OMRI: PURSUING BALKAN PEACE, V1,#14, Apr. 9, 1996

From: OMRI-L <omri-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu>

Open Media Research Institute: Pursuing Balkan Peace Directory

CONTENTS

OMRI SPECIAL REPORT: PURSUING BALKAN PEACE

Vol. 1, No. 14, 9 APRIL 1996

[01] HAGUE TRIBUNAL REPORTS RUMP YUGOSLAVIA TO SECURITY COUNCIL.

[02] WAR CRIMES UPDATE.

[03] SHALIKASHVILI SAYS U.S. TROOPS WILL NOT PURSUE WAR CRIMINALS.

[04] KARADZIC PICKED TO NEGOTIATE WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

[05] KARADZIC TURNS DOWN OFFER OF ASYLUM FROM MONASTERY?

[06] ANTI-NATIONALIST SERBS SAY SARAJEVO CAN STILL BE MULTIETHNIC.

[07] ROW OVER DECLARATION ON BOSNIAN UNITY.

[08] ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES PROCEED APACE.

[09] BILDT WARNS ABOUT SOCIAL UNREST.

[10] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER PROTESTS TO BILDT OVER PRISONER ISSUE.

[11] UPDATE ON PRISONERS...

[12] ...AND ON REFUGEES.

[13] IFOR SAYS NO MORE ILLEGAL CHECKPOINTS IN BOSNIA.

[14] "BRITAIN'S SECRET WAR IN BOSNIA."

[15] CROATIA ARRESTS FOUR BOSNIANS ON TERRORISM CHARGES.

[16] FALL IN CONFIDENCE IN THE BOSNIAN DINAR.

[17] BOSNIA BECOMES A MEMBER OF THE WORLD BANK...

[18] ...AND SIGN AN AGREEMENT WORTH $269 MILLION.

[19] ECONOMIC DOLDRUMS DOMINATE THE SCENE.

In Prijedor in the RS, for example, some factories are working at 15-20% capacity, but problems are expected to grow as demobilization proceeds. Agriculture is promising, but power and water supply situations in the surrounding areas vary. Some 50-90% of the houses in those villages have been destroyed. Train service has been restored between Bosanski Novi, Prijedor, Banja Luka, and Bosanski Samac, but service is irregular due to electricity breakdowns. There is also a shortage of passenger cars, most having been destroyed during the war. A new digital telephone exchange provides good connections even outside the RS, but there are no links to the Federation. A new phone extension costs DM 320.

In Mostar, the Muslim east appears grim in comparison to the Croatian west. East Mostar has little money, and people have difficulty paying their electricity bills of DM 6 out of a salary of DM 79. The EU has invested DM 8 million in restoring production and supports 30 projects, but the economy is functioning at only about one-third capacity. Only 4,000 are employed out of a population of 50,000, with more demobilized soldiers on the way. Agriculture and reconstruction of homes are conducted mainly on an individual basis. A major need is a private bank to provide funds for all manner of development projects. -- Yvonne Badal in Sarajevo

[20] BANKING IN BOSNIA.

In Bosnia, some 28 new banks have been founded, 17 of which are located in Sarajevo. The number of banks is expected to decline after 1 January 1997, when the minimum capital requirement will rise to DM 2.5 million. A Central Bank, meanwhile, exists only on paper and its future is uncertain.

Much money was made by the new banks in handling cash transfers from abroad. Active personal accounts are generally limited to modest amounts, and banks prefer small companies as clients because of the low risk inherent in lending only small sums. Setting up infrastructure, conducting personnel training, and restoring links to the Swift system are basic tasks that have to be met.

There are two basic types of banks, namely the old state-owned ones that are trying to restore their former position in the economy, and the new private ones, which are purely forward-looking. Few have developed a serious marketing strategy, although some are trying to project a profile. For example, SAB has the image of being dynamic, young, and Western; Gospodarska Banka, by contrast, is traditional and Croat; Vakufska Banka is something of its Islamic counterpart. All are negative in their attitudes toward banks in the Republika Srpska or on the prospects of setting up a unified banking system across all Bosnia.

In Trebinje, Mayor Bozidar Vucurevic said that there are two major RS banks with branches in every municipality. The banks in his town, however, distribute paychecks but do not appear to take deposits. There are, finally, plans for a RS Central Bank. -- Yvonne Badal in Sarajevo

[21] MASS GRAVES: "EXPERT KNOWLEDGE IS APOLITICAL"

The pungent and unavoidable stink of putrefaction hangs over the macabre scene. About 40 bodies are spread on canvas cloths, lined in three rows on the concrete floor. The cadavers are wrapped in dark plastic sheets that are caked with mud. It is not immediately apparent that all the bodies are lying with their heads in the same direction. When some of the mortuary aides check numbers, leaving the sheets open, the bits of clothing showing through provide no flashes of color. Every thing is muddy green. An old unshaven man walks along a small carriage pulled by a tired looking wet horse. They have brought five more bodies wrapped in plastic from the graveyard where workers in high rubber boots are widening the three large common graves. Two teams of pathologists examine the bodies and dictate descriptions to a stenographer. "No. 109, woman, 167 cms, white hair...." Some of the workers breathe through handkerchiefs, others, like the pathologists wear surgical masks.

Most of the townspeople congregate around in front of a wall where the names of those identified have been entered on four pieces of paper. In a small building where workers are unloading coffins from a truck, pathologists are conducting more detailed forensic examinations. One of them, Dr. Zoran Stankovic is well known in Belgrade. He is also a colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army. "It is too early for serious conclusions," he said. "We will need one or two more days to end exhumations and about 10 more days to finish with the examination and documentation. Then we can say more. But what is clear already is that besides military people we have many civilians here, some of them very old and, so far, twelve women. The civilians have in most cases no wounds from splinters from larger explosions, which would imply that they could have died in an artillery attack. Most of them died from gunshots. We have yet to establish from what range they were shot. In the case of one soldier we have a clear indication that after being wounded in a leg, he died of two pistol shots from a close range to the back of his skull. We were glad to have had an investigator from the international war crimes tribunal with us at the beginning, but were disappointed when he left after two days to do similar work in Srebrenica. The mass graves have their political undertones. I think it would be a good idea if experts from all sides could do this together as a joint exercise that could not be misused." The physician's approach was professional, and even his statement shown on Banja Luka television the evening before was free of political explanations or propaganda.

After five days of horrible work, 181 bodies were discovered and 89 of them identified. There are some suggestions that it was a special HV unit, the Zagreb-based "Tigers," that took this town and could have been responsible for burying the bodies in the mass graves.

Meanwhile with the snow melting in the high ground, experts are concerned that the last chances may be fading to find the remains and identify many of the 27,000 persons missing after four years of war. Tony Birrey, a reporter for ABC, followed the mountain paths over which thousands of people had tried to escape from former "safe areas" as they were falling in Zepa and Srebrenica in July 1995 by attempting to cross the front lines. "At one place about three kilometers from a road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje between 40 and 50 partially decomposed bodies lay in a forest."

There are, moreover, serious allegations that some of the suspected mass graves near Srebrenica have been tampered with (see above). As many as 600 bodies of Srebrenica men said to have been massacred have reportedly disappeared from the sites. "It is high time that the Office of the High Representative of the UN Commission on Human Rights takes a lead in this," said one senior Bosnian official. "We need to move fast and in a way to prevent further political abuses. A joint forensic institute should bring together real experts from all sides who with international help would deal with the exhumation of mass graves and collection of the bodies from forests. Expert knowledge is apolitical." Dr. Stankovic would agree, but until politicians act, thousands of families will not have a chance to know the truth or finally mourn their dead. -- Jan Urban in Sarajevo