Yugoslav Daily Survey 96-02-08

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)

8 February 1996

CONTENTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S INTERNATIONAL ROLE RECOGNIZED

[02] BELARUS VICE PREMIER IN YUGOSLAVIA

[B] BULGARIA - YUGOSLAVIA

[03] BULGARIAN, YUGOSLAV DEFENCE MINISTERS SIGN AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS NOT OPPOSED TO OPENING OF HAGUE TRIBUNAL OFFICE IN BELGRADE

[05] BOSNIAN SERBS CANCEL MEETINGS

[06] GENERALS TOLIMIR, SMITH DISAGREE OVER RELEASE OF RS ARMY OFFICERS

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[07] ABOUT 200 MUJAHEDDIN STAYED IN BOSNIA, SAY U.S. INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

[A] FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

[01] YUGOSLAVIA'S INTERNATIONAL ROLE RECOGNIZED

The debate on the prospects for peace in the Balkans provided to the Yugoslav delegation the first opportunity after the suspension of the sanctions to express its views on international relations, Kontic said.

Success was achieved in the discussion on the globalization of world relations and even more in the discussion on the prospects for peace in the Balkans, Kontic said.

Yugoslav delegation supported the fundamental motto of the Forum that peace in the Balkans will depend on rapid economic development, Kontic said. The world has however been told that the achievement of this goal would be impossible amidst restrictions and limitations imposed by the international communty on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska, he said.

The Yugoslav delegation insisted in Davos that international community sanctions on Yugoslavia must be lifted unconditionally and that Federal Republic of Yugoslavia must be fully reintegrated in the United Nations, the OSCE and world financial and trade organizations, Kontic said.

Correct relations among former Yugoslav republics will have a strategic importance, Kontic said, underlining that Yugoslavia was working intensively to achieve a full normalization.

Yugoslav delegation had expressed expectation that these relations would be normalized shortly and that this would contribute to a faster economic development of the region, Kontic said.

Yugoslav delegation also had a series of bilateral meetings in Davos with renowned world and European politicians, statesmen and businessmen, who all expressed readiness for the resumption and expansion of cooperation with Yugoslavia, Kontic said.

Yugoslavia opposes any human rights violations and war crimes, Kontic said answering a question on Yugoslav Government's stance on the proposed opening of an office of the Hague tribunal in Belgrade. In any case, competent Yugoslav institutions must first determine the responsibility of the accused and noone can be condemned in advance, Kontic said. Yugoslavia is ready to cooperate with the Hague tribunal within the framework of its Constitution, legal system and laws, Kontic said.

[02] BELARUS VICE PREMIER IN YUGOSLAVIA

[B] BULGARIA - YUGOSLAVIA

[03] BULGARIAN, YUGOSLAV DEFENCE MINISTERS SIGN AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION

[C] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

[04] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA IS NOT OPPOSED TO OPENING OF HAGUE TRIBUNAL OFFICE IN BELGRADE

Koljevic said that the establishing of the truth is one matter, and its use in political aims something else. He said that this is why he had proposed to special UN Human Rights Rapporteur Elizabeth Rehn that future regular meetings on human rights issues be held at the level of experts.

Every top level meeting of this kind almost always becomes a subject of propoganda and manipulation, and at the same times has insufficient expertise, Koljevic said. 'We would like to know who plans such visits and why neither Rehn nor the US President's Special Advisor, Robert Gallucci, who has just toured the Banjaluka region, have made no plans to visit places where the Serbs were the victims,' Koljevic said.

Speaking about the break in relations with the Muslim-Croat Federation following the arrest of 11 Bosnian Serb Army officers, Koljevic said that such a move was forced and that the Federation leadership was intentionally undermining the implementation of the Dayton agreement.

The Serb officers were arrested on the IFOR-controlled demarcation line, and there is no provision in the Dayton agreement which allows the Muslim-Croat Federation to arrest and seek alleged war criminals, Koljevic said. This Muslim move demonstrates extreme political irresponsibility and lack of seriousness, as if they are independent from the possible consequences of this, Koljevic said.

Koljevic said that preparations are under way for the forthcoming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but if the Muslim-Croat Federation continues undermining the Dayton agreement, the elections could be threatened.

[05] BOSNIAN SERBS CANCEL MEETINGS

The meetings were cancelled in keeping with a Government decision to cancel all contacts with officials of the Muslim-Croat Federation in Bosnia and to ban departure of Serb representatives to the Muslim-controlled part of Sarajevo after recent arrests of high-ranking Serb officers and soldiers by the Muslim Government in Sarajevo.

A meeting of the commissions in charge of separation, scheduled for Thursday in the suburb of Ilidza, was also cancelled, as well as the first meeting of journalists' associations from the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation planned for Feb. 9 in Pale.

Bosnian Serb representative in charge of relations with the IFOR Dragan Dragic warned that the abduction of eight Serbs in Sarajevo was a threat to further implementation of the Dayton agreement in the city. He said that the Jan. 30 arrests were aimed to demonstrate that Muslim authorities were under no obligation to act in accordance with the guarantees extended to Sarajevo Serbs by IFOR and international mediator Carl Bildt.

[06] GENERALS TOLIMIR, SMITH DISAGREE OVER RELEASE OF RS ARMY OFFICERS

After the meeting, Gen. Smith said this was within the jurisdiction of the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague and that he had been asked to disassociate himself from the problem and that he had complied.

Gen. Tolimir described the arrests of these officers as legal nonsense and said the IFOR Commander was responsible for the people in the zone of his jurisdiction where the officers had been seized. He made it clear that an unfavorable solution of this problem might have a negative impact on cooperation with Bosnian Serbs in the peace process.

[D] FROM FOREIGN PRESS

[07] ABOUT 200 MUJAHEDDIN STAYED IN BOSNIA, SAY U.S. INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

The 200 mujaheddin are what remained of a few thousand Islamic volunteers who fought in Bosnia in the name of Allah, said the expert, who wished to stay anonymous.

They are deployed in the area of the central Bosnian town of Zenica, close to the zone of deployment of the Bosnia peace implementation force's US contingent.

The expert said that there were growingly frequent accusations that the Muslim Sarajevo Government had granted the Bosnian nationality to mujaheddin, which is explicitly forbidden under the Dayton agreement.