OMRI Daily Digest I,II, No. 150, 3 August 1995

From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@cdsp.neu.edu>

CONTENTS

  • [01] RUSSIA CRITICIZES U.S. HOUSE VOTE ON ARMS EMBARGO.

  • [02] CROATIA HAS 100,000 MEN MOBILIZED.

  • [03] MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KRAJINA QUESTION SEEMS IMMINENT.

  • [04] WILL THE CROATS HAVE THE WEST'S SILENT BLESSING?

  • [05] UN ABANDONS ZEPA.

  • [06] MILOSEVIC SHARPLY CRITICIZED BY OPPOSITION FOR "PEACE APPEAL."

  • [07] KOSOVAR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC LEADER ON AUTONOMY.

  • [08] U.S. OFFICIAL IN MACEDONIA.

  • [09] ROMANIA DENIES BREAKING RUMP YUGOSLAV EMBARGO.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 150, Part I, 3 August 1995

    RUSSIA

    [01] RUSSIA CRITICIZES U.S. HOUSE VOTE ON ARMS EMBARGO.

    Aleksandr Zotov, President Yeltsin's special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to veto a bill, now passed by both houses of Congress, which calls for the U.S. to ignore the UN arms embargo in Bosnia. If the embargo ended, Zotov said, "the whole methodology of dealing with this conflict would collapse." Zotov also told journalists that Moscow would play an important role in any political solution of the conflict in Bosnia, since "when it comes to producing influence on the ground, the road is usually through Moscow." Izvestiya argued on 3 August that recent Bosnian Serb actions demonstrated Moscow's complete inability to influence the situation. -- Scott Parrish, OMRI, Inc.

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 150, Part II, 3 August 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [02] CROATIA HAS 100,000 MEN MOBILIZED.

    International media on 3 August reported that the UN estimates that the Croatian military has completed its mobilization. The 100,000 men must be sent into action soon or will have to be demobilized for economic reasons. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said troops are massing about 70 km south of Zagreb. The Krajina Serbs' army is about half the size of the Croats', but they have much heavy weaponry left behind by the Serb-dominated former Yugoslav army. Five Serbian tanks have been brought up around Strmica, but the mood in Knin is that Krajina's collapse is imminent. Slobodna Dalmacija wrote that Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic has met with his top generals. Krajina and Bosnian Serb civilian leaders have appealed to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for immediate military support, but their main supply corridor via Brcko could be hit by Croatian artillery at Orasje. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KRAJINA QUESTION SEEMS IMMINENT.

    Nasa Borba on 3 August reported that the Croats shelled Drvar, while the Serbs hit Gospic and Otocac with rockets. Krajina Serbs fired on two UN helicopters flying over their territory, but one of their own planes returned to base after being warned by NATO that it was violating the "no-fly" zone. Croatia and Krajina are sending middle-level delegations to Geneva for talks with UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg, but the BBC quoted a UN spokesman as saying that his expectations for the meeting were "realistic." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] WILL THE CROATS HAVE THE WEST'S SILENT BLESSING?

    Western media have beenspeculating that the U.S. and some of its allies would not mind if the Croats marched into Krajina and removed that issue from the international agenda. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung added that U.S. Ambassador Peter Galbraith's appeal on 2 August against an outbreak of hostilities was probably just a formality and does not reflect a change in the new Western attitudes toward Krajina. The New York Times on 1 August wrote that the feeling in many Western capitals is that the Krajina Serbs deserve whatever they get following their invasion of the Bihac pocket. Nasa Borba reported on 3 August, however, that special UN envoy Yasushi Akashi called Milosevic's latest appeal for peace there "a very positive initiative. " -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] UN ABANDONS ZEPA.

    Some 70 French peacekeepers are leaving the second of the two UN-designated "safe areas" the Serbs overran in July. Thousands of Muslim civilians and military-aged men remain unaccounted for. The atrocities commited by the Serbs in Srebrenica and Zepa fueled a growing international perception that the Serbs are the aggressors and must be stopped. This led to overwhelming votes in the U.S. Congress to lift the arms embargo against the Bosnian government, but the VOA said on 3 August that supporters of the plan may not, after all, be able to override President Bill Clinton's expected veto. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] MILOSEVIC SHARPLY CRITICIZED BY OPPOSITION FOR "PEACE APPEAL".

    BETA on 2 August reported that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has been roundly attacked by several opposition parties for his letter to Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic appealing for peace. The ultranantionalist Serbian Radical Party said the letter to "the war criminal Izetbegovic . . . comes at the time of the greatest Muslim offensive against the Serbian people and territory." It added that "Milosevic, instead of helping our brothers and his compatriots . . . is surrendering Serbian forces." -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [07] KOSOVAR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC LEADER ON AUTONOMY.

    Mark Krasniqi, leader of the Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo, said he rules out autonomy for Kosovo under Belgrade's terms. BETA on 2 August said that the province's Albanians are ready for a dialogue with Serbia but that "Serbia does not want it." He called on the international community to use political means to prevent a war in the region. According to Krasniqi, the preconditions for talks with the Serbian government are international mediation and an end to police repression in Kosovo. He added that only the "legitimate representatives of the Albanian people"- -namely, shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova--can take part in the talks and that the only acceptable result is the establishment of a Republic of Kosovo. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [08] U.S. OFFICIAL IN MACEDONIA.

    Sarah Sewall, deputy assistant secretary of defense with responsibility for peacekeeping and peace enforcement, visited Macedonia on 1 August, international agencies reported. She met with Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Handziski and visited U.S. soldiers serving as part of UNPREDEP. A joint statement issued after the talks with Handziski warned that "due to escalation of fighting in Bosnia, there is a danger of the conflict spreading to the southern Balkans." -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.

    [09] ROMANIA DENIES BREAKING RUMP YUGOSLAV EMBARGO.

    A spokesman for Romania's Foreign Ministry on 2 August denied that Romanian authorities were allowing passenger jets flying to Belgrade to load more fuel than needed in breach of the UN embargo against Serbia and Montenegro. The statement came in response to a recent article in The New York Times saying that planes belonging to the Yugoslav airline JAT were overtanked in the western Romanian town of Timisoara. The spokesman, speaking on Radio Bucharest, said that international security measures require airplanes to carry some extra fuel in the event that an emergency forces them change their landing destination. Romania, he added, has always complied with the UN embargo against the rump Yugoslavia. -- Dan Ionescu, OMRI, Inc.

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

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