Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-04-29

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

29 April 1996

CONTENTS

[A] YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

[01] PRESIDENT LILIC GIVES RECEPTION ON YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT GETS FELICITATIONS ON YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

[B] CRAN MONTANA FORUM CONFERENCE

[03] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER SAYS COOPERATION WITH ROMANIA DEVELOPS WELL

[04] YUGOSLAVIA FIRMLY ORIENTED TOWARDS EUROPEAN OPTION

[05] ILIESCU-KONTIC: ECONOMIC COOPERATION STRENGTHENS BALKAN PEACE

[06] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT YUGOSLAVIA ON MAY 16-18

[07] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER SATISFIED WITH VISIT TO ROMANIA

[08] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER CONFERS WITH MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT

[C] THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[09] PREMIER KONTIC: F.R.Y. CONSTITUTION IS EXPRESSION OF WILL OF CITIZENS OF

[10] YUGOSLAV RESERVES RISE TO 312.6 MILLION DOLLARS, SAYS GOVERNOR

[11] YUGOSLAV-AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMATIC CONSULTATIONS

[12] YUGOSLAVIA-SOUTH AFRICA FULL DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

[13] YUGOSLAVIA FOR PEACE AND NORMALIZATION OF SERB-CROAT RELATIONS

[14] TERRORISM IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA EXPRESSION OF INABILITY

[15] BELGRADE BECOMES REGULAR MEMBER OF METROPOLIS 96

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[16] HOLBROOK INVOLVED IN SECRET ARMS DELIVERIES TO BOSNIAN MUSLIMS

[A] YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

[01] PRESIDENT LILIC GIVES RECEPTION ON YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

The reception was attended by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic and Speaker of the Yugoslav Parliament Chamber of Republics (upper house) Milos Radulovic.

Also present were Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic and his Cabinet Ministers, Montenegrin Ministers and Yugoslav Federal Government members, as well as Belgrade Council President Zoran Milosevic.

Yugoslav Chief of Staff Gen. Momcilo Perisic and army officers, as well as officials of other Federal and Republican bodies, organisations and institutions also attended.

Among those present were President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Aleksandar Despic, university chancellors, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church and dignitaries of the religious communities in Yugoslavia.

The reception was attended also by the chiefs of diplomatic missions accredited to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and foreign military attaches at Belgrade.

[02] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT GETS FELICITATIONS ON YUGOSLAV CONSTITUTION DAY

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic sent a message wishing the Yugoslav President and people success in future economic and cultural development. Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic said that 'Yugoslavia's consistent policy of peace, democratic development and opening of real economic and other development prospects has resulted in recognition by a growing number of countries. This has enabled the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to resume full political and economic communication with the world.'

[B] CRAN MONTANA FORUM CONFERENCE

[03] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER SAYS COOPERATION WITH ROMANIA DEVELOPS WELL

Kontic is to attend the Crans Montana Forum of Black Sea Region businessmen that opened late Thursday and will end on Sunday, April 28.

Kontic said Yugoslavia's presence at the Forum was a big step towards its return to the international community. He said, judging by information he had received, the majority of the Black Sea grouping member-states were willing to back Romania's proposal for Yugoslavia's full membership in the organisation.

In a plenary session on Friday, Yugoslav Trade Minister Djordje Siradovic spoke of the economic recovery of the former Yugoslavia. Siradovic said Yugoslavia was prepared to normalise relations with all former Yugoslav republics and that the country wanted to normalise relations and promote cooperation with other states as well, in particular with neighbouring states.

[04] YUGOSLAVIA FIRMLY ORIENTED TOWARDS EUROPEAN OPTION

Speaking at the plenary session, Kontic underscored that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is firmly oriented towards an European option.

Only the consistent realization of the Dayton Peace Agreement can secure the final success of the peace process, Kontic said and added that Yugoslavia is making maximum efforts for its realization.

The reconstruction of the Yugoslav economy and its linking up with the Black Sea Region is of special poltical and security importance both for the Region and the entire Europe.

Kontic said that Yugoslavia attaches special importance to the institutionalization of relations with the E.U. and that it wants to renew the agreement with this institution, just like the former Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia's return to integration processes in the region and the continent contribute to the turning of the Balkans and southeastern Europe into a zone of peace and stbility, Kontic said.

Yugoslavia's active participation in and full contribution to the reintegration and reconstruction processes is not, however, possible without the final lifting of all international sanctions and without the reintegration of Yugoslavia into the work of the U.N. General Assembly and other international political and financial institutions, Kontic said.

[05] ILIESCU-KONTIC: ECONOMIC COOPERATION STRENGTHENS BALKAN PEACE

Kontic is heading the Yugoslav delegation to the Bucharest Conference of the Crans Montana international forum and the Black Sea Region states on stimulating regional economic copperation.

Iliescu and Kontic gave positive marks to the friendship, good neighbourliness and cooperation treaty initialled recently between Romania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The treaty is to be signed at the time of Iliescu's upcoming visit to Belgrade.

Iliescu said that the presence at the Crans Montana Forum of the Yugoslav delegation, as well as those of newly created states in the territory of former Yugoslavia, was contributing to the conslidation of stability and security in the region.

[06] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT YUGOSLAVIA ON MAY 16-18

Iliescu, who was speaking after a meeting late Friday with Yugoslav Premier Radoje Kontic, said that during his visit to Belgrade he would sign the recently initialled inter-state agreement on friendship, good neighbourliness and cooperation.

Kontic is heading a Yugoslav business delegation at an international Crans Montana Forum and Black Sea countries meeting, devoted to economic reconstruction of the former Yugoslavia.

Iliescu said that his meeting with Kontic focused on the development of bilateral relations after the suspension of the international sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the end of war in the former Yugoslavia, and underscored that the two governments had been active even in that period and thus paved the way for the work of mixed commissions.

We have never had outstanding issues with Yugoslavia and therefore there were no difficulties during negotiations on the text of the agreement, the Romanian President said.

Iliescu said that the participation of Yugoslavia and other newly-emerged states from the former Yugoslavia in the Bucharest meeting was highly important and stressed that peace was not possible without economic links and cooperation.

Iliescu recalled that the former Socialist Federal rRpublic of Yugoslavia was among the initiators of Black Sea economic cooperation. However, the conflict which erupted in the former yugoslavia in 1991 prevented F.R. Yugoslavia and other newly-emerged states from taking part in the founding meeting in Istanbul and the later meeting in Bucharest. Therefore, this year's participation of these states in the Crans Montana Forum and the Conference on Black Sea economic integration is an important step in the peace process, Iliescu said.

Kontic said that his talks with the Romanian head of State had been frank, open, friendly and constructive. An important step has been made in the field of regulating Yugoslav-Romanian relations and good results have already been obtained in concrete projects, Kontic added.

Kontic said that a goal set during a visit by Romanian Premier Nikolae Vacaroiu to Belgrade in late 1995, that the volume of exchange between the two countries should reach 500 million U.S. dollars, was becoming quite tangible.

Kontic said that he had agreed with the Romanian President that F.R. Yugoslavia should be fully and speedily reintegrated into the international community as a condition for Yugoslavia to remain a factor of peace and stability in the region.

Kontic also said that he had agreed with Iliescu that Yugoslavia's place was in the Balkan and Black Sea integration and that it was the path for Yugoslavia and other Balkan states towards Europe.

Kontic said that their meeting also dealt with the reconstruction of the former Yugoslavia and that he believed that Romania should play two roles. Firstly, Romania's economic capacities and experience can help revitalize the economy and secondly Romania can actively work in international forums on the elimination of a discriminatory stand against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republika Srpska in economic rebuilding, Kontic said.

[07] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER SATISFIED WITH VISIT TO ROMANIA

Kontic, who met with Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroyu and Foreign Minister Teodor Malescanu, said that traditional good relations between the two neighbours had been stressed on all occasions.

Kontic said that they had agreed that the suspension of the sanctions against Yugoslavia was followed by a very intensive promotion of bilateral cooperation, securing of the continuity of political dialogue, restoration of many economic relations from the earlier period and spreading of economic cooperation to new projects and fields.

He specially stressed Romania's readiness and wish to be an initiator of Yugoslavia's speedy and efficient return into the international community.

The Prime Minister was especially satisfied with the Yugoslav delegation's participation in the international conference on economic cooperation between the Black Sea countries and said that the reconstruction of the economy in the territory of the former federation and economic cooperation with the Black Sea countries were especially interesting for Yugoslavia.

Speaking about numerous meetings between the Yugoslav delegation and representatives of other countries, Kontic singled out the meetings with Moldova's President Mirca Snegur and Crans Montana Forum President Jean Paul Carteron.

Kontic stressed that the Yugoslav delegation had been received with great appreciation in all talks, that it had equal treatment and that 'Yugoslavia is quite certainly being treated as a factor of peace and stability in the Balkans and an extremely important factor in the international relations at this moment.'

[08] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER CONFERS WITH MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT

Speaking on his return from Bucharest on Sunday, where he headed a Yugoslav delegation to the Crans Montana Forum, Kontic said that in the talks with Gligorov in Romania, Yugoslavia had proposed a speedy making of an agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Kontic said that both sides had agreed that the Yugoslav-Macedonian agreement on regulating relations and promoting cooperation was very important, not only to the promotion of bilateral relations, but also to peace and stability in the entire region.

Kontic said that in the talks with Gligorov, both sides proposed a mutual declaration of the most-favoured-nation status in trade between Yugoslavia and Macedonia and agreements on investment protection, investment stimulation and avoiding double taxation. Kontic said that the abolishing of visas between Yugoslavia and Macedonia had been proposed and need stressed for appointing a Yugoslav ambassador in Skopje and a Macedonian ambassador in Belgrade.

[C] THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[09] PREMIER KONTIC: F.R.Y. CONSTITUTION IS EXPRESSION OF WILL OF CITIZENS OF

Belgrade, April 26 (Tanjug) - Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.) Radoje Kontic stated Friday that the Constitution of the F.R.Y. was enacted by Federal Parliament four years ago as an expression of the will of the citizens of Serbia and Montenegro.

Serbia and Montenegro - following the secessions of the four other republics of the former federation (the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFRY): Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (bih) and Macedonia, in 1991 - decided to continue being in the joint state, the F.R.Y.

The Constitution of the F.R.Y. was promulgated on the 27th of April, 1992.

In addressing reporters at Surcin airport before leaving for Bucharest to attend the international conference on the Black Sea regional economic cooperation, Prime Minister Kontic evaluated that 'in the past period, the F.R.Y. has reasserted itself as concerns both its statehood and its political orientation. 'This means we may be content with what we have achieved on the internal and the external plane,' Kontic concluded, adding that the F.R.Y. was 'in a dynamic way returning to the international forums, institutions and organizations.'

[10] YUGOSLAV RESERVES RISE TO 312.6 MILLION DOLLARS, SAYS GOVERNOR

Monetary stability and the drop in prices recorded in April may give reason for satisfaction, but interest rates are still high, he warned. Although the interest rates are down to 16 or 17 percent a month, they still double the debt every three or four months, which no rate of profit can be sufficiently high to compensate for, he added.

Avramovic urged further talks with world financial bodies and launched an initiative for setting up an investment fund from foreign sources. The fund should provide working capital for purchasing commodities and semi-manufactures at the interest rates prevalent in the world which, with the dinar's stability, should bring the pricesand interest rates down, he explained.

Avramovic said that the working group for privatisation would propose in early May a privatisation model for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and submit it to the Yugoslav governments for approval.

[11] YUGOSLAV-AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMATIC CONSULTATIONS

They discussed all major issues regarding the renewal and promotion of different kinds of bilateral relations and cooperation. The two sides expressed readiness to renew and further develop trade exchange, air and maritime transport, cooperation in culture, science and to advance training of personnel. The two sides will continue political dialogues, raise the existing diplomatic relations to a higher level, and improve the contractual regulation of some areas of cooperation.

[12] YUGOSLAVIA-SOUTH AFRICA FULL DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

The former office for the protection of Yugoslavia's interests in Pretoria, opened in mid-1992, was raised to the level of the Yugoslav Embassy to South Africa. The establishing of full diplomatic relations between Yugoslavia and South Africa will help promote cooperation and friendship between their peoples and achieve the goals of peace, stability and progress.

[13] YUGOSLAVIA FOR PEACE AND NORMALIZATION OF SERB-CROAT RELATIONS

Only the step-by-step method is appropriate for the establishment of lasting peace, Knezevic said in this connection.

Some results have been ahieved in this process, Knezevic said, adding he had the impression that Croatia wished to achieve a speedier progress regarding some issues than is objectively possible.

He cited the opening of communications, the highway, the Belgrade-Zagreb railroad, air traffic and the pipeline. This opening has been hindered by some technical problems which are being resolved, he said.

Knezevic singled out the repatriation of Serb refugees to their homes in Croatia as an especially important issue regarding normalization, and underlined that Yugoslavia had always opposed ethnic cleansing and condemned all crimes.

Knezevic said that the delicate issue of the Serb region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem should be resolved in line with the Serb-Croatian agreement of November 1995. Yugoslavia only wants this agreement to be interpreted and implemented as it is written, Knezevic said.

Knezevic cited the problem of Prevlaka, strategic cape on the Adriatic coast on the border between Yugoslavia and Croatia as another reason for the slow normalization of bilateral relations. Settling of this problem was agreed in principle at the talks held in Dayton last November. Croatia has in the meantime reneged, and now claims that nothing except demilitarization can be discussed regarding Prevlaka.

[14] TERRORISM IN KOSOVO-METOHIJA EXPRESSION OF INABILITY

Latest attacks were launched within internal and partly external pressures aimed at resolving the status of the Province in a different manner than under the Serbian Constitution, Markovic said.

Six Serbs were killed and a number of others injured late on Monday, when terrorist groups launched five attacks in different parts of Kosovo and Metohija in a 70-minute interval.

Markovic said that the status of Kosovo and Metohija and the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina had been resolved under the Republican Constitution and that autonomous units should not be given state functions or constitutional authority, which create favourable conditions for secession, like experience with Kosovo showed. Autonomy should refer to historical, economic and geographical special qualities and not just the national ones, Markovic said. The international community can insist only on the honouring of ethnic Albanian rights in Kosovo and Metohija and not on the changing of remodelling of Serbia's social system, he added.

[15] BELGRADE BECOMES REGULAR MEMBER OF METROPOLIS 96

Belgrade's delegation, headed by Covic, visited Tokyo on April 23-26. at the conference, the delegation submitted plans on Belgrade's future development and a mega-project dubbed 'Belgrade on rivers - Evropolis'.

On his return from Tokyo, Covic said that officials from other cities had particularly shown interest for the functioning of Belgrade after the international community's strict and mandatory sanctions against F.R. of Yugoslavia. they wanted to be informed about the effects of the 3-1/2-year isolation on the city's economic capacities and utilities, he added.

Covic said that his delegation had held talks with officials from Tokyo, New York, Cairo, Lisbon and Paris. The delegation held several meetings at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the Ministries of Trade and Industry. The delegation also visited Japan's Parliament and conferred with officials of various humanitarian organizations.

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[16] HOLBROOK INVOLVED IN SECRET ARMS DELIVERIES TO BOSNIAN MUSLIMS

The daily said that in the summer of 1994, Holbrooke joined indodging the embargo on arms deliveries to all factions in the former Yugoslavia and in helping Alija Izetbegovic, the Muslim leader in the BIH with more armament.

Holbrooke had been doing this at a request of the then Muslim Prime Minister in Sarajevo Haris Silajdzic who demanded that Washington should urge certain 'friendly countries', notably Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, to build up arms shipments to the Muslims in the BIH.

Holbrooke accepted the request having been guided also by the fact that secret deliveries of Iranian-made arms via Croatia had already been underway at that time and that a fresh 'initiative' would have made no turn about in the U.S. policy towards the war in the Balkans.

Already at that time it had been more than evident that the U.S. Administration had sided with the Muslim party and wanted at all events to oprevent its defeat.

The New York times asserted, however, that the Holbrooke plan for still larger munitions supplies to the Muslims in the BIH had never been realized.

According to this paper, the plan had allegedly been discarded in the last minute by State Secretary Warren Chrisher and President Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, who feared that in this way they would anger the European allies who were backing up the stand that the war in the bih could not be halted by fresh deliveries of arms.

Holbrooke, who left the State Department last February now to work as the Vice-President of the First Boston Bank in New York, refused to say anything about his role in the clandestine deliveries of arms to the Muslims in the BIH. .