Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-04-01

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

1 April 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAIA

[01] KONTIC EXPECTS YUGOSLAVIA'S REINTEGRATION INTO INTERNATIONAL FINANCES

[02] YUGOSLAVIA, IMF ANNOUNCE CONCRETE FORMS OF COOPERATION

[03] YUGOSLAV CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR PLEASED WITH TALKS WITH IMF TO DATE

[04] YUGOSLAV COURT LOANS TWO WITNESSES TO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

[B] BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

[05] BOSNIAN SERBS SEEK PASSAGE THROUGH GORAZDE

[06] U.N. POLICE THREATEN TO IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ON MUSLIM-CROAT FEDERATION

[C] THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[07] BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER SAYS ALL PRISONERS TO BE RELEASED ON MONDAY

[08] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL EXPECTS ELECTIONS TO BE HELD AS PLANNED

[09] ANOTHER 18 MUTILATED BODIES EXHUMED AT MRKONJIC GRAD

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[10] RIJEKA DAILY: FASCISM RETURNS TO CROATIA

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAIA

[01] KONTIC EXPECTS YUGOSLAVIA'S REINTEGRATION INTO INTERNATIONAL FINANCES

Kontic said that Yugoslavia also sought new funds from the World Bank for its social programme in an effort to releave the pressure on the industrial sector. The situation is similar concerning the rehabilitation of the banking system, which is also an issue discussed with the World Bank, Kontic said.

He said that export was one of Yugoslavia's strategic commitments and that operating capital for production and exports had to be provided realistically and that the use of primary issue was out of the question.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia must create economic conditions that would attract foreign capital, said Kontic and added that the priority at the moment was to open the Yugoslav economy to the world market and to gradually liberalize foreign trade.

This objective cannot be given up, primarily because of the internal need to build an efficient and competitive economy and because of the general drift in international trade toward liberalization and a suppression of preferential treatment.

Kontic said that Yugoslavia attached strategic importance to a normalisation with the former Yugoslav republics. Kontic said that Yugoslavia was poised to recognise the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia soon, and that talks were under way, too, about the recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Slovenia has already shown a wish to establish diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia, he said and added that, in the case of Croatia, Yugoslavia insisted on the regulation of the status of the strategic Adriatic Prevlaka peninsula before recognising Croatia.

He said that Yugoslavia was prepared to discharge all its statutory and other obligations to the IMF, but was not prepared to be treated as a successor to the fund's membership. 'This all the more because, meanwhile, many countries have recognised the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's continuity with the former federation and are treating it as the predecessor state,' he explained.

The UN Legal Committee has recently ruled that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remains the predecessor state after the secession of parts of the territory of former Yugoslavia, Kontic added.

He said that there were increasingly vociferous calls for Yugoslavia to be given back the right to membership of the United Nations on the basis of its continuity with former Yugoslavia or to find a pragmatic solution that would make no mention of succession. 'Bearing all this in mind, Yugoslavia is not prepared to renounce its political continuity which cannot be in the jurisdiction of the IMF but of political institutions and forums,' Kontic stressed.

[02] YUGOSLAVIA, IMF ANNOUNCE CONCRETE FORMS OF COOPERATION

Avramovic, chief Yugoslav delegate at the talks, presented a detailed analysis of economic situation and specified the major issues in the Yugoslav economy, like reinvigorating production, stabilizing the dinar, further curbing inflation, increasing export trade, and securing working capital.

Avramovic said that favourable foreign credits and other international support was indispensable for the Yugoslav economy to do away with its present difficulties.

The IMF and the World Bank delivered to the Yugoslav delegation their document on the renewal of membership and mutual relations.

Avramovic said the Federal Republic of Yugoslaia was ready to negotiate towards a quick settlement of the questions related to the inheritance of the ex-Yugoslav federation, notably the debt, the foreign exchange reserves and the like, because that would improve the chances of attaining the economic goals of the Federal Republic of Yugoslaia.

[03] YUGOSLAV CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR PLEASED WITH TALKS WITH IMF TO DATE

Avramovic told reporters he expected an encouraging outcome of the talks, as being of great importance to the future efforts for reviving the economy of Yugoslavia. He said the activation of Yugoslavia's membership in the IMF and the World Bank, debts, international support for Yugoslavia's reform programme and economic stabilisation had been discussed in detail.

'We are satisfied with the answers we got from the representatives of the IMF and the World Bank,' he stressed.

Avramovic said that results achieved to date in healing the national economy, curbing inflation, solving monetary problems and boosting production had all been received favourably.

[04] YUGOSLAV COURT LOANS TWO WITNESSES TO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

Erdemovic, 25, and Kremenovic, 29, had been loaned at the Tribunal's substantiated request. Both of them voluntarily accepted to be temporarily transferred to the Hague in order to testify.

Serbian police on March 2, 1996, arrested Erdemovic, a Croat born in the northern Bosnian village of Donja Draguna in the Tuzla municipality, on suspicion that he had committed war crimes against civilians. In the same operation, police arrested Kremenovic, a Serb born in the western Bosnian village of Bistrica in the Banja Luka municipality, for aiding and abetting Erdemovic. After the hearing before the Tribunal, Erdemovic and Kremenovic will be returned to the Novi Sad district court.

[B] BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

[05] BOSNIAN SERBS SEEK PASSAGE THROUGH GORAZDE

After the talk, Bildt told reporters that reviewed at the talk were the political, social and economic problems in that part of the Republika Srpska, including the joint uses of water and power resources with neighbouring Croatia.

Asked how it happened that, after the Dayton peace agreement, the borders were retailored to the detriment of the Serbs, Bildt said that now underway were the talks between representatives of the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation about the possible redrawing of borders, and added that at the beginning of these talks there were as many as 436 outstanding points.

[06] U.N. POLICE THREATEN TO IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ON MUSLIM-CROAT FEDERATION

UN police complained the third straight day that the Federation police were not fulfilling provisions in the Dayton agreement. Cooperation with Serb police forces, however, was very good, Ivanko stressed.

Ivanko said that the latest incident took place on Thursday when Federal police arrested a Serb, official translator of the UN police, and allowed international observers to see him under very restricted conditions. The observers were not permitted to meet the translator without witnesses, nor to talk with him about the reasons why he was arrested.

The Muslim-Croat federal police jailed the translator on March 12 and kept silent about the arrest for 11 days. The arrest became publicized only after his wife notified the UN.

Ivanko said that whenever the UN wanted to see the arrested, they were directed to the judge who would then say you would be able to see him only after the investigation was over. Ivanko announced that UN police official Peter Fitzgerald advised Friday the Justice Minister of the Muslim-Croat Federation, Mate Tadic, that the UN police, according to the Dayton agreement, was entitled to tour any facility in which arrested persons were kept and see any of the arrested without seeking any permission beforehand.

[C] THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[07] BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER SAYS ALL PRISONERS TO BE RELEASED ON MONDAY

Kasagic said that the release was postponed because the Croat side had pleaded technical problems as the reason for its inability to fulfil its obligations.

[08] BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIAL EXPECTS ELECTIONS TO BE HELD AS PLANNED

[09] ANOTHER 18 MUTILATED BODIES EXHUMED AT MRKONJIC GRAD

On the first day, ten bodies were recovered, all showing signs of blows having been administered to the head, according to forensic pathologists.

The forensic team from the Belgrade military hospital, headed by dr Zoran Stankovic, determined on Sunday that the bodies all had crushed skulls, but the cause of death will be determined after a detailed ausy.The opening of the grave was attended by John Garns of the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, representatives of other international organisations, domestic and foreign reporters. The exhumation is expected to be completed by the end of next week.

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[10] RIJEKA DAILY: FASCISM RETURNS TO CROATIA

US Secretary of State Warren Chrisher called Tudjman's plan an attempt to rewrite history and said he would send a protest letter to the Croatian President, the Croatian daily said.

While US Congressmen are shocked by Tudjman's plan for Jasenovac interpreting it is an attempt to absolve everything that happened there, the Croatian Parliament claims that 'in Croatia there had never been a fascist movement or fighters for fascism, but only fighters for the Croatian state.'

The daily points out that Pavelic's books, increasingly popular in Croatia, are hailed as indispensable literary works which should be used in the eduaction of young people'. .