BosNet NEWS / Apr. 20, 1996

From: Nermin Zukic <n6zukic@SMS.BUSINESS.UWO.CA>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

CONTENTS

[01] Toma Fila, Gen. Djukic's Serbian lawyer speaks

Toma Fila, Djukic's Serbian lawyer, told a news conference: "As far as the prosecutor is concerned Djukic is a free man..."

"That is a neat way of getting out of a highly embarrassing situation for the court since it has no evidence to sustain the charges... Even during Nuremberg, not one single logistics officer was tried... The Hague tribunal is specific in world legal terms in the sense that it might not accept the prosecutor's decision and go ahead with the trial anyway. I asked Harmon about that and he said such action would be akin to a miracle but nonetheless is a possibility," Fila also commented.

Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier commented: "This (the rumoured release) is obviously a matter for a public hearing, don't expect me to speculate or anticipate the outcome ... We do not discuss with lawyers via the media. We have a courtroom for that... The only reliable information related to the tribunal has to come from The Hague and not from Belgrade."

``The worry is we may be victims of our own success. Having supervised the disengagement of the three armies, the logical question is what we're going to do for the next eight months... Getting Karadzic and Mladic before the war crimes tribunal is the loosest of many loose ends in the peace process. We're expecting to come under more public pressure to go after them,'' a senior NATO officer who asked not to be named said on Thursday. ``We are not keen to take casualties in pursuit of these men and of course there is always a danger that one of them might be killed, which could make them into martyrs and worsen the situation...''

Karadzic and Mladic travel with bodyguards but have been spotted by reporters in various parts of Bosnia.

[02] BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA ACCEPTED TO EBRD MEMBERSHIP

On its two-day meeting, the European Bank for reconstruction and development (EBRD) Assembly accepted Bosnia as its 26th member, and doubled the capital (10 billion ECU - 13 billion US$), aimed for financing of the East European countries projects. (end) A.S.

Geneva, April 18,1996 (Presss TWRA)

The special UN Rapporteur for Human Rights E. Rehn who on the annual session of UN Commission for human rights in Geneva presented report tried again to equalize the quilt of all sides on the territory of former Yugoslavia. "We can not proclaim Serbian nation criminal because of the crimes committed in Vukovar, or Croatian for crimes committed during the operation "Storm", or Bosniaks for crimes committed on Serbs in western B-H", said Rehn and added that the main problem of Kosovo is that problem between two communities does not exist and both sides are to blame". The B-H Justice Minister Hilmo Pa\i5 in front of the same UN commission responded to E.Rehn statements saying that "the collective national quilt does not exist, nor the right to punish the nation", but he also stood up to superficial view which aggression and genocide brings down to civil war or even religious war. "In March last year CIA reported that Serbian extremists committed 9O% of all crimes in the region, and several non-governmental organizations, journalists and independent experts came to same conclusions", emphasized Pa\ic. In her report Rehn announced that her intention is to be more present on the ground and that at the beginning of May she starts on her next mission on the territory of former Yugoslavia. She will specially deal with rights of minorities, and visit Kosovo, SandWak, Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Rehn also announced that one Finish group of forensic medicine experts is ready to start the identification of the massacre victims, Bosniaks from Srebrenica, and that the whole operation would be financed by Finish Government. This project would cover the identification of 5O-6O bodies found on the Kravica territory, near Srebrenica. (end) S.K.

[03] NO UNITED B-H FEDERATION ARMY

"I expect that Government will prepare the law on defence until the next session which is scheduled for beginning of May. The representatives of Muslim nation are trying to establish the united army. United army - no way! It can only be made of two components. And it is well known who will command with one and who with the other component. Only important thing for us is that Croat will be commander of HVO and that HVO will be just part of B-H Federation Army, but under no circumstances united army. And we should discuss about flag and crest. The commissions have been found which will try to reach the decision, but for us, Croats is important that our Croatian national ornaments must remain", stated after B-H Federation Constitutional Assembly session Ivan Bender, President of Croatian representatives club and president of presidential council of so called "Herzeg-Bosnia" in an interview for Croatian Radio. He commented the two important issues which did not made to the schedule of this session: Federal flag and crest and B-H Federation Defence Law . (end) S.K.

[04] KRAJIhNIK: "WE REFUSE INTERNATIONAL BLACKMAILS"

Mom^ilo Kraji\nik, "president of parliament of Republic of Srpska", close associate to Radovan KaradWi5 (with whom he had been jailed in Tito's Yugoslavia for stealing, but unlike KaradWi5, he has not been accused by the ICTY) said: "Serbs cannot be, by any money or punishment, forced to hand their men over to the international community's mercy". Kraji\nik claims the purpose of the donators' conference in Brussels last weekend was to humiliate Serbs, by putting them on the level of a part of delegation of Bosnia- Herzegovina, as well as to blackmail and make pressure on Serbs, by promising the financial aid to the Serb entity in B-H, if the war crimes suspects, primarily KaradWi5 & Mladi5, are extradited.

PIC High Representative Carl Bildt said KaradWi5 could not represent Serbs in any kind of negotiations (KaradWi5 was recently authorized by his Serbs to represent them in the international contacts), but he added that the international community would spend a part of money also for the needs of KaradWi5 - for guarding the prison in Scheveningen, in The Hague, where he should be situated. (end) A.S.

[05] ONE OF THE IFOR HEADQUARTERS MOVES TO BANJALUKA

The IFOR public relations office stated the headquarters of the IFOR South-West sector International division would move from Gornji Vakuf to Banja Luka. It is motivated by the fact that all IFOR headquarters have been so far in the B-H Federation, so the international forces decided to situate one of them at the territory of the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (end) A.S.

[06] MEDANIC AND tRAMBOv CHARGED FOR MURDER OF POPOVIC

Croatian Interior Minister Ivan Jarnjak, said at todayFs press- conference in Pula that suspected for the recent murder of Croatian ex-Minister of tourism, Mar^elo Popovic, are arrested hime Medani5, HDZ President in Vrsar, as initiator, and Sinisa Stracaboski tRambov, as executor. tRambov said Medanic promised him for this tservicev 15.000 DM, after which he escaped to Austria, but, due to the cooperation of the Croatian police with the Austrian police and Interpol, he was returned to Croatia. Motive of the crime might be the fact that Medani5, former employee of the tAnitav firm (of which Popovi5 was director), owed to the firm 70.000 DM of a rent of the disco-bar tMirabelv (since 1987) and tried to take its ownership, Jarnjak said, adding that Medanic was threatening Popovic on several occasions.

Croatian media have been reporting during the last years about the case of another tRambov - Sini\a Dvorski, guard in the Croatian Defense Ministry, involved in the murder of Zagreb ethnic Serb butcher, Zec, and his family, killed four years ago on Medvednica, the Mt. nearby Zagreb. Mr. ZecFs daughter (12) was first raped and then killed. Dvorski was not punished.

Referring to the rumors in the Croatian Parliament, Gordana Simonovic, correspondent of the Zagreb independent Radio station t101v, says Medanic retired from HDZ three days ago and that Popovic was killed by an instructor of the Croatian army, charged for soldier training in Pula. (end) A.S.

[07] SERBIAN POLICE CONTINUES TO MALTREAT ALBANIAN POPULATION

The Comity for human rights protection from Kosovo in the report for March brings the data on continuation of systematic repression over Albanian population by the Serbian police on Kosovo. During March total of 839 Albanians were maltreated which is 25O cases more than in February. Out of this total number 59 are women and 65 children. Two times police broke into educational institutions and 26 cases of maltreated teachers has been denoted. 11 persons were kidnapped, 119 were threatened, and 3 cases of attempted kidnap were denoted. Two Albanian families were evicted and two Serbian families moved in their flats. The Comity denoted 47 cases of plundered over individuals, private firms and shops. Great number of citizens do not even dare to report the cases of maltreatment, writes the report. (end) S.K.