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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 84, 29 April 1996

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

Open Media Research Institute: Daily Digest Directory

CONTENTS

  • [1] BOSNIAN UN AMBASSADOR BLASTS IRANIAN "REVELATIONS."

  • [2] SERBS, IFOR BLOCK REFUGEES' RETURN.

  • [3] THREE SERBS CONVICTED IN MURDER TRIALS OF ETHNIC CROATS.

  • [4] CHILD DIES IN BOMB EXPLOSION IN KOSOVO . . .

  • [5] . . . AND MORE ARRESTS REPORTED FOLLOWING RECENT SHOOT-OUTS.

  • [6] SLOVENIA'S REFUGEES TO BE RETURNED.

  • [7] SLOVENIAN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH ITALY.

  • [8] ROMANIA, RUSSIA POSTPONE INITIALING BASIC TREATY.

  • [9] SENIOR NATO OFFICIAL IN ROMANIA.

  • [10] MOLDOVAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTS MEET.

  • [11] BULGARIAN PREMIER PLAYS DOWN BUDGETARY PROBLEMS . . .

  • [12] . . . WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY DEPUTY LEADER CALLS FOR CABINET RESHUFFLE.

  • [13] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS HOST ELECTION SPECTACLE.


  • OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 84, Part II, 29 April 1996

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [1] BOSNIAN UN AMBASSADOR BLASTS IRANIAN "REVELATIONS."

    Muhamed Sacirbey sharply denied an election-year spate of "leaks" in the U.S. press over alleged past and present links between Sarajevo and Tehran. He suggested European powers that resent America's role in the Balkans are trying to sabotage U.S. plans to "train and equip" the Bosnian army. "I think the issue in Bosnia is not so much age-old ethnic rivalries as it is European imperial rivalries that have now lasted for over a century...Why are these stories being spread? The primary U.S. relationship in the Balkans is with Bosnia, [which] upsets some other political relationships that have existed since before World War I," Onasa quoted him as saying on 28 April. -- Patrick Moore

    [2] SERBS, IFOR BLOCK REFUGEES' RETURN.

    Mass visits by Muslim refugees to pray at family gravesites now under Serbian control were expected on 28 April, the Muslim holiday of Kurban Bairam, the Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported the next day. Oslobodjenje noted that some 200 Serbs near Doboj pelted refugees with stones and prevented them from crossing the border, despite provisions in the Dayton agreement assuring both the freedom of movement and the right of refugees to go home. IFOR troops kept the Muslims out of Serb territory elsewhere, such as by blocking three busloads of refugees who wanted to go to Teslic. U.S. soldiers turned back cars carrying Muslims, who sought to go to Mahala, near Tuzla. Serbs stoned and wounded a dozen Croat refugees wanting to visit their home village near Gradacac, Onasa said. IFOR's Gen. Michael Walker added that IFOR cannot guarantee freedom of movement for "larger civilian groups." -- Patrick Moore

    [3] THREE SERBS CONVICTED IN MURDER TRIALS OF ETHNIC CROATS.

    Three individuals have been convicted on charges relating to the killings of four ethnic Croats in Serbia's Vojvodina province, Vecernje novosti reported on 28 April. A regional court in Sremska Mitrovica sentenced Goran Vukovic to 15 years imprisonment for shooting three Croats in June 1993, while Pavle Draskovic was sentenced to ten years in prison for murdering one Croat in April 1993. Meanwhile, Milan Nikolic received a prison sentence of three and one-half years for instigating "national and religious animosity" in the province. All three men are believed to have been volunteer-paramilitaries during Belgrade's war with Croatia. -- Stan Markotich

    [4] CHILD DIES IN BOMB EXPLOSION IN KOSOVO . . .

    One child was killed and three others injured in a bomb explosion in Velika Reka on 28 April, Reuters reported. The Democratic League of Kosovo said unidentified culprits threw the explosive from a driving car and the bomb exploded as the youngsters, aged nine-12, examined the device. Serbian police, however, said the explosion was an accident, AFP reported. They claimed the boys found the bomb in a field near a local agricultural co- operative. Another bomb reportedly exploded outside a house in Dusanovo the previous day, causing damage but no casualties. Serbian Deputy administrator Milan Nesovic claimed that "the incidents are a desperate move by extremist elements to destroy the increasingly favorable climate created for talks on resolving the Kosovo issue," but did not say how the long-standing deadlock on negotiations could be broken in a foreseeable future. -- Fabian Schmidt

    [5] . . . AND MORE ARRESTS REPORTED FOLLOWING RECENT SHOOT-OUTS.

    Three more Albanians were arrested following a wave of shoot-outs in Kosovo early last week on 26 April, AFP reported. Altogether more than 100 Albanians have been arrested all over Kosovo since the recent shoot-outs. The Democratic League of Kosovo has again claimed that Albanians in custody are being tortured by police. It also reported an increase in arbitrary police raids into private houses. -- Fabian Schmidt

    [6] SLOVENIA'S REFUGEES TO BE RETURNED.

    The Slovenian government has decided to repatriate approximately 18,500 refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, some 90% of whom are Muslims, by the end of 1997, Nasa Borba reported on 29 April. Representatives of the Slovenian refugee community reported that some 60% of the refugees have already indicated that they would opt to stay in Slovenia if given the chance. Nasa Borba reported that the refugees fear their homes "have been destroyed and that [their] territory, in accordance with the Dayton agreement, is now under the jurisdiction of the Republika Srpska or the the Croats." The resettlement process is scheduled to begin on 1 July 1995. -- Stan Markotich

    [7] SLOVENIAN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH ITALY.

    Slovenian Foreign Minister Zoran Thaler said on 26 April during a visit to Portugal that the center-left's 21 April victory in Italian elections has positive implications for bilateral Slovenian-Italian relations. Thaler remarked that the political mood in Rome has changed since the Olive Tree coalition emerged with a victory. Thaler also said that Slovenia's chances of obtaining an association agreement with the EU, as a step towards full EU integration, have improved markedly. Reuters quoted Thaler as saying,"We believe that there is a realistic chance to have our association agreement signed in the near future." -- Stan Markotich

    [8] ROMANIA, RUSSIA POSTPONE INITIALING BASIC TREATY.

    Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov and his Romanian counterpart, Teodor Melescanu, on 27 April failed to initial a much-delayed basic treaty, Western media reported. Primakov was quoted as saying that he saw no "visible dissension with the Romanian side," but he questioned Romania's wish to have Moscow publicly condemn the 1939 secret Ribbentrop-Molotov pact that stripped Romania of the Bessarabia and North Bukovina Provinces. Melescanu, on the other hand, suggested that Romania was ready to drop its demand that the treaty include the pact's condemnation, but wanted the issue settled in a supplementary declaration with no legal ramifications. Primakov, who came to Bucharest to attend the meeting of the Business Forum of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, also met Romanian President Ion Iliescu on the same day. -- Dan Ionescu

    [9] SENIOR NATO OFFICIAL IN ROMANIA.

    General John Sheehan, Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT), on 26 April met with President Ion Iliescu, Romanian media reported. The two discussed Romania's participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program and in exercises staged by SACLANT last year. Meanwhile, Romania on 26 April started individual discussions on possible membership in the alliance at NATO headquarters in Brussels. -- Dan Ionescu

    [10] MOLDOVAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTS MEET.

    Moldovan President Mircea Snegur on 26 April in Bucharest met with his Romanian counterpart, Ion Iliescu, Radio Bucharest reported. They discussed bilateral cooperation and mutual support. Snegur, who was attending the Business Forum of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation group, had addressed the conference with a plea for more political and economic stability, as well as military security in the region. The four-day conference, which was attended by more than 2,000 politicians and business people, closed on 28 April. -- Dan Ionescu

    [11] BULGARIAN PREMIER PLAYS DOWN BUDGETARY PROBLEMS . . .

    Prime Minister Zhan Videnov on 28 April said that the government will not amend or adjust the 1996 state budget in order to compensate for rising interest rates, Pari reported. He said the government will pressure the Bulgarian National Bank to lower the prime interest rate instead, which had been raised from 49% to 67% on 25 April. Videnov said raising the interest rate is no way of solving the state's fundamental financial problems and is detrimental to investments. He also blamed the trade unions for the situation. Trud cited Videnov as saying there is no need for ministers to resign because of the economic and financial situation. He said that "In the U.S., there is also a budget deficit, but no one resigns because of that." -- Stefan Krause

    [12] . . . WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY DEPUTY LEADER CALLS FOR CABINET RESHUFFLE.

    Meanwhile, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Deputy Chairman Yanaki Stoilov on 28 April demanded that several key ministers be replaced, Standart reported. He singled out Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Rumen Gechev and Finance Minister Dimitar Kostov, who are blamed for failing to deal with the financial and economic crisis, and Interior Minister Lyubomir Nachev, who failed to cope with rising crime. Stoilov said "the changes have to be made now" because "trust in the government is waning." He predicted that without personnel changes, the BSP will be unable to fulfill its election platform. In other news, Reuters on 26 April cited a top police official as saying that financial losses from white-collar crime rose by 300% in the first three months of 1996 compared to the same period last year. -- Stefan Krause

    [13] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS HOST ELECTION SPECTACLE.

    The Democratic Party held a huge music spectacle, for 30,000 people in Tirana on 27 April, Reuters reported. President Sali Berisha said his agenda include "rapidly improving living standards and ensuring fast economic growth." He also promised to speed up the privatization of state industries, banks, telecommunications and mines and to invest in infrastructure projects and hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of candidates banned from elections for their past Communist-ties has reached 139. The Socialists thus lost 45 candidates, the Social Democrats 22, the Democratic Alliance 11, the Republican Party 13, while other smaller parties lost 45 candidates. Only three Democratic Party candidates were effected by the ban. -- Fabian Schmidt

    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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