YWS 11/13

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

13. NOVEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV WEEKLY SURVEY

A D D I T I O N A L I S S U E

CONTNETS:

- NATIONAL CURRENCY TO BE CONVERTIBLE AGAIN - HELSINKI COMMITTEE REPORTS - PROOF ABOUT CROATIAN CRIMES IN KRAJINA - SANCTIONS ARE AN INEFFECTIVE IMPLEMENT - WAR FORCED 400,000 INTO EXILE, MAINLY SERBS - FORMER U.N. OFFICIALS ON DISTORTED PICTURE OF BOSNIA - BUNDESWEHR IN THE BALKANS - CROATIAN THOUSAND-YEAR LONG DREAM - ISLAMIC TERRORISTS GET A STRONGHOLD IN BOSNIA

COMMENTS

YUGOSLAV CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR: NATIONAL CURRENCY TO BE CONVERTIBLE AGAIN

Governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (Central Bank) Dragoslav Avramovic on Tuesday announced the return of convertibility and implementation of the market exchange rate of the national currency, the Dinar. Avramovic, architect of the Yugoslav economic recovery programme, told a press conference that this was not a devaluation, because it had taken place much earlier, but merely a recognition of the situation on the market. Under the Yugoslav economic recovery programme, launched in January 1994, the Dinar officially trades for one German Mark, but the black-market value of the German Mark is now more than three Dinars. Avramovic said that the Presidents of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its republics of Serbia and Montenegro had supported all 15 measures of the number two programme. The Yugoslav National Bank Council also supported the document at a session in the Adriatic town of Milocer on Monday, he added. The council proposed that the programme be implemented at once, Avramovic said and added that any stalling with the implementation of the proposed package would have devastating consequences. A real foreign-exchange rate would have to improve the hard currency supply on the official market and enable banks to intervene and work, Avramovic said. He added that one of the proposed measures was a possibility that banks sell to citizens up to 500 German Marks annually for other than commodity payments. The National Bank has enough hard currency reserves to be able to intervene on the foreign exchange market according to the real exchange rate, Avrmovic said. The idea is that the balance, which was achieved on the black market, be transferred to official channels, Avramovic said and added that the initial effect of the measures might be a 400-million-dollar influx, earned through the export, which was not arriving in the country because of the present irrealistic official exchange rate. The National Bank would not issue money, except to the value of the export increase, and it would cancel it to the value of the imports, so that its monetary neutrality would have a stabilizing effect, Avramovic said. The consequences of the proposed measures are the restitution of the national currency, liberalization of the economy and foreign competition as well as the reform of property relations, i.e. privatization, which should make it possible to break the present economic monopolies and strengthen internal competitiveness, Avramovic said. A reform of property relations is urgent, Avramovic said and added that a privatization model should be made and adopted by the end of 1995 or in six months at the latest. He said that the model should be based on the offered options and foreign experiences. It is important that the full implementation of the complete number two programme takes place before the suspension of the international sanctions against Yugoslavia, Avramovic said. He explained that this would strengthen Yugoslavia's future negotiating position with international financiers, especially because many of those measures represent a condition for settling the question of the country's foreign debt and future uses of international monetary fund loans. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, November 7, 1995)

HELSINKI COMMITTEE REPORTS ABOUT MORE CROATIAN ATROCITIES IN KRAJINA

The Croatian Helsinki Human Rights Committee has released a new report about the plight of Serbs in Krajina, reacting to accusations that the organization is "discrediting Croatia", the Belgrade daily "Politika" said Tuesday. The latest examples of Croatian troops' bestialities against the remaining Serbs in Krajina were carried on Monday only by "Novi List", which is published in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka, while all government-controlled papers remained silent, said "Politika". Croatian authorities have expelled a total of about 550,000 Serbs from Krajina and Croatia, bringing the number of Serbs in the territory of that former Yugoslav republic from the earlier 12.5 percent to barely two or three percent. About 250,000 Serbs fled their homes in the Republic of Serb Krajina in an unprecedented exodus after Croatian military offensives last May and August. The Republic of Serb Krajina was proclaimed in 1991 in Serb ethnic and historical territories in reaction to Croatia's unilateral secession from the former Yugoslav federation. About 5,000 Serbs, mostly old and weak, have remained in the northern and southern parts of the Serb Krajina and they are continually exposed to harassment by unidentified Croatian groups. The Croatian Helsinki Committee presented in its report details of some crimes committed against Serbs. Milan Marcetic (47), Dusan Suica (68), Vlado Milanovic (50) and Boro Marcetic were killed in the villages of Gudure and Milanovci near Gracac (formerly U.N.-protected Sector South), the report said. On September 6, Gojko Komazec was seen at the Gracac police station before his body, with three bullets in the stomach, was found later in the day. Late in September, Djuro Canak (80) was found killed in the village of Canci. His son Mirko had been killed earlier as a Croatian soldier in the August operation. Marta Vujinovic (89) was killed on August 21 and buried on the spot. Dusan Brkic was killed in Palanka and his body was later recovered from the spring of the river Zrmanja. Brkic's brother Bogdan (69) was twice tortured by groups of people in Croatian army uniforms. On the first occassion, they burned his legs and on the other, on August 28, he was beaten and got two ribs broken. Early in October, Mika Banjeglav was missing from her home in ploce near Gracac and her mutilated body was later found with the scalp cut off. Djuro Mandic (81) from Tomin Gaj near Gracac was tortured in his courtyard on August 25 and the group of "brave Croatian soldiers" responsible for it in the end beheaded him and cut off both his arms. The relatives first buried him on the spot, and when later they requested to be allowed to take the body to the village graveyard, Croatian police seized the body and buried it at an unknown location without informing the relatives, the Croatian Helsinki Committee said.("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, November 7,1995)

ELIZABETH RHEN: PROOF ABOUT CROATIAN CRIMES IN KRAJINA (by Stevan Cordas)

The first unofficial report by the new special U.N. envoy for human rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Elizabeth Rhen of Finland, contains extensive evidence charging Croatia of crimes against the Serbs committed during and after the invasion on Krajina. Rhen has fulfilled her promise to include in her first, as yet unpublished report to the U.N. General Assembly, only information which she had personally verified. Rhen's predecessor, Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Poland, submitted 17 reports in the majority of which he had solely blamed the Serbs for all crimes in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Rhen visited Zagreb, Sarajevo, Pale and Belgrade and, only one month after coming to office, completed her first report. The report's general conclusion is that human rights are being more or less violated in all parts of the former Yugoslavia, but that the activities of the Croatian authorities, especially in Krajina, exceed everything. Rhen quoted a large number of cases, ranging from mass killings of the few remaining Serbs in Krajina, to burnings and the destruction of Serb property. The Croatian aggression on the Republic of Serb Krajina in early August, forced about 250,000 Serbs to flee their ancestral homes, while in the occuppied parts of Krajina only about 5,000, mainly elderly and frail people, remained. A separate part of Rhen's report focuses on attempts by the Croatian authorities to prevent the return of Serb refugees to their homes, which is currently under discussion at the peace talks in Dayton, Ohio. Rhen expressed much concern about the fate of the Serb refugees on the basis of numerous facts, ranging from burned and demolished Serb houses, villages anmd cities, to the new Croatian laws which enabled Croatia to practically confiscate the remaining Serb property. Rhen underscored the drama of several thousand Serb refugees in Hungary who are waiting to return to their burned homes. She also quoted the charges against the Serbs, specially underscored since the start of the Dayton talks - about their actions in the regions of Banja Luka and Srebrenica, but, contrary to Mazowiecki who took similar accusations at face value, Rhen insisted that all cases be carefully investigated. She specially focused on the Bihac region, where she claims members of the Bosnian Muslim army's Fifth Corps committed stupendous crimes against their own people - the supporters of moderate Muslim leader Fikret Abdic. Rhen said that the figure of the 10,000 Muslims who supposedly disapperared from Srebrenica was reached on the basis of requests for missing persons submitted to the International Committee of the Red Cross by Muslim families. She said that ICRC has already determined that 2,000 of the requests are duplicates. Rhen also said that about 5,000 Muslims, still listed as missing, had crossed into Muslim territory even before the Bosnian Serbs had taken Srebrenica. Rhen said that claims about the supposed disappearence of a certain number of Muslims from Srebrenica remain to be proven because earlier reports were made on the basis of comparisons of the estimated number of Muslims living in Srebrenica before the Serbs entered this town, with the number of Muslims who departed after the Serbs came. Rhen paid the least attention to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, instead focusing on the humanitarian disaster resulting from the huge numbers of refugees and the serious consequences of the sanctions. The details from Rhen's report, which crushed certain taboos by acting completely differently to her predecessor Mazowiecki who had always blamed the Serbs for all the trouble, caused much surprise in the Geneva U.N. seat. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, November 10, 1995)

SANCTIONS ARE AN INEFFECTIVE IMPLEMENT (by Tanjug's Diplomatic Correspondent )

The U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia have mostly had a negative effect and the international community should immediately consider whether to go on implementing them and if so how, according to an ICRC director, Peter Wolker. The official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that of the 116 cases of the implementation of sanctions in this century, some results had been achieved only a third of the cases. The U.N. Security Council sanctions against the Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro will be discussed at the upcoming 26th International Conference of the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations. The largest international conference on humanitarian issues will be held in Geneva from December 3 to 7. Wolker said it was a well known fact that some countries or organizations were resorting to sanctions when their diplomacies failed to achieve definite goals. Two options exist in such cases - sanctions or war - and in a very large number of cases, the choice falls on the former, the ICRC official said. Wolker said in a special bulletin of the International Federation of Red Coss and Red Crescent organizations that the U.N. Security Council's two basic principles were the safeguarding and enhancement of peace and creation of conditions for respect for human rights. He set out, however, that the attainment of the first goal by means of sanctions seriously undermined the other principle. Wolker quoted a federation's study as establishing that the sanctions against Iraq, Haiti and Yugoslavia had not only failed to achieve the desired goals but had on the contrary only created difficulties. The view is substantiated by data from Yugoslavia, a country against which comprehensive and mandatory sanctions were imposed by the U.N. Security Council in late May 1992. Due to the sanctions, 60 percent of Yugoslavia's economically active population is unemployed and real personal incomes have dropped to as low as one-tenth of those recorded in 1990, Wolker said. The up coming conference is expected possibly to urge the U.N. Security Council to display maximum caution and concern for the population of a country against which sanctions are introduced. Moreover, it is to insist that major humanitarian organizations participate in decision-making on the introduction of sanctions. The Conference is also to propose that maximum care be paid in the implementation of sanctions not affect the population's humanitarian needs. Lastly, the conference is to insist that sanctions must in no way restrict international humanitarian aid. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, November 10, 1995)

ICRC: WAR IN TERRITORY OF EX-YUGOSLAVIA FORCED 400,000 INTO EHILE, MAINLY SERBS

The war operations carried out over the past few months in the territory of the former Yugosalvia have caused the mass movement of more than 400,000 civilians, mainly Serbs, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its latest report published in Geneva and carried by the Belgrade ICRC Bureau on Tuesday. While the warring sides and the international bodies involved in the search for a political solution are now focusing on the start of the rehabilitation process, and even the reconstruction of the war-ravaged regions, ICRC believes that the peace process should not draw away attention from the current need for urgent humanitarian action. ICRC warned the International Humanitarian Organizations that it is not the time for "curtailing intervention programs and reducing aid" to he treatened regions in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. ICRC said that in the Banja Luka region alone, the number of displaced Serbs exceeds 150,000. ICRC said that for the coming months it would secure the most urgent aid in food, non-consumable goods and materials for building shelters for 200,000 people. ICRC said that special aid is needed for the about 50,000 people at the highest risk, mainly children and pensioners. Their homes have been extensively damaged both by September's NATO air strikes and by the recent Croat-Muslim offensive on northwestern Bosnia. ICRC will specially provide for nearly 6,000 old and ill Serbs, who have been stranded without any means in the remote villages in Krajina following Croatia's aggression on the northern and southern parts of the Republic of Serb Krajina in early August when about 250,000 Serbs were forced to flee this region. Aid is also needed for about 6,000 Croats and Muslims who came to Central Bosnia from the Banja Luka region, ICRC said. ICRC quoted the 1949 Geneva Convention saying it believes that all civilians who have been forcefully evicted from their homes, should be helped to return when these regions are free and safe, or they should at least receive compensation if they explicitely express a wish for this. Concerning the Serb population who fled the Republic of Serb Krajina, at present there can hardly be any talk about their return. "Can there be any mention of the security conditions being fulfilled when the arson of homes, various forms of harrassment and killings have continued after the Croatian authorities took over control over these territories and which lasted until recently", ICRC wondered. ICRC said that the return of the refugees is still not possible in the region of Mostar, because "mutual trust and material conditions remain insufficient for the safe return, despite all efforts by the European Union". The Mostar region is now populated solely by Muslims and Croats whose joint efforts have forced 40,000 Serbs to leave. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, October 31, 1995)

FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS

BELGRADE DAILY "POLITIKA" QUOTES FORMER U.N. OFFICIALS ON DISTORTED PICTURE OF BOSNIA

Belgrade daily "Politika" said of Sunday that after leaving Bosnia, many U.N. officials "start openly speaking about the truths which were omitted from official U.N. reports". "Politika" said that the former co-chairman of the conference on the former Yugoslavia, Lord Owen, had "directly accused the U.S. Administration of undermining the peace process in Bosnia by underscoring the U.S. support to the Sarajevo (Muslim) government and its war ambitions", and its shipments of weapons to the Muslims at the airport in the Muslim safe area of the town of Tuzla sent via NATO. Britain's Lord Owen said that his plan and that by the former U.N. envoy Cyrus Vance, had fallen through due to Washington's opposition. Lord Owen also gave the examples of media manipulation - the shelling of the Sarajevo hospital and the tragedies at the city's open-air market Markale in February 1994, for which the Serbs were accused, "Politika" said. Former special U.S. envoy for the former Yugoslavia, Japanese diplomat Yasushi Akashi, after ending his duties accused the Sarajevo Muslim authorities of using the safe areas of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Gorazde, Zepa, Bihac and Tuzla as command centres and for training, resting and equiping its troops, thus giving the Bosnian Serbs a logical excuse to attack these zones, "Politika" said. All Muslim safe areas were scheduled to be demilitarized in the spring of 1993. "Politika" said that the former U.N. Commander General Louis Mckenzie of Canada had spoken about the demonization of the Bosnian Serbs in international media, saying that the United Nations "had proof that Muslim soldiers often posed as Serbs while opening fire on Sarajevo". General Mckenzie accused the Muslims of attacking U.N. troops and receiving arms deliveries from abroad, "Politika" said recalling that the general was forced to leave following a largescale Muslim campaign against him. British General Micheal Rose, until recently the U.N. commander, has said that officials from different countries, influenced by reports from the town of Gorazde in April 1994, had been under the impression that 60,000 people had been killed there and that this is why they had demanded the use of force, "Politika" said. General Rose denied claims that the tragedy at the Markale market was caused by a vertical shot fired from a nearby frontline (for which the Serbs were accused) and recalled instances when the Muslims opened fire on their own people on the eve of a visit by their leader Alija Izetbegovic to Washington where he demanded the lifting of the arms embargo, "Politika" said. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, November 5, 1995)

BUNDESWEHR IN THE BALKANS (by M. Winter)

NATO is hastily working on the commanding structures and the planning of the intervention of "peace-keeping force" which would comprise about 50 000 men and which would implement a peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina which is far from being formulated (not even accepted), if necessary by force. Bundeswehr should take part in this with 2 000 - 4 000 men, as necessary. The responsible officials in Bonn managed to persuade the public and even the Bundestag competent body that the Bundestag mandate was strictly respected during the past involvement of "Tornado" planes. It was only NATO rapid reaction force, to whose protection "Tornados" were to serve, that did not stick to their mandate entrusted to them by the United Nations. Together with NATO bombers and U.S. cruising missiles, they became a warring party. The evidence of that is the explicit praise of NATO Headquarters of the support "Tornado" planes provided in combat interventions which enabled the success of the Muslim-Croatian offensive. Those who supported the involvement of German combat planes in Bosnia several months ago are now supporting the sending of the German army to the former Yugoslavia. Reservations, also coming from the military circles, are simply rejected. Admittedly, Defence Minister Rhie admits that there will be "great risks" for German soldiers, but rejects the objection that their participation is not right in view of the past German brutality in Yugoslavia. The repeated appearance of German combat planes over Bosnia and their "successful" contribution to the destruction of Serbian positions, infrastructure and civilian facilities awakened in Serbs their sombre memories which we in Germany should also remember: It was the German planes that bombed Belgrade without the declaration of war on 6 April 1941. For two days, 611 planes threw 440 tons of incendiary and fragmentation bombs. 2 270 people were killed and out of 20 000 buildings 9 000 were destroyed. Lht-Gen. Ler said on 7 May 1945 that he had had the task to destroy Serbian intelligentsia psychologically. In May 1941, General Field Marshal von Weichs ordered that 100 Serbs be shot for one killed German. After that, 5 000 civilians were executed in Kraljevo in only one week. On 20 and 21 October 1941, over 7 000 people, including entire school classes, were killed in Kragujevac. Under the German "tutelage", the Ustasha Croatian State, to which the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina was annexed, was established on 10 April 1941. The proclaimed goal of that State was to free Croatia from Serbs by persecution, killing and conversion into Catholicism. This, however, was achieved by Croat Franjo Tudjman who enjoys exceptional German's benevolent attitude. One of the "symbols" of the Ustasha State was the Jasenovac concentration camp in which 700 000 Serbs, Jews and Romanies were killed. Documents confirm that in the murderous campaign of fascists, their Croatian collaborators and a special SS division comprising Bosnian Muslims, especially a great number of children was killed. In the summer of 1942, German forces started an offensive on the Mount of Kozara, in northern Bosnia. After the offensive, 68 000 inhabitants of this area, including 23 000 children, were taken to Jasenovac and other concentration camps. Less then half of them survived. Today, this area is almost a holy place for Serbs who will not allow to be expelled from it once again. However, the German Wermacht was severely defeated in Bosnia: the failure of German parachutists to capture the commander of the Yugoslav partisan army in Drvar on 25 May 1943 was symbolic. One year later, the foundations of a new Yugoslavia were laid in Jajce - which was the defeat of Wermacht in Yugoslavia. These historical facts and the anti-Serbian policy of the federal Government in the last five years are not in favour of sending German troops. On the contrary, with the each phase of the military involvement of the FR of Germany there is an increasing danger of new escalation of the conflict. As Yugoslav Ambassador in the United Nations Vladislav Jovanovic said on the decision to send "Tornados": Germans are welcome in Yugoslavia, but not in uniforms. ("Neues Deutschland", Berlin, October 18,1995)

CROATIAN THOUSAND-YEAR LONG DREAM (by Carlos Santos Pereira)

"Man, Aryan, Croat, rightist" - this is the picture of the winner at the latest elections in Croatia published in the last edition of Arkzin. This is no innocent picture. One of the theoreticians of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) did not hesitate at all to revive the racist delirium of Ante Starcevic, advocate of Croatian nationalism, who claimed that Croats were not Slavs, but members of a superior race, thoroughbred Goths who accidentally received the Slav language in a certain moment of history. The regime of Franjo Tudjman adopted the symbols, myths, political and military goals of Pavelic's and Ustasha regime. The Ustasha brutality was so horrible that the blood of Nazi officers in the Balkans in 1941 froze. Franjo Tudjman's Croatia is the materialization of the political and territorial dreams of both Ante Starcevic and Ante Pavelic on the one hand, and of Le Pen and Hitler on the other. The political and military support of Germany and the United States provided legitimacy to the HDZ regime, as well as an important instrument for the western intervention in the Balkans. "The Croatian thousand-year long dream", referred to so often by Franjo Tudjman, is about to be realized. Let us wait and see how Starcevic's and Pavelic's dreams will precisely look like at the end of this century. Observers say that once he wins the battle, when Dalmatia is in his hands, Slavonia under his control and Krajina conquered, the only thing left to Croatia to do is to become democratic and European. Tudjman, aged 73, and most of former Tito's associates in HDZ and around him are only the persons of the transitional period. The battle for Croatia's political future will be waged primarily between the old Ustashas and new technocrats of the Croatian authorities. The outcome of that battle will probably be the key for an answer to the following question: was the return of Ustashas after 50 years only a manoeuvre to satisfy part of Croatian territorial appetite; or was it only a hint of a much broader movement in which the Croatian adventure was only the beginning? ("Diario de Noticias", Lisbon, November 29, 1995)

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS GET A STRONGHOLD IN BOSNIA (by Morten Strand)

Bosnia is becoming an Islamic State and a stronghold for Muslim terrorism in Europe. A confidential report of the United Nations obtained by "Dagbladet" says that there exists a great danger for such development. Mujaheddin holy warriors have become the factors of power in Bosnia. If the peace negotiations on Bosnia in the United States succeed, the next fight will be over future society in disarmed Bosnia. The prospects for the mujaheddin organization to get out of control completely are a dangerous possibility, it is said in a UN confidential report. The report considers that the future priority tasks of mujaheddins in Bosnia are the following:

to establish an independent Islamic State in Europe

to convert Bosnian Muslims into Islamic fundamentalists

to help the struggle against infidel or non-