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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 27, 7 February 1996

From: OMRI-L <omri-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu>

Open Media Research Institute Directory

CONTENTS

  • [1] ADMIRAL SMITH STILL WILL NOT SEND IFOR AFTER WAR CRIMINALS.

  • [2] PALE PREVENTS BANJA LUKA MAYOR FROM MEETING U.S.

  • [3] UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL MEETS WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.

  • [4] U.S. ANNOUNCES INCREASED AID AMID CONTINUED EU CRITICISM.

  • [5] APPEALS FOR MORE AID.

  • [6] UNHCR SAYS NO BOSNIANS WERE COMPELLED TO GO TO AUSTRALIA.

  • [7] GAS CUT OFF TO ZAGREB.

  • [8] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT URGES UNITY IN GOVERNMENT COALITION.

  • [9] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DENIES SEEKING MOSCOW'S HELP IN 1989.

  • [10] ROMANIAN SENATE VOTES ON COUNTERESPIONAGE BILL.

  • [11] MOLDOVAN DELEGATION IN BUCHAREST.

  • [12] BULGARIAN LEGISLATOR FOUND SHOT.

  • [13] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS ACCUSED OF PLANNING COUP.

  • [14] HOLBROOKE ON CANCELED VISITS TO ATHENS, ANKARA.


  • OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 27, Part II, 7 February 1996

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [1] ADMIRAL SMITH STILL WILL NOT SEND IFOR AFTER WAR CRIMINALS.

    John Shattuck, the U.S. State Department's top official for human rights, has taken NATO commander Admiral Leighton Smith by helicopter to two of the most notorious sites of Serbian atrocities. The men visited the Omarska camp and saw one building from which no prisoner is known to have emerged alive. Shattuck called it a "killing camp" but arrived to find a freshly painted Serbian army barracks with soldiers lounging around and watching television. The Serbs said that the reports on the camp by journalists and survivors were propaganda. The two officials later flew to the Ljubija mine, believed to be a huge mass grave. Smith said he still will not have his men "seek out" war criminals, because this is not in their mandate. The BBC on 7 February commented that many doubt that the war criminals will ever face justice unless IFOR becomes more involved in hunting them down. -- Patrick Moore

    [2] PALE PREVENTS BANJA LUKA MAYOR FROM MEETING U.S. ENVOY.

    President Bill Clinton's special envoy Robert Galucci is in Banja Luka to meet leading personalities, Nasa Borba reported on 7 February. He spoke to the heads of the Roman Catholic and Islamic communities as well as with some Serbian politicians. But the Independent Social Democratic Party charged the hard-line Pale leadership with having blocked his meeting with Mayor Predrag Radic. Meanwhile in Sarajevo, Oslobodjenje quoted Michael Steiner, the deputy of the international community's Carl Bildt, as saying dialog between local Serbs and the government on reintegrating the capital is progressing well. -- Patrick Moore

    [3] UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL MEETS WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.

    Elisabeth Rehn on 6 February visited the Bosnian-Serb stronghold of Pale to hold talks with Republika Srpska Vice President Nikola Koljevic, parliamentary speaker Momcilo Krajisnik, and Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic, Nasa Borba reported. Rehn said Bosnian Serb leaders have granted her freedom of movement to carry out her work, despite disagreement over the Hague- based war crimes tribunal and mass graves in Bosnia. Krajisnik complained that the trials in The Hague have been politicized, with charges of ethnic cleansing and massacres unfairly slanted against Serbs. He added that "Muslims were keeping Serbs as ethnic hostages in government-controlled towns," according to AFP. Rehn told the reporters she believes some missing Srebrenica citizens are still alive, "although they were not in the Srebrenica area," Hina reported. -- Daria Sito Sucic

    [4] U.S. ANNOUNCES INCREASED AID AMID CONTINUED EU CRITICISM.

    The U.S. on 6 February announced it is increasing aid to Bosnia, international news agencies reported. A U.S. official speaking in Tuzla said his government wants to allocate $200 million in economic assistance to Bosnia for the remainder of the 1996 fiscal year. The U.S. previously had said it would contribute only $600 million. It has come under ongoing criticism by the EU, which expects the U.S. to provide one-third of the estimated $5.1 billion needed for reconstruction in Bosnia. An EU spokesman in Brussels was also critical of Japan and the Islamic states. Meanwhile, a spokesman in Washington said the U.S. will step up efforts to accelerate the deployment of UN police to Bosnia. -- Michael Mihalka

    [5] APPEALS FOR MORE AID.

    Regional leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have appealed for more aid, international agencies reported. Bosnian Prime Minister Hsan Muratovic estimated Bosnian war damage at $45 billion, while the Croatian delegation said their country needed $17 billion. Rump Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic estimated his country lost more than $200 billion directly and indirectly through the war. Hungarian President Arpad Goncz asked that some of money be earmarked for aiding Hungarian infrastructure. Meanwhile, The World Bank reported that almost 90% of the Bosnian population depends on international aid. -- Michael Mihalka

    [6] UNHCR SAYS NO BOSNIANS WERE COMPELLED TO GO TO AUSTRALIA.

    A UNHCR official in Belgrade on 6 February denied that Bosnians have been sent against their will to Australia, international media reported. He said refugees who fled the enclaves of Zepa and Srebenica when they fell to Bosnian Serb forces in the summer of 1995 "adamantly refused to go back." But a spokesman for a group of some 100 refugees in Adelaide said they had been sent against their will and wanted to return. The UNHCR official said the refugees in Australia are welcome to return to Bosnia but will have to wait their turn, since there are the tens of thousands of other refugees seeking help in repatriation. -- Michael Mihalka

    [7] GAS CUT OFF TO ZAGREB.

    Many residents of the Croatian capital on 7 February found themselves without gas amid sub-zero temperatures, German media reported. The energy firm INA is seeking to force the state-run gas board to pay 28 million kuna ($5 million) in back debts. INA plans to cut off more gas gradually. -- Patrick Moore

    [8] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT URGES UNITY IN GOVERNMENT COALITION.

    Kiro Gligorov on 6 February appealed to the Social Democratic Union, the Socialist Party, and the Liberal Party to keep the present government coalition together, Reuters reported. Gligorov' statements followed reports that Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski is preparing to name a new government without the Liberals. "Excluding one member of the coalition from the future reconstructed government is not a political platform I represent [nor is it] the will of our voters," Gligorov said. The Liberals complained that Crvenkovski excluded them from talks about a new government. The dismissal of Macedonian TV editor-in-chief Saso Ordanoski, a Social Democrat, may have been a result of the coalition crisis. Macedonian TV Director-General Melpomeni Korneti, a Liberal, reportedly disagreed with one of his editorials predicting there would be no Liberals in the next government. -- Stefan Krause

    [9] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DENIES SEEKING MOSCOW'S HELP IN 1989.

    Ion Iliescu has denied accusations that he sought Moscow's help during the December 1989 revolt, which many Romanians believe was hijacked by his leftist allies, Reuters reported on 6 February. For the first time since he gained power in December 1989, Iliescu's office issued documents allegedly proving that he did not ask ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to help oust Nicolae Ceausescu. The Presidency said the move was meant to deny "fabrications by the media and politicians about the Romanian revolution and the legitimacy of the National Salvation Front." Under Iliescu's leadership, the NSF seized power after Ceausescu's overthrow. -- Matyas Szabo

    [10] ROMANIAN SENATE VOTES ON COUNTERESPIONAGE BILL.

    The Senate on 6 February adopted by a vote of 82 to seven with six abstentions a draft law on the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), Radio Bucharest reported. Under the new legislation, the country's counterintelligence service will be supervised by a joint panel set up by the Commissions for Defense, Public Order, and National Security of the parliament's two chambers. The SIE will be subordinated to the Supreme Defense Council, headed by President Ion Iliescu. The bill has still to be approved by the Chamber of Deputies. -- Dan Ionescu

    [11] MOLDOVAN DELEGATION IN BUCHAREST.

    A delegation from the Moldovan parliament's Foreign Policy Commission have met with foreign policy experts in the Romanian parliament's two chambers, Romanian media reported on 6 February. The two sides agreed that the Romanian and Moldovan parliaments will draw up by the end of their current sessions a legislative proposal on easing border crossing restrictions. They also discussed the free exchange of newspapers and publications as well as issues related to national minorities. -- Matyas Szabo

    [12] BULGARIAN LEGISLATOR FOUND SHOT.

    Todor Todorov, chairman of the parliamentary agriculture committee and a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, was found shot in the head at his home in Malina, northeastern Bulgaria, on 5 February, 24 chasa reported. He was rushed to the hospital in Dobrich and operated on but is in a deep coma. Police said there was no evidence of violence and are convinced that Todorov attempted to commit suicide. Bulgarian media link the incident to the criticism of the agriculture committee amid the ongoing grain shortage. Standart cited Petar Komarov, a high-level official at the Agriculture Ministry, as saying Todorov has frequently received telephone threats against himself and his family and was disappointed by the attitude of fellow party members. The BSP declined to comment on the incident. -- Stefan Krause

    [13] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS ACCUSED OF PLANNING COUP.

    Rilindja Demokratike on 7 February reported that Italian journalist Pietro Zannoni has produced a document, dated 3 March 1990 and signed by a Yugoslav Security Service agent, allegedly proving that the Albanian Socialist Party was involved in espionage and other activities. The document mentions plans to finance agents in Albania "to control the communist apparatus." It also refers to "preparations for a communist coup d'etat in Albania with the support of Russia" and to preserving "relations between the Serbian and Albanian Communists to maintain Serbian domination over Kosovo." The Socialists have repeatedly denied the charges. -- Fabian Schmidt

    [14] HOLBROOKE ON CANCELED VISITS TO ATHENS, ANKARA. U.S.

    Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke on 6 February said it was his decision not to visit Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, CNN reported the same day. Holbrooke said "we have decided on our own that this is not an ideal time to visit," noting that there still is no new Turkish government. Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis the previous day had made clear Holbrooke was not welcome in Athens. Meanwhile, U.S. President Bill Clinton set letters to Simitis, Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, and Turkish President Suleyman Demirel thanking them for "for their cooperation in successfully resolving the issue" of the disputed islet of Imia/Kardak. -- Stefan Krause

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
    For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz

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