OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 68, 5 Apr 1995

From: "Demetrios E. Paneras" <dep@bu.edu>

CONTENTS

  • [01] FAIR WEATHER MEANS MORE WARFARE IN BOSNIA.

  • [02] INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONTINUES PROTESTS, THREATS IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA.

  • [03] SERBIAN UPDATE.

  • [04] BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER ON UN SANCTIONS, SCHENGEN AGREEMENT.

  • [05] ALBANIAN DAILY ALLEGES RELEASED ALBANIAN GREEKS INVOLVED IN MAVI TERRORISM.

  • [06] ALBANIAN TRADE UNIONS THREATEN STRIKE.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 68, Part II, 5 April 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [01] FAIR WEATHER MEANS MORE WARFARE IN BOSNIA.

    The arrival of spring in the Balkans in recent days has meant intensified combat in Bosnia- Herzegovina. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 5 April quotes UN sources as saying that the Tuzla area, in the northeast, continues to be the scene of particularly stiff combat and that government forces have captured a key television relay station on Mt. Vlasic, just above Travnik in central Bosnia. But it appears that the Serbs' threatened counteroffensive has yet to materialize, although it could begin soon if the snows melt in the mountains. As late as last week, there were blizzards in western Bosnia's mountains, which led to five Croatian soldiers freezing to death and the rescue of the rest of their convoy, including Croatian Chief of Staff General Janko Bobetko, by UNPROFOR. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [02] INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONTINUES PROTESTS, THREATS IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 5 April reported that the UN has protested to the Serbs over continued attacks on Bihac and the five o

    ther UN-protected "safe areas" in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nasa Borba said that the Contact Group, meeting in London, wants to apply more pressure on the Sarajevo government to extend the current ceasefire beyond its 1 May expiry date, although the agreement has largely broken down in recent weeks and was never really in force in the Bihac area. That paper also reported that international mediator David Owen told the Albanian- language Kosovo weekly Koha that the international community will not accept the secession of any parts of existing ex-Yugoslav republics-- namely, Krajina, Kosovo, and the largely ethnic Albanian areas of western Macedonia. He denied, however, that any solution eventually worked out for Krajina could be automatically applied to Kosovo. Owen advised the Kosovo Albanians to forget about independence and to talk to the Serbs about political autonomy. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic abolished Kosovo's wide-ranging self-rule granted by Josip Broz Tito's 1974 Yugoslav constitution. Nasa Borba also reported on the cost of the current conflict for all parties in the former Yugoslavia and concluded that Austria has made more money out of that area than it has with its former trading partners in EFTA. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] SERBIAN UPDATE.

    Reuters on 4 April quoted international sanctions monitors as saying that Belgrade appears to be keeping its border with Bosnia-Herzegovina closed. "We have given Belgrade a clean bill of health in our report to the Geneva headquarters of the Co-Chairmen of the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia," ICFY spokesman Geoff Gartshore said. Reuters adds, however, that some Western diplomats in Belgrade have said that while there is no evidence that Belgrade is violating its own blockade, "a vast body of pin-prick violations" and reports of helicopter supply flights from Serbia to Bosnian Serb-held territory are worrisome. Meanwhile, Nasa Borba on 5 April reports that farmers and agricultural workers staged protests in Belgrade against the government's agricultural policies. Farm representatives are scheduled to meet with Serbian government officials on 14 April. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER ON UN SANCTIONS, SCHENGEN AGREEMENT. Zhan Videnov, speaking at the Atlantic Club in Sofia on 4 April, said that countries hit by trade losses caused by the UN sanctions against rump Yugoslavia should appeal jointly to the UN and other international o

    rganizations for compensation, Bulgarian media reported the next day. He also considered the consequences of the Schengen agreement for Bulgaria. The Schengen countries, he noted, want to protect themselves against organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Videnov said his government will fight all these criminal manifestations so that the visa restrictions for Bulgarian citizens can be lifted. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] ALBANIAN DAILY ALLEGES RELEASED ALBANIAN GREEKS INVOLVED IN MAVI T

    ERRORISM. Gazeta Shqiptare on 5 April alleged that five ethnic Greeks from Albania who were arrested in April 1994 on charges of illegal arms possession and espionage were involved in terrorist activities. The five were released on 8 February following Greek diplomatic and economic pressure. Greek police, following the recent arrest of a group of seven armed men near the Albanian border, cracked down on MAVI activists and gathered evidence about the terrorist activities of the Greek nationalist Northern Epirus Liberation Front (MAVI). Gazeta Shqiptare quoted former Greek Transport Minister Theodoros Pangalos as saying that "it is very possible that [the five] have connections to the ultranationalist command that has been arrested recently." -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] ALBANIAN TRADE UNIONS THREATEN STRIKE.

    The Albanian government has rejected trade union demands for a 35% rise in public sector wages, Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 5 April. Dashamir Shehi, deputy head of the Council of Ministers, is quoted as saying that "the state's current finances do not allow it to meet these demands." Trade unions representing workers in the education, health, and telecommunications sectors have threatened to strike if their demands are not met. An unspecified number of newspapers also threatened protest action after the publishing house Demokracia raised printing costs by about 35%, Koha Jone reported on 31 March. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc. [As of 12:00 CET] Compiled by Jan Cleave

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a Prague-based nonprofit organization.

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