Subject: YDS 8/25 From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) 25. AUGUST 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY CONTENTS: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT FIRMLY COMMITTED TO PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF CRISIS YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA - MILOSEVIC MEETS WITH ZOTOV YUGOSLAVIA - UKRAINE - UKRAINE SUPPORTS YUGOSLAVIA'S PEACE POLICY - YUGOSLAVIA, UKRAINE - CONSULTATIONS YUGOSLAVIA - ECONOMY - YUGOSLAVIA TAKES STEPS TO BE RE-ADMITTED TO IMF O P I N I O N S - MAZOWIECKI LEAVES THE STAGE IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AS BIASED AS EVER CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS - GUNNES: U.N. IN SEARCH OF SERB KRAJINA REFUGEES - CROATIAN ULTIMATUM HOLDS UP SERB REFUGEES' EVACUATION FROM KNIN - CROATIA AGAIN RESORTS TO WIDE-SCALE TORCHING AND ATROCITIES FROM FOREIGN PRESS - INDEPENDENT: CROATIA ANNIHILATES ALL EVIDENCE OF SERB PRESENCE IN KRAJINA - KINKEL SHARPLY CRITICIZES CROATIA FOR ETHNIC CLEANSING IN KRAJINA - GERMAN NEWSPAPER REPORTS BOUTROS-GHALI'S ACCUSATIONS OF CROATIA - ABOUT 2,000 MUJAHEDIN FROM ISLAMIC COUNTRIES IN BOSNIAN MUSLIM ARMY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT FIRMLY COMMITTED TO PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF CRI SIS B e l g r a d e, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - The government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia confirmed its firm commitment to find a political settlement to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia as soon as possible by peaceful means, on the basis of equality of all involved parties. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic has informed the government of the latest international initiatives for resolving the crisis, the Federal Information Secretariat has announced. Taking into account Yugoslavia's commitment and contribution to the peace process, which are increasingly being recognized throughout the world, its justified demands for the lifting of the sanctions and reintegration in the international community should be given priority, the government underlined. YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA MILOSEVIC MEETS WITH ZOTOV B e l g r a d e, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic met Thursday with Russian envoy for the former Yugoslavia and member of the international Contact Group Alexander Zotov. The two sides voiced agreement on moves that should be taken to secure a successful continuation and completion of the peace process in the former Yugoslavia. Russia strongly supports Yugoslavia's peaceful policy and urges that the economic sanctions imposed on it be lifted as early as possible not only as an inevitable step securing a successful end of the peace process but also as an essential precondition for consolidating peace, said a statement released from the Presidential Cabinet. Milosevic and Zotov discussed the situation in the region, Yugoslavia's and Russia's latest efforts and overall international activities aimed at ending the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the statement said. This is the only way leading to a more prosperous future of the Balkan states and nations, the statement said. It said the two sides had particularly discussed Russian President Boris Yeltsin's initiative for holding a peace conference, which met full support of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Milosevic and Zotov agreed that, before organizing the conference, a political solution should be defined to secure equal protection of the interests of all sides to the conflict, presuming also coordination of all international factors that sincerely urge peace in the Balkans, the statement said. Zotov said after talk with Milosevic that he felt encouraged in view of a possibility to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Zotov said he was more optimistic after his visit to Belgrade than he was when he was leaving Sarajevo and other centers on his way to Belgrade. YUGOSLAVIA - UKRAINE UKRAINE SUPPORTS YUGOSLAVIA'S PEACE POLICY B e l g r a d e, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Premier Mirko Marjanovic conferred in Belgrade on Thursday with Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Volodimir Handogiy about the settlement of the crisis in the former yugoslavia. Handogiy communicated to Marjanovic Ukrainian leaders' support for the peace policy pursued by Serbia and Yugoslavia. He said that, to that effect, Ukraine worked at international forums toward an urgent lifting of the sanctions against Yugoslavia. Marjanovic and Handogiy agreed that it was necessary to further develop and upgrade the bilateral cooperation in line with agreements signed during Marjanovic's recent visit to Ukraine. Handogiy also communicated to Marjanovic Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's personal message to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. YUGOSLAVIA, UKRAINE - CONSULTATIONS B e l g r a d e, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Yugoslavia's peace policy still does not get the recognition it deserves from the international community or from the participants in the negotiating process in the former Yugoslavia. This was noted Thursday during consultations between the foreign ministries of the F.R. of Yugoslavia and Ukraine in Belgrade. The Yugoslav side was headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Nikola Cicanovic and the Ukrainian by Deputy Foreign Minister Volodomir Handogiy. Ukraine highly appreciates and supports Yugoslavia's contribution and peaceful policy, it was announced after the meeting. Sanctions are not only the principal obstacle to the peace process, they are pushing the entire Balkan region into economic and social backwardness which could unfortunately have far-reaching negative consequences for the region, it was underlined at the meeting. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as successor to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, has the right to full membership in the United Nations and other international organizations, both sides noted. Yugoslavia's present position within the U.N. is an anachronism which is directly harmful to the U.N. and represents a precedent which could have extremely negative consequences for the future of the world organization. The forthcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly will provide an opportunity for a step forward in restructuring the world organization with the aim of adapting to the new conditions in the world following the end of the cold war and the East-West confrontation. It has been agreed that Yugoslavia and Ukraine take steps to this effect at the forthcoming 50th General Assembly session. YUGOSLAVIA - ECONOMY YUGOSLAVIA TAKES STEPS TO BE RE-ADMITTED TO IMF P a r i s, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic said Yugoslavia had taken steps to be re-admitted to the International Monetary Fund. He said this would give Yugoslavia access to credits granted by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD). Speaking in an interview published by the French daily Le Figaro on Thursday, Avramovic said that he 'would rather not seek IMF's assistance in stabilizing the dinar.' He said Yugoslavia must conclude a new agreement with the IMF because of its outstanding debts and a need to be formally re-admitted to its membership. 'Our relations with the World Bank have been made conditional on our re-admission to the IMF, and it could also be a condition for joining the BERD,' said Avramovic. He said the Yugoslav economy was ready to be incorporated again in the international economic system and said that Yugoslavia had crop reserves ready to be put on the world market, where the staple is currently at a low level. Avramovic said Yugoslavia had more than one million tons of wheat from last year's reserves and could count on a one-million-ton surplus from this year's harvest. He said the country's textile industry was also capable of organizing export fairly quickly, similarly to the machine industry. The other side of the story is the fact that Yugoslavia must now organize the settling of its foreign debts, said Avramovic and added that conditions for their re-payment were subject to discussion. The Governor said problems involving frozen Yugoslav assets abroad have not yet been settled but added that there were hopes for compensation. O P I N I O N S MAZOWIECKI LEAVES THE STAGE IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AS BIASED AS EVER (by Stevan Cordas) G e n e v a, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Special U.N. Rapporteur for Human Rights for the former Yugoslavia Tadeusz Mazowiecki is leaving his post as biased as he was when he took it over. His latest report, that was just published in the U.N. seat in Geneva, is solely centered on the problem of Muslim refugees from the Eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. Mazowiecki's report deals with 30,000 Muslims expelled by Bosnian Serbs from Srebrenica, among whom there are 3,000 Muslim soldiers. After the Bosnian Serb Army entered Srebrenica at the end of July, Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladic invited all the Muslims to stay. Most of them, however, chose to leave, while over 700 Muslim soldiers sought refuge in neighbouring Yugoslavia. Diplomatic circles in Geneva said Thursday that Mazowiecki's choice of when to launch his last report and finally leave was not at all a random one. It looks like he planned for the Srebrenica report to neutralise the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the expulsion of over 200,000 Serbs from the Republic of Serb Krajina. The few Serbs who remained in the Republic of Serb Krajina were either killed or subjected to torture by the Croatian police and army. Houses of the expelled Serbs were systematically looted and torched by the Croatian army. Since Mazowiecki's resignation not a few at the Geneva U.N. headquarters have been pointing out that there is practically no one left to report to the U.N. about the Serb exodus from the Republic of Serb Krajina. Mazowiecki was the only who had the mandate to do so. While nobody has been appointed to take Mazowiecki's place, the institutions which should, by the logic of things, investigate the exodus of Krajina Serbs from their ancestral land, try to alleviate the tragedy and protect the innocent civilian population from Croatia's aggression seem to be turning a blind eye and shifting the entire matter to the outgoing Mazowiecki. CROATIA - KRAJINA SERBS U.N. IN SEARCH OF KRAJINA REFUGEES Z a g r e b, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - The United Nations is trying to ascertain exactly what has happened and how many Serb refugees - driven out by Croatia's August 4 aggression on Krajina - have moved along the Zagreb-Belgrade motor-road towards Yugoslavia, said the U.N. Zagreb-based Command on Thursday. U.N. spokesman Christopher Gunnes told reporters that the difference has never been explained between the number of Serbs who took the motor-road and that of Serbs who went off this road. He said he was aware of the difference amounting to 10,000, but the record-keeping methods might have been responsible for mistaken counting of an estimated total of 155,000 refugees. Gunnes said the U.S. was trying to find out the truth, but this was difficult and time would be needed since the refugees were now in the different localities throughout Yugoslavia. CROATIAN ULTIMATUM HOLDS UP SERB REFUGEES' EVACUATION Z a g r e b, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Croatian authorities informed U.N. officials on Thursday that they were postponing the evacuation of Serb Krajina refugees sheltered with U.N. peacekeepers in Knin, scheduled for Saturday. They explained that the about 560 Krajina Serbs who sought shelter at the U.N. compound in Knin from Croatia's aggression earlier in August, would not be allowed to leave until 62 serbs, suspected by Croatia of crimes, were turned over. Croatian army commander in knin Gen. Ivan Cermak delivered to U.N. Gen. Alaine Forand Croatia's request and a list of suspects 'who have been indicted on charges of crimes against the Republic of Croatia.' Croatian radio quoted Gen. Forand as saying he was awaiting instructions from his command in Zagreb on how to deal with the request. The U.N. Command said on thursday, before receiving Zagreb's request, that persons listed as suspected criminals would be kept at the base and that Croatian authorities would be able to question them in the presence of U.N. human rights officers. U.N. spokesman in Zagreb Christopher Gunness told reporters at the time that the U.N. Command had agreed with Croatia about the evacuation of 627 Krajina Serbs from the U.N. compound in Knin. CROATIA AGAIN RESORTS TO WIDE-SCALE TORCHING AND ATROCITIES Z a g r e b, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - The regime of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is doing its utmost to deny or at least minimise the extent of the crimes committed against Serbs during and after its aggression on the Republic of Serb Krajina. 'Croatia has nothing to fear, there were no lootings of houses, there were no crimes,' the Commander for the Knin area Gen. Ivan Cermak said. However, the Commander of the U.N. peacekeepers for the former Sector South, Brig.Gen. Alain Forand, and other peacekeepers, prove otherwise. Forand said that when the peacekeepers went to evacuate the injured and the ill from the Knin hospital on Saturday, Aug 5, they saw 22 bodies on the road from their base to the hospital alone, mostly of women and children. He said that there were only two men in uniforms among the bodies. He also said that Croatian troops immediately started looting the shops in the town center and added that the peacekeepers were blocked in their barracks until August 8, and for three days knew nothing of what was going on outside. He also said that there were 95 newly dug graves in the Knin cemetery with numbered crosses but that none of the competent people in the Croatian army had yet provided lists with the names corresponding to the numbers. At the same time, representatives of human rights organisations were inquiring about people missing from Donji Lapac, Kistanja, Benkovica and other villages around Knin and were also asking to be given a list of people from Sector South who were detained. Croatian authorities are avoiding answers while U.N. forces still do not have the authorization to enter the area of Vrlika and Donji Lapac. It is almost certain that all traces of crimes are being erased there. No one has yet answered who killed the 11 elderly people from the home of the retarded near Topusko. The peacekeepers had seen these poor men, one of whom was in a wheelchair, being marched in front of soldiers as human shields, but were unable to determine whether they were Muslim or Croat troops. The peacekeepers later found the men killed. 'Unknown' persons have also committed the massacre in the village of Zagrovic, where nine massacred victims were found. A dead man and woman in civilian clothes were seen by the peacekeepers on the road between Dvor and Glina, on Sunday, Aug 20, 16 days after the assault on Krajina. Two days earlier, on August 18, U.N. observers saw two Croatian soldiers killing two villagers from Kakanj. A little later, two other Croat soldiers threw a beaten up man out of a house and then set fire to the house. At the same time, another 13 houses were torched in Donji Lapac. U.N. representatives said they would conduct an investigation into the crimes. They will have a hard time determining the number of people killed since, according to eyewitnesses, many people were burnt inside houses or on special stakes. There is irrefutable proof that an old man and woman were murdered and then burnt in a village South of Knin. This happened several days after the entry of the Croatian army into that part of Krajina. The old couple killed so heinously were the maternal grandparents of a Croatian officer whose father was a Croat. It did not help that their grandson fought in the Croatian army, his grandmother and grandfather were killed only because they were Serb. Trying to find some kind of 'justification' for every crime, at the couple's funeral the Croats came up with a far-fetched story about how the old blind man on crutches and his equally old wife were 'killed while fleeing from Croatian troops after putting up a resistance'. The criminals who killed the two people continue unhindered to 'serve' their country. Some serbs avoided summary executions only by pure chance. Following the entry of croatian troops in Knin a dozen soldiers surrounded a U.N. vehicle insisting they hand over a translator who had managed to get away only a little earlier while he was being dragged down the stairs of his house. They riddled the boot of the U.N car with bullets and threatened for two hours to kill the translator. He was saved by the arrival of the U.N. military police. A similar incident happened when the 'revolted' Tudjman soldiers thought they saw the brother of a 'chetnik' driving in the car of U.N. spokesman for Sector South Alun Roberts. The croatians fired on the car and threatened summarily to execute him. FROM FOREIGN PRESS CROATIA ANNIHILATES ALL EVIDENCE OF SERB PRESENCE IN KRAJINA L o n d o n, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - Croatian army and authorities are destroying in Serb Krajina all evidence that serbs had lived for centuries in the area, the London Independent writes Thursday. The paper's correspondent has witnessed the looting of Serb property and the burning and destruction of their houses in the Knin area, and reports that nothing remains whole that used to belong to Serbs, nothing but scorched land and graveyards. The Krajina Serbs no longer have a place to return to even if they wanted, the paper writes, pointing to the cynical statements of the Zagreb authorities that those who want to can come back. Come back to what, the paper wonders, as destruction is total. The violence and insensitivity of the Croatian army and authorities in Krajina have not yet started to worry western politicians and diplomats, who describe them as sporadic acts. The evidence of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations is a reliable proof of the systematic destruction of Serb property and heritage, the Independent writes. The Krajina tragedy is a great warning to the entire international community and a catastrophe for European civilization, the Independent suggests. The unequal and even racist treatment of some citizens of the former Yugoslav federation is also obvious in the attitude towards Muslims who fled from Velika Kladusa from Alija Izetbegovic's troops, the British press notes. They have been waiting for days in 'no-man's land' near Vojnic, and nobody wants them. They are not wanted because they were allied with Serbs, the Independent suggests. KINKEL SHARPLY CRITICIZES CROATIA FOR ETHNIC CLEANSING B o n n, Aug. 24 (tanjug) - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel has sharply censured authorities in Zagreb and warned them of possible consequences of the ethnic cleansing conducted in the Republic of Serb Krajina. Kinkel said in a letter sent to his Croatian counterpart, Mate Granic, that official Bonn condemned the burning and other forms of destruction perpetrated by Croatia's regular army troops in the areas evacuated by serbs, the Munich Sueddetsche Zeitung reported. The German Minister called on Zagreb to enable the return home of the expelled Serbs and create the necessary conditions for their survival. He said, if it failed to do so, Croatia would be responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Krajina. Kinkel called on Croatian authorities to open talks as soon as possible with Krajina Serbs on their return home. He warned that destruction in Krajina would not pass without consequences for relations between Bonn and Zagreb and for the process of Croatia's closer ties with Western European structures. GHALI'S ACCUSATIONS OF CROATIA B o n n, Aug. 24 (Tanjug) - In a report to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. Secretary-General has accused Croatia's regular army troops of acts of violence and the burning and plundering of property in the Republic of Serb Krajina, the daily Berliner Zeitung disclosed Thursday. The paper gave details from the report and said Croatia's regular army troops had showed very little concern for the safety of U.N. peacekeepers and Serb civilians during the offensive on the Republic of Serb Krajina. The Ghali's report, which is to find itself before the Security Council on Sunday, was drawn up on the basis of information provided by U.N. Commander for the former Yugoslavia, General Bernard Janvier. Boutros-Ghali said in the report that it had been the duty of Croatian authorities to prevent the violence, burning and plundering but that the Croatian police had instead stood by passively watching Serb homes being burned and their property pillaged. Boutros-Ghali said although it had been two weeks since the military offensive, Croatia's troops continued behaving in the same fashion. The Secretary-General, the contents of whose report has been leaked by the Berliner Zeitung, said that cases of direct violence against civilians, killings and public executions were being investigated. ABOUT 2,000 MUJAHEDIN FROM ISLAMIC COUNTRIES IN MUSLIM ARMY Z a g r e b, Aug. 24 (tanjug) - The army of the Muslim government in Sarajevo has a unit of 2,000 mujahedin, volunteers from islamic countries, whose commander's message is that islam will rule the world, the Croatian weekly Nedeljna Dalmacija said in the latest issue. Mujahedin commander Abu el Ma'ali said in an exclusive interview to the weekly that he had come from Algeria three years ago to help his 'muslim brothers' in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 'I believe that islam will rule the world' and that 'it is our duty to help achieve that goal,' Ma'ali stated. 'I am ready to go anywhere where islam and the life of Muslims are threatened,' he said and set out that his fighters 'like death because they are fighting for allah.' Commenting the call recently addressed by Muslim Prime Minister in Sarajevo Haris Silajdzic for volunteers from across the world to come to Bosnia-Herzegovina to fight against Serbs, Ma'ali said the presence of mujahedin in Bosnia-Herzegovina was a confirmation that the call should have been issued earlier. The mujahedin commander said Bosnian Muslims had returned to islam, 'the faith of their ancestors,' a trend of which he said he had been aware for the past three years. Ma'ali said his volunteers in Bosnia had also fiercely fought against Croats but they had been fighting only against Serbs since the signing of the agreement on the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================