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Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-08-21Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>CONTENTS
[01] YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT COMMISSION ADOPTS PLATFORM FOR SUCCESSION TALKSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Government Commission for relations with the Peace Implementation Council and international financial and trade institutions has adopted a platform for further talks within the PIC Group for Succession. At a meeting held Tuesday in Belgrade, the Commission said that the succession issue must be resolved with full respect for justice in order to normalize relations with former Yugoslav republics and international financial and trade institutions as quickly as possible.The Commission, chaired by Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic, has examined all relevant documents and the results of talks held so far with the International Mediator for succession issues Arthur Watts. Reaching an agreement on the division of assets and unfreezing of all Yugoslav assets abroad leading to a full lifting of anti-Yugoslav sanctions is in the interest of all parties, the Commission noted. [02] GOOD PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN YUGOSLAVIA, CYPRUSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Konticand the Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Cyprus in Belgrade Pavlos Hadjitofis said Tuesday that the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries provided good opportunities for the development of bilateral cooperation in all fields. During the farewell metting prior to Hadjitofis' departure for another posting, they pointed to exceptionally good prospects for cooperation in trade. Kontic thanked Cyprus for its principled support and understanding for Yugoslavia's peaceful policy aimed at resolving the crisis in the former Yugoslavia.[03] YUGOSLAV, CROATIAN WORKING GROUPS DISCUSS MISSING PERSONS ISSUEZ a g r e b, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Working groups of the Yugoslav Government Comission for Humanitarian Issues and Missing Persons and Croatian Commission for Prisoners and Missing Persons continued Tuesday in Zagreb their talks on resolving the problem of missing persons. The meeting is held behind closed doors. Yugoslav Commission President Pavle Todorovic said on the eve of the meeting that his Commission had prepared complete information on the issue in line with the Cooperation Protocol signed last April in Zagreb. The Protocol binds both parties to provide all available information on prisoners and missing persons. Croatian Comission President Ivan Grujic said that the issues of prisoners and missing persons should be resolved as a single issue.[04] PLAVSIC: ELECTIONS ARE A STEP TOWARDS PEACEB a n j a l u k a, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The acting President of Republika Srpska (R.S.) Biljana Plavsic said Tuesday that R.S. would not hinder the creation of Bosnia-Herzegovina union institutions after the elections as economic coopperation and better living conditions should get priority. Plavsic made this statement in Banjaluka meeting the Chief of the E.U. Observer Mission Irish Ambassador Antoine Mac Anfraid. They noted that next September's elections in Bosnia would represent a necessary step towards stability and lasting peace in R.S. and Muslim-Croat Federation.Plavsic said she expected observers not to discriminate against serb voters and to adopt an unbiased attitude to elections. Anfraid expressed conviction that R.S. officials were in favor of elections as a necessary step towards R.S. prosperity. [05] PLAVSIC: OPERATION VULCAN IS BAD FOR ELECTIONSB a n j a l u k a, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Acting President of Republika Srpska Biljana Plavsic said on Tuesday that Operation Vulcan of destroying Bosnian Serb weaponry was aving a nerative impact on preparaions for the comming elections.There is an impression that those who should create the right climate for the elections and prevent incidents are doing everything for incidents to happen, Plavsic told reporters in Banjaluka. She said it was absurd to be destroying weapons in Republika Srpska, while supplying the other side (Muslim-Croat Federation) with new armament and training them how to use it. [06] OSCE OBSERVERS SATISFIED WITH YUGOSLAVIA'S PREPARATIONS FOR BOSNIA ELECTIONSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The Chief of the group of international observers to oversee the vote of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Yugoslavia said here on Tuesday he was satisfied with preparations made so far. Preparations for the vote to be held in Yugoslavia from August 28 to September 3 have been made in a satisfactory way, Jerome Leyraud told Tanjug. He announced that the 30 observers would set off to the polling stations to meet the people who had worked on the registration of voters and the teams with which they would cooperate during the vote.The 30-strong OSCE observers' team which has arrived in Belgrade is made up of nine observers from Poland, eight from Bulgaria, six from Italy, four from France and three from Sweden. [07] YUGOSLAVIA WILL DO EVERYTHING FOR SUCCESS OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 16 (Tanjug) - Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina said Tuesday in Belgrade that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia would do everything to ensure the success of Bosnian elections which should contribute to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement and help resolve the problem of refugees. Meeting 30 international observers who arrived in Yugoslavia to monitor the voting of refugees who are unable to travel to Bosnia and will consequently vote in Yugoslavia, Morina promised full cooperation of Yugoslav authorities. Morina also said that out of the 220,000 refugees registered as eligible to vote, about 98,000 would vote in Yugoslavia.[08] FROWICK SAYS PROCESS OF DEMOCRATIZATION HAS BEGUN IN BOSNIAZ a g r e b, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Chief of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina Robert Frowick has assessed that the process of democratization has begun in Bosnia because freedoms of expression, movement and association gain ground. In an interview to Slobodna Dalmacija daily of Croatian coastal town of Split, Frowick recalled that all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were entitled to vote in the municipality in which they had lived in 1991, but could also submit a request to vote in the municipality in which they intend to live in the future. This is a democratic approach, that everyone be allowed to decide by himself where he wants to live, he said.Referring to the election of members of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be made up of one representative each of the three peoples - Muslims, Serbs and Croats - Frowick set out that the first chairman of this body would be the one who won most votes at the elections. Parliament is later to adopt a law on the way of electing the chairman by rotation or in some other way, Frowick said. [09] OSCE CHIEF SEEKS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN BOSNIA AHEAD OF ELECTIONSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Head of the OSCE Flavio Cotti demanded in Sarajevo on Tuesday that freedom of movement be guaranteed to all citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina ahead of Sept. 14 elections. 'I believe if this freedom of movement for citizens would be guaranteed, the main condition for minimal, correct elections would be given,' news agencies quoted Cotti as saying after meeting Muslim-Croat Federation President Kresimir Zubak, a Bosnian Croat.Cotti said that the issue was his greatest concern three weeks ahead of the general elections, adding he had received assurances from Zubak that freedom of movement would be guaranteed in the Federation. 'We hope this will be the case elsewhere, specifically in the Republika Srpska,' Cotti said. He said that if the authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina truly wanted freedom of movement, they could provide it even on election day itself, adding it depended on their good will. 'Our deep wish is that these elections will really be able to present, as provided in the Dayton Agreement, the first step on the long road to reconstruction - not only reconstruction of democracy but also of economic welfare,' Cotti said. [10] TRIPLE CONTROL OF BOSNIA ELECTIONSB a n j a l u k a, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Head of the OSCE Department for Elections Ronald Dryr said here on Tuesday that the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina would be monitored by a triple control team. In order for elections to be as unbiased as possible, the OSCE will engage about 1,200 observers who will be deployed at all polling stations for the vote and vote counting, Dryr told a press conference.We expect both entities to have about 1,000 observers more - representatives of Parliaments, Government and non-governnental organizations and other international institutions, he explained. The third category of elections monitors are representatives of political parties who will be delegated to oversee the regularity of the vote and the counting of voting slips, he said. [11] IFOR SUSPENDS DESTROYING OF MUNITIONS FROM RS ARMY SITEB a n j a l u k a, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Spokesman for the multi-national division in the IFOR Sector Southwest Paul Brook said Tuesday the first batch of planned 90 tonnes of munitions from a Republika Srpska (R.S.) Army dump in the village of Margetici was destroyed on Monday and that the destroying schedule for Tuesday afternoon was suspended for investigation purposes. Explosions were heard five kilometers away, Brook told a press conference in Banjaluka.The General Staff of the R.S. Army sent letters Monday to NATO and IFOR Commands, seeking a suspension of destroying 500 tonnes of munitions from a dump in the village of Margetici and said this operation represented a dangerous provocation and could cause environmental disaster. The site had been declared to IFOR on March 19, which had never asked for its dislocation. Brook denied a R.S. TV broadcast on Monday evening that IFOR intended to hide toxic materials in craters which will remain after the explosions. [12] IFOR CONTINUES DESTROYING MUNITIONSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The IFOR on Tuesday continued the operation of destroying ammunition and mines confiscated from Bosnian Serb depots in the village of Margetici near Sokolac, in spite of local enviromental concerns.'Serb worries about the local water table have halted work in one set of pits for the moment but the operation continues in a second set of pits,' Reuters quotes Lt. Col. Max Marriner as saying. 'Operation Volcano is proceeding even as we respond to local enviromental concerns. Theoretically we could destroy all the material in the second set of pits or find a third site. The material will be destroyed one way or the other,' said Marriner. A total of 24 tonnes of munitions were destroyed in two sets of explosions on Monday, which sent columns of dirt and dust 300 meters into the air, said Reuters. [13] ABDIC CLAIMS BOSNIA'S RULING MUSLIM PARTY HARASSES HIS FOLLOWERSB e l g r a d e, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - Fikret Abdic, a contender for Bosnia's three-member Presidency in the coming elections, said Tuesday that the ruling Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was harassing his followers in the northwestern town of Bihac. Abdic, a Muslim, told the AFP in the Croatian port of Rijeka that, in an unprecedented harassment campaign, SDA members were bombing the homes of his sympathizers and threatening to kill them if they should vote for him.He said that Bosnian Muslim leader and SDA President Alija Izetbegovic was the embodiment of military dictatorship, and accused Izetbegovic of sacrificing his nation and monstruously abusing Islam. Abdic said he feared that the confirmation of the existing pro-Muslim character of Government in Bosnia would hurt the entire Muslim population who need western help. He said he would not like to see his people suffer because of some Muslims who had nothing in common with Bosnia, and added that he believed that he alone was able to work the necessary economic miracle in Bosnia. [14] SLOVENIA CONCERNED OVER NORMALIZATION OF YUGOSLAV-CROATIAN RELATIONSL j u b l j a n a, Aug. 20 (Tanjug) - The normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia will considerably weaken Slovenia's position in the region and jeopardize its efforts to dispute Yugoslavia's right to full succession to the former Yugoslav federation, Slovenian political sources and media said Tuesday.Slovenian Foreign Ministry refused to officially comment the Yugoslav-Croatian agreement on normalization expected to be signed next Friday by the two Foreign Ministers, Milan Milutinovic and Mate Granic. It is too early to draw conclusions, the Ministry said. By establishing diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia and by recognizing to the Federation of Serbia and Montenegro continuity with the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia will leave Slovenia on its own in its policy of isolating Belgrade, sources in Ljubljana said. Analysts in Slovenia also said that Croatia was already preparing to settle territorial, property and other disputes with Slovenia without any compromise, encouraged - among other things - by its new ties with Belgrade. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |