Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-04-10

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES UNHCR HEAD SADAKO OGATA

[02] TRIBINAL TO ISSUE INDICTMENTS SOON FOR CRIMES IN CROATIAN "STORM"

[03] REJECTION OF DIALOGUE AND EXPECTATION OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

[04] YUGOSLAVIA'S RISTIC: DIALOGUE INSIDE SERBIA IS THE ONLY WAY

[05] OGATA: REGIONAL SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

[06] YUGOSLAVIA SUPPORTS LASTING SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

[07] YUGOSLAVIA'S JOVANOVIC RECEIVES UNHCR OGATA

[08] KONTIC RECEIVES NEW AMBASSADOR OF SRI LANKA

[01] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES UNHCR HEAD SADAKO OGATA

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic received on Thursday the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. Yugoslav people and state institutions have exerted great efforts to provide the necessary conditions for the accommodation, employment, education, health and other forms of care for refugees, especially children, its was noted during the meeting. Ogata paid homage to Yugoslavia for the care for refugees it is hosting.

Yugoslavia is developing good-neighborly relations and open and mutually beneficial cooperation on equal footing with all countries in the region. This cooperation will contribute to accelerating the repatriation of refugees and to resolving all issues regarding refugees, it was underlined during the meeting.

The meeting was attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic.

[02] TRIBINAL TO ISSUE INDICTMENTS SOON FOR CRIMES IN CROATIAN "STORM"

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

The International Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia will soon issue the first in a series of indictments of those reponsible for crimes committed over Serbs in the Croatian army operation "Storm" in August 1995, head of Veritas documentation center Savo Strbac told Tanjug. Strbac said this has been confirmed by a Hague team of investigators who stayed in Belgrade from March 30 to April 8 to collect documentation and testimonies from witnesses for preparing the first indictenmnets for crimes committed in the Storm.

"The team of investigators has told us that most of the work had been completed and that within three months indictments would be drafted and finalized. They will cover only crimes committed in Sector South or in the region of Lika and Dalmatia, and will also cover top military officials who commanded the military forces in the region," Strbac said.

He said that the investigators took testimonies from 11 witnesses, three men and eight women, on the basis of a list of potential witnesses which they previously submitted to Veritas.

Strbac said that the investigators described all the witnesses as "high quality", because they witnessed killings, arsons, destruction and plundering committed by the Croatian army during operation "Storm" and that they all confirmed that these acts were carried out in a systematic and planned manner.

He voiced concern about the refusal to respond to the invitation by some important witnesses, in the first place young men who expressed reservations about the Tribunal or fears for their life or the lives of their familiy members who are in Croatia.

It was mostly older people who readily made statements and, unfortunately, ill people who might not be able to go to the Hague. That is why it is very important that other witnesses also come forward.

Strbac said that among the witnesses was one woman who is the only one who survived the execution of eight villagers of Uzdanje, near Knin.

The civilians were killed by a member of the regular Croatian army and Veritas has at its disposal reliable information for determinign the identity of the man.

Veritas handed over to the investigators updated lists of people missing and killed in operation "Storm" on which there were 1,594 names, of which 358 women ad 10 children.

Croatia has so far admitted that in operation "Storm" the number of killed and missing was 911, and the Yugoslav Commission for humanitarian issues and missing persons has not yet handed over all the protocols on people who perished in the operation.

Before leaving Belgrade, the Tribunal's investigators said that besides the documentation of Veritas, material evidence before the Tribunal will also be reports of international organizations made immediately after the events and as witnesses will also be called a number of representatives of these international organizations and missions.

The Tribunal had set up a team of investigators for operation "Storm" back in April 1966, but due to the complexity and gravity of the crimes, and the large territory where the events took place, decided to issue indictments successively.

The collecting of documentation in Croatia was a slow process because official Croatia refused to hand over to the Tribunal the entire documentation for operation Storm, while in the territory of Republika Srpska and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia investigators have so far heard over a 100 witnesses.

The first indictment will only be one in a series for operation Storm, and each next one, as the investigators explained, would involve a higher lever of command and correlated to investigations concernig Gospic and Medacki Dzep. The goal of the Tribunal is to bring to justice all those resposnible for crimes over Serbs till the top of the chain of command, Strbac said.

[03] REJECTION OF DIALOGUE AND EXPECTATION OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

Persistent refusal by the Kosovo and Metohija Albanian leaders to agree to participate in the unconditional dialogue offered by the Serbian Government representatives and Serbian President Milan Milutinovi} clearly shows that such a conduct conceals more profound reasons than those publicly proclaimed.

It seams that Rugova and his supporters are aware that the start of dialogue with the Serbian Government would mean their readiness to accept existing European and international conventions and the rules governing the position of the national minorities, in every discussion on the status of Kosmet.

Such a solution and developments would certainly not be to their advantage as the existing documents of the United Nations, OSCE, Council of Europe and the Helsinki and Paris Charters quite clearly spell out the rights of national minorities within every sovereign and independent state.

Specific in this respect is a document of the Council of Europe that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) wishes to become party to. The case in point is the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which very precisely defines the obligations and rights of minority ethnic communities. Section III of this document stipulates that "in the exercise of the rights and freedoms flowing from the principles enshrined in the present Framework Convention, any person belonging to a national minority shall respect the national legislation and the rights of others, in particular those of persons belonging to the majority or to other national minorities."

It is unnecessary to prove in particular to what extent this clearly defined position set out in the Council of Europe Framework Convention is contrary to the years*long secessionist and terrorist activities of the so*called Kosovo Liberation Army, from which the leaders of the Albanian national minority and their followers in Kosmet have not distanced themselves.

According to this Convention, national minorities in a sovereign state cannot "perform any act contrary to the basic principles of international law, and in particular of the sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of States."

If they were to accept these fundamental principles, which were built in a similar form in all relevant chapters and other documents of the United Nations, OSCE and other major international organizations, it goes without saying that the Albanian leaders in Kosovo and Metohija would be unable to use the language of separatism, blackmail and threats, nor would they dare do so.

If international law is on our side and if logic speaks against the arguments put forward by the Albanian side, one can only wonder what else is there to encourage the hard*liners headed by Rugova to avoid dialogue.

The impression is that such conduct is largely based on the assessment that the start of dialogue would prevent certain important centres of political and other power in the world from exerting constant unprincipled and unfounded pressure on Serbia and the FRY.

The refusal of dialogue by the leaders of the Albanian political parties in Kosmet is in fact a credible sign that they want to maintain a state of affairs characterized by attempts on the part of the so*called influential international factors to place automatically all the blame for the lack of talks on the Serbian side, although all the facts speak otherwise.

It is necessary to reiterate again that a senior Serbian Government delegation, headed two days ago by the Serbian President himself, offered the Albanians an open and constructive dialogue ten times.

Refusal to respond positively to the calls for such a dialogue means, in the final analysis that Rugova and his supporters are not ready to give up the realization of the idea of "an independent Kosovo" and that the present leaders of the Albanian political parties in Kosmet want and expect certain world powers and their subordinate international factors, which act in accordance with their partial interests, to keep "twisting the arm" of Serbia and the FRY in order to secure for Kosovo and Metohija a status which suits their interests and designs for a new shaking of the Balkans and Yugoslavia.

[04] YUGOSLAVIA'S RISTIC: DIALOGUE INSIDE SERBIA IS THE ONLY WAY

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

Yugoslavia's delegation head has spoken in Windhoek, Namibia, about the roots of the political crisis in Kosovo-Metohija, ethnic Albanian parties' separatist aspirations and the flaring up of terrorism in that Serbian Province.

Delegation head Ljubisa Ristic was addressing the 99th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Conference in a general debate on the global economic, political and social situation.

The Yugoslav Parliament quoted Ristic in a statement on Thursday as stressing the efforts that the Government of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia is making for a peaceful settlement of the crisis by political means. He added that the Serbian Government is constantly issuing invitations for political dialogue, to be held within Serbian state institutions and with respect for its constitutional and legal order, but they are being refused by ethnic Albanian parties.

Commenting on growingly frequent calls for internationalising the Kosovo- Metohija issue, Ristic stressed the fact and the position that Kosovo- Metohija is an internal affair of the Republic of Serbia and that all political issues concerning it must be dealt with in Serbian territory and by Serbian mechanisms.

He said that the blatant terrorism in Kosovo-Metohija must be combatted firmly, as other countries are doing, because it is the duty of every state to ensure that its order is respected and to protect the basic human rights, including the right to a safe life.

Ristic, who chairs the Yugoslav Parliament's Foreign Political Committee, said that the first step towards solving the crisis is to open political dialogue in the Republic of Serbia, which Serbia has initiated. Any other solution, and especially support for the separatists' demands, will only deepen the crisis and take it further away from a solution.

The Yugoslav side has supported and will always support the international community's unbiased position that a political solution is the only possible one and that Kosovo-Metohija has been and always will be an integral part of the Republic of Serbia, he stressed.

[05] OGATA: REGIONAL SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said on Thursday that the aim of her visit to the former Yugoslavia was to seek ways for permanent solutions for hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons.

The situation in the former Yugoslavia is very complex, because there are refugees, displaced persons, and returnees, who have no accommodation, and the best solution for all of them would be to go back to their homes, Ogata said. Unfortunately, return is not simple, and there are legal, social and psychological aspects, she said.

Ogata said that she had underscored the need for the return of refugees in her talks with presidents Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, and recalled that Yugoslavia had received the largest number of refugees from Bosnia and Croatia. She said repatriation had been unsuccessful so far, and that she aimed with the visit to view outstanding problems and attempt to find efficacious solutions.

Ogata expressed satisfaction over a new refugee camp she visited in Vojvodina, where refugees had been given arable land. Milosevic gave his support to such projects and said it was possibile that refugees would be granted land on which they could build their own houses, she said.

Ogata said she would be visiting Kosovo on Friday, as she was concerned about 14000 refugees from Croatia there, in particular those accommodated in schools and sports centers. She said she wished to see them in a safer place, in view of the precarious situation in the Province.

[06] YUGOSLAVIA SUPPORTS LASTING SOLUTIONS FOR REFUGEES

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina discussed with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata on Thursday possibilities for lasting solutions for refugees on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

It was agreed in the talk that the return of refugees remained the basic issue.

It was set out that in view of the large number of refugees on its territory, Yugoslavia should continue with projects of local integration with its own resources and the assistance of the UNHCR and the international community.

Morina asked High Commissioner Ogata personally to help step up the regional meetings of the Commissioners and Ministers for refugees of Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia and Yugoslavia and the opening of international offices in Serbia in which refugees would be able to register their property. These offices would help an overwhelming number of refugees in Yugoslavia to get possession of their property which they could then sell or exchange.

High Commissioner Ogata underscored that she was aware of how serious the humanitarian situation was in Yugoslavia, which has been extending hospitality to the largest number of refugees for the past six years. Ogata said the finding of lasting solutions for refugees in Yugoslavia was of the utmost importance this year.

She regretted that the UNHCR had not been included in the talks on the Protocol on the Return of Refugees signed by Yugoslavia and Croatia on April 2, because Croatia had been against it from the beginning.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that she had communicated to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Foreign Minister Mate Granic the UNHCR position and concern over the discrepancy between what Croatia was signing and how it was fulfilling the assumed obligations.

Ogata voiced concern for the future of Serbs in eastern Slavonia and said she feared that they would continue coming to Yugoslavia.

In the exchange of views on the return of refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ogata agreed with Morina that it was necessary for large cities, especially Sarajevo, Banjaluka and Mostar, to get the status of open cities, and said the UNHCR would invest efforts for those cities to fulfil the necessary conditions.

Ogata told Morina that the UNHCR was making a data bank on the basis of the registration of refugees for the return home which was under way in Yugoslavia.

[07] YUGOSLAVIA'S JOVANOVIC RECEIVES UNHCR OGATA

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic received on Thursday the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mrs Sadako Ogata. The two sides expressed pleasure at the good cooperation that the competent bodies in Yugoslavia and its republics of Serbia and Montenegro are maintaining with the UNHCR. Both sides stressed the need for a greater effort on the part of the international community so as to secure humanitarian aid and a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the refugee problem, in line with the Dayton/Paris Accord.

The UNHCR will be investing efforts in this direction in the coming period.

Jovanovic said that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had received the highest number of refugees of all European countries and had set aside in excess of one billion dollars for their maintenance. He therefore stressed the need for a greater international involvement, primarily in creating conditions for a free and safe repatriation of those who would like to go back, and for the integration of those who would like to stay.

[08] KONTIC RECEIVES NEW AMBASSADOR OF SRI LANKA

Tanjug, 1998-04-09

Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic on Thursday received newly-appointed Ambassador of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to Yugoslavia Sheliah Siwasoti Polokasingam. Kontic spoke about the many decades of friendship which connect the two countries.

There is every possible precondition for the development and promotion of comprehensive bilateral cooperation, Kontic said, as there are no outstanding political issues between Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia.

It is in the mutual interest of both countries that economic relations are intensified, especially in the areas of trade, investments, traffic, culture, education, it was heard. That is why it is necessary for the two sides to maintain continued political-economic contacts at the highest level, said the statement.

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article