Yugoslav Daily Survey, 97-09-04

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] OSCE ACCEPTS WITH PLEASURE YUGOSLAVIA'S INVITATION TO MONITOR ELECTIONS

[02] FRY IMPORTANT ECONOMIC PARTNER FOR AUSTRIA

[03] AGREEMENT REACHED ON TRANSMITTER, SFOR LEAVES UDRUGOVO

[04] ARREST OF FORMER CROAT POLICEMAN WHO KILLED 72 PERSONS

[05] RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ON BOSNIA

[06] SERBIAN MINISTER PRESENTS "SERBIA ON THE INTERNET" PROJECT

[07] PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AFANASIEVSKY

[08] NO CONDITIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS

[09] FOUR SERBIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CONFIRMED

[10] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES US ENVOY GELBARD

[11] FOREIGN MINISTER MILUTINOVIC CONFERS WITH CHINESE PREMIER LI

[12] BULATOVIC SAYS EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS INDISPENSABLE

[13] KRAJISNIK SAYS REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS THREATENED

[01] OSCE ACCEPTS WITH PLEASURE YUGOSLAVIA'S INVITATION TO MONITOR ELECTIONS

Tanjug, 1997-09-02

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has accepted with pleasure Yugoslavia's invitation to monitor the coming presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia and Montenegro, the OSCE said in a statement released in Vienna on Tuesday after a Copenhagen meeting of the OSCE "troika".

The foreign ministers of Switzerland, Denmark and Poland, comprising the OSCE "troika", have voiced their support for Yugoslav Government's efforts towards continuing and stepping up activities aimed at democratization and social reforms.

The OSCE voiced grave concern over the situation in the Republika Srpska and said it intended to go on with the preparations to organize and monitor local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which, following several delays, have been scheduled for September 13-14, said the statement.

[02] FRY IMPORTANT ECONOMIC PARTNER FOR AUSTRIA

Tanjug, 1997-09-02

Yugoslav Foreign Trade Minister Borislav Vukovic met Tuesday with the President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce Leopold Maderthaner.

Maderthaner heads an Austrian economic delegation which is visiting the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Both sides expressed much interest in the speedy promotion of economic cooperation between the two countries, both through stepped up trade and joint ventures, industrial cooperation and other higher forms of joint business relations between companies.

Underscored was the need for the speedy ratification of the interstate agreement on the protection of investments, under consideration by the Austrian Parliament, and the finalization of the entire legal sphere for the economic cooperation between FRY and Austria.

Maderthaner promised to urge that Austria support FRY in regulating its relations with the European Union and international financial and economic institutions in order to speed up Yugoslav-Austrian economic cooperation.

Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce President Mihailo Milojevic and representatives of Yugoslav firms talked Tuesday with a delegation of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce about the promotion of economic cooperation.

The Austrian economy is very interested in improving relations with firms from FR Yugoslavia, Maderthaner said and called on Yugoslav businessmen and Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce representatives to present in Vienna in December their investment projects and economic potentials, which has been accepted.

Presenting the Austrian economy, Maderthaner said that FRY was an important economic partner for Austria and assessed that the recently-signed state accord on investment protection will contribute to the further promotion of cooperation.

[03] AGREEMENT REACHED ON TRANSMITTER, SFOR LEAVES UDRUGOVO

Tanjug, 1997-09-02

Republika Srpska President in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Momcilo Krajisnik and U.N. Ambassador Jacques Klein reached an agreement Tuesday night on the handover of Udrugovo transmitter, and SFOR forces have left the area.

Under the provisions of the signed agreement, RS media should refrain from reporting in a "volatile style" about SFOR forces and international organizations implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Republika Srpska will secure every day, without exception, a one-hour program, prime time, for broadcasting political opinions different from official ones.

RS television will provide for the international community's High Representative Carlos Westendorp a half-hour program, prime time, over the next few days so that he can present himself and explain the events that took place in the last few days in Brcko, Bijeljina and Banjaluka.

RS television will, under the agreement, refrain from editorial commentaries during and after these programs.

Under the agreement, RS will take part fully and consistently in the High Representative's Office group for support to the media, with a view to regulating the work of the media in conformity with the general draft and agreement on peace, and the agreement signed in Sintra.

After the signing of the document, SFOR units left Tuesday morning the transmitter at Udrigovo and handed it over to the owner, Serb radio- television.

[04] ARREST OF FORMER CROAT POLICEMAN WHO KILLED 72 PERSONS

Tanjug, 1997-09-02

The Croat police arrested on Monday a member of its paramilitary units who confessed to personally killing 72 persons, mainly Serbs, in Croatia in 1991, the Croat television said Monday evening.

Miro Bajramovic admitted in an interview carried by Monday's issue of the Split paper Feral Tribune that he was responsible for the death of 86 people, and that he had killed with his own hands 72.

Bajramovic was arrested in the village of Dodos, south of Zagreb.

The Croatian television said that the Zagreb investigative judge had ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the murders described by Bajramovic to the Split paper.

"I killed 72 with my bare hands. Nine of them were women. We asked no questions, for us they were all Chetniks and enemies," Bajramovic said.

He set out that his unit was responsible for the death of Serbs in the Pakracka Poljana.

Bajramovic revealed the details of the horrendous crimes he had committed as a member of the Croat paramilitary units, including the torture and execution of prisoners of war.

Bajramovic and others from his unit were arrested by the Croatian authorities in early 1992, but three months later he was released. No charges were ever raised against him despite the crimes he was guilty of.

Feral Tribune carried statements by the members of the paramilitary unit made in 1992 in which they speak about "the killing of Serb prisoners in the village of Pakracka Poljana at the start of the war."

The War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague has charged ten Croats with war crimes, but these were committed in neighbouring Bosnia, not in Croatia.

Bajramovic claims that his unit was responsible for the death of 400 people, mainly Serb civilians, but also Croats who refused to support these crimes, in Gospic, Pakracka Poljana and other places.

Bajramovic's unit operated in the region of Gospic in September 1991 at the time when the Krajina Serbs rose in protest against the breaking away of Croatia from the former Yugoslavia.

According to Bajramovic, in less than a month his unit "executed between 90- 110 Serbs in Gospic and 13 more in Slano near Dubrovnik."

"For Gospic we received orders to carry out ethnic cleansing, so we killed the mailman, the director of the hospital, the owner of a restaurant and other Serbs ... We were ordered by our leaders to reduce the percentage of Serbs in Gospic," this criminal said.

[05] RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ON BOSNIA

Tanjug, 1997-09-02

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasievsky has said that the main goal of his current visit to the Balkans is to contribute to energetic actions of all interested sides to end the crisis in Republika Srpska. The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS quoted Afanasievsky as telling the press after his meeting with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that the Yugoslav President wanted to help an evenhanded resolution of the conflict in the Bosnian Serb entity. The Russian official set out that both sides had underscored the importance of a solution to the conflict in the interest of the preservation of the RS's unity and the continuation of the Dayton peace process.

Afanasievsky told ITAR-TASS that the undermining of Republika Srpska's unity and especially the republic's division into two enclaves would unavoidably reflect on the peace process in Bosnia and bring the Dayton agreement to the brink of a collapse.

We urge that the crisis be resolved by political methods and do not accept calls for the use of force heard in statements of some Western diplomats, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister set out.

He condemned the media which urged the population to oppose operations of the multi-national Stabilization Force. Afanasievsky said the first immediate task was to hold the scheduled Sept. 13-14 elections in Republika Srpska. We do not view as justified the calls for the elections to be put off, he stressed. The Russian diplomat said it was his Ministry's position that the dispute over the organizing of parliamentary and presidential elections in Republika Srpska should be resolved by Bosnian Serbs themselves. The conflicting sides in Banjaluka and Pale must themselves resolve the dispute over the new parliamentary and presidential elections, and we will not impose decisions but are ready to help them take those decisions, Afanasiyevski specified.

[06] SERBIAN MINISTER PRESENTS "SERBIA ON THE INTERNET" PROJECT

Tanjug, 1997-09-01

Serbian Information Minister Radmila Milentijevic on Monday presented the "Serbia on the Internet" project with which Serbia officially joined the world wide web.

The project was presented at a news conference at the Serbian Government.

Connecting onto the Internet, Serbia is moving on the world's most up-to- date ways of political propaganda, said Milentijevic, adding that the web site on the Internet aimed to present Serbia in a creative, unique, appealing and high-tech way.

To this effect, the Serbian Information Ministry has taken four steps, the first one of them being Serbia's presentation on the Internet, which is today the most widespread media form of political propaganda, said Milentijevic.

In addition to this, projects are underway to broadcast satellite TV programme to North America, to present the Serbian economy on Reuters' business service and to hire a public relations agency.

Steps are also being taken towards broadcasting the satellite TV programme in the United States and Canada to secure a better linking of a large number of Serbs in North America with their homeland and help them get better acquainted with the cultural and historical values and to present them the reality of their own people, Milentijevic said. She said that business news from Serbia would appear daily in Reuters' business service as this was the best and the world's most famous way of exchanging business information. With a wish to keep information about Serbia on the Internet topical and authentic, the Ministry of Information will be keeping its web site updated round-the-clock, relying on both domestic and foreign media reports on the activities of the Serbian Government. The "Serbia on the Internet" menu will be broadcast in both Serbian and English, containing figures on Yugoslavia and Serbia, presidents of Yugoslavia and Serbia, foreign policy, Serbian parliament and government, and thanks to the exceptional quality of being up-to-date, on all the relevant information about the coming elections. The web site will also provide information from the spheres of business, culture, science, education, religion, sports, health care and tourism.

Serbia's web site address: www.serbia-info.com E-mail: mirszz@eunet.yu

[07] PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AFANASIEVSKY

Tanjug, 1997-09-01

President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic received Monday Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasievsky with associates. At the center of attention was the current situation in the region and efforts aimed at the further successful implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. It was stressed that a way out of the current crisis in Republika Srpska lies in exclusively political solutions, based on the right of all of its citizens to, starting from the most important joint interests - strengthening peace, freedom and equality, and the preservation of Republika Srpska and of its economic development, give their confidence to those individuals and institutions, who will secure the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the successful protection of those interests. International subjects, including Russia, by their unbiased stand should help calm down tensions, which have been caused by the crisis and help that they be overcome while respecting the political will of citizens.

[08] NO CONDITIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS

Tanjug, 1997-09-01

The Republika Srpska Election Commission concluded at its session in Pale on Monday that there were no conditions for free, democratic or fair elections for local bodies of power, scheduled for September 13-14. The Commission also upheld Republika Srpska parliament's conclusion on rescinding a consent given by President Biljana Plavsic to the OSCE to organise and monitor the municipal elections.

Serb members on the Provisional Election Commission Slobodan Kovac and Radivoje Duvanjak both confirmed that the election rules had been amended against the will of representatives from the Republika Srpska.

To this effect, the Republican Election Commission concluded that these amendments changed the nature of the elections in the Republika Srpska. The Commission said that leaving an open possibility for further changing of election rules until the very beginning of the elections was an undemocratic procedure.

The Commission also criticised the OSCE for failing to meet the deadline for releasing completed election registers from each municipality and for communicating on August 28 a technically unclear compact disc with election registers on it.

The Commission said that in 18 municipalities mostly in the border area, the lists of registered citizens vastly differed from what the OSCE offered as the final election register. It also said a large number of people in the Republika Srpska had been denied the right to vote and be elected.

[09] FOUR SERBIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CONFIRMED

Tanjug, 1997-09-01

The Serbian Republican Elections Commission has so far confirmed four candidates for the September presidential elections in Serbia.

The commission confirmed the following candidates Zoran Lilic, nominated by the united list of the Socialist Party of Serbia - Yugoslav Left- New Democracy - Slobodan Milosevic, Vuk Draskovic nominated by the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vojislav Seselj nominated by the Serbian Radical Party, and Vuk Obradovic, nominated by the Social Democrats.

The deadline for nominating candidates, under the Law on the election of republican president, expired at midnight Sunday. Under the law, any potential nominees must be presented to the Commission 20 days before the elections at the latest. By Friday, Sept 5, the Commission must establish the list with the names of all nominated candidates in alphabetical order. The Commission must announce the list on the following day after it is closed.

[10] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES US ENVOY GELBARD

Tanjug, 1997-08-29

President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic has received the Special Envoy of the US President Bill Clinton for the implementation of the Dayton agreement, Ambassador Robert Gelbard.

The meeting focused on the current issues regarding the implementation of the Dayton agreement and on resolving the problems created by confrontations within Republika Srpska institutions.

President Milosevic expressed his firm conviction that the current crisis and tension can be overcome only by political means.

International factors actively involved in the peace process are expected to contribute to the consolidation of peace which is in the greatest interest of the people in Republika Srpska who have the legitimate right to freely elect their political representatives and institutions which should work for the realization of that interest.

The meeting was attended by the Assistant Yugoslav Foreign Minister Nikola Cicanovic and the US Charge d'Affaires in Belgrade Richard Miles.

[11] FOREIGN MINISTER MILUTINOVIC CONFERS WITH CHINESE PREMIER LI

Tanjug, 1997-08-29

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic discussed Friday with Chinese Premier Li Peng the bilateral relations.

In a press statement after the talks, Milutinovic expressed satisfaction with the meeting, which he said was another confirmation of the importance attached by China to the development of its relations with Yugoslavia, of the high degree of mutual understanding and traditional confidence between the two countries.

"We assessed as positive the successful development of our bilateral relations to date and confirmed our readiness further to promote them at both the political and economic levels," Milutinovic said.

He set out that Premier Li had specifically upheld the furthering and expansion of economic cooperation, which he said would be in the mutual interest.

The Yugoslav Foreign Minister said that China's principled and consistent position during the crisis in the former Yugoslavia was of special significance for the development of relations between the two countries.

Milutinovic told the press that Premier Li had underscored the high regard China had for Yugoslavia's independent and peaceful policy and its role in the reaching and implementation of the Dayton agreement.

Milutinovic set out that the Yugoslav side had lent full support to China's peaceful policy, its role in and contribution to the positive development of international relations.

"It is our firm conviction that the world needs such a policy on the part of the People's Republic of China, which is an essential factor of peace, stability and equality-based cooperation," the Yugoslav Minister underscored.

Milutinovic said he was leaving China convinced that relations between the two countries were about to enter a period of very dynamic all-round cooperation on stable and long-term foundations.

Milutinovic ends the official return visit to China on Aug. 31.

[12] BULATOVIC SAYS EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS INDISPENSABLE

Tanjug, 1997-08-30

Montenegro President Momir Bulatovic said late Friday that early parliamentary elections were a most effective means of stabilizing the political situation in the Republic.

He said on TV Montenegro that the shortening of the term of Deputies of the republican assembly was a condition for the calling of early parliamentary elections.

President Bulatovic's proposal that the Deputies' mandate end on Dec. 31 this year will be discussed at the upcoming session of the Montenegro Assembly.

Bulatovic said he had taken the decision because of the crisis in the functioning of the executive, legislative and partly also judicial authorities.

Asked to comment the speculation about the introduction of a state of emergency in Yugoslavia, the Montenegro President underscored that there did not exist a single reason or possibility for that, since the decision could be taken only by the Federal Parliament.

"A state of emergency is no solution, but instead the development of democratic methods, fair and correct presidential elections first and right after parliamentary ones too," Bulatovic said.

[13] KRAJISNIK SAYS REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS THREATENED

Tanjug, 1997-08-30

Republika Srpska member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik said Saturday that the situation in the Bosnian Serb entity was critical and the peace process in Bosnia was threatened.

Krajisnik said on Serb Radio that SFOR troops had played a positive role in the initial phase of the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement.

"They respected things and their mandate was clear," he set out.

Krajisnik said the SFOR mandate had changed and a dangerous game was now being played on the territory of Republika Srpska.

He condemned the developments in Brcko and Bijeljina, where SFOR troops were instructed to take control of some state institutions (Security Centre and police station) but were resisted by the local populations.

Krajisnik said that Republika Srpska was threatened and that the main culprits were RS President Biljana Plavsic and her followers and their "usurpative behaviour." He welcomed the initiative of the RS Assembly for simultaneous municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections, as a solution to the crisis.

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