OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 141, 21 July 1995

From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@hilbert.cdsp.neu.edu>

CONTENTS

  • [01] THOUSANDS STILL MISSING FROM SREBRENICA.

  • [02] ZEPA DOES NOT WANT SREBRENICA'S FATE.

  • [03] PRESSURE GROWS FOR ACTION IN BOSNIA.

  • [04] DISPLAY OF AIR POWER "NOT SEEN SINCE THE GULF WAR."

  • [05] SERBS MAKE GAINS AROUND BIHAC.

  • [06] SERBIAN RADICALS PRAISE BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.

  • [07] MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR NATIONAL EQUALITY IN KOSOVO . . .

  • [08] . . . WHILE KOSOVAR INFORMATION MINISTRY DENOUNCES HIS STATEMENTS.

  • [09] PARIS CLUB GIVES MACEDONIA MORE TIME TO PAY DEBTS

  • [10] MACEDONIA, TURKEY SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT.

  • [11] ALBANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SURVIVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 141, Part II, 21 July 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [01] THOUSANDS STILL MISSING FROM SREBRENICA.

    Mlada fronta dnes on 21 July reported that thousands of people who fled Srebrenica, especially military-aged men, remain unaccounted for. The VOA on 20 July said that refugees who have reached Tuzla tell "shocking stories" of rapes, beatings, robberies, and killings. Some people were arbitrarily taken off the buses and not seen again. One massacre reportedly took place when Serbs dressed in UN uniforms and driving UN vehicles tricked refugees into coming out of the woods where they had been hiding and mowed them down. The stories told in Tuzla are apparently fairly consistent but cannot be independently confirmed because the Serbs will not let UN monitors into areas under their control. The Security Council on 20 July passed a resolution that, among other things, reminded the Serbs that individuals will be held accountable for the war crimes they commit. The Belgrade weekly NIN on 21 July called Srebrenica "a ghost town." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [02] ZEPA DOES NOT WANT SREBRENICA'S FATE.

    International media on 21 July reported that the Bosnian Serb forces are in effective control of Zepa but that local Bosnian army forces refuse to surrender and face what appears to be certain death. The Serbs insist on classifying all Muslim males between 18 and 55 as prisoners of war, and the men fear they will be killed or, at best, sent to a concentration camp. When talks broke down late in the afternoon of 20 July, the Serbs shelled the town. The government troops responded by firing mortars at both the Serbs and the 79 Ukrainian peacekeepers, whom they blame for doing nothing to protect the UN-designated "safe area." The Serbs meanwhile have brought up buses to prepare for what the VOA called "the ethnic cleansing" of Zepa and its 17,000 Muslims. BETA on 20 July reported that the U.S. has written to the Bosnian Serbs asking them to allow international humanitarian organizations access to Zepa. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] PRESSURE GROWS FOR ACTION IN BOSNIA.

    Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic told CNN on 20 July that "there is a time for words and a time for action. . . . The time comes when babies are cut in half, young girls raped and grown up people [are] numb with terror --that is a time for men to act. This is the time to act in Bosnia or leave Bosnia alone." The International Herald Tribune quoted U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as saying that "the notion of a small band of barbarians directly taking on the civilized democracies and winning is a threat to the survival of the security system and we should respond to it with whatever level of coercion is ultimately required." The EU administrator of Mostar, Hans Koschnick, told AFP that "the hypocrisy of the current international policy in Bosnia is no longer bearable." The New York Times on 21 July, however, said that President Bill Clinton "deserves credit for avoiding American combat fatalities." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] DISPLAY OF AIR POWER "NOT SEEN SINCE THE GULF WAR."

    This is how the VOAon 21 July described the White House's plan outlined the same day at the London meeting of the Contact Group countries plus Italy, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Canada, and Spain. International media suggested that the Serbs will be warned against attacking Gorazde, Sarajevo, or Tuzla or taking peacekeepers hostage. If they do not heed the warnings, their capital at Pale, command centers, missile sites, radar installations, fuel dumps, or other targets may be attacked. Britain is especially concerned for the fate of 300 of its peacekeepers at Gorazde and has reportedly endorsed the American plan. France wants U.S. helicopters to ferry 1,000 French troops into Gorazde, and reports are contradictory as to whether Washington has brought Paris around to its point of view. Elsewhere, Serbian media on 21 July reported that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has offered to swap some territory held by his men around Sarajevo in return for Gorazde. His men shelled downtown Sarajevo that same day. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] SERBS MAKE GAINS AROUND BIHAC.

    Krajina Serb forces aided by local Muslim renegades have taken much territory in the west of the Bihac pocket, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on 21 July. Hina the previous day quoted Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic as saying that Zagreb will take steps to protect the enclave, the fall of which would greatly improve land links between Krajina and the Bosnian Serbs. Bihac will doubtless be on the agenda when Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and his Bosnian counterpart, Alija Izetbegovic, meet in Split on 22 July. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] SERBIAN RADICALS PRAISE BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.

    The Serbian Radical Party (SRS), led by accused war criminal Vojislav Seselj, has sent congratulations to the Bosnian Serb forces, BETA reported on 20 July. SRS deputy leader Maja Gojkovic told a 20 July press conference that the Bosnian Serb assault on the Zepa enclave constitutes its "liberation" and the destruction of a base that had been used for "terrorist action" by the Bosnian Muslim forces. Gojkovic warned the international community against becoming embroiled in the war in Bosnia, predicting that the Bosnian Serb forces will continue their advances and turn their attention to the "liberation" of Gorazde. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [07] MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR NATIONAL EQUALITY IN KOSOVO . . .

    Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, visiting Kosovo for the first time since 1992, called for "a policy of national equality" in which "every citizen will be equal," Reuters and BETA reported on 20 July. At a rally in Kosovska Mitrovica, he called on ethnic Albanians to sideline their political leaders and embrace the Serbian administration. Milosevic also visited the metallurgic works in Trepca where he expressed his "deep satisfaction" about the return to work of 1,200 ethnic Albanians who had boycotted the facility since the abolition of autonomy in 1989. Hinting at charges of atrocities allegedly committed by Albanians in the 1980s, he said: "We must get away from such cruelties and never return to them, no matter whoever they be against, Serbs, Albanians, Turks or Muslims." -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [08] . . . WHILE KOSOVAR INFORMATION MINISTRY DENOUNCES HIS STATEMENTS.

    The Ministry of Information of the self-declared Republic of Kosovo responded sharply to Milosevic's statement that Kosovo will become "a region of mutual understanding, cooperation and coexistence." It declared that his name "stands for the introduction of a system of violence and apartheid, for the killing of Albanians [and] their imprisonment, the occupation of Kosovo, the [dismissal] of hundreds of thousands of Albanians from their jobs, large-scale campaigns of raids and tortures, the staging of dozens of political trials, ethnic cleansing, and the colonization of Kosovo with Serbs." The ministry concluded that all Milosevic's visits to Kosovo have aimed at mobilizing the Serbian minority against the Albanians, Kosova Communication reported on 20 July. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [09] PARIS CLUB GIVES MACEDONIA MORE TIME TO PAY DEBTS.

    The Paris Club of government creditors has agreed to reschedule Macedonia's official debts, Reuters reported on 19 July. Macedonian Finance Minister Jane Miljovski said the creditors called the accord "satisfying." The deal will give Skopje up to 15 years to pay the bulk of its nearly $300 million debt. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [10] MACEDONIA, TURKEY SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT.

    Macedonia and Turkey on 20 July signed an agreement on military cooperation providing for the exchange and training of military experts and joint military exercises, international agencies reported the same day. The document was signed during a visit to Skopje by Turkish army Chief of Staff Gen. Ismail Hakki Karadayi, who met with his Macedonian counterpart, Gen. Dragoljub Bocinov, and Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov. Karadayi stressed that the accord "is not directed against the security of a third country." It is the third and broadest document that the two countries have signed on military cooperation. Karadayi's visit came just one week after Turkish President Suleyman Demirel traveled to Macedonia to sign a 20-year friendship treaty. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.

    [11] ALBANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SURVIVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE.

    Safet Zhulali has survived a no-confidence vote brought against him by the opposition Socialist Party, Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 21 July. The Socialists claimed that during the campaign for the referendum on a new constitution, Zhulali violated the principle of political independence in the army by rallying for President Sali Berisha's constitution proposal. Zhulali survived a previous no-confidence vote brought by the Socialists, who charged him with being involved in arms trade with the Bosnian Serbs. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a Prague-based nonprofit organization.

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