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Serbia Today 96-05-23
Serbia Today
23 May 1996
CONTENTS
[01] POSITIVE COURSE OF PREPARATIONS FOR FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS
[02] CORNBLOOM: ItM NOT HERE TO MAKE THREATS WITH SANCTIONS
[03] GREECE'S FULL SUPPORT TO FRY POLICY
[04] REAFFIRMED INTEREST IN COOPERATION WITH IMF
[05] SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR GENERAL AMNESTY
[06] A CROATIA LIKE THIS IS NOT TO EUROPE'S LIKING
[07] FRANJO TUDJMAN'S MORBID IDEAS
[01] POSITIVE COURSE OF PREPARATIONS FOR FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS
President of the Republic Slobodan Milo}evi} received yesterday American State Secretary's
assistant John Cornbloom who arrived in Belgrade as the head of the American team working on the
implementation of the Dayton accords. Attention was focused on the issues and the efforts put in by the iFR
of Yugoslavia and the nternational community towards a successful implementation of the Bosnia peace
plan. It was stated that the actions taken hereto are providing for a positive course of preparations for the
forthcoming elections at which democratic institutions of the system will be established. It was found that it
is necessary to speed-up the process of economic reconstruction of the area in which the civil war was
waged, in which equal treatment of the both entities should be felt. The regular political dialogue between
the FRY and the USA is undoubtedly making a contribution to the advancement of bilateral relations of the
two countries, the full normalization of which should be achieved in the interest of the enhancement of
peace and stability in the region and equality in the international relations. (Politika, 23 May).
[02] CORNBLOOM: ItM NOT HERE TO MAKE THREATS WITH SANCTIONS
Diplomatically speaking, the talks were open and sincere, said John Cornbloom, head of the
American negotiating team, following the yesterday's meeting with President Slobodan Milosevic of
Serbia. He told the news people that all aspects of the peace agreement were discussed in great detail and
that consideration was given to some steps taken in the Serb Republic towards its being implemented fully.
Cornbloom stressed that the USA is against Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic staying at the
head of the Serb Republic and that twe are expecting of them to participate in no way in the implementation
of the Dayton accordst. He said that the USA is not rejecting the people in the Serb Republic or the leaders
who want to cooperate, and that it still wants the Serb Republic to show its intention to cooperate in the
Dayton process. In conclusion, he stressed that there is a t possibility of sanctions being imposed and that
the FRY must bear responsibility for the whole peace process, but.tha he did not come here in order to make
any threats with sanctionst. (Politika, 23 May)
[03] GREECE's FULL SUPPORT TO FRY POLICY
Following his talks in Athens with Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simithis, Serbian Prime Minister
Mirko Marjanovic said: t We have found once more that Greece and Yugoslavia and our peoples, are
traditional, centuries old friends. We have also ascertained that it is possible and that there are still ways for
us to develop relations in all areast. Since the economy of Serbia is of key importance to me, continued
Marjanovic, we focused on the expansion of economic cooperation. Our relations are very good, said Prime
Minister Simithis and expressed his hope that tpolitical and economic relations between our countries will
be intensified soon and that we will achieve our objective, for the Balkans being turned into a zone of
peace and cooperation for all of ust. The Greek Prime Minister stressed 'Greece's full support to the policy
of Yugoslavia and President Milosevic geared to the full implementation of the Dayton agreement on the
equality of the three entities'. (Politika, 23 May)
[04] REAFFIRMED INTEREST IN COOPERATION WITH IMF
At the yesterday's session of the Federal Government's Commission for monitoring the
proceedings of the working groups of the Council for the Enforcement of Peace, consideration was given to
a number of reports on the activity of individual delegations charged with the task of negotiating the
regulation of the status of the FRY in international institutions and organizations. The report of the
Yugoslav delegation at the Geneva meeting of the Working Group for Humanitarian Issues, at which it was
pointed at the big contribution of the FRY to the achievement of peace and particularly to the
accommodation of refugees, was accepted. The Commission adopted the Platform for regulating relations
with the European Council's Social Development Fund. Support was given to the option for the processes
concerning the delineation of debts and restoration of cooperation with the Fund to run parallel. The wish of
the FRY for and its interest in the soonest possible normalization with international financial institutions,
particularly with the International Monetary Fund, and that the two sides separate fully the economic and
financial issues from the political ones in the future negotiations. (Borba, 23 May)
[05] SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR GENERAL AMNESTY
The UN Security Council has called on the Zagreb government to amnesty all citizens who had
served in military or police forces in the former UNPAt. The UN Secretary-General reported to the
Security Council president about the implementation of the military component of the peace agreement
affecting Eastern Slavonia, Western Srem and Baranja, stating that peace forces have been deployed and
that everything is ready for demilitarization. In its presidential report, the Security Council called on the
Croatian Government to proclaim a general demilitarization and amnesty. (Express, 23 May)
The Croatian law concerning amnesty for the Serbs is full of deficiencies, it is complicating the
UN mission and it has astonished the high officials of the transitional administration for Eastern Slavonic,
Barring and Western SRAM, reports Reuters without naming its UN sources. They find that the amnesty is
to restricted for the Serbs to be calmed down. tThat, in fact, is not an amnesty, but a hunting license, which
could lead to a disaster subsequently. The law leaves quite vague the fate of all Serbs who had fled from
other parts of Croatiat, said an unnamed UN official. Another official said that this law doesntt deal with
the Serbst fundamental fears and that once the UN mandate expires, they would have to flee from these
areas, which would frustrate the international community's plans for the establishment of a multi-ethnic
community. Reuters quote that crimes must be punished, but that the Croatian police and courts, which are
under political influence, are not defining the war crimes as accurately as is done in the West. tThey would
probably arrest more people than we would want to be arrested. Amnesty is the biggest issue for the Serbs
to date. It is such a big one, that its wrong management could disrupt the process of reintegration.t, said the
unnamed UN official. (Vecernje novosti, 25 May)
[06] A CROATIA LIKE THIS IS NOT TO EUROPE'S LIKING
The decision of the EU Council of Ministers to defer Croatia's admission is still the chief political
topic on Croatia, which is quite understandable, because it was precisely on the tEuropean orientationt that
the Croatian establishment was building up its image in the face of domestic public, although in the end, it
turned out that precisely because of such policy of the Croatian establishment, Europe's doors were
slammed to them. The establishment is interpreting its failure in the eyes of Europe as the tfault of Europe,
not its ownt. It is being explained to the public that Croatia has already practically fulfilled all conditions
and that it has not violated the principles of the existing European civilization, but that some formal reasons
for determent are involved. However, in the opposition ranks, views are quite different and it is claimed that
Europe will open its doors only once the Croatian authorities change their behaviour. Chairman of IDS,
Ivan Jakvocic, said: t Evidently, a Croatia like this is very much not to Europe's liking, so that Croatia's
biggest friends, Germans and Austrians, are disgusted at what Tudjman is doing from one day to anothert.
In his criticism aimed at Tudjman directly, the vice-chairman of HSLS, the strongest opposition party, Bozo
Kovacevic, said: tEvidently, the leadership and President Tudjman most of all, have adopted an attitude
which has nothing to do with democracy, since in democracies, citizens are allowed to appraise the
suitability of the establishment, whereas in Croatia, the president is the person who appraises the suitability
of his citizens for being electors, journalists and citizens in generalt. (Politika, 23 May)
[07] FRANJO TUDJMAN'S MORBID IDEAS
Dr Milan Bulajic, Director of the Genocide Victims Museum, said yesterday at a press conference
in Belgrade that the idea of Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman, ro turn the Upstate death cam of Jasenovac
into a common memorial centre of victims and their executioners, is a morbid one. Jasenovac stands for
the essence of our tragedy. No one can understand the Yugoslav tragedy, the plight of the Serbian people,
without getting an insight into the roots of Jasenovac.t Stressing that Tudjman is resorting to forgeries,
Bulajic quoted as an example that Croatia's president revising the number of Jasenovac victims, reducing
the number of slain Serbs, Jews and Gypsies to twenty or so thousand. According to the files of the
Museum of the Victims of Genocide in Jasenovac. tAccruing to the Museum's files, that number is
tantamount only to the number of killed children aged one day to 14 yearst, said Bulajic and added that the
victims totaled about 700,000 people, which is corroborated by documents of the German and Croatian
state commissions.
What is also untrue is Franjo Tudjman's claim that after 1945, Jasenovac was the camp in which
Croatian domobrans and Ustashe were put to death. This claim of Tudjman is not a new one, it was seen in
his book published twenty or so years ago, The Dead-end of Historical Realities, which according to
Bulajic, is the Croatian version of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'. Milan Bulajic has moved for the formation of an
intonation al commission
of experts for establishing the truth about Jasenovac and for supporting the idea of placing Jasenovac under
international protection. (Borba, 23 May)
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