Subject: YDS 9/9 From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov) 09. SEPTEMBER 1995. YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY C O N T E N T S: YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER'S STATEMENT - DESIRE FOR PEACE IS NOT A WEAKNESS FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA - REACTIONS TO ADOPTION OF PRINCIPLES OF BOSNIA PEACE PLAN - YUGOSLAV MINISTER: RUSSIA'S DECISION TO EASE SANCTIONS IMPORTANT - YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA SIGN AGREEMENT ON TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION NATO AIR STRIKES - NATO RESUMES BOMBING OF CIVILIAN TARGETS IN HERZEGOVINA - ELEVEN PEOPLE KILLED IN NATO BOMBING OF BOSNIAN SERB TARGETS RUSSIA AND NATO AIR STRIKES - YELTSIN BLASTS AT NATO FOR BOMBING BOSNIAN SERBS THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA - KRAJINA ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS ON RUSSIAN DUMA TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF KRAJINA SERBS - SERB KRAJINA, CROATIA AGREE TO CONTINUE OBSERVING CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT CRIMES IN KRAJINA - U.N.: CROATS IN KRAJINA STILL PERPETRATE CRIMES - OVER 1,200 SERBS WANT TO LEAVE KNIN FROM FOREIGN PRESS - U.S. DAILY: WHY BOMB SERBS WHO NEVER LIFTED A FINGER AGAINST AMERICA HUMAN RIGHTS IN CROATIA - CROATIAN HELSINKI WATCH WARNS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS IN CROATIA YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER'S STATEMENT DESIRE FOR PEACE IS NOT A WEAKNESS G e n e v a, Sept 8 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said on Friday that Yugoslavia's desire to see lasting peace established in former Yugoslavia should not be taken as a weakness. In the course of the peace process, Yugoslavia has accepted numerous compromises solely in the interests of peace, but there is a limit and the wish for peace should not be taken as a weakness, he said. In answer to a reporter's question, Milutinovic said that he was satisfied with the outcome of the Geneva meeting, primarily because it had achieved what the Yugoslav side had been urging for a long time - equal treatment of both entities in Bosnia. Speaking about the continuation of the peace process, he said that the next stage would be more difficult, as it would concern a territorial division of bosnia. Milutinovic said that the 49-51 parameter of the territorial proposal was fair, but the quality of the territories proposed was not. He said that either entity in Bosnia must get a compact and economically viable territory, and it must not happen that the Serbs get only the hills. Asked if this outcome of the Geneva meeting meant loss or gain for the Bosnian Serbs, Milutinovic said that this was a historic moment, but that it would probably take time for the Bosnian Serbs to realise what they had actually gained. Speaking about the problem of the eastern Slavonia region, he said that the problem was that Yugoslavia wanted to settle the matter peacefully, and Croatia did not. The problem is also that Croatia again tried to squeeze the matter in by the back door, as part of a very concrete topic, viz. Bosnia, he said. Milutinovic stressed that a lifting of sanctions against the Yugoslavia and democratic elections in Bosnia would solve many problems and difficulties. In that case, the Bosnian Muslims will no longer be in a position to procrastinate in the peace process, making ever more conditions, he added. FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA REACTIONS TO ADOPTION OF PRINCIPLES OF BOSNIA PEACE PLAN B e l g r a d e, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Government members on Friday sent a letter of congratulations to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on the occasion of the adoption of elementary principles of the peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina, with which the big powers have recognized the Bosnian Serb state, Republika Srpska, as an entity. 'The realization of Republika Srpska is doubtless a result of our persistent policy of peace and a patient negotiating process which have made possible such an objective approach of the international community to the sides in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina,' the letter said. 'We wish and believe that the forthcoming international conference will affirm the adopted elementary principles in the interest of all peoples and citizens who live in these lands,' the Government said. YUGOSLAV MINISTER: RUSSIA'S DECISION TO EASE SANCTIONS IMPORTANT B e l g r a d e, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Trade Minister Djordje Siradovic said Friday the decision by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to ease the sanctions against Yugoslavia was an important political act which carried much weight in economic relations. YUGOSLAVIA, CHINA SIGN AGREEMENT ON TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERA TION B e l g r a d e, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Trade Minister Djordje Siradovic and Deputy Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guang Sheng signed an Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation between Yugoslavia and China on Friday. Siradovic said the signing of the agreement was a significant moment in the development of Yugoslavia's foreign trade relations with such a major country. With this act, Yugoslavia practically maintains the continuity of its foreign trade policy and overall relations with China, he said. The two sides stressed the importance of intensifying inter-governmental contacts at all levels and contacts between the two countries' entrepreneurs, and said it was necessary to back the founding joint companies, the statement said. They also agreed to draft a series of other agreements, especially on scientific and technical cooperation, investments and avoiding double taxation, it added. The two countries will also start discussing barter arrangements for the export of surplus wheat, mineral fertilizers and non-ferrous metals from Yugoslavia in exchange for Chinese oil, and consider other deals as well, the statement said. NATO AIR STRIKES NATO RESUMES BOMBING OF CIVILIAN TARGETS IN HERZEGOVINA B i l e c a, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - A large number of killed and wounded civilians and many destroyed houses and other civilian installations in Herzegovina's towns of Nevesinje, Srbinje and Kalinovik was the tragic outcome of NATO bombing, Bosnian Serb military sources in Bileca said Friday. The raids on the three towns Thursday came wave after wave and several thousand bombs and missiles were believed to have been dropped or fired. Many of them, judging from the size of the craters they created and the degree of destruction, were over 1,000 kilos. The attacks were repeated several times on Thursday night, so that the population fled to the surrounding woods and caves. The women and children were forced to spend the chilly night in the open as it was no longer safe to stay in the houses. In Srbinje NATO planes aimed not at one single military target but exclusively at civilian targets. All three bridges in the town itself have been targeted, two were hit and seriously damaged. Several large apartment houses in the very center of the town were completely demolished. In Kalinovik, apart from military, civilian targets in the center of the town have also been hit. The Red Cross food storage had been hit and totally destroyed in Kalinovik. Many apartment houses in the town's center and the surrounding settlements have also been destroyed or damaged. In Srbinje and Kalinovik, the water and electrical supply systems have been hit, so that the two towns were without water and electrical power. Apart from the apartment buildings, surrounding communications have also been targeted so that it was very difficult to reach the buildings as roads were seriously impaired. ELEVEN PEOPLE KILLED IN NATO BOMBING OF BOSNIAN SERB TARGETS B a nj a l u k a, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - Heavy attacks by NATO warplanes on the town of Srbinje and the village of Zivlje near Mostar in southeastern Bosnia killed 11 people and wounded 17 others, Bosnian Serb military sources said on Friday. NATO actions in several areas of the Bosnian Serb Republic destroyed large numbers of private houses, health centers, transformer stations with transmission lines, ptt transmitters, radio and TV relays, said the statement released by the Bosnian Serb army headquarters. Food warehouses, refugee camps, industrial and economic works, cemeteries and churches have also been destroyed, said the statement. The statement points out that bridges have been destroyed over the Prace river in eastern Bosnia and near Tjentiste on the Sutjeska river in southeastern Bosnia. 'As a result of the destruction of these bridges, it was impossible to take several patients who were wounded in the bombing to hospitals, and a pregnant woman died on the way to Srbinje,' the statement said. RUSSIA AND NATO AIR STRIKES YELTSIN BLASTS AT NATO FOR BOMBING BOSNIAN SERBS M o s c o w, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Friday strongly condemned western countries and NATO for their conduct in Bosnia-Herzegovina and bombing of Bosnian Serb positions. Addressing a press conference in the Kremlin, Yeltsin said that NATO air raids against Bosnian Serbs were unacceptable and that the western alliance was strongly biased in favour of the Muslims and Croats in Bosnia. 'When the Muslims attack, no action is taken. When the Croats do the same and make territorial conquests, the international community also remains silent. Why is punishment reserved for the Serbs alone and why those who constantly provoke them go unpunished,' he asked. 'Is such a conduct admissible in the civilized world? Is this the way to express goodwill for peace and peaceful settlements of conflicts?', said Yeltsin in a clear allusion to actions taken by NATO and its western allies in the former Yugoslavia. Arguing that NATO had received no authorization from the UN Security Council for the attacks and that Russia had not been consulted about the matter, Yeltsin asked: 'Can this be allowed to happen? Can russia allow it?' He reiterated his proposal for a summit conference on Bosnia to be held in October in Moscow or some other European city. Speaking about the traditional friendly ties between the Russian and Serb peoples, Yeltsin asked: 'If the United States helps the Muslims and the Germans help the Croats, why shouldn't Russia help the Serbs.' He said that he had approved a bill on Thursday on expanding humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia and added that if the current situation continued, Russia might consider a different kind of aid. Yeltsin strongly opposed NATO's expansion plans, especially in view of the latest events in Bosnia. 'NATO's conduct in Bosnia shows what the alliance is capable of - bombing and then counting trophies, i.e. civilian casualties,' he said. 'If NATO comes closer to Russia's borders, this will mean a return to the past, division of Europe into blocs and threat to peace in entire Europe,' he said. THE REPUBLIC OF SERB KRAJINA KRAJINA ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS ON RUSSIAN DUMA TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF KRAJINA SERBS B e l g r a d e, Sept 8 (Tanjug) - The President of the Assembly of the Republic of Serb Krajina, Rajko Lezajic, asked Friday the President of Russian Parliament Lower House, Ivan Ribkin, that the Russian Duma takes appropriate measures with international institutions to protect the legitimate rights of the Serbian people expelled from Krajina. Lezajic asks that pressure be exerted on Croatia to stop committing crimes on the remaining Serbs in Krajina and to demilitarize the region, which should be declared a U.N.-protected area, with full guarantees from the U.S. and Russia. He asked that a collective return be organized of the expelled people to their ancestral homes, that measures be taken immediately to prevent further destruction of Serb property in Krajina, and that Croatia pays compensations for the damages caused by its latest aggression. SERB KRAJINA, CROATIA AGREE TO CONTINUE OBSERVING CEASEFIRE AG REEMENT V u k o v a r, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - The delegations of the Republic of Serb Krajina and Croatia on Friday agreed to continue observing the ceasefire agreement and to introduce new measures for easing tensions on both sides, the Serb Krajina Army Command for Slavonija and Baranja has said. At a meeting of the joint sector committee, held at the Nemetin border crossing near the town of Osijek and attended by the U.N. representatives in the sector east, it was concluded that both sides had largely observed what had been agreed at previous meetings, the Serb Krajina army said. It was agreed that schools on both sides would start work on Sept. 11 and mutual guarantees were given that the school buildings would not be targeted by combat operations. CRIMES IN KRAJINA U.N.: CROATS IN KRAJINA STILL PERPETRATE CRIMES B e l g r a d e, Sept 8 (Tanjug) - The United Nations has accused the Croatian authorities of not preventing the killings, looting and burning down Serb houses in the territory of Krajina, news agencies reported on Friday. U.N. Zagreb-based Spokesman Chris Gunnes said U.N. personnel still sighted the looting and burning down of houses and were still uncovering bodies in Krajina. U.N. Knin-based representative Alun Roberts said that after Croatia's four-day offensive against Krajina one hundred of bodies were found while U.N. officials said that four massive graves might be somewhere around Knin. Roberts said that the human rights protection teams had seen bodies weeks after the offensive. At the time these people died, the Croat soldiers were there, said Roberts. A U.N. team at Mokro Polje uncovered in a car a body of an old Serb woman with bullets in her head and neck. At the cemetery in Donji Lapac, U.N. teams uncovered a half-buried body with three bullets in the back, said Gunnes. Gunnes said that more proofs were available of the widespread and systematic looting and torching of houses by Croatian army. He said it would be difficult to assert whether the authorities were sanctioning these actions, but it was also difficult to believe that the army could not prevent soldiers from looting and burning the houses in the territory under its control. OVER 1,200 SERBS WANT TO LEAVE KNIN B e l g r a d e, Sept. 8 (Tanjug) - More than 1,200 Serbs who remain in Knin and its surroundings want to go to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tanjug learned on Friday at the Krajina Documentation and Information Centre Veritas in Belgrade. Veritas President Savo Strbac said it is not possible to determine the exact number of Serbs who remain in the Knin area, but that estimates are that this figure does not exceed 1,200 and that they will also request emigration permits from international organizations. Veritas has also received information that the military court in the Croatian port of Split has brought on trial Serbs captured in the operation and that the first verdicts were made on Wednesday. Slobodan and Milan Dragic (both 30 years old), from the village of Civljani in the Knin region, who were captured on Mt. Svilaja, have both received five-year jail sentences. Strbac also announced the latest data on the plunder and destruction of the property and the murder of the remaining civilians. In the village of Atlagic in the Benkovac area which has always been populated only by Serbs, all houses have been plundered and torched, and in the village of Vojvodici at least 12 elderly people have been killed and their bodies left unburied, Strbac said. In the Knin gips factory in the village of Kosovo near Knin, killed were Stevan Beric, 64, and his wife Janja, 62, along with five other unidentified person, Strbac said. Strbac said that Veritas representatives are trying to find out what had happened to the bodies of seven elderly people who were killed in the village of Gosic, located between Knin and Benkovac. After this crime was uncovered and after reports about this appeared in the press, the Croats threw the bodies, which had lain unburied for several days, into a truck already containing nine other bodies and drove off in an unknown direction. According to information received from certain west European countries, Veritas said the bodies were taken in the direction of Knin and thrown into a hole in the ground. FROM FOREIGN PRESS U.S. DAILY: WHY BOMB SERBS WHO NEVER LIFTED A FINGER AGAINST A MERICA N e w Y o r k, Sept 8 (Tanjug) - The New York Times says on Friday that U.S. bombs are falling from day to day on human beings in Bosnia who have never lifted a finger, let alone a gun, to harm America, and who in no way threaten U.S. interests, still less its security. The New York Times is trying with this commentary to furnish answers to some of the questions being asked. It sees the root of the Bosnian tragedy as lying in the fact that the Muslims wanted, with the west's wholehearted support, to enclose within the borders of their Bosnian state a nation that would not submit to their authority. The daily says that, early on, the three Bosnian nations had agreed to divide Bosnia into three parts, but then the Muslims abruptly changed their mind. They wanted international recognition for their authority throughout Bosnia, and they got it, which is what triggered the current civil war, the commentator says. The paper further says that TV footage shows Muslim refugees forced out of their homes, but there are at least as many Serbs displaced from their homes under pressure from the Muslim army and, especially, the Croat army. It is the same with the issue of aggression. Americans firmly believe that the Serbs are the occupier in their own land, and this myth is doggedly promoted by the Muslims, U.S. politicians and world press. Finally, as a result of western diplomacy in Bosnia, the United States and NATO are now bombing the Bosnian Serbs in order that they should accept a division of Bosnia, which is what the Serbs wanted to do from the start. The bombing of the Serbs is also intended to sweeten the Muslims to accept the division 'agreement.' Fully aware that they cannot establish their authority in Bosnia on their own, the Muslims have been counting on outside help - from the European Union, the United Nations, NATO, the Islamic countries and, above all, the United States. Now, President Clinton, carried away by presidential ambitions, is about to plunge the United States into the Bosnian war against the Muslims' enemies. The Bosnian Muslims should now be made to understand that nobody - not their allies, not the Americans, not aerial bombs - will force the Serbs to live under their authority, The New York Times said in conclusion of the commentary. HUMAN RIGHTS IN CROATIA CROATIAN HELSINKI WATCH WARNS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS IN CROATIA Z a g r e b, Sept 8 (Tanjug) - The Croatian branch of Helsinki Watch has warned public opinion that after the passing of the law on the sale of military apartments, Croatia 'has become one of the countries which are grossly violating human rights.' A statement said that the category of second-grade citizens has been introduced by law into Croatian legislation and that the equality of citizens has ceased to exist. Apartments which were previously the property of the Yugoslav People's Army had to be bought in a 60-day period, while for civilian apartments that period is four and a half years, the statement said. Citizens are also being humiliated by the regulation that the demand for buying the apartment must be made personally, and not even members of the family or lawyers have the right to do it instead of them, although that means breaking laws, the statement said. Among tenants with a right to tenure in military apartments who cannot buy their own apartments are those who are suspected in any way of taking part in enemy activity against Croatia or those who have avoided to serve in the army. The right of purchase is also denied to their family members, the statement said. The lawmaker thus makes provision for the Housing Commission of the Ministry of Defense of Croatia to declare tenants guilty of a serious crime without undertaking legal proceedings, the statements warned. The law, the statement said, is a legalization of the principle of 'collective responsibility' and Croatia's legislature has thus introduced 'tribal law' according to which all members of a family are held responsible for the unacceptable action of one member. The principle of collective responsibility is not known in civilized legal states and runs contrary to the fundamentals of the Croatian constitution, the statement of the Croatian Helsinki Watch said. =============================================================== -- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me -- D. D. Chukurov ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com ===============================================================