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Serbia Today 96-08-12
Serbia Today
12 August 1996
CONTENTS
[01] PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC RECEIVES CORNBLUM AND JOWLVAN
[02] ENCOURAGING GROWTH OF EXPORTS
[03] EXTREMELY DIFFICULT HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN THE FR OF YUGOSLAVIA
[04] IMPORTED VIOLENCE
[05] CONTACT GROUP MEETS TODAY IN BRUSSELS TO DISCUSS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS
[06] NO TRACE OF 1,936 SERBIAN FIGHTERS AND CIVILIANS
[07] GENOCIDE AGAINST SERBS DOCUMENTED
[08] TRAVNIK CROATS DEMAND PROTECTION
[09] CRITICISM AND ACCUSATIONS OF CROATIA
[10] CROAT MODEL OF APARTHEID
[01] PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC RECEIVES CORNBLUM AND JOWLVAN
President of the Republic of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic
received the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Cornblum and the
Commander of NATO forces in Europe General Jowlvan. He had talks
with them about the implementation of the peace agreement in
Bosnia. The importance was emphasized of intensive and
coordinated efforts with the aim for the agreement to be
consistently and completely implemented and special importance
here is devoted to the successful holding of the forthcoming
elections in Bosnia. Joint expectations were expressed that the
elections for the legal institutions in Bosnia will yield the
most significant impetus to the overall normalization of the
situation, which should make possible an accelerated return of
refugees and promote confidence building among the population.
There was also discussion of the actual matters of bilateral
relations between the United States of America and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.
(Politika, August 10, 1996)
[02] ENCOURAGING GROWTH OF EXPORTS
Dragan Tomic, Minister Coordinator in the Government of the
Republic of Serbia, stated for Radio Kragujevac that "the
Government has announced early this year significant growth of
exports", but that this was not fully achieved in the first months
of the year, "because the suspension of sanctions did not bring
about the expected freedom in the international circulation of our
goods and, what is the most important - we did not receive the
most-favored-nation treatment there where we had it before, so the
customs duties on the Yugoslav goods are very high". However,
certain changes are slowly happening, so in June our exports were
increased for 17 percent in respect to the same months last year,
and in July it reached 47%. According to Tomic, these are good
results, especially having in mind that for three years now there
is a simultaneous growth of production and of exports. "I am
expecting that the last quarter of this year will be extremely
dynamic and that in this period the growth rate of exports, in
respect to the past period this year and last year, will be
considerably above 50 percent". Such an increased export, says
Minster Tomic, means for our country a revival of production,
greater employment both of manpower and capacities, increase of
foreign exchange reserves and lasting stability of the dinar
exchange rate. "Constant growth of exports will create conditions
for the economy next year to find itself in an offensive position
on the world market", states Tomic.
(Politika, August 12, 1996)
[03] EXTREMELY DIFFICULT HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN THE FR OF YUGOSLAVIA
Humanitarian situation in our country is extremely difficult. The
Yugoslav Red Cross and the Commissariat for Refugees of Serbia have
sent appeals for assistance to the international donors and the
international public, and there was also an appeal by the
Association of Refugees into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
with the warning that there will be tragic consequences of the
reduced aid on the most endangered among refugees, the aged,
children and sick. International organizations last year have
reduced their aid to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia although in
the summer of last year the number of refugees in the FR of
Yugoslavia increased for almost two hundred thousand people. "The
Yugoslav Red Cross is providing aid for 520,000 refugees and the
Commissariat is caring for some 100,000 refugees in the collective
centers. However, international organizations are 'calculating'
with the figure of 350,000 refugees and according to their norms
are sending aid for this number. In this year this assistance was
even further drastically reduced", says Dr. Rade Dubajic, Secretary
General of the Yugoslav Red Cross. Humanitarian aid of the
international organizations was re-oriented this year to the area
of Bosnia, because it was estimated that there will be a more
massive return of refugees to their homes. However, the
repatriation did not occur, refugees remained here but the aid was
reduced. "The trouble is that refugees are going to spend the
winter here. Our appeals refer to the present-day difficult
situation, but also to the situation which is yet to come", says
Dubajic.
(Borba, August 11, 1996)
[04] IMPORTED VIOLENCE
At the recently held anti-terrorism gathering of the most
influential counties of the world, terrorism was condemned and a
joint stand taken in the fight against it. The cause for this
gathering was the explosive device placed in Atlanta during the
Olympic Games. While commenting yesterday on the terrorism in
Kosovo and Metohija, Radmilo Bogdanovic, Vice-President of the
Chamber of the Republics of the Federal Assembly (Federal
Parliament) and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for
Security, expressed his surprise that on the occasion of more and
more frequent terrorist acts by the Skypetary (Albanian)
separatists in Kosmet (Kosovo and Metohija) there is no voice heard
of the foreign countries, especially those who are leading the
fight against terrorism. "As if this is not a form of terrorism, an
attack on the legal state authorities? I am sure that terrorism in
Kosmet has its support from abroad also. This support may even be
in the hesitation of the world community towards solving the
problem of Kosmet", said Bogdanovic. While speaking of the
background of the terrorist attacks in our southern province,
Bogdanovic underlined that Skypetary (Albanian) secessionists in
the essence, wish to draw the attention to themselves as the ones,
allegedly, exposed to repression.
(Politika ekspres, August 12, 1996)
[05] CONTACT GROUP MEETS TODAY IN BRUSSELS TO DISCUSS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS
In Brussels today meeting is to start of the Contact Group
devoted to the agreement on providing solid conditions for
democratic elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the yesterday's
statement given by the official spokesman of the French Foreign
Ministry on this occasion, it is stated that it is necessary for
all the Contact Group countries to engage themselves in order to
overcome the difficulties. Paris commentators are claiming that the
main task of the new European tour of Warren Christopher is to
preserve the dual federation which, according to "Le Mond", "is now
existing on paper only". It is also estimated that the ual
federation is the means of the American politics and that its
failure would signify the
failure of the American diplomacy in the Balkans. In Paris, the
front page significance is devoted to the meeting between
Presidents Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic with Christopher and
members of the Contact Group next Wednesday in Geneva, with the
emphasis that the days are coming of significant developments and
decisions.
(Borba, August 12, 1996)
[06] NO TRACE OF 1,936 SERBIAN FIGHTERS AND CIVILIANS
The crisis in connection with the exhumations in Bosnia started
at the very beginning of this extremely complex and delicate job.
In the village of Kamen near Glamoc, on July 16, 1996 the first
mass grave was exhumed from which bodies of 42 Serbian fighters and
civilians were taken, those killed in August and September last
year. Already the next day, however, Serbian exhumation team was
stopped on the separation line, because the Muslim-Croat
authorities did not permit the exhumation to continue. IFOR did not
interfere, although it was its obligation. The answer could be
found in the fact that the Croat side has lost interest for Serbs
to continue with this job. Namely, parallel with the Serbian
exhumation, Croats were exhuming bodies of their soldiers in
Kozarska Dubica in the Serbian territory. "Immediately after the
Serbs have exhumed 42 bodies, and the Croats only 9, the Croat
authorities where no longer interested in allowing Serbs to
continue further exhumation", says Milan Ivancevic from the state
commission for the exchange of prisoners of war and for missing
persons. In Glamoc, according to the admission of the Croat Army,
107 members of the Republic of Srpska Army and of the local
population of Drvar and Glamoc municipalities were buried in the
mass grave there. According to the information obtained by the
Serbian side, there are still some 40 mass graves with bodies of
Serbian soldiers and civilians awaiting exhumation. The State
Commission of the Republic of Srpska has on its list 1,158 fighters
and 808 civilians unaccounted for, without any trace about them and
it is assumed that the secret is concealed in these mass graves.
(Politika, August 11, 1996)
[07] GENOCIDE AGAINST SERBS DOCUMENTED
In the former Bosnia-Herzegovina, from the year 1992 there were
395 prison camps for Serbs, 162 prison camps in Croatia and 21 in
Slovenia, stated for Tanjug news agency Dr. Stevo Pasalic, author
of the book with the work title: "Perdition of Serbs and of Serbian
Settlements in Bosnia-Herzegovina During the Past War", which is
to come out of print by the end of this year. The author has
documented genocide against Serbs in 500 settlements which were
thereafter completely burnt down, and stated that Serbian villages
were destroyed in the most brutal way in the municipalities of
Derventa, Zenica, Gorazde, Konjic, Bihac, Kupa on Una, Bugojno,
Mostar, Trebinje, Drvar, Sipovo, Sanski Most, Glamoc, Kljuc,
Mrkonjic Grad, Petrovac, Grahovo, Srbobran, Jajce and Zavidovici.
Ethnic cleansing of Serbs was executed in Breza, Kakanj, Kladanj,
Livno, Tuzla, Vares, Visoko, Capljina, Novi Travnik and Tesanj.
According to this author, the most drastic ethnic cleansing was
committed in the areas of Visoko and Zenica. Stricken by the war
were 1,196 settlements in which Serbs were living, among them 878
with the Serbian majority and 318 of those in which Serbs were not
a majority.
(Politika, August 12, 1996)
[08] TRAVNIK CROATS DEMAND PROTECTION
Croat municipal leadership of Travnik in exile, has sent an
appeal to the President of the Croat-Muslim Federation Kresimir
Zubak, demanding that he undertakes urgent measures for the
protection of the remaining Croats from the Muslim terror in that
area, Croat Radio reports. In the appeal letter, a number of cases
are stated of threats without any cause, of harassment and
persecution of a small number of remaining Croats in Travnik, as
well as the cases of plunder and destruction of their sacral
buildings. As the elections in Bosnia are getting closer, there is
an increasing number of incidents where Croats are the victims,
claims the same source.
(Politika ekspres, August 12, 1996)
[09] CRITICISM AND ACCUSATIONS OF CROATIA
Croatia has rejected as untrue the reports of the UN High
Commissariat for Refugees and of the organizations for the
protection of human rights, that it is obstructing the return of
Serbian refugees. Croat Government in its letter to the UNHCR says
that this agency has reported false data about the number of
refugees who have returned to their homes. Commissariat has joined
the other international observers in the accusations of Croatia of
not showing interest in the return of Serbian refugees. The UNHCR
has also accused Croatia of making difficult the repatriation of
refugees and of tolerating plunder and harassment of the remaining
Serbs.
Because of depriving Serbs of the right to return to their
homes, Croatia was also criticized by Elizabeth Ren, UN special
envoy for human rights. At the press conference in Sarajevo, she
stated that she is very much disappointed because of the
difficulties which the Serbs have to face, those who wish to return
to Krajina. During the four years, the percentage of Serbs in
Croatia has been reduced from 12 to 3 percent, said Ren, and those
who have remained are still exposed to harassment. Threats to these
Serbs are not diminishing but are intensifying... After the
aggression of the Croat Army during the military operation "The
Storm" from the Republic of Serbian Krajina some 300,000 Serbs were
exiled or escaped, and all of the Serbian ethnic territories have
practically been cleansed, except for the Srem and Baranja region
in which still some 140,000 Serbs are living.
(Politika, August 11, 1996)
[10] CROAT MODEL OF APARTHEID
Croat authorities in Pakrac, 15 months after the military action
"The Flash" and a large-scale exodus and pogrom of Serbian
population, have designated for the remaining Serbs in this town
a special medical station and a physician who is to make medical
examination of Serbs so that in the same rooms and with the same
doctors there would not be treatment of Serbs and Croats. This was
stated for Tanjug news agency by the medical nurse originating from
Serbia who is now living in Pakrac. On the doors of the medical
station premisses it is written: "Medical Examination Room for
Serbs", and in these premisses the physician is a Serbian lady,
medical doctor. The idea of segregated medical stations came from
Dr. Ivan Marjanovic, a surgeon in the Pakrac medical center. In
this center before the war, there were 1,200 employed, of various
nationalities. No one from the remaining Serbs is now working
there, because they are "politically unsuitable", as is often said
by Dr. Marjanovic. He ordered that the ad for the opening of the
medical position be canceled because only one doctor of medicine
applied and he was a Serb, Dr. Branko Sudar, born in Pakrac, who
was living during the war in Switzerland. The renown Pakrac surgeon
Dr. Vinko Onic, at the request for him to return from Kutine where
during the war the medical staff was transferred, as well as the
medical equipment of the Pakrac medical center, sent a massage
saying that he will not return "because he does not wish to heal
Chetnicks".
(Vecernje novosti, August 11, 1996)
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