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Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-07-31Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>CONTENTS
[01] SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER: NO HAGGLING OVER KOSMETPristina, July 30 (Tanjug) - The Government of the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia pursues in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Kosmet) a policy aimed at preserving peace and realizing the same rights for all citizens, regardless of their nationality or religion. Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic said this in Pristina on Tuesday during talks with Kosmet officials and businessmen. Marjanovic said Kosovo and Metohija was an integral and indivisible part of the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that there would be no haggling over Kosmet.He said that the international community shared this stand. All political and other issues will be continue to be resolved through the country's legal institutions. Fortunately, ethnic Albanians in Kosmet have realized that by pursuing a policy of isolationism, their separatistic leaders had plunged them into a difficult situation and endangered their interests, Marjanovic said. Peace in these lands, equality and joint interests are creating conditions for ethnic Albanians to take part in Kosmet's and Serbia's political and business life and to participate in business, educational, cultural and other activities through legal institutions. I am confident that in the period to come Kosovo and Metohija will be a region of accelerated economic growth, peace, co-existence, strengthened ties and cooperation between all citizens and national minorities living there, Marjanovic said. [02] LONDON IMPORTANT PLACE FOR PRESENTING YUGOSLAV ECONOMYBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce President Mihailo Milojevic and the newly-appointed Yugoslav Ambassador to Great Britain Milos Radulovic said on Tuesday that London was an important place for presenting Yugoslavia's economy.During the talks between Milojevic and Radulovic at the Chamber of Commerce, it was underscored that priority had been given to activities on Yugoslavia's reintegration into international financial institutions and the promotion of bilateral relations with all countries, especially those of importance to Yugoslavia, such as Great Britain. Belgrade bank Jugobanka representative in London and member of the Yugoslav team for talks with the London Club Milos Mirkovic said that, regardless of the correct relations during the period of international sanctions, banking circles in Great Britain believed Yugoslavia's reintegration into the International Monetary Fund was a precondition for getting on with cooperation and its promotion. [03] PROTESTS OVER GROUNDING OF 'JAT' PLANES IN ISTANBULBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - Grounding of two Boeing planes of the Yugoslav JAT Airline by the Turkish Aviation Authorities has been assessed by the Yugoslav Authorities as Turkey's finding itself in collision with legal regulations, with the stands of the UN Security Council, and with the declared policy of Ankara which publicly asserts its commitment to cooperation and to the normalization of relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.).The Yugoslav Embassy in Ankara has filed a demarche with the Turkish Foreign Ministry along with a demand to unblock the aircraft, while Yugoslav Diplomacy has lodged two notes on the political level. The Yugoslav Transport Ministry demanded an official explanation from its Turkish counterpart about the steps taken in this regrad. Turkey, apart from political damage being done to the opened process of promoting the two countries' relations, also brings indirect jeopardy to business operations of JAT - a foreign commercial enterprise which in that way acquires the right to the definite material compensation, said the Yugoslav Transport Ministry. Hence a reaction by the International Association of Air Carriers would be only logical to expect. As JAT commercial director Branko Premak explained, the four-year contracts on leasing two Boeing 737 planes to the private Turkish Bosphorus Airways Company had expired last Spring. Then the Turkish Aviation Administration notified the Yugoslav Transport Ministry that Yugoslav planes, in conformity with Turkish regulations, were erased on June 21 from the Turkish Registry of aircraft. The two planes were flying under foreign administration only for a brief period of time because the 1992 imposition of international blockade of Yugoslav property had grounded one plane in Istanbul and another in Dublin. When the blockade was lifted, the Turkish Embassy in Belgrade issued to JAT the operation visas and relevant permits, while the Turkish authorities isssued permission for 'a technical flight' on July 27 to bring the plane to its airport of registry. The ex-lessee of the Boeing, however, brought to court the Turkish Transport Ministry and the Aviation Administration. The latter changed its original decision and notified the Yugoslav Transport Ministry that, abiding by a ruling of the Ankara Administrative Court, it suspended on July 19 the procedure of deleting the aircraft from the Registry. In keeping with the changed stand of the Turkish authorities, the Bosphorus Airways owner marked the plane with national symbols and his company sign. JAT said that the 'act by the Turkish Transport Ministry is illegal and, in addition to contradicting the national regulations of the two countries, it also contradicts the Chicago Convention's forbidding that an aircraft be registered at one time in two places.' BOSNIA - ELECTIONS[04] SERBS RECEIVE UNEQUAL TREATMENT AHEAD OF BOSNIA ELECTIONSBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - Serbs in the Republika Srpska (R.S.) and Serb refugees are not treated equally with Moslems and Croats ahead of Bosnia's September elections, Slobodan Kovac, member of Bosnia's Temporary Electoral Commission, has stated. 'Serbs sheltering in third countries have to register with Embassies of the Moslem-Croat Federation, while thousands of people expelled from the Republic of Serb Krajina who wish to remain in the Republika Srpska are denied the right to vote,' said Kovac, a judge of the R.S. Constitutional Court.The OSCE that is in charge of Bosnia's elections has rejected the Serb side's request that all Serbs in third countries be enabled to register elsewhere and not only in Embassies of the Moslem-Croat Federation. Kovac also stressed the issue arising from a request by Bosnian Croats sheltering in Croatia who hold dual citizenship to be allowed to vote in municipalities situated near the border with the Republika Srpska. He said no one could prevent them from doing so if they had been registered as citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1991 census. He said he expected the world community, which he said had been informed about the unequal treatment of Krajina Serbs sheltering in the R.S. and Serbs who were R.S. citizens but were not registered in the 1991 census, to find soon a solution also for this category of people. Referring to municipalities that were divided under the Dayton Peace Accords, Kovac made reference to the eastern Bosnian town of Gorazde where he said the ballot would take place in both sections of the town - the Moslem as well as the Serb. As regards Brcko, northeastern Bosnia, there is no reason why the elections in the town should be held at a later stage because they do not prejudge the resolution of any territorial issues, he said. Only authorities in the town will be elected according to the voters' free will and under equal conditions, he said. [05] YUGOSLAVIA-REFUGEES-BOSNIA LISTS INCLUDE 38,000 REFUGEE-VOTERS IN YUGOSLAVIABelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - The Belgrade Office of the Supervising Committee of the OSCE has so far included 38,000 refugees in its lists of voters for the September elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Office head Zivota de Luca said on Tuesday. Of these refugees, 23,000 persons do not wish to return to their former places of residence but wish to vote in the municipality where they intend to reside in future, De Luca specified.The Yugoslav Government Commission for assisting refugees in the realization of their rights at the Bosnia elections on Tuesday appealed to all those who still have not been registered to apply by Aug. 2. The Commission will ask the OSCE to enable the wounded (about 20,000 of them), the ill and elderly to vote in absentia, because it is the usual practice in all countries for such voters to cast their ballot wherever they reside, it was concluded on Tuesday. The Commission warned that there was discrimination against Serb refugees in certain countries, which placed them in an unequal position in comparison with Muslim and Croat refugees in the preparations for the elections. That is why the Commission maintains that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a signatory of the Dayton Accords and a party interested in the implementation of all aspects of the civilian part of the Accords, should react to such incidents and urge equal treatment which will enable the complete legality of the first elections since the outbreak of war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the registration of refugee-voters, the Commission will get on to preparations for carrying out the voting in absentia on Aug. 24, and the organization of taking a large number of refugees to cast their votes in Bosnia on Sept. 14, said a statement released by the Yugoslav Secretariat of Information. BOSNIA - HERZEGOVINA[06] BILDT: MILITARY PRESENCE IN BOSNIA SHOULD CONTINUE AFTER ELECTIONSBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - The international community will have a significant military role in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the elections in September as well, High Representative of the International Community for Bosnia-Herzegovina Carl Bildt said Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels following a meeting of the E.U. Committee for supervising the implementation of the Dayton Accords, Bildt also said he believed some kind of security force would still be necessary in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the withdrawal of the IFOR in December, agencies reported.He said, however, that he did not see this presence as a continuation of the IFOR mission, the agencies said. Bildt said the Committee fully supported the E.U. stand on Mostar, where Croats are refusing to accept the results of the recent municipal elections. [07] UNITED NATIONS DEMANDS REPLACEMENT OF CROAT, MUSLIM POLICE OFFICIALSBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - The U.N. demands the replacement of two senior officials of the Croat and Muslim police in the southern and central Bosnian towns of Mostar and Bugojno for obstructing the work of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) and attempted ethnic cleansing.IPTF Spokesman Alexander Ivanko said in Sarajevo on Tuesday that stronger action would be launched against those who try to obstruct the work of the International Police in Bosnia, which is there to prevent lawlessness, the British news agency Reuter said. Ivanko said the IPTF had asked the Croat authorities in west Mostar to replace Chief of Police Vjekoslav Cutura, as he is believed to be responsible for the arrest of Muslim Emin Zebic, the Chief of police of Jablanica. The replacement of Cutura is also demanded because of threats that he would prevent Muslim refugees from voting in the Croat part of the town during the Mostar elections on June 30, Reuter said. IPTF Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald has asked Federal Interior Minister Avdo Hebib, a Muslim, to replace police officials in the Muslim-controlled central Bosnian town of Bugojno. [08] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA OFFICIAL: EXHUMATION BASED ON RECIPROCITY IN FUTUREBanjaluka, July 30 (Tanjug) - The Government of Republika Srpska decided on Tuesday to suspend work on the exhumation of mass graves in its territory and that such work in future proceed only on a reciprocity basis because of the obstruction of the exhumation of mass graves of Serbs in the territory of the Muslim-Croat Federation.This decision came after Croat authorities in the area of the southwestern Bosnian town of Glamoc four times postponed the exhumation of the remaining 65 bodies of Serbs from a mass grave in the village of Kamen, 3 km south of Glamoc, who were killed during a Muslim-Croat offensive on Republika Srpska last year. CROATIA - SERBS[09] KRAJINA REFUGEES FILE COMPLAINT WITH OSCE APPEALS ELECTION SUBCOMMISSIONBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - The Banjaluka-based Association of Serbs expelled from Krajina on Tuesday sent a joint complaint to the OSCE appeals elections subcommission regarding denials of their voter's rights at the September elections in Republika Srpska. The complaint said voter's rights had been denied to about 90,000 Krajina Serbs who have found refuge in the territory of this Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska news agency SRNA said.The Association warned that the actions and decisions of the interim elections commission and other OSCE bodies which are in charge of the elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina are an act of mass discrimination and a gross violation of civil rights. THE HAGUE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL[10] EXTRADITION OF RS CITIZENS MOST DIFFICULT TOPIC AT HAGUE TALKSBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - Republika Srpska Justice Minister Marko Arsovic said on Tuesday that the matter of the extradition of Republika Srpska citizens indicted for war crimes to the International Tribunal in the Hague had been the most difficult and most sensitive topic at the talks of the Republika Srpska delegation and the Tribunal in the Hague on Monday and Tuesday. Arsovic said this extradition was impossible because of legal loopholes in the Hague Tribunal procedures and also in Republika Srpska laws, the AFP news agency said.Arsovic said Republika Srpska would prefer to try its own citizens accused of war crimes. He said he had come to the Hague with his Assistant Goran Neskovic, presented as a Liaison Office with the Tribunal, and Belgrade lawyer Igor Pantelic, the agency said. Arsovic confirmed he had said during the talks with Tribunal representatives that Republika Srpska wanted the Tribunal to indict Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic for his responsibility in crimes against Serbs in the Muslim camp of Celebici in 1992. [11] KEY WITNESS SAYS HE NEVER SAW ACCUSED SERB AT BOSNIA'S OMARSKA CAMPBelgrade, July 30 (Tanjug) - The key witness for the prosecution told the International Tribunal for War Crimes in former Yugoslavia in the Hague he had never seen the accused Serb, Dusan Tadic, at the Omarska camp in northwestern Bosnia. The witness is a 28-year-old Muslim identified only as Witness 'H', Reuter reported from the Hague on Tuesday. He has three small children, the British news agency said. The Court on Tuesday made public a transcript of last week's statement by Witness 'H', who said Tadic had been his karate instructor before the war.The Hague Tribunal has so far raised a total of 75 indictments for war crimes - 54 against Serbs, 18 against Croats, and three against Muslims. The Court so far has not presented a single piece of evidence against the indicted Serbs. Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |