Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-02-10

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF CITIZENS RECEIVED A DELEGATION OF THE BRAZILIAN STATE GOIAS

[02] IVANKO: UNNECESSARY USE OF FORCE DURING VASIC'S ARREST

[03] PREMIER DODIK EXPECTS BRCKO TO REMAIN WITHIN RS

[04] PRESIDENT PLAVSIC SPEAKS AT THE FRENCH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

[05] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION ON SUCCESSION CRITICIZES AMENDMENTS

[06] PRESIDENT CHIRAC CONFERRED WITH PRESIDENT PLAVSIC

[07] AMBASSADOR KOTOV VISITS VOJVODINA

[08] BRAZILIAN OFFICIAL GIVES HIGH MARKS TO YUGOSLAV TECHNOLOGY

[09] YUGOSLAV - BRAZILIAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION

[10] PRIME MINISTER RECEIVED A DELEGATION OF THE BRAZILIAN STATE GOIAS

[01] PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF CITIZENS RECEIVED A DELEGATION OF THE BRAZILIAN STATE GOIAS

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

Yugoslav Parliament's Chamber of Citizens President Milomir Minic on Monday received a delegation of the Brazilian state of Goias, headed by Governor Luiz Alberto Maguito Vilela.

The talks were attended by MP and director of the Gosa Holding Corporation of Smederevska Palanka Branislav Milanovic, and Brazilian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Adolf Vestalen and Yugoslav Ambassador to Brazil David Dasic.

During the talks, the sides confirmed the good relations between the two countries and expressed conviction that bilateral cooperation would be stepped up in the coming period and increasingly more comprehensive, and that it would contribute to the strengthening of friendly ties among the peoples, said the Federal Parliament's Public Relations Office.

It was agreed that there were vast possibilities for increasing the scale of economic cooperation through joint investments in the areas of power, agriculture, traffic, transfer of technology, science and technology, and strengthening of trade links. In this context, it was underlined that initiatives had already been launched to conclude individual deals of joint interest, such, as for instance, the deal with the Gosa Holding Corporation.

The two sides agreed that it was necessary to promote parliamentary cooperation between the two countries. The Yugoslav side extended an invitation to Brazilian MP's to visit Yugoslavia.

Governor Maguito Vilela invited Minic to make a return visit to Brazil at the head of a parliamentary delegation, the statement said.

[02] IVANKO: UNNECESSARY USE OF FORCE DURING VASIC'S ARREST

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

U.N. Spokesman in Sarajevo Alexander Ivanko told a press conference on Monday that policemen who arrested Serb Goran Vasic last week had used violence, beating him while he was on the ground, adding that such actions had been completely unwarranted.

Vasic was arrested on February 6 by Muslim-Croat Federal Police on the line of separation in Sarajevo's Dobrinja district. He has been charged with allegedly murdering Muslim Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlic in 1993.

The U.N. human rights office in Bosnia-Herzegovina will examine the procedure of Vasic's arrest, as methods used by police at the time are completely in collision with the usual police practice, Ivanko said.

During the arrest, police used long-barrel weapons without previous permission of the international police IPTF, which is strictly forbidden, Ivanko said.

He pointed out the U.N. mission in Bosnia was considering a proposal of Republika Srpska Foreign Minister Milovan Stankovic that Goran Vasic be moved to RS for prosecution.

Ivanko said U.N. special envoy Elisabeth Rehn had visited the RS police in Sarajevo's Serb district of Kula on Saturday. She had thanked the police for their professional behaviour demonstrated during a situation of extremely stepped up tensions, which had occurred following Vasic's arrest, said Ivanko.

Vasic is presently incarcerated in the Muslim prison in Sarajevo.

[03] PREMIER DODIK EXPECTS BRCKO TO REMAIN WITHIN RS

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said on Monday that he expected Brcko to remain within the Serb entity because, otherwise, the RS government would not have any chance of surviving.

Dodik told a press conference in Vienna, following talks with Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel, that in Bosnia-Herzegovina there can no longer be focuses of tensions. He gave the example of Gorazde which was given to the Muslim-Croat Federation and was thus no longer controversial.

"If Brcko remains within RS, we will be able to prove the existence of the Dayton agreement in practice," Dodik said.

"During its three-week existence, the new RS government has achieved more than the previous leaderships over the past two years," Dodik said. He set out that "RS has a cooperative government which knows how to protect its interests and fulfil the obligations from the Dayton agreement."

Dodik also indicated that the RS government would allow the opening in Banja Luka of an office of the Hague-based International Tribunal for War Crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and added that the RS government would influence some of those suspected of war crimes, to voluntarily put themselves at the disposal of the Hague Tribunal. He said that the RS government has no instruments to forcefully detain all persons on the Hague Tribunal's list.

Dodik said that he had received support from Austria for the release of funds blocked at last year's Donors' Conference for Bosnia, as well as assurances that the imbalance in securing international loans for RS and the Muslim-Croat Federation would be resolved at the next conference.

Schuessel told the same press conference that Austria and the European Union support RS both economically and politically and that, as he said, the new political era in this entity should be used.

Schuessel said that Austria would soon open an office in Banja Luka, under the sponsorship of the Austrian Embassy in Sarajevo, where RS citizens will be able to obtain visas and resolve other issues.

Within the World Bank Austria is engaged in the realization of the micro project for the revival of medium-sized companies in Bosnia and is also interested in the speedy opening of an air route linking Vienna and Banja Luka, Schuessel said.

[04] PRESIDENT PLAVSIC SPEAKS AT THE FRENCH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

President of Republika Srpska Biljana Plavsic said in Paris late on Monday that the reality of the Republika Srpska and Bosnia as a whole lay in implementing the Dayton Accords.

Plavsic was addressing the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) on the subject of the Republika Srpska after parliamentary elections.

After the lecture, in which she spoke about the current situation in the Republika Srpska following November elections and the taking of office of the government of Premier Milorad Dodik, she answered numerous questions from the audience. Those present included prominent French politicians, parliamentarians, generals who have served on peace forces in Bosnia, and journalists.

After the lecture, just as at the news conference after meeting with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine earlier on Monday, Plavsic again gave high marks to her talk with French President Jacques Chirac, saying she was honoured to have met him.

She spoke with appreciation about the European Union's recent aid of six million ECU's, saying she hoped that France, as an influential E.U. state, would help keep economic assistance to the Republika Srpska flowing.

She explained that the assistance denied to Republika Srpska in 1996, when it received barely 2% of international aid, was now coming in, and stressed that the international community's policy must not be biased.

Speaking about the refugee problem, she said that the repatriation of refugees was an obligation set down in the Dayton Peace Accords and must not be approached selectively.

She said that Republika Srpska was ready to honour this part of the accords as it stood, adding that the peace accords envisaged for three possibilities where repatriation was concerned: personal choice to return, property swap and indemnification.

She went on to say that the situation in Republika Srpska was difficult, with 400,000 Serb refugees from other parts of former Yugoslavia accommodated in the Bosnian Serb entity.

She said that there was no wish to make Republika Srpska an ethnically pure state because the "Serbs are not used to living alone."

Asked about the future of Republika Srpska and the chance of its unification with Yugoslavia, she said that it was impossible to predict at this time whether or not there would be unification with the mainland some day. She explained that there were grave problems to be dealt with first, living standards to be raised, before thinking about unification, and that the people understood this.

She said that the situation in Bosnia should be primarily a European concern, though she appreciated the concern of the United States as well.

She expressed appreciation also of the role played by Russia, as one of the five states of the "Contact Group" and a state which, like France, had a direct line to the Serbian people.

During the two-hour session, Plavsic was inevitably asked about Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic. She explained that, on the other sides, too, there were persons who had performed the same duties and who bore the same responsibility as the Bosnian Serb officials, but who had not been indicted as war criminals.

The Serbs feel deeply the obvious injustice, she stressed.

[05] YUGOSLAV DELEGATION ON SUCCESSION CRITICIZES AMENDMENTS

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

The negotiations on succession to the former Yugoslavia in Brussels did not result in a definite agreement, but some progress was made regarding non- economic issues, said the head of the delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Kosta Mihajlovic.

The amendments submitted so far were not substantial enough to be accepted, and the international mediator Sir Arthur Watts should reject them, especially those with political connotations, Mihajlovic said in an interview to Radio Belgrade carried by the daily 'Borba'.

The Yugoslav delegation has tried to persuade the participants not to discuss the issue of political continuity as it believes this to be a separate issue that should be settled by the states involved.

The Group for Succession has the task of dividing up the state property on a fair basis and the Yugoslav delegation insisted on the principle of fairness, Mihajlovic said.

Mihajlovic said he could understand why the other delegations, out of their own interests, did not want a fair division of the assets of the former federation but wished to grab more than their share, but they should then state openly that they oppose the principle of fairness.

Yugoslavia has insisted that the state property should include everything that had been financed by central funds, which means that the inventory exceeds the value of 200 billion dollars, although it does not include the social property funded by companies and republics, Mihajlovic said.

The question of dates was another point of dispute, as even the Badinter commission had given several dates since it considered that the former Yugoslavia was still in existence at the end of November 1991, Mihajlovic said.

The process of disintegration ended in fact in the summer of 1992, after the former federation was abandoned first by Slovenia, then Croatia etc., Mihajlovic said.

Yugoslavia has submitted a morally, legally and economically just suggestion to take the date of disintegration of the financial system as the relevant date of the disintegration of the federation, because the subject of the present negotiations is precisely the dividing up of property and resolving the material consequences of secession, Mihajlovic said.

This is why the date of withdrawal of each state from the joint financial system should be taken as relevant for each republic - the beginning of October for Slovenia and the end of December for Croatia, instead of taking the single date of June 30, 1991, as the relevant date as the latest proposal said, Mihajlovic said.

In bilateral contacts, the Yugoslav delegation has rejected that date, which had never been mentioned before, as absolutely unacceptable as a basis for defining the property of the former federation, Mihajlovic added.

[06] PRESIDENT CHIRAC CONFERRED WITH PRESIDENT PLAVSIC

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic conferred with French President Jacques Chirac on Monday morning.

President Plavsic did not give a statement after the meeting at the Elysee Palace, which lasted half an hour.

French newspapers said that France, as the first country to receive Plavsic, was risking "to offend the leadership of the other entity" in Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The Elysee Palace said that President Chirac had "agreed to receive Ms. Plavsic in order to show that France supports the Serbs in Bosnia who support the implementation of the peace accords."

Nothing has been announced about what was discussed during the meeting between Chirac and Plavsic, but judging by her statements on the eve of the visit, the discussion might have covered Brcko, the international community's financial aid to Republika Srpska and other topical issues.

[07] AMBASSADOR KOTOV VISITS VOJVODINA

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

Russian Ambassador to Yugoslavia Yuri Kotov was separately received on Monday by the head of the government of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina Bosko Perosevic and the Vojvodina Assembly President Zivorad Smiljanic, a government statement said.

Perosevic acquainted Ambassador Kotov with the provincial government's activities aimed at spurring economic development, and underlined the great importance of economic cooperation between Yugoslavia and Russia and their regions.

Perosevic singled out successful cooperation between Vojvodina and the Krasnodar region, and said accent would in future be placed on joint projects and a joint manufacturing of products which are competitive on the world market. He set out that the province's agricultural, metal, chemical, pharmaceutical and building industries offered great possibilities for cooperation.

Ambassador Kotov said he would use his stay in Novi Sad, on the occasion of the week-long manifestation "Days of Russian Culture," to make contacts for new forms of cooperation.

The two sides agreed that mutual interest existed in long-term cooperation in all economic sectors, science and technology and in joint ventures on third markets.

Ambassador Kotov said during the meeting with the Vojvodina Assembly President Smiljanic that Russia did not recognize the "outer wall" of sanctions against Yugoslavia because it was not a product of any international decision.

Kotov said Russia was doing everything on the international stage for Yugoslavia to return to international organizations and institutions and expressed conviction that it would succeed and Yugoslavia would take its rightful place in the world.

[08] BRAZILIAN OFFICIAL GIVES HIGH MARKS TO YUGOSLAV TECHNOLOGY

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

A visiting ranking Brazilian official gave high marks in Belgrade on Monday to Yugoslavia's technology and know-how in the construction of hydro- electric power plants, railways and other infrastructural facilities, and in agriculture.

Luiz Alberto Maguito Vilela, Governor of Brazil's Goias state, was speaking at a news conference at the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce after a plenary meeting between the two countries' businessmen. He said that Brazil saw great potential in resuming and considerably expanding cooperation with the Yugoslav companies Gosa, Energoprojekt and Lola Corporation. He explained that cooperation was already established, and that these companies would build vital hydro-electric power plants and railway networks in Brazil.

Gosa of Smederevska Palanka is about to close a deal on building two small and one medium-sized hydro-power plant in Goias, which has an electricity shortage and one of the world's highest electricity rates, it was said at the conference.

Goias Secretary for Energy, Mining and Telecommunications Benjamin Beze Junior said that, at their previous meeting, the two states' businessmen had decided they had an interest in cooperating in agriculture, mining, the pharmaceutical and garment industries.

These are fields for the development of which Goias has the necessary resources, but lacks the technology, which Yugoslavia can provide, according to Beze. He explained that this was especially true in agriculture, and added that Brazilian partners were about to sign an agreement on cooperation with the Maize Institute of Zemun Polje, near Belgrade.

[09] YUGOSLAV - BRAZILIAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

An economic delegation from the Brazilian state of Goias, headed by its Governor Luiz Alberto Maguito Vilela, met on Monday at the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce (PKJ) with domestic businessmen to discuss possibilities for promoting economic cooperation between the two countries.

PKJ President Mihajlo Milojevic greeted the Brazilian delegation saying that FRY and Brazil want to extend economic cooperation which has been on a low level in the past period and far beneath the two countries' capabilities.

Milojevic gave the example of the agreement and protocol on cooperation between the Yugoslav holding corporation Gosa and its partner from Goias, as well as the setting up of the joint company Gosa-Brazil via which future business transactions will be conducted.

[10] PRIME MINISTER RECEIVED A DELEGATION OF THE BRAZILIAN STATE GOIAS

Tanjug, 1998-02-09

Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic received on Monday a delegation of the Brazilian state Goias, headed by Governor Luiz Alberto Maguito Vilela, a government statement said.

Prime Minister Kontic expressed Yugoslavia's readiness to develop comprehensive bilateral cooperation with Brazil, for which he said all necessary conditions existed.

The greatest possibilities for cooperation between the two countries exist in the power industry, agriculture, mining and trade. Both sides are interested also in promoting cooperation in culture, sports, education and other non-economic domains.

Yugoslavia is especially interested in barter-deal purchases of Brazilian goods, including coffee, soybean, cotton, and cocoa.

Representatives of the Yugoslav industrial complex Gosa of Smederevska Palanka, who attended the meeting, informed Prime Minister Kontic about their company's hitherto cooperation with Brazilian partners and future projects, especially those involving the mixed company Gosa-Brazil.

Prime Minister Kontic said he was convinced that a new phase was about to open in the development of relations between Yugoslavia and Brazil.

He stressed the need for a continued top-level dialogue.

Kontic said Yugoslavia hoped Brazil would help its speedier return to international financial and trade organizations.

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