Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-08-22

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT APPROVES DRAFT AGREEMENTS WITH MACEDONIA

[02] UKRAINIAN MINORITY ENJOYS FULL RIGHTS IN YUGOSLAVIA

[03] YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL: ATTACKS ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA POLICE - TERRORIST ACTS

[04] THERE ARE NO CROAT PRISONERS IN YUGOSLAVIA

[05] COTTI DEMANDS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN BOSNIA

[06] OSCE: PREPARATIONS FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS ABOVE EXPECTATIONS

[07] SERBS CANNOT RETURN TO CROATIA WITHOUT GENERAL AMNESTY

[08] SERB REFUGEES PRESENT REQUEST TO GENERAL KLEIN

[09] SLOVENIA DISSATISFIED WITH SUCCESSION TALKS

[01] YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT APPROVES DRAFT AGREEMENTS WITH MACEDONIA

The eight draft agreements are on trade, on customs, on mutual stimulation and protection of investments, on international road transportation, on air transportation, on border railway transportation, on cooperation in the veterinary domain, in the quarantine for plants and the protection of plants.

The Government took a positive view of the hitherto negotiations on the conclusion of the eight agreements and underscored their importance for the development of relations and cooperation between the two countries, a Government statement said.

The bulk of the agreements are expected to be ready to be signed during Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic's visit to Macedonia in early September, the statement said.

[02] UKRAINIAN MINORITY ENJOYS FULL RIGHTS IN YUGOSLAVIA

Lubkivskiy told Radio Yugoslavia he hoped that Yugoslavia would be fully reintegrated in all international political and financial institutions after elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Referring to bilateral relations, he pointed to the traditionally good cultural cooperation, adding that a Ukrainian Cultural Festival would be held next year in Belgrade and a reciprocal festival the following year in Kiev.

[03] YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL: ATTACKS ON KOSOVO-METOHIJA POLICE - TERRORIST ACTS

Five people were killed and five others were injured on April 22 in concerted attacks on civilians and police in several towns in Kosovo-Metohija, which has an ethnic Albanian majority population. Police were targetted again in a number of separate attacks on June 7, and on Aug. 3, there was another synchronised assault on four police precincts in the Province, fortunately without casualties.

'It is my impression that we have not made an adequate political evaluation of the danger, and there has been no condemnation from those countries that otherwise condemn every terrorist act,' said Bogdanovic, who chairs Parliament's Defence and Security Committee.

In an interview carried by Borba in its Thursday issue, Bogdanovic said that top-level conferences against terrorism were being held in the world, 'but nobody refers to what is happening in Kosovo-Metohija as terrorism.' 'I have read in no newspaper that anybody in the world is worried that public law enforcement officers are threatened in Kosovo-Metohija or that a terrorist act has been carried out there,' said Bogdanovic, Vice Speaker of the Upper House. 'But, if a policeman is killed anywhere else, then everybody is quick to condemn it,' he added.

Bogdanovic said he was irked by the fact that 'there is no international action, no condemnation of all who perpetrate terrorist acts, whoever and wherever they might be.'

[04] THERE ARE NO CROAT PRISONERS IN YUGOSLAVIA

After the two-day meeting, it was observed that the talks were proceeding in line with the timetable set by the Cooperation Protocol, according to which both sides must provide all available information on prisoners and missing persons.

The President of the Croatian Government Commission Ivan Grujic told the press that his delegation had provided infomation on about 600 people killed during Croatian Army operations against Krajina Serbs last summer. It also provided information on 149 people arrested after the operations and currently being prosecuted by Croatian courts.

Following Croatian Army operations, about 250,000 Serbs fled Krajina in search of refuge.

According to Grujic, the Yugoslav delegation provided information on about 630 people killed, of whom about 600 have been identified.

It was agreed in Zagreb to hold the next session of the working groups for missing persons next September 15 in Belgrade.

[05] COTTI DEMANDS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN BOSNIA

OSCE has observed that there is no freedom of movement in Bosnia, either between the two entities - Republika Srpska and Muslim-Croat Federation - or inside their territories.

Federation representatives in Sarajevo assured Cotti that this problem would be resolved.

[06] OSCE: PREPARATIONS FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS ABOVE EXPECTATIONS

Noting that there were pressures on refugees to vote in their present place of residence, he said that the interim OSCE Electoral Commission would nullify the elections in all places where it finds irregularities either in the pre-election period or during the elections.

[07] SERBS CANNOT RETURN TO CROATIA WITHOUT GENERAL AMNESTY

The Vice-President of the Association of Refugees in F.R.Y. Jelena Kljajic said Serbs expelled from Krajina were in the most difficult position as noone guarantees them anything in Croatia and the Dayton agreement does not mention Serbs anywhere.

The participants said that general amnesty was not the sole condition for the return of Serbs to Croatia, they also need housing, jobs, health care, pensions, schooling for children, etc.

The round table was attended by experts of different professions (psychologists, teachers, lawyers), and representatives of international humanitarian organizations, Yugoslav Red Cross, Serbian Commissioner for Refugees.

[08] SERB REFUGEES PRESENT REQUEST TO GENERAL KLEIN

The 70,000 Serb refugees, citizens of the former Socialist Republic of Croatia now accommodated in the Region, are deeply concerned at the Statement by Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic that refugees would have no right to vote in the elections prior to the departure of UNTAES, the Association said in a letter.

The letter quotes Kostovic as saying on August 17 that only the citizens who had permanent residence in the Region in 1991 would be allowed to vote, and warns that this statement is directly contrary to the Erdut Agreement. In line with the Erdut Agreement, the Region was placed in the beginning of this year under transitional U.N. Administration for one year, with the possibility of extending it by another year.

The letter underlines the wish of Serb refugees to return to their former homes but expresses doubt regarding that possiblity as Croatia's laws give priority to the settlement of Croats, who are being given the property of the expelled Serbs. The fears of Serb refugees that they will be unable to return home are growing after Croatian authorities once again declared areas formerly inhabited by Serbs open for settlement by Croats, the letter says.

The exercise of the right to vote of Serb refugees in the Region would be the first direct impetus to the process of repatriation, both of Croat refugees to Vukovar and other towns in the Region, and of Serb refugees to Western Slavonia and Krajina, the letter says.

[09] SLOVENIA DISSATISFIED WITH SUCCESSION TALKS

Watts's model of division of property of the former Yugoslavia has not taken into account some major requests of Slovenia and Croatia, Slovenia's political circles claim.

Slovenian delegation believes that the international mediator has deviated from some fundamental conclusions of the Badinter Commission on the disintegration of the former Yugoslav Federation, by making the greatest concessions to Belgrade so far.

Mejak said he hoped Croatia would continue backing Slovenia so it would not remain alone in its requests to get as large as possible portion of property, foreign exchange reserves and gold of the former Yugoslavia.

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