Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-01-23

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

23 January 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES SHATTUCK

[02] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES ASPEN INSTITUTE DELEGATION

[03] YUGOSLAVIA DESIGNATES SEA, RIVER PORTS FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC

[04] JANUARY INFLATION IN YUGOSLAVIA AROUND EIGHT PERCENT

[B] INTERVIEWS

[05] CHRISTOPHER WARNS SARAJEVO MUSLIM GOVERNMENT ON PRISONERS ISSUE

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[06] KRAJISNIK APPEALS TO SERBS NOT TO LEAVE SARAJEVO

[07] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA URGES RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE IN BOSNIA

[08] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL ON BORDER CORRECTIONS OF MUTUAL INTEREST

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[09] CROATIAN PRESIDENT DISREGARDS JEWISH PROTESTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES SHATTUCK

Milosevic's Office said in an announcement that during the talks it was pointed out that the successful implementation of the peace agreement on Bosnia would enable all citizens in that former Yugoslav republic to protect their inalienable rights.

It was also noted that the establishment of peace would secure the indispensable conditions for the materialization of their tranquil future and universal progress.

Also dealt with at the talks were the obligations of all the three, until recently warring parties to set free all prisoners of war.

In this context, President Milosevic said that all the three sides were obliged, in keeping with the Dayton agreement, immediately to release all the prisoners, and pointed out that it was completely wrong that the sides were referring to exchanges of prisoners, because the war was over.

Their obligation is to release all of them, and for this reason it is better that they shall do that at once and unconditionally and in that way contribute to the speeding up of the process of confidence building, said Milosevic.

Also participating in the talks was Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic.

[02] MILOSEVIC RECEIVES ASPEN INSTITUTE DELEGATION

Milosevic's Cabinet said in a communique that the meeting stressed the principled stance of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that the Balkan peoples should assume responsibility for their future and the settlement of open questions in their relations. The participants in the meeting noted that all previous attempts to regulate relations by imposing unilateral solutions had always caused instability and conflicts in the region.

Peace, the development of cooperation on equal footing and interconnection between Balkan peoples and states are the best foundations for strenghtening regional stability and eliminating the causes of conflicts, it was said during the meeting between Milosevic and the Aspen Institute delegation.

[03] YUGOSLAVIA DESIGNATES SEA, RIVER PORTS FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC

In the international river transport, under the same decision, the docks on the Danube - Apatin, Belgrade, Backa Palanka, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Prahovo and Smederevo and Senta on the Tisa were designated.

The decision took effect on Jan. 20, thus invalidating the regulations on designating ports and docks for the international transport adopted in the former Yugoslavia in 1984 and 1989.

[04] JANUARY INFLATION IN YUGOSLAVIA AROUND EIGHT PERCENT

January is a month when prices are usually evened up, and the January hike was largely due to the new price of bread and increased excises for spirits, tobacco and coffee.

Industrial production in Yugoslavia in December last year went up 6.5%, as compared to November.

The official statistics assessment was thus confirmed that Yugoslavia will end the year with an industrial production growth of 3.8% as compared to 1994, or 4%, when winter season effects on production are abstacted.

Average pay in Yugoslavia in December was 484 dinars, which is 14.8% more than in November.

[B] INTERVIEWS

[05] CHRISTOPHER WARNS SARAJEVO MUSLIM GOVERNMENT ON PRISONERS ISSUE

In a TV interview, Christopher dismissed the Sarajevo Muslim Government's argument that it needed information from the Serbs on the fate of thousands of missing Muslims before it would hand over more prisoners, Reuters reported.

'It was an unconditional obligation of both sides to give up their prisoners,' he said and added that the United States had a number of levers to oblige the Sarajevo Government to comply with the agreement.

'We will not go forward with the equip-and-train unless they are in compliance with the agreement,' Christopher said.

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[06] KRAJISNIK APPEALS TO SERBS NOT TO LEAVE SARAJEVO

'Many things have already been realized as we had planned and have had a calming effect on Sarajevo Serbs,' Krajisnik said in the Sarajevo district of Vogosca at a session of the headquarters for the implementation of the Dayton accords in Serb Sarajevo.

The Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA quoted Krajisnik as saying he hoped the latest talks with representatives of the international community would soon give tangible results.

Krajisnik said he believed Sarajevo Serbs 'have a future and no reason to move out or be afraid.'

[07] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA URGES RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE IN BOSNIA

In a talk with Michael Steiner, High Representative for Bosnia Carl Bildt's Assistant, on Sunday, Krajisnik also said the sanctions against the Republika Srpska and the blockade against it on the border with Yugoslavia should be lifted.

Krajisnik had asked Steiner that certain action be taken in order to solve the current problems in a better way.

Krajisnik said the Republika Srpska had met all obligations assumed under the December 14 peace accord for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

'I have asked that something be done as regards the Moslem side's obstruction of prisoner-of-war exchange. We are ready to release all POW any time now, but Moslems are delaying with it,' he said.

Steiner said he had received firm guarantees by Krajisnik that all aspects of the Bosnia peace accord would be implemented.

[08] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL ON BORDER CORRECTIONS OF MUTUAL INTEREST

'We pointed out certain parts of the border which we are ready to correct,' Ostojic said after the meeting in a statement to the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA.

U.S. General Willie Cox attended a part of the meeting in Sarajevo's suburb of Ilidza. He was very interested in the talks on correcting borders and in collecting as much information as possible to present at the upcoming meeting in Washington organized by General Weslie Clark, in charge of separating the two entities in Bosnia.

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[09] CROATIAN PRESIDENT DISREGARDS JEWISH PROTESTS

During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were put to death in Jasenovac, located some 100 km southeast from Zagreb and set up by the then nazi puppet 'Independent State of Croatia'.

In letters to Tudjman, who has proposed for the third time to transform Jasenovac, the Association of Jewish Communities in Croatia said that most of the Croatian Jews, Serbs and Gypsies murdered by the ustashi (Croatian fascists) during World War II were executed in Jasenovac, where genocide had been committed primarily against non-Croatians, the paper said.

Tudjman said that Jasenovac should be transformed not only for historical but for actual political reasons as well.

The proposed transformation would give a new meaning to the monument and mitigate and conceal the historical truths on the ustashi genocide and neutralize the symbolic importance of Jasenovac, the paper said.

Our Jewish commitment to remember the victims of the Holocaust does not allow us to forgive on behalf of the victims. We cannot even imagine the possibility that the remains of Jewish victims rest beside the remains of those responsible for their suffering and plight, the Association of Jewish Communities in Croatia said in their letters.

The letters also stressed that the European Parliament had adopted a resolution on the protection of concentration camps as historical monuments.