YDS 11/13

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)

13. NOVEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY

C O N T E N T S :

THE SREM-BARANJA REGION - CROATIA AGREEMENT - AGREEMENT SIGNED ON FUTURE OF SREM-BARANJA REGION - AGREEMENT ON FUTURE OF SREM-BARANJA REGION - SREM AND BARANJA OFFICIAL SAYS AGREEMENT GUARANTEES PEACE, SAFETY - CROATIAN OFFICIAL: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD HELPS NORMALISE RELATIONS - STOLTENBERG, GALBRAITH: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD HERALDS END OF WAR - MOSCOW: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD-HOPE FOR YUGOSLAVIA-CROATIA NORMALISATION

DAYTON - TALKS - CHRISTOPHER TALKS WITH MILOSEVIC

SANCTIONS AGAINST THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - U.N. APPROVES RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS EXPORTS TO YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA WORKS TOWARDS SOONEST LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST F.R.Y.

SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO-METOHIJA - RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR: KOSOVO IS THE INTERNAL AFFAIR OF YUGOSLAVIA AND SERBIA - GERMANY SEES KOSOVO-METOHIJA AS PART OF YUGOSLAVIA, SERBIA

YUGOSLAVIA - EGYPT - CAIRO WANTS RELATIONS WITH BELGRADE RESTORED

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA - APPEAL TO GREECE TO HELP RECONSTRUCTION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - U.S. DIPLOMAT SATISFIED WITH TALKS WITH BOSNIAN SERB REPRESENTATIVES - BOSNIAN MUSLIMS, CROATS SIGN AGREEMENT ON STRENGTHENING FEDERATION

PEACEKEEPING FORCES FOR BOSNIA - SENIOR NATO COMMANDERS IN BOSNIA - UKRAINE ANNOUNCES PARTICIPATION IN PEACEKEEPING IN BOSNIA

FROM FOREIGN PRESS - NEW YORK TIMES: MILOSEVIC, BALKAN LEADER MOST SET ON ACHIEVING PEACE - FRENCH RADIO: IZETBEGOVIC WANTS MUSLIM, NOT MULTI-ETHNIC BOSNIA

THE SREM-BARANJA REGION - CROATIA AGREEMENT

AGREEMENT SIGNED ON FUTURE OF SREM-BARANJA REGION E r d u t, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - A basic agreement on the peaceful solution of the future of the Srem-Baranja region was signed in Erdut on Sunday. The agreement, was signed on behalf of the Srem-Baranja region by Milan Milanovic and international mediators Thorvald Stoltenberg and Peter Galbraith. Croatia also signed on Sunday a basic agreement on a peaceful solution to the issue of the Srem-Baranja region. The agreement was signed by Hrvoje Sarinic, Head of the Croatian President's Office.

AGREEMENT ON FUTURE OF SREM-BARANJA REGION E r d u t, Z a g r e b, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - The agreement on a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Srem-Baranja region signed in Erdut and Zagreb Sunday evening ends a state of war in the region. Under the agreement the region will be placed under an international administration. After the document was signed first in Erdut and then Zagreb, its text was sent to the U.N. Security Council, the guarantor of the agreement. The agreement has 14 items and it honours all of the Serb side's 11 requests. The agreement envisages a 12-month transitional period, which may be extended at the most to another period of the same duration if so requested by one of the parties. It enables Serbs to live in peace, free of pressures and immediate threat of war and under highest international gurantees. Item 6 of the agreement specifies that the highest levels of internationally-recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms shall be respected in the region. Under items 10 and 11, the international community and its institutions pledge to take the necessary steps to secure the implementation of all provisions of the agreement. Following are excerpts from the agreement: 'There shall be a transitional period od 12 months which may be extended at most to another period of the same duration if so requested by one of the parties.' 'The U.N. Security Council is requested to establish a transitional administration, which shall govern the region during the transitional period...' 'The U.N. Security Council is requested to authorize an international force to deploy during the transitional period to maintain peace and security in the region and otherwise to assist in implementation of this agreement. The region shall be demilitarized...' 'The transitional administration shall ensure the possibility for the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes of origin...' The transitional administration shall help to establish and train temporary police forces, to build professionalism among the police and confidence among all ethnic communities.' 'The highest levels of internationally-recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms shall be respected in the region.' 'All persons have the right to return freely to their place of residence in the region and to live there in conditions of security.' 'The right to recover property, to receive compensation for property that cannot be returned, and to receive assistance in reconstruction of damaged property shall be equally available to all persons without regard to ethnicity.' 'After the expiration of the transition period and consistent with established practice, the international community shall monitor and report on respect for human rights in the region on a long-term basis.' 'Not later than 30 days before the end of the transitional period, elections for all local government bodies, including for municipalities, districts, and counties, as well as the right of the Serbian community to appoint a joint council of municipalities, shall be organized by the transitional administration. International organizations and institutions (e.g. the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations) and interested states are requested to oversee the elections.' 'This agreement shall enter into force upon the adoption by the U.N. Security Council of a resolution responding affirmatively to the requests made in this agreement.'

SREM AND BARANJA OFFICIAL SAYS AGREEMENT GUARANTEES PEACE, SAFETY E r d u t, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - Head of the Srem and Baranja region negotiating team, Milan Milanovic, said Sunday that an agreement on a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the region, guaranteed 'peace and protection of the Serb people's property and personal safety.' This means that the agreement marks the achievement of the basic goal set by the Serb side at the beginning of the negotiating process, Milanovic said in a statement to Tanjug. To avoid war, we have put confidence in international organisations and guarantees offered by the U.N. and its Security Council, as well as by the international community as a whole, he said. Milanovic described as vital the fact that the agreement, which was counter signed by international mediators Thorvald Stoltenberg and Peter Galbraith, will go into force once the U.N. Security Council adopts it through a special resolution. This means that the Security Council permanent members - Russia, the U.S., China, France and Britain - will guarantee a consistent implementation of this basic agreement, the security of the Srem and Baranja region, peace and personal safety to its people, he said. Milanovic said the signing of the agreement would greatly contribute to the peace process for the former Yugoslavia as a whole and would help stabilise the situation in the region and outside it. 'We believe that it (agreement) also creates conditions for normalising relations between Yugoslavia and Croatia, which, we are confident, will have broader positive impact,' he said. Our goal has always been peace and equality for all peoples and all citizens, he said and added that the Serb side would manifest full responsibility and cooperativeness in the implementation of the agreeement. Milanovic said he expected the Croatian side to manifest equal responsibility. He said he also expected all international factors, in particular the Security Council and its permanent members who will act as guarantors, as well as the E.U., to be principled and unbiased in order to secure a consistent implementation of the agreement.

CROATIAN OFFICIAL: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD HELPS NORMALISE RELATIONS Z a g r e b, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - Croatia's chief negoatiator with the Serbs said on Sunday that the signing of the agreement earlier in the day on a peaceful end to the problem of the Srem-Baranja region was asegment of full normalisation of Croatian-Serbian relations. Speaking at the ceremony of signing the agreement in Zagreb, negotiator Hrvoje Sarinic, Chief of the Croatian Presidential Cabinet, hoped that this would soon be the reality also in the talks at Dayton, Ohio, USA.

STOLTENBERG, GALBRAITH: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD HERALDS END OF WAR E r d u t, Nov 12. (tanjug) - U.N. and U.S. envoys who mediated in the signing of the agreement on the future of the Srem-Baranja region on Sunday said in Erdut that the agreement was the beginning of the end of the war in former Yugoslavia. U.N. Envoy to former Yugoslavia Thorvald Stoltenberg told reporters that the agreement for the Srem-Baranja region offered protection, security and hope for the future not only to the people of the region, but to all of former Yugoslavia and beyond. He added that the agreement allowed the people to live in peace and together, which had been the object of the efforts to bring peace to former Yugoslavia. U.S. Ambassador in Zagreb Peter Galbraith, who also mediated in the talks, described the agreement as 'historic' and said that 'for the first time in this conflict, an issue has been resolved peacefully by signatures and not by bullets.' Galbraith said that the region had had a multi-ethnic character in former Croatia and former Yugoslavia, and hoped that the agreement would again make it so.

MOSCOW: SREM-BARANJA ACCORD-HOPE FOR YUGOSLAVIA-CROATIA NORMALISAT ION M o s c o w, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Sunday that the signing of the agreement on the Srem-Baranja region earlier in the day had created conditions for a peaceful, political way out of the problem. The Russian Itar-Tass news agency quotes Ivanov as saying that The agreement gives a chance to avoid a repetition of the tragedy of the rest of the Serb Krajina. He said that the agreement had been made possible by the realistic and responsible approach of Zagreb and the local Serb authorities and the efforts of U.N. mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg and the Contact Group states. Ivanov said the agreement removed major obstacles to a full normalisation of relations between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which he described as crucial to a comprehensive settlement of the Balkan crisis. He stressed that Russia was prepared to continue to move in this direction and develop traditionally friendly relations with both Belgrade and Zagreb.

DAYTON - TALKS

CHRISTOPHER TALKS WITH MILOSEVIC D a y t o n, Nov. 11 (Tanjug) - U.S. State Secretary Warren Christopher Friday talked with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, head of the Yugoslav delegation to the peace talks on Bosnia held at the Wright-Patterson air force base near Dayton, Ohio. Christopher, as Tanjug has learned, stated satisfaction with the release of U.S. journalist David Rohde which was helped and mediated by the Serbian President.

SANCTIONS AGAINST THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

U.N. APPROVES RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS EXPORTS TO YUGOSLAVIA N e w Y o r k, Nov. 10 (Tanjug) - The U.N. Sanctions Committee on Friday night decided to approve exports of Russian natural gas, heating oil and liquid gas to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the winter period. The approval for natural gas imports was given for a period of two months, with a possibility of extending it, while the import of heating oil and liquid gas will be allowed in the next six months.

RUSSIA WORKS TOWARDS SOONEST LIFTING OF SANCTIONS AGAINST F.R.Y. M o s c o w, Nov. 11 (Tanjug) - First Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has stated that Moscow is taking steps for the 'soonest possible lifting of the sanctions' against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.). Ivanov was quoted by the Itar-Tass agency in Moscow on Saturday as saying in New York that the sanctions problem should not come out of the framework of the peace talks in Dayton. The more the talks are productive, the shorter the time should befor the lifting of the sanctions, said Ivanov, adding that this was why the Russian U.N. Mission was now considering 'how, in what form, and at what time should this question be posed at the Security Council.' About the Russian draft resolution submitted recently and demanding that the sanctions against the F.R.Y. should be suspended and then completely lifted, Ivanov stated that one of Moscow's goals was to reach accord at the continued talks on this project. 'The Russian delegation is endeavouring for the sanctions to be lifted as soon as possible,' said he.

SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO-METOHIJA

RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR: KOSOVO IS THE INTERNAL AFFAIR OF YUGOSLAVIA AN D SERBIA P r i s t i n a, Nov. 11 (Tanjug) - Russia considers Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet) to be a part of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and that it must stay a part of it, Russian Ambassador in Belgrade Genadi Shikin said on Saturday. The position of the Russian Federation on the issue is 'completely clear', Shikin told the local Radio in Pristina, capital city of Kosmet, a privince in the south of the Yugoslav Republic of Srebia. Shikin said that there are some problems there which should be solved inside Serbia and Yugoslavia and that Russia is against their internationalization. 'You are a citizens' state, and all citizens have the same rights, and if there are problems they must be solved according to inaternational standards, just as other countries are solving the problems of national minorities', he added. The problems could be solved by dialogue between Albanians and the authorities in Serbia and in Yugoslavia. 'If somebody only thinks about secession, then there is no basis for negotiations', Shikin said, and pointed out that the most important thing is that a solution to all problems is found within Yugoslavia.

GERMANY SEES KOSOVO-METOHIJA AS PART OF YUGOSLAVIA, SERBIA B e l g r a d e, Nov. 10 (Tanjug) - Charge d'affaires of the German Embassy to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Gerhard Enver Schroembgens has said that Germany, like all other international factors, sees Kosovo-Metohija as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia. Speaking in an interview to the Saturday issue of the Albanian-language weekly Zeri, published in the Province's centre of Pristina, Schroembgens also said that ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija had to have political rights within the recognized borders. This is the 'framework of a solution that must be found, and not an independent and neutral republic of Kosovo, like it is seen by important political factors in Kosovo,' Schroembgens said. Schroembgens said that a 'solution must be found on the ground, by the people who live there, that is by the leadership of Kosovo's Albanians and the Yugoslav or Serbian leaderships.' It would be a mistake to expect a solution that would come from the outside, Schroembgens said and added that 'both sides have to be concrete about the way in which the international community can closely follow the finding of a possible solution.'

YUGOSLAVIA - EGYPT

CAIRO WANTS RELATIONS WITH BELGRADE RESTORED C a i r o, Nov. 11 (Tanjug) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said Saturday that, once a political solution for Bosnia-Herzegovina was found, Cairo would want to restore relations with Belgrade. Moussa told Tanjug in Cairo that the U.S.- sponsored peace talks in Dayton on Bosnia and problems in the territory of former Yugoslavia would most likely turn out to be a success. Moussa said that the peace agreement should ensure the continuity of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a tenable country. What we need, said he, was a peace agreement for Bosnia before we start changing our relations with all the sides (in the territory of former Yugoslavia), including those with Belgrade. Moussa pointed out that relations between Cairo and Belgrade were old enough and mature enough for ourselves to want to restore them once the Bosnia problem was resolved.

BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA

APPEAL TO GREECE TO HELP RECONSTRUCTION IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA A t h e n s, Nov. 10 (tanjug) - A delegation of the Republika Srpska (RS, the state of Bosnian Serbs) visiting here has appealed to the Government, people and the Orthodox Church to extend help for reconstruction and for the accommodation of scores of thousands of homeless people in the RS. In the appeal, RS Vice President and delegation head Biljana Plavsic said Thursday night at a news conference here that two out of every three inhabited places in the RS were destroyed while 350,000 people lost everything they had. At the news conference, held after her talks with Greek Foreign Minister Carolos Papoulias and Archbishop Serafim of Athens and all Greece, Biljana Plavsic presented the RS reconstruction program and voiced hope that Greece would include itself into this program at the soonest. On this occasion, she thanked the Greek Government, people and Church for their unselfish assistance so far.

U.S. DIPLOMAT SATISFIED WITH TALKS WITH BOSNIAN SERB REPRESENTATIV ES B a n j a l u k a, Nov. 10 (Tanjug) - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State in charge of human rights John Shattuck said he was pleased with the talks held here Friday with Bosnian Serb representatives. Shattuck met with Head of the Banjaluka Municipality Predrag Radic and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice of thebosnian Republika Srpska (RS) Jovo Rosic. The U.S. official said he had agreed with the Mayor of Banjaluka and other officials immediately to supply them with a list of persons considered missing, drawn up by international humanitarian organizations. He said those persons should rejoin their families. Shattuck said the demands for resolving the issue of Muslim and Croat Banjaluka residents who were considered missing had been madeat the Dayton peace talks and that the implementation of what had been agreed would be followed in the coming period. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State said hundreds and possibly even a thousand people considered missing had been discussed. He set out that unobstructed work of the ICRC and other humanitarian organizatons had been secured. Radic confirmed that it had been agreed with Shattuck immediately to release all persons doing forced labour and to do so on the basis of the ICRC lists. He urged Shattuck to visit Sanski Most, Kljuc and other Serb towns occupied in the recent Muslim-Croatian offensive and to see how what remains of Serbs there were treated. He was told that Shattuck's representatives were already there. 'There are no mass graves in Banjaluka and which ever place Mr.Shattuck wants to see it will be made possible for him to do so,' Radic said. Radic said that he had acquainted Shattuck with the refugee situation in the Banjaluka region, where there are about 200,000 Serbs expelled from other towns in northwestern Bosnia in the latest Muslim-Croatian offensive.

BOSNIAN MUSLIMS, CROATS SIGN AGREEMENT ON STRENGTHENING FEDERATION D a y t o n, Nov. 10 (Tanjug) - Bosnian Muslim Leader Alija Izetbegovic and President of the Muslim-Croat Federation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina Kresimir Zubak Friday signed an agreement on strengthening the dual federation in Bosnia. The agreement, signed at the air base Wright-Patterson near Dayton, Ohio, was also signed by President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman. The ceremony of signing the document, held at the conference hall of the local Hope Hotel, was attended by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, his Assistant Richard Holbrooke and the numerous members of the Croatian and Muslim delegations at the peace talks.

PEACEKEEPING FORCES FOR BOSNIA

SENIOR NATO COMMANDERS IN BOSNIA B e l g r a d e, Nov. 11 (Tanjug) - Senior NATO commanders arrived in Bosnia on Saturday to see on the spot how best to deploy the planned international force that should replace U.N. peacekeeers after the signing of a peace accord. Reuters quotes unnamed official sources in Sarajevo as saying that the NATO team, headed by the Chief of NATO's Rapid Reaction Corps, British General Michael Walker, would tour Bosnia. NATO is expected to send about 60,000 troops to Bosnia, 25,000 of them U.S. troops.

UKRAINE ANNOUNCES PARTICIPATION IN PEACEKEEPING IN BOSNIA K i e v, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has announced that his country will actively participate in the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina together with NATO forces. Kuchma said Saturday evening in Harkov that Ukrainian troops would not take part in any military operations in Bosnia or any other region of the former Yugoslavia where armed conflicts are underway. 'OuR intention is, once peace is established in the war-torn areas in the Balkans, to provide support and aid in humanitarian operations and reconstruction of destroyed infrastructures', the President said.

FROM FOREIGN PRESS

NEW YORK TIMES: MILOSEVIC, BALKAN LEADER MOST SET ON ACHIEVING PEA CE N e w Y o r k, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - A peace agreement for Bosnia could be reached at the Dayton talks in the next three days, according to U.S. media. The New York Times said Sunday that Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic, who heads the Yugoslav delegation to the peace talks, was a Balkan leader most set on achieving peace. The Washington Post predicted the success of the Dayton talks and said all indications were that the talks were only a step away from a final agreement. According to indications by some U.S. sources, peace for Bosnia could be announced in Ohio before Thursday, because President Bill Clinton is due to leave on a trip abroad that day and is not likely to miss the opportunity to make the announcement himself. The Washington Post quoted sources close to the Yugoslav delegation as saying Milosevic had clearly told the Americans that they had to decide whether they wanted peace in Bosnia or not, and if they did that they had to stop acting as the Muslim side's guardian. The daily said that thanks to his influence, Milosevic alone was able to bring the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table. It quoted a member of the U.S. delegation in Dayton as saying if peace in the Balkans was wanted it was necessary to work with the individual capable of securing it and that was Milosevic.

FRENCH RADIO: IZETBEGOVIC WANTS MUSLIM, NOT MULTI-ETHNIC BOSNIA P a r i s, Nov. 12 (Tanjug) - The Democratic Action Party of Bosnian Muslim Leader Alija Izetbegovic has nationalistic ambitions, i.e., a Muslim Bosnia-Herzegovina, a French Radio said on Sunday. The State Radio RFI said in a commentary that Izetbegovic's true ambitions were now becoming clear, after maskerading for a long time behind false calls for a multi-ethnic state. The programme of Izetbegovic's party is for a Bosnia without democracy, which is clear from its despotic elimination of Muslim intellectuals and common citizens branded as 'bad Muslims' solely for refusing to accept a single-party tyranny, the Radio said. The Radio's commentator strongly criticised a lack of western pressure for creating a democratic regime in Bosnia, and said that the western powers were biased and were closing their eyes to the actions of the Democratic Action Party. The commentator said that Izetbegovic's party had made a host of mistakes and took much of the blame for the outbreak of war in Bosnia, because the Islamists had turned their back on the rest of the population. The Radio said that the question was already being asked if they would subjugate Bosnia and complete the destruction of society, provoking fresh conflicts with the Serbs and Croats, because democratisation in Bosnia might deprive the party of power.