Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-07-15

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER BULATOVIC * STATEMENT

[02] ZAGREB FLOUTING ITS COMMITMENTS

[03] CROATIAN EMBASSY DOES NOT INFORM UNHCR OF THE RETURN OF REFUGEES

[04] PEC PUBLIC PROSECUTOR REQUESTS INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST ETHNIC-ALBANIAN TER RORISTS

[05] RELIEF ORGANIZATION SERVES AS GUISE FOR TERRORISTS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

[06] DEPUTY SECRETARY OF SERBIAN PARLIAMENT: SERBIAN CONSTITUTION PROVIDES FOR AUTONOMY OF KOSOVO-METOHIJA

[07] CYPRIOT SPEAKER, ACTING PRESIDENT KYPRIANOU RECEIVES JUL OFFICIAL

[08] SERBIA GOVERNMENT, UNHCR SUCCESSFULLY COOPERATE

[09] YUGOSLAV ASSISTANT MINISTER RECEIVES HEAD OF U.N. MONITORING MISSION

[10] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS WOUND THREE POLICEMEN NEAR DECANI

[01] YUGOSLAV PRIME MINISTER BULATOVIC * STATEMENT

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic met on Tuesday the executive s of the Beograd agricultural complex (PKB) to discuss its business activities and the measures to be taken by the Yugoslav Government for developing agricultur e and expanding the exports of agricultural produce. The measure of order in a state is the strength of its agricultural budget, Bulatovic said and added tha setting the protective prices of agricultural produce was one of the prio rity tasks. The agricultural sector must not bear the full burden of social endurance, Bulatovic said and pointed to the importance of maintaining mo netary stability. The Yugoslav Government intends to take decisive measures to protect domestic production and to set up an anti-monopoly commission, Bulatovic said. Referring to the measures taken by the Government to limit the imports o f unnecessary consumer goods, Bulatovic said foreign exchange was being spe nt excessively on the import of agricultural produce and consumer goods, cre ating an imbalance in foreign trade instead of encouraging exports. Bulatovic announced measures to fight grey economy, and said that the federal comm odity reserves authority would protect domestic production by unifying the imp orts of goods subject to excise duties, which would bring in revenue to the state and ease the burden on the economy. Bulatovic said the government would do ev erything in its competence to improve the financial situation in agriculture. Ask ed about rumours that Montenegro would introduce its own currency, Bulatovic said that was nonsense. He said the political solution in Montenegro, where the "F or a Better Life" coalition won in recent parliamentary elections, should be respected. Bulatovic said he had proposed that the deadlock in parliament be lifted, so that current problems may be resolved. Asked to comment on th e situation in Serbia's province Kosovo and Metohia, Bulatovic said develop ments there gave cause for alarm. The Federal Government has no direct authori ty in that matter, as the Constitution places the rights of national minoritie s within the authority of the republics, but we are more than willing to lend all assistance to the Serbian Government to begin dialogue and resolve the pr oblem, said Bulatovic.

[02] ZAGREB FLOUTING ITS COMMITMENTS

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Serbs who have fled to FR Yugoslavia, in applying for return to the Consular Section of the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade, cannot be provided with any other travel document but a one*way laissez*passer to go to Croatia.

Although the "Obligatory Guidelines" for obtaining documents necessa ry for the application of the "Procedure for individual returns of persons who h ave left Croatia" state that diplomatic and consular representations of that repub lic are obliged to issue Croatian documents to Croatian citizens, these provision s are not being implemented in practice, as refugees say. Article 28 of the Law on Croatian Citizenship, which stipulates that diplomatic and consular missi ons shall be obliged to provide to Croatian citizens documents such as domovn ica (Croatian document), passport or a laissez*passer. Expelled Serbs, who ha ve proof of Croatian citizenship provided by the former Socialist Republic of Croa tia authorities, who are in possession of a personal identification document or who hold passports of the present Republic of Croatia (which they managed to obtain while Eastern Slavonia was an UNTAES area), say that when they apply for return, they are provided in Belgrade with a laissez*passer valid for entry to Cr oatia only. In practice, there are daily queues in front of the Consular Sectio n of the Croatian Embassy in akorska Street in Belgrade as early as daybreak, bec ause the speed of handling the applications put in by expelled Serbs wanting to re turn is extremely slow * only 20 to 30 applications per day. Others who are not i n possession of any of the above*mentioned documents, should submit any oth er document (an ID card or a passport which have expired, residence registra tion, employment record book, seaman's book, driving licence, former JNA milita ry book, extract from Birth or Marriage Register, certificate of education or scho ol report book, proof of ownership of real estate property) and will have to wait for a reply, sometimes for several months. Apart from the requirement tha t each applicant should present himself in person, which is not specified in the "Obligatory Guidelines", expelled Serbs are required to present themselve s at least three times. The first time when they are just handed forms and giv en dates when they are to put in the completed forms (but these dates are not in t he near future, considering that the Embassy is unable to cope with the burden of scores of applications coming in every day), and the second time when they actua lly hand in the forms and when the applicant is very likely to be sent back to com e another time, because of a minor error in completing the form or an omiss ion which makes it incomplete. It is only then, however, that the waiting game begins: They are all wai ting for a reply from the Croatian Interior Ministry, which is responsible for establishing citizenship. That waiting period, as indicated in the "Guide lines", is two to three months, thus enabling Croatia to "buy" time once again an d to wait for this year of "mass refugee returns" to pass. Even if the applicant overcomes all these hurdles and eventually obtains his laissez*passer, expiring 30 days after the date of its issue, he has no g uarantee that once in Croatia, he will not be arrested and put behind bars as a wa r criminal, as recently proved by the cases of arrested Serb returners in C roatia. Those who possess all the necessary documents or who own a house or any r eal property and are not found to be "war criminals", await a collection poin t in Croatia until the procedure is completed for them to prove that they are the rightful owners of those properties. Here the process comes full circle, since five members * two members of n ational minorities (Serbs and three Croats), will sit on the municipal housing commissions, which will decide by a majority of votes. If expelled Serbs do not want to endure all that humiliation, they have the possibility to sell th eir properties. And here comes in the State Agency for the assessment and sal e of some (Serb) properties through which Serbs, as the practice shows, "sell" their homes and plots of land around them worth 200,000 Deutschmarks for 30,000 D*marks.

[03] CROATIAN EMBASSY DOES NOT INFORM UNHCR OF THE RETURN OF REFUGEES

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Coordinator of the Belgrade UNHCR office for finding a lasting solut ion to the refugee problem Eduardo Arboleda told Tanjug on Tuesday that his offi ce was receiving no information at all from the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade reg arding the applications of refugees for return to Croatia. Refugees complain dai ly to the UNHCR of a series of obstacles they encounter in their endeavors for returning home, he said. The Embassy did not provide any figures on the n umber of expelled persons wishing to return to Croatia. The UNHCR offered it t he use of its own data bank which includes 15,000 requests for repatriation regi stered since last February 1, but the Embassy answered it had no instructions to receive them, Arboleda said. Arboleda described as discouraging the results noted so far in the implementation of the mandatory regulations for return, and said t hat the Croatian Government's plan for repatriation approved on June 26 in Geneva by a working group of the Peace Implementation Council was not being duly impl emented.

The UNHCR office provided a list of 200 applicants to the Croatian Government's office for expelled persons and refugees, with which it has good cooperation and which approved the applications, but does not know now wh at happened to these people. The UNHCR office in Belgrade also has a list of 130 people that the Croatian office refuses to allow to return under the pret ext of some technicality, Arboleda noted. Perhaps these people are among war cri mes suspects, Arboleda said but added that as Croatia now wants very much to join European institutions, it should not make arrests. Arboleda pointed to t he attempts of some other humanitarian organizations, such as the Helsinki Human Rights Committee, to organize repatriation to Croatia, but this turned ou t to be a bad service as the returners are left to fend for themselves since the UNHCR cannot monitor what happens to them as it had not taken part in the proce ss. This is why the UNHCR insists on organizing repatriation, as it can then check each case through the Croatian Ministry of the Interior to make sure there are no arrests, Arboleda said. Noting that the Agreement on the normalization o f relations between Yugoslavia and Croatia provides for three ways of apply ing for repatriation - through the Croatian Embassy in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav E mbassy in Croatia or the UNHCR - Arboleda said that UNHCR believed the job shoul d be done by a single agency. So far it has not been clear who should apply w here or how, and the UNHCR believes that a different mechanism is necessary and that the Croatian Embassy should not necessarily be involved in the process, Arbol eda said. The UNHCR has consequently proposed to the Yugoslav Government to b ecome involved in the process.

According to the UNHCR, refugees should apply for repatriation to t he Serbian Commissioner for Refugees. All applications should then be proces sed in Belgrade and sent by the UNHCR office to the Croatian office for expelle d persons in Zagreb, whose head Lovre Pejkovic has said this might be poss ible, Arboleda said and added he hoped that the repatriation process would be accelerated soon.

[04] PEC PUBLIC PROSECUTOR REQUESTS INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST ETHNIC-ALBANIAN TER RORISTS

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

The Office of the Pec District Public Prosecutor on Tuesday requeste d of the District Court to open investigations against ethnic Albanians Zef Kc iraj, 25, Pjetar Kciraj, 29, Ndrec Kciraj, 46, and Hilj Kciraj 44, of the villa ge of Zub, the Djakovica municipality in Kosovo and Metohija, on suspicion of h aving committed the crime of terrorism. On July 10 this year, three of the Kci rajs, members of a commando-terrorist group of the terrorist organization "Koso vo Liberation Army," tried to take over from Zef, also member of the group, a part of an arms shipment he had brought from neighbouring Albania. The group w ere uncovered by the police, on whom they opened fire from semi-automatic wea pons.

The District Public Prosecutor requested on Monday that an investiga tion be launched against Gani Sosaj, 22, of the village Ljubenic, a member of the commando-terrorist group in the village of Glodjane in the Decani municip ality.

The Pec Public Prosecutor has also called for investigations against Avni Hakljaj, 22, and Demo Vatusa, 35, of the Decani municipality, who are sus pected of plotting against the state.

[05] RELIEF ORGANIZATION SERVES AS GUISE FOR TERRORISTS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

The Office of the Pec District Public Prosecutor called on Tuesday f or an investigation to be opened against Astrit Beca, 38, an ethnic Albanian of the town of Djakovica in Kosovo and Metohija. Beca, as secretary of the ille gal Djakovica municipal council, collected money for purchases of arms and eq uipment for ethnic-Albanian terrorists, using the "Committee for Aiding Refugees, " which acts under the guise the Mother Theresa humanitarian organization. He also secured places for the accommodation and medical treatment of terrorists, propagated terrorism, and in contacts with foreign and domestic media gav e false information about the conduct of members of Serbia security forces and th e Army of Yugoslavia in an effort to discredit them. Beca was arrested on April 4 while trying to get to the villages of Glodjane and Junik five sewing machines for the making of uniforms for terrorists. He used a car of the "Committee for Ai ding Refugees."

[06] DEPUTY SECRETARY OF SERBIAN PARLIAMENT: SERBIAN CONSTITUTION PROVIDES FOR AUTONOMY OF KOSOVO-METOHIJA

Tanjug, 1998-06-14

Deputy Secretary of Serbian Parliament Nebojsa Rodic said in an inte rview to be published on Wednesday by Belgrade daily "Vecernje Novosti" that ci tizens of Serbia's southern Province of Kosovo-Metohija could not enjoy autonomy greater than that provided for by the Serbian Constitution or than that enjoyed b y the citizens of the northern Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The issue of precise degree of autonomy of Kosovo-Metohija will be settled by a statute, as wa s done for Vojvodina in 1991 in line with the Serbian Constitution of 1990, Rodi c said. Rodic said that the adoption of any act other than a statute would be pra ctically impossible and that any other form of autonomy of Kosovo-Metohija was inconceivable. A statute, as a supreme legal act, gives great autonomy t o a province, which can constitute its assembly, executive council and administration bodies, adopts its budget, issues its final statements of accounts, creates provincial funds, etc., Rodic said. A right solution t o the Kosovo- Metohija issue will rule out the supremacy of one group over anot her, as the majority population of the province - ethnic Albanians - are not its sole inhabitants, its population includes Serbs, Montenegrins, and many minori ties, Rodic said. Asked what rights ethnic Albanians could have in line with Serbia's Constitution and law, but refuse to exercise, Rodic answered that the cit izens of Kosovo-Metohija can adopt their own programs of economic, scientific, technological, agricultural, demographic and regional development of the province, take decisions and pass acts, and regulate issues regarding cul ture, education, language and alphabet use, public information, health care and social security. The federal state is in charge of the army, state security, mon etary policy and border issues, Rodic said. The Serbian Parliament could delega te to the Province such republican prerogatives it deems appropriate, which wou ld not encroach on Serbia's statehood and the prerogatives of its Parliament, Ro dic said in conclusion.

[07] CYPRIOT SPEAKER, ACTING PRESIDENT KYPRIANOU RECEIVES JUL OFFICIAL

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Cypriot Parliament Speaker Spyros Kyprianou, as acting President of the Republic, received on Tuesday morning Deputy President of the Yugoslav Le ft (JUL) Directorate Ivan Markovic. In an extremely cordial and candid talk, Kypri anou and Markovic exchanged views on the situation in the two countries. Kyprian ou lent full support to the policy pursued by the FR of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, especially their principled position on the resolution of the Kosovo and Metohija issue. The Cypriot official condem ned terrorism and any attempt at the secession of Serbia's southern Province. He set out that relations in the international community must be based on the mu tual acknowledgement and equality of all states. Kyprianou expressed his coun try's readiness to continue actively supporting Yugoslavia's policy in all international institutions. He stressed that the Republic of Cyprus would work to develop relations with the FR of Yugoslavia, including economic cooper ation. Deputy President of the JUL Directorate Ivan Markovic informed his host a bout Yugoslavia's position that the Kosovo and Metohija issue can solely be re solved by peaceful political means, through unconditional dialogue. Markovic po inted out that Serbia was a state of all citizens living in it, and said it had no problems with the Albanian national minority but with ethnic-Albanian sep aratism and terrorism. Dialogue and respect for Serbia's constitutional order ar e a way to resolve the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, and Serbia state authoritie s are investing efforts along that line, Markovic underscored. He said Yugosla via supported the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Republic o f Cyprus, condemned the use of force, and categorically urged the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from the island. Peace, cooperation and the development of friendly relations among European peoples is the only way to create a future for Europe, the JUL official said. Yugoslav ambassador t o Cyprus Ivan Mrkic also attended.

[08] SERBIA GOVERNMENT, UNHCR SUCCESSFULLY COOPERATE

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Coordinator of the work of state authorities in Kosovo and Metohija Andrija Milosavljevic conferred with special UNHCR envoy for the former Yugoslavi a Nicholas Morris and head of the Belgrade UNHCR office Margaret O'Keeffe i n the provincial capital on Tuesday. Cooperation between the Serbia Government and the UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations was assessed as successful and productive. Possibilities for the return of citizens who have temporarily abandoned their homes because of ethnic-Albanian terrorists operations i n the province were also discussed. It was stressed that security and eventual return home must be guaranteed to the displaced persons from Krajina who have t aken refuge in Kosovo and Metohija. Both sides voiced satisfaction with how the relief aid was distributed and set out the readiness to work more effecti vely for the rescue of the persons abducted by ethnic-Albanian terrorists.

[09] YUGOSLAV ASSISTANT MINISTER RECEIVES HEAD OF U.N. MONITORING MISSION

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Yugoslav Assistant Foreign Minister Blagoje Kovacevic met here on Tu esday with the newly-appointed head of the U.N. monitoring mission to the Prevl aka peninsula, Col. Graham Roger Williams of New Zealand, and his predecessor Col. Harold Tangai of Kenya. The meeting, held at the Yugoslav Government's Co mmittee for cooperation with U.N. peace missions and the Stabilisation Force (SFOR), dealt with Yugoslavia's cooperation with this successful U.N. peace missi on whose mandate will be extended until January 15, 1999, under the U.N. Secretary-General's proposal, said a statement released by the Yugoslav Information Secretariat. Also present was head of the Belgrade-based U.N. liaison office Igor Khalewinski.

[10] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS WOUND THREE POLICEMEN NEAR DECANI

Tanjug, 1998-07-14

Three policemen were wounded in attacks by ethnic Albanian terrorist s near Decani, Serbia's Province of Kosovo and Metohija, late on Monday and earl y on Tuesday, local officials told Tanjug. The police officers Dejan Radenkov ic, Vladimir Bujanac and Branko Vasiljevic were transferred to hospital in Pe c and their condition is stable.

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