Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-02-29

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

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

29 February 1996

CONTENTS

[A] YUGOSLAVIA - U.N.

[01] KONTIC, ANNAN DISCUSS SITUATION IN BOSNIA

[02] MILOSEVIC, ANNAN SAY PEACE PROCESS SUCCESSFUL

[B] YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA

[03] MILOSEVIC, AFANISIEVSKY DISCUSS YUGOSLAV-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

[C] KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

[04] AHRENS'S VISIT TO KOSOVO

[D] YUGOSLAV - R.S. BORDER

[05] INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WITHDRAWN

[E] THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL - SERBS

[06] SERBS BEAR WITNESS TO ATROCITIES BY MOSLEM OFFICIALS

[F] SARAJEVO SERBS

[07] ABOUT 3,500 SERBS ARRIVE IN EASTERN HERZEGOVINA

[G] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[08] MUSLIM-CROAT FEDERATION HAS NO PROSPECTS

[A] YUGOSLAVIA - U.N.

[01] KONTIC, ANNAN DISCUSS SITUATION IN BOSNIA

Prime Minister Kontic received Annan in a farewell visit, who will take up the duties of U.N. Undersecretary for peace operations, the Yugoslav Secretariat for Information said in a statement.

Kontic confirmed the strong commitment of the F.R.Y. to implement the peace process and thanked Annan for successfully carrying out his duties.

Kontic said that instead of a return of displaced persons to their homes in Bosnia, there was an exodus of several tens of thousand of Serbs from Sarajevo.

Kontic assessed that the arrest of two senior Republika Srpska officers at the end of January this year was a huge provocation of the Muslim-Croat federation and of the Hague Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Kontic said he believed that this will not undermine the general implementation of the Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia, the statement said.

[02] MILOSEVIC, ANNAN SAY PEACE PROCESS SUCCESSFUL

Milosevic and Annan said there were prospects for a stepped-up and all-round consolidation of the political situation in the Balkans, the presidential office said.

Milosevic paid recognition to the U.N. for the efforts invested on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

He 'underscored the importance of a full coordination of the international community's efforts to return life back to normal and, in particular, reconstruct the territories affected by the civil war, as a prerequisite for the consolidation of peace and establishment of stable good-neighbourly relations among states and peoples in the region,' the released statement said.

'The mutual conviction (was expressed) that the elimination of the impediments placed in the way of an unobstructed establishment and development of economic ties and cooperation would step up the processes of economic and cultural integration of Balkan countries, in the spirit of contemporary integrational trends in the world,' the statement said.

[B] YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA

[03] MILOSEVIC, AFANISIEVSKY DISCUSS YUGOSLAV-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

The two sides stressed the great importance of an expansion and promotion of cooperation between the two countries, particularly their economic ties, the presidential cabinet said in a statement.

Milosevic said that it was both in Yugoslavia's and Russia's interest to restore the level of cooperation that the two countries had before the imposition of U.N. sanctions on Yugoslavia, with a prospect of expanding it further by initiating many new projects, the statement said.

It said that Russia was oriented in the same direction.

During the talks - attended also by Russia's newly-appointed Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Jury Kotov and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic - Milosevic expressed best wishes to Kotov at the start of his new duty.

[C] KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

[04] AHRENS'S VISIT TO KOSOVO

The overall situation in Kosovo and Metohija was analyzed at the talks. It was concluded, at the talks, that the starting point for finding out of ways of co-existence of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo must be the fact that the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija is an internal matter of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

[D] YUGOSLAV - R.S. BORDER

[05] INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WITHDRAWN

[E] THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL - SERBS

[06] SERBS BEAR WITNESS TO ATROCITIES BY MOSLEM OFFICIALS

Thirty Bosnian Serbs who were held prisoner by Moslems in the September 1992 - January 1995 period have volunteered to testify in the presence of tribunal investigators.

They have decided to testify to help tribunal judges to gather evidence of war crimes by at least 150 Moslem officials. They described separately and in detail atrocities by ranking Moslem officials including President and other members of the Moslem Presidency, members of the Sarajevo Moslem Government, Moslem army commanders Sefer Halilovic and Jovan Divljak as well as others who ordered the torture of Serb civilians. The witnesses listed as various methods of torture applied in the camps the breaking of hands, legs, fingers and toes, starving prisoners to death, psychological maltreatment and sexual abuse.

[F] SARAJEVO SERBS

[07] ABOUT 3,500 SERBS ARRIVE IN EASTERN HERZEGOVINA

On Tuesday night, about 100 families arrived in the town of Zvornik from Sarajevo's suburb of Ilijas, which will on Thursday be taken over by the police of the Muslim-Croat federation. A housing commission in Zvornik said that the situation was very difficult there and collective accommodation was being provided for the refugees in the nearby settlement Petkovci.

[G] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[08] MUSLIM-CROAT FEDERATION HAS NO PROSPECTS

The Guardian said since it was signed two years ago, the agreement on the Muslim-Croat federation had not only failed to integrate Muslims and Croats but had even further drawn them apart.

Siljadzic accused both the Muslim Democratic Action Party (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union as nationalist. Silajdzic, himself until recently a member of Alija Izetbegovic's SDA, told the Guardian that the party in fact wanted to create a 'mini islamic state,' which he said would be radicalized.