Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-01-09

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

8 January 1996

YDS-1053

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA IS A NECESSARY FACTOR OF BALKAN PEACE, STABILITY - PREMIER

[02] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN CURRENCY RESERVES INCREASE

[03] NO REFUGEE WILL BE EXPELLED FROM SERBIA, SAYS OFFICIAL

[B] BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

[04] SERBS IN SARAJEVO DEMAND LOCAL AUTONOMY

[05] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA RESOLVED TO FULLY IMPLEMENT DAYTON PEACE ACCORD

[06] BILDT SAYS SARAJEVO ISSUE CRUCIAL TO SUCCESS OF BOSNIA PEACE MISSION

[07] E.U. ADMINISTRATOR REJECTS CROAT DEMANDS FOR DIVISION OF MOSTAR

[08] CHIRAC: TRUE PEACE WILL BE REACHED IN BOSNIA

[09] KINKEL: BOSNIA'S FATE IS BEING DECIDED

[10] HOLBROOKE SEES CROATS AND MUSLIMS AS THREAT TO STABILITY IN BOSNIA

[11] UNHCR ENDS SARAJEVO AIRLIFT

[C] OSCE - BOSNIA

[12] TALKS ON CONFIDENCE BUILD-UP MEASURES FOR BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

[D] RECONSTRUCTION OF BOSNIA

[13] VOLKER RUEHE SAYS DIPLOMATS PUT OFF RECONSTRUCTION OF BOSNIA

[14] ITALY'S AGNELLI SAYS RECONSTRUCTION OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA IS VITAL

[E] UN MANDATE FOR SREM-BARANJA REGION

[15] MANDATE FOR SREM-BARANJA REGION TO BE DECIDED LATE NEXT WEEK

[F] AMNESTIED SERBS IN CROATIA

[16] SERBS GRANTED AMNESTY TO LEAVE CROATIA ON TUESDAY

[G] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[17] MUSLIM SARAJEVO GOVERNMENT TRIES TO DISCREDIT IFOR - BRITISH PAPER

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA IS A NECESSARY FACTOR OF BALKAN PEACE, STABILITY - PREMIER

'In order for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to remain a permanent factor of peace and stability in the Balkans, it is necessary, apart from finally lifting the sanctions, to return it to the U.N., the OSCE, international financial and trade organisations,' he said.

Kontic said that, 'owing to the determination of the Serbian and Montenegrin people, Yugoslavia has been saved and preserved in the form of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.'

The peace accord reached at Dayton, Ohio, USA, on Nov. 21 confirmed Yugoslavia's principled, consistent and constructive policy, which is one of lasting and just peace and equality for all nations in the region, he added.

Serbia and Montenegro, which have through history fought only defensive and liberation wars, have always been against war,' especially against the tragic war that has happened in former Yugoslavia, and have done everything for them to end as soon aspossible,' he added.

[02] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN CURRENCY RESERVES INCREASE

The Vice-Governor stressed that since the beginning of program of economic recovery (end of January 1994), money was printed only on the basis of the growth of hard currency reserves.

'Financial discipline, observed since the introduction of the new dinar, is indispensable for carrying out the program, and maintaining the current rate of exchange of the national currency', Banovic said. He stressed that the National Bank of Yugoslavia is consistently pursuing measures for maintaining financial discipline, as stipulated under the 'Program Two' of Governor Avramovic.

[03] NO REFUGEE WILL BE EXPELLED FROM SERBIA, SAYS OFFICIAL

The initiative was launched in cooperation with the Yugoslav Office of the UNHCR.

There are 430,000 registered refugees in Serbia, including 212,000 refugees from the Republic of Serb Krajina, said Morina and added that the UNHCR figure of 330,000 refugees and displaced persons was incorrect.

Appealing to refugees and displaced persons to take part in the action, she vowed that none of them would be expelled from Serbia. 'Nobody will be treated as a second-rate citizen,' stressed Morina. She said that the return of refugees and displaced persons would be done in an organized way and that all decisions taken at the comming meeting in Geneva of the working group for humanitarian issues in the former Yugoslavia would be strictly respected.

'The meeting will decide about the funds earmarked for the returnof refugees and displaced persons and all the other relevant details,' Morina said. She said the return could not start until late April, when all preconditions would be met.

Morina said that the Yugoslav Government had set up a special commission to deal with reclaiming of lost property of refugees and displaced persons.

[B] BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

[04] SERBS IN SARAJEVO DEMAND LOCAL AUTONOMY

Only in this case Serbs can remain in Sarajevo, he said.

'It is rather hypocritical of the international community to call on Serbs to remain in Sarajevo while at the same time it is not making any political moves to this end,' he said.

A Committee for the Dayton accord implementation decided in a meeting in the Serb district of Vogosca on Saturday to demand local authority.

In a letter to the international community's High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Carl Bildt, Serbs requested that they be informed about the future organisation of the city by January 10.

[05] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA RESOLVED TO FULLY IMPLEMENT DAYTON PEACE ACCORD

Speaking for the local radio in Kragujevac, Kasagic said the Republika Srpska Government tried to show in its numerous contacts with international mediators that the foreign media's presentation of the Bosnian Serbs was false.

Kasagic expressed his satisfaction over the fact that the world's picture of the Bosnian Serbs gradually changed after every meeting with international mediators. He said the military segment of the Dayton peace accord had to be implemented by January 15, saying as far as the Bosnian Serb side was concerned, there would be no problems.

'This is in our interest, too, because on January 15 the (U.N.) sanctions against the Republika Srpska should be lifted,' he said. The lifting of sanctions is a condition for the implementation of the civilian aspects of the accord and for establishing economic ties with Bosnia's other entity, the Moslem-Croat Federation, he said.

Kasagic said once the sanctions were lifted it would be possible to establish cooperation with all states emerging from the former Yugoslavia.

[06] BILDT SAYS SARAJEVO ISSUE CRUCIAL TO SUCCESS OF BOSNIA PEACE MISSION

International news agencies quoted Bildt as saying at a news conference in Sarajevo that, 'it is very obvious that implementation here in Sarajevo is difficult, critical and crucial to the entire peace process.'

Bildt said he had held intensive talks with local Serb representatives in Sarajevo, and said the majority of the Serb population feared for the future. He criticised the Sarajevo Moslem Government for not making more of an effort to allay those worries. 'Some of the statements coming out of this side (Bosnian Moslem) have not been designed to alleviate those fears,' he said.

Bildt also said a joint civilian commission had been set up with representatives from both side (the Republika Srpska and the Moslem-Croat Federation), independent members and the IFOR to discuss all issues relating to the transfer of authority in the Serb districts.

He reiterated that he had so far received only a small amount of money he needed to finance his office, and said a U.N. police task force would not arrive in Bosnia-Herzegovina for several months. He said so far only 600 police had been pledged to the force from the U.N. member-countries, while a 1,700-strong U.N. police force was needed to train local police forces and monitor their behaviour.

[07] E.U. ADMINISTRATOR REJECTS CROAT DEMANDS FOR DIVISION OF MOSTAR

Koschnick said that unless Mostar was unified there would be no federation. If it turned out that there was no will to work together, he said, then the E.U. would pack up, take its money and leave.

Croat Mayor Mijo Brajkovic said a division of Mostar was the sole solution to the problem, and the E.U. had a mandate to unite the city and set up joint Muslim-Croat authorities and police force.

[08] CHIRAC: TRUE PEACE WILL BE REACHED IN BOSNIA

The reception was also attended by Charge d'affaires of the Yugoslav Embassy in Paris Zoran Popovic.

[09] KINKEL: BOSNIA'S FATE IS BEING DECIDED

According to him, a soon reconstruction of war-ravaged areas, creation of conditions for the return of a large number of refugees and parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for this summer are the most immediate priorities.

Bosnia's reconstruction will succeed only if all sides unquestioningly fulfil the obligations they undertook under the Dayton agreement and join efforts with the international community to help avoid all provocations and disturbances, Kinkel said. This will be both a basis and a condition for financial assistance and wide international support, Kinkel said.

[10] HOLBROOKE SEES CROATS AND MUSLIMS AS THREAT TO STABILITY IN BOSNIA

Agency AFP said Holbrooke recalled that the Dayton agreement provided for a single presidency, one national assembly and two entities within the Bosnian state - the Muslim-Croat federation and the Republika Srpska. Holbrooke stressed that these bodies must work together but must not necessarily be fond of each other. He added that entities in Canada and Belgium were not fond of one another.

[11] UNHCR ENDS SARAJEVO AIRLIFT

The Sarajevo airlift, established by the UNHCR on July 3, 1992, provided Sarajevo with a total of 160,677 metric tonnes of humanitarian aid and was the longest operation of its kind in history. Twenty countries and five international organizations participated in organizing the airlift that included 12,951 sorties.

The UNHCR also released precise data on overall humanitarian suuplies delivered to the former Yugoslavia since 1991. About three and a half million people received a total of 1.1 million metric tonnes of relief aid, 80 percent of which were delivered to Bosnia-Herzegovina for the estimated 2.7 million people.

[C] OSCE - BOSNIA

[12] TALKS ON CONFIDENCE BUILD-UP MEASURES FOR BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Also agreed was to exchange 7-member liaison missions in ten days between two entities in the BIH - the Bosnian Serb State of Republika Srpska (R.S.) and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The missions would at first be located at the Sarajevo Office of the OSCE and then each moved to the staff of the other side.

This accord had successfully ended the first meeting of the conference on establishing and building up confidence between the opponent parties in the BIH, held at the OSCE Vienna Headquarters.

Simultaneously with this meeting, talks were opened at the OSCE Vienna Office on arms control and disarmament in the broader region of the Balkans. Participating in these talks are delegations of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.) and the Republic of Croatia, in addition to representatives of the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Government in Sarajevo on the one hand and the Serbs from the BIH on the other.

By June 6, these talks should result in an accord on the lowest possible levels of military potentials, or else an annex to the Dayton agreement would become effective. This annex, 1-b to Chapter Four of the Dayton agreement, provides for specified proportions regarding arms between the armies of the F.R.Y., the Republic of Croatia, and the armies in the BIH.

It was agreed that the Conference on confidence build-up measures in the BIH should resume work on January 10 and, by January 26, reach accords which should on the military plane reassert the recently signed peace agreement for the BIH.

R.S. delegation head Aleksa Buha told newsmen after the Conference on confidence build-up measures ended, that he was content with the beginning of the talks and was looking forward to their positive outcome.

Chairman of the Balkans Disarmament Conference Norwegian diplomatist Wegleik Eide said that there was a lot more to be done by the negotiating teams but he believed that accords would be reached in May or June.

[D] RECONSTRUCTION OF BOSNIA

[13] VOLKER RUEHE SAYS DIPLOMATS PUT OFF RECONSTRUCTION OF BOSNIA

According to Ruehe the U.S. and the E.U. must step up efforts to observe the fixed time frames, above all January 19, by when the exchange of prisoners and the disarming of persons acting outside military units will have taken place. Ruehe said that the most important task at this point was the formation of a police force.

[14] ITALY'S AGNELLI SAYS RECONSTRUCTION OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA IS VITAL

Agnelli said the United States intented to help financially only NATO's military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

She listed as the two major tasks lying ahead of the E.U. reconstruction of the former Yugoslavia and organisation of an inter-government conference on modifying the Maastricht treaty in Torino in late March.

[E] UN MANDATE FOR SREM-BARANJA REGION

[15] MANDATE FOR SREM-BARANJA REGION TO BE DECIDED LATE NEXT WEEK

U.N. Administrator to be in this region Jacques Klein, as Fischer specified, left Brussels for the U.S. to report to the U.S. Government and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali about his talks with representatives of the Serb and Croat sides. The decision on the U.N. mandate will be taken on the basis of these reports, Fischer added.

Fischer said he had no knowledge of Croatia's re-arming itself which would suggest preparations for a military aggression on the Srem-Baranja region, adding that it would not be in the spirit of the agreement signed on Nov. 12.

Following talks with Fischer, President of the Council of the Srem-Baranja region Slavko Dokmanovic said the U.N. administration should comprise between 700 and 800 people, who would be based in Vukovar.

Dokmanovic added that he discussed with Fischer the possibilities of reopening the Belgrade-Zagreb highway and that a special meeting was scheduled for Friday to bring together representatives of the Srem-Baranja region, Yugoslavia and Croatia.

[F] AMNESTIED SERBS IN CROATIA

[16] SERBS GRANTED AMNESTY TO LEAVE CROATIA ON TUESDAY

The group has been kept in the refugee camp Gasnica near Osijek in eastern Croatia since Dec. 31. Of a total of 455 Serbs who were granted amnesty, 349 are currently in the camp.

Niksic said that the rest of the group from the camp would probably arrive in the Srem-Baranja region next Thursday or Friday.

According to Croatian sources, the 106 Serbs who are not in the camp at present have decided to stay in Croatia and they are already with their relatives.

Michael Fray, head of a delegation of the ICRC in the Srem-Baranja region, said after returning from Gasnica that this information still has to be checked to know for sure where those people are at present and whether their relatives have indeed picked them up. The amnestied Serbs are accomodated in camp bungalows together with between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslim refugees from Bosnia, Fray said. He said the two groups had no contact whatsoever and that the Serbs were in a special sector secured by Croatian police. The group has freedom of movement within the sector, Fray said, adding that no incidents have been reported so far.

About 90 percent of the Serbs in the camp have expressed a wish to go to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while the rest are still unsure because they don't know the where abouts of their families, he said. That is the main reason for the delay in their release, said Fray, adding that the main objective is to reunite those people with their families and not merely to let them walk out with nothing and nobody to go to.

The Serb side, however, believes that the delay is a form of manipulation. All Serbs who have been granted amnesty should be brought to the border so that they may freely decide whether they want to cross into the Srem-Baranja region or to return to Croatia, Niksic said.

[G] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[17] MUSLIM SARAJEVO GOVERNMENT TRIES TO DISCREDIT IFOR - BRITISH PAPER

Observers' reports indicate that some of the arrested had been provocatively driving around in expensive cars equipped with radio transceivers, according to the Daily Telegraph. The paper quoted a NATO officer as saying that such people could not be regarded as traders, businessmen or citizens to whom the peace accords guarantees freedom of movement.

The Muslim Government in Sarajevo has again said that three more people have been detained, but French officers controlling Ilidza have no such information, the paper said.