER, POPE SUPPORTED SLOVENIAN-CROAT PLOT TO BREAK UP FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

BOSNIAN SERBS - U.S.A.

SERB AUTHORITIES RELEASE U.S. CORRESPONDENT

Dayton, Belgrade, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - Through the mediation of the Yugoslav delegation at the Dayton peace talks, Republika Srpska authorities on Wednesday released U.S. correspondent David Rohde, who was then transferred to Belgrade. Rohde, a correspondent of the Boston Christian Science Monitor newspaper, was released after Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who heads the Yugoslav delegation, had made several contacts with the leadership of the Republika Srpska. Serbian police have taken over Rohde from Republika Srpska authorities and escorted him to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian Interior Ministry reported. Rohde spoke from the Embassy by phone with U.S. President Bill Clinton, who called him from the White House. U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns Wednesday night paid tribute to and expressed thanks to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for having mediated in the release of U.S. reporter.

BILATERAL TALKS

ROMANIA BELIEVES IN PEACE AND NORMAL RELATIONS WITH YUGOSLAVIA

B u c h a r e s t, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - Romanian Prime Minister Nikolai Vakaroju said on Wednesday that Romania believed in peace and wanted to establish normal relations with Yugoslavia, after the sanctions on Yugoslavia have been lifted and peace in Bosnia achieved. In a statement after talks with a Yugoslav parliament delegation, Vakaroju said a team of experts in Belgrade was framing a draft political contract between Romania and Yugoslavia on good neighbourly relations, to be discussed during the visit of a Romanian delegation to Belgrade at the end of the month. Vakaroju said he was convinced a formula would be found to achieve peace in Bosnia, and indicated that Romania highly appreciated the constructive and flexible stand of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, whose role in the peace process was very important. Head of the Yugoslav delegation, Chairman of the Upper House Foreign Relations Committee Borisav Jovic, said it was important that inter-state accords were concluded, to 'secure the prerequisites for the more efficacious work of the economies to the benefit of both sides.' We also discussed improving conditions for bilateral communication, particularly in view of local border trade, said Jovic.

MONTENEGRIN PREMIER MEETS WITH U.S. CONGRESSMEN

N e w Y o r k, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - Visiting Montenegrin Premier Milo Djukanovic conferred on Washington's Capitol Hill on Wednesday with U.S. congressmen - members of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The talk was attended by Montenegrin Parliament Speaker Svetozar Marovic and Vice Premier Asim Telacevic. The delegation of the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro is visiting Washington at the invitation of a group of congressmen who have recently visited Montenegro. After the talk on Capitol Hill, members of the National Security Committee and a group of senators gave luncheon in honour of Djukanovic and Marovic. Discussion on both occasions related to the political and economic situation in former Yugoslavia and to bilateral cooperation between Yugoslavia, specifically its republic of Montenegro, and the United States after the lifting of the anti-Yugoslav U.N. sanctions. On Wednesday, Djukanovic spoke of the same matters with U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Jeffrey Schaeffer and with David Lipton, who is in charge of European affairs at the Treasury Department, and visited the U.S. International Development Agency.

R E F U G E E S

ABOUT 15,000 SERB REFUGEES WITHOUT ACCOMMODATION

B a nj a L u k a, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska Deputy Refugee Commissioner Slobodan Ecimovic said Wednesday that some 15,000 Serb refugees had no accommodation and were in various collective centres. Ecimovic said the majority of them were at this point in Banja Luka and Prijedor. Describing conditions in which the refugees were living as critical and poor, Ecimovic said they would deteriorate still further when the winter came because there was a severe shortage of fuel. The current supplies of fuel can only last for about 15 days, he added. He said about 172,000 people had fled their homes following the Moslem-Croat occupation of 12 towns in the west of the Republika Srpska. Of this figure, about 140,000 people were at this point staying with their friends or relatives, he said. Since these families have not even received the minimum aid in food and since they themselves are needy, it is vital that they be helped, he said. Unfortunately, the current supplies of food, if no new donations are added to them, will not be enough at all, he said.

CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS

CROATIAN CRIMES IN KRAJINA CONTINUE

B e l g r a d e, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - 'Croatian crimes in Krajina still continue and people (Serbs) are being buried in mass graves,' the President of the Croatian branch of the Helsinki Watch Human Rights Organization, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, said in interview to Belgrade weekly Telegraf. Cicak said that 'last week U.N. monitors found in Glina 30 freshly-dug graves' and added that 'such graves are appearing throughout the liberated part of Croatia.' Cicak said that 'European observers and Red Cross representatives are aware of the existence of the mass graves since they were present when these graves were dug by excavators. However, they were not allowed to attend the autopsies and everything is done on the quiet and the real truth is being covered up.' 'The stories that the crimes in Krajina were carried out by some individuals dressed in Croatian army uniforms, are ridiculous,' Cicak said and added that 'a handful of people cannot destroy a village with 200 houses in a single day because this requires a huge military force.' 'All reports which were received from the United Nations and the European Union accuse the Croatian authorities of organizing the systematic burning in Krajina and the remaining parts of Croatia,' Cicak said. He said that he has 'information that at least one hundred people, who did not leave Croatia after the operation Storm, have disappeared. U.N. data 'show that in Krajina 22,000 Serb houses have been burned, and 160 people killed, but we are constantly uncovering new massacres unknown to the U.N. and E.U. observers,' Cicak said.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

GENSCHER, POPE SUPPORTED SLOVENIAN-CROAT PLOT TO BREAK UP FORM ER YUGOSLAVIA

Lj u b lj a n a, Nov. 8 (Tanjug) - Germany's former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Pope John Paul the second decided about the bloody fate of the former Yugoslavia by directly agreeing with and supporting its break-up, the last Presidency President of the former Yugoslavia Stjepan Mesic said on Tuesday. Speaking in a program of Slovenia's private MTV television network on Tuesday evening, Mesic said that he had taken the top office in the federation 'to get in touch with the most influential international factors through Yugoslav diplomatic channels and convince them about the pointlessness of Yugoslavia's survival.' 'I wished to convey the idea to break up the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to those who had the biggest influence on its fate - Genscher and the Pope. I met with Genscher three times. He made it possible for me to contact the Holy See. The Pope and Genscher agreed with the complete break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,' Mesic said. Participants of this programme were President of Slovenia Milan Kucan, Croatian Social Democrat Party (former communists) leadership member Zdravko Tomac, Croatian General Martin Spegelj, and Ciril Ribicic, who had been President of the last Central Committee of Slovenian communists. Recalling with pride his important role of destroyer of Yugoslavia, Tomac pointed out that 'Kucan was the spiritual leader and mastermind who started all the opposition to (Serbian President Slobodan) Milosevic.' Tomac said the Slovenian political leadership, headed by Kucan, had consistently rallied and organized all tested influential anti-Yugoslavs from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and other areas, who were ready to fight against Milosevic. Already in 1990, Slovenia and Croatia formed a tandem to lead the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to form their own states, Tomac further said. 'There was an open telephone line between Kucan and Tudjman' even before Tudjman took over power in Croatia, 'through which they coordinated political and military actions to break up the country,' said Tomac, who was Croatia's first Ambassador to Slovenia. Uncovering the separatists' tactics against former Yugoslavia's military and political leaderships and their efforts to prevent any efficient reactions by the army of former Yugoslavia, Mesic also admitted Tudjman's first Defense Minister Martin Spegelj had illegally 'brought in weapons from Hungary' for attacks on the former Yugoslav army and Serbs. 'I pretended not to know anything,' said Mesic who was brought to his office in former Yugoslavia by European and other international mediators even after he said he would be 'the last Presidency President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.'