Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-03-26

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From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] PREMIER KONTIC CONGRATULATES REELECTION TO KUWAITI PRIME MINISTER

[02] UNHCR: SERBS CONTINUE LEAVING EASTERN SLAVONIA

[03] YUGOSLAV AMBASSADOR: SERBS IN EASTERN SLAVONIA FEARFUL FOR THEIR SECURITY

[04] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER VUKOVIC ARRIVES IN VIENNA

[05] YUGOSLAV DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SAINOVIC VISITS SHANGHAI

[06] CONTACT GROUP SUPPORTS DIALOGUE, TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF SERBIA

[07] RS PREMIER: NEGATIVE EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON YUGOSLAVIA

[08] ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVES DID NOT TURN UP AGAIN

[09] WEAPONS SEIZED FROM ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS SHOWN IN PUBLIC

[10] TERRORIST ATTACKS - ADDITIONAL PRESSURE ON THE CONTACT GROUP

[11] MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR - STATEMENT

[12] JOVANOVIC: GONZALES IS ACCEPTABLE AS E.U. AND OSCE ENVOY TO YUGOSLAVIA

[13] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS LAUNCHED A BOMB ATTACK IN DJAKOVICA

[14] MONTENEGRIN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION VISITS WASHINGTON

[01] PREMIER KONTIC CONGRATULATES REELECTION TO KUWAITI PRIME MINISTER

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic conveyed today to Prince Sheik Saad Al Abdulah Al Salem Al Sabah congratulations on the occasion of his reelection as Kuwaiti Prime Minister.

The message of congratulations expressed best wishes for success in the performing of duties, and belief that the traditionally friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and peoples will be further promoted.

[02] UNHCR: SERBS CONTINUE LEAVING EASTERN SLAVONIA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Serbs continue leaving Eastern Slavonia but it is impossible to determine the exact numbers, spokesman of the support group to the UN civilian police following the departure of the UNTAES Yuri Chizhik said on Wednesday in Belgrade at a regular press conference of UN agencies with offices in Belgrade.

The security situation in the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem Region is generally acceptable, but there are frequent incidents, harassments and threats to Serbs in the Region, Chizhik said.

Since the departure of the UN Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), the UN civilian police support group has only been monitoring the activities of the Croatian police and reporting to the UN Secretary-General on the situation in the region, he noted.

The group has reported to the UN headquarters its dissatisfaction with the activities of some police chiefs, not the entire Croatian police force. It has recently met Croatian Ministers Vesna Skare-Ozbolt and Josko Moric, to whom it conveyed its dissatisfaction with the non-compliance with Croatian laws, and with the threats and violence in the region, Chizhik said.

The priority task of the group is the two-way return of displaced persons, as all have the right to return home and live in safety, he said.

Spokesman of the UNHCR office in Belgrade Mons Nyberg said that UNHCR had no way of counting the people crossing the border since international monitoring of the Croatian-Yugoslav border had ceased.

The UNHCR office in Novi Sad (Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina) has confirmed that several families enter Yugoslavia daily with their belongings, Nyberg said.

Norwegian authorities have told UNHCR that they had refused refugee status to all Serb refugees from Eastern Slavonia and that they would be turned back, but it is unclear whether to Croatia or to Yugoslavia, Nyberg said.

Referring to the regular UNHCR activities in Yugoslavia, Nyberg said that its office had since February 2 received 6,500 requests for the return of refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia and that visits to Bosnia and Croatia were being organized to enable the refugees to assess the prospects for their return home. Last weekend, 150 refugees visited Drvar, Petrovac and Grahovo, and six others will visit Korenica, Croatia, next Friday, Nyberg said.

Referring to the situation in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija, Nyberg said that UNHCR had access to the entire Drenica area since last Monday, and that it had visited all but two villages in the Srbica municipality. The police had not banned the visit to the two villages but had said it was unsafe to go there, Nyberg explained.

The new head of the UN Liaison Office in Belgrade Igor Khalevinski said that cooperation with the Yugoslav Government was good and that his staff received full help in its activities.

The fact that the status of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the UN is frozen has no bearing on the activities of the Liaison Office and its cooperation with Yugoslav authorities, Khalevinski said.

[03] YUGOSLAV AMBASSADOR: SERBS IN EASTERN SLAVONIA FEARFUL FOR THEIR SECURITY

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Yugoslav Ambassador to Croatia Veljko Knezevic has said that the population in the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem continues to be very distrustful and that the remaining Serbs there continue to fear for their own security and the security of their families.

Ambassador Knezevic said in an interview published in the daily 'Glas Slavonije' of Osijek that "life in the region has not regrettably returned to normal and acquired outlines which would provide conditions for a bearable existence of all the people living in the region."

Knezevic set out that there were quite a few big problems which had to be resolved in order to enable local inhabitants "to lead normal lives."

The Yugoslav Ambassador to Croatia said that Croatian authorities had taken measures to establish law and order in the region but the measures were still inadequate.

"I've been there often in the past two to three months and I was able to see for myself how people live in great fear and uncertainty," Ambassador Knezevic told 'Glas Slavonije'. The mutual mistrust is still great and confidence is being restored too slowly, he set out.

Ambassador Knezevic said that the Serb population, pressed by fear and a feeling of constant uncertainty, with no end in sight, had no other choice but itself to look for a solution.

The Ambassador set out that local Serbs were quietly but steadily moving out of the region, and underlined that the migration was not due only to economic reasons.

Knezevic stressed that Yugoslavia was carefully following everything that was happening in the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and West Srem and that it was concerned at the departure of so many Serbs.

Knezevic reiterated Yugoslavia's position that the Erdut Agreement and the other relevant documents that followed it were not being implemented in Croatia as envisaged.

The international community being the chief guarantor that the obligations assumed under the Erdut Agreement will be honestly and consistently fulfilled, Yugoslavia has asked of the U.N. Security Council to help stop the migration of Serbs from the region and encourage them to stay.

"The basic intention of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was to draw the international community's attention to the major problem and ask it to adopt a more active stance in securing and guaranteeing a consistent implementation of the Erdut Agreement," Yugoslav ambassador Knezevic said in the interview published in 'Glas Slavonije'.

[04] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER VUKOVIC ARRIVES IN VIENNA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Yugoslav Foreign Trade Minister Borislav Vukovic arrived in the Austrian capital on Wednesday for talks on the promotion of economic cooperation with Austria, the European Union and the Danubian countries.

The Yugoslav economic delegation's talks with the Austrian side will cover economic cooperation, with focus on visible and invisible trade, transportation, tourism, industrial cooperation and possibilities for Austrian companies to invest in joint projects in Yugoslavia.

Minister Vukovic said that since Austria was taking over the E.U. presidency as of July 1 this year, the talks would cover also cooperation between Yugoslavia and the E.U.

Vukovic is scheduled to meet later in the day with representatives of 16 companies and banks which are members of the Austrian Foreign Trade Association.

Yugoslav Foreign Trade Minister Vukovic is to meet on Thursday with Austrian Parliament President Heinz Fischer and President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Leopold Maderthaner.

The Yugoslav economic delegation will also participate in a two-day Ministerial Conference of Danubian countries, which opens in Vienna on Friday.

[05] YUGOSLAV DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SAINOVIC VISITS SHANGHAI

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, who is on a five-day working visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese Government, had talks in Shanghai on Wednesday with City Mayor Xu Kuangdi.

Sainovic and Xu discussed, during a two-hour meeting, the specific areas in which economic cooperation should be promoted and ways how to go about it.

The two sides established that real possibilities existed in all domains to raise economic relations to the level of the extremely friendly political relations between the two countries.

Both sides assessed that it was extremely important that enterprises of the two countries develop long-term production cooperation, establish mixed enterprises and participate in additional capitalization of existing ones.

Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Sainovic will on Thursday meet with representatives of leading Shanghai companies and will tour the Pudong development zone.

[06] CONTACT GROUP SUPPORTS DIALOGUE, TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF SERBIA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

A released statement specified that dialogue must start in the next four weeks, and that government representatives of Yugoslavia and Serbia and political leaders of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija should take part in it.

The Contact Group said that political talks were the only acceptable way of resolving the crisis, it condemned terrorism and violence and urged all sides to accept a peaceful resolution of the problem.

The Contact Group assessed that Belgrade had made significant progress in the more recent days along the line of the establishment of dialogue and the implementation of the earlier signed agreement on education.

The Contact Group will again meet in four weeks' time to discuss the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and agree on new measures for a further stabilization of the situation.

[07] RS PREMIER: NEGATIVE EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON YUGOSLAVIA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said that the pressure of international factors on Yugoslavia, because of Kosovo, had an extremely negative effect on the situation in RS.

The problem of Kosovo must be solved within Serbia, by political dialogue, Dodik said in a statement on Tuesday evening to Radio Television Serbia and cautioned that continued pressure, that encourages ultranationalist in RS, could paralyse the work of his government and force him to resign.

Dodik also said that the future of the successful implementation of the Dayton Agreement depended in the first place on the development of intensive cooperation of all factors in the region, which was seriously threatened by the attempts to destabilize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[08] ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVES DID NOT TURN UP AGAIN

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Head of the Serbian delegation at the talks with representatives of national minorities in Kosmet, at which did not turn up again * for the ninth time * the political representatives of ethnic Albanians, prof. Ratko Markovic, said in Pristina there was no alternative to dialogue as an irreplaceable form for solving all problems.

Markovic, at a meeting with delegations of the Turkish, Muslim and Romany national minorities, representatives of Egyptians and ethnic Albanian individuals, pointed out that an alternative to dialogue can only be what is happening all over again - terrorism, the killing of policemen and citizens, intimidation of Serbs, ethnic cleansing.

Thanking the representatives of other minorities for their understanding and patriotism which they have demonstrated by taking part in the talks for resolving all problems in Kosovo and Metohija, Markovic said that ethnic Albanian representatives were again resorting to methods of blackmail and looking for deficiencies where there are none.

We persevere in the talks, because the state of Serbia insists on dialogue as a form for resolving the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, aware of the fact that we have formulated together a democratic method for resolving the crisis which has drawn the attention of the world, Markovic said.

He said that the international community today, if it is objective, cannot disregard that fact, as well as the fact that the Albanian side is persistently avoiding talks.

Markovic assessed that all those taking part in the talks in Pristina are waging a battle for democracy and truth and should come out as winners.

In the Serbian delegation, besides Markovic, were minister Ivan Sedlak, former ministers Ratomir Vico and Andreja Milosavljevic and representatives of party groupings in the Parliament: Vojislav Zivkovic (SPS), Zivorad Djordjevic (JUL) and Jorgovanka Tabakovic (SRS).

Provincial Information Secretary Bosko Drobnjak said at a press conference, held after the talks, that the invitation of the Serbian Government to political representatives for talks remained open, and that the public will be timely informed when the next talks will be held.

[09] WEAPONS SEIZED FROM ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS SHOWN IN PUBLIC

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Serbian Interior Ministry representatives showed today to journalists in Pristina the weapons and equipment seized from ethnic Albanian terrorists in the clash in the village of Glodjani near Decani.

Among the seized weapons are 10 automatic guns of Chinese and Russian make, three machine*guns, one heavy, two sniper guns, two semi-automatic and two mauser guns, one U.S. pump gun, eight handguns, 10 Chinese hand grenades, three bombs, a large quantity of ammunition, German and U.S. uniforms and equipment.

Most of the arms, police sources said, were found in the house of Hiljmija Hardini, member of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

Fire was opened from that house yesterday on a police patrol and one policeman, Miodrag Otovic, was killed. The police action, police sources said, was of local character intended to recover the body of the policeman, but terrorists from the house opened fire on the police.

The police combed the area and found in special bunkers and on the killed terrorists German uniforms with the Albanian coat of arms on the sleeves, military haversacks and mask caps.

Among the seized handguns of different make is also one CZ-99, taken by terrorists from a policeman. Also seized are communication equipment that enabled listening to police messages.

Also seized are over 4,000 pieces of ammunition of different calibre, including bullets piercing bullet-proof vests and splinter bullets, as well as small-calibre ammunition.

[10] TERRORIST ATTACKS - ADDITIONAL PRESSURE ON THE CONTACT GROUP

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Provincial Information Secretary Bosko Drobnjak said that behind the latest terrorist attacks of Albanian separatists in Kosovo and Metohija stood forces which are against a peaceful solution of problems in Kosovo and Metohija.

Drobnjak told Tanjug it was no coincidence that terrorists attacked again on Tuesday, one day before the meeting of the Contact Group in Bonn in order to place additional pressure. The attacks came after the signing of measures for the realization of the agreement on education and when Serbia had for its part created preconditions for the successful beginning of the dialogue, he said.

The latest terrorist attacks, he added, come at a time when our country has fulfilled all the conditions set by the Contact Group, including the withdrawal of special police units which in turn encouraged the terrorists to act.

He pointed to the fact that the terrorist Rasim Selimani who was arrested yesterday was the president of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DSK) of Ibrahim Rugova for the village of Glodjani, where terrorists attacked the police.

"That means that within DSK there is a radical wing which supports terrorism and takes part in terrorist actions", Drobnjak concluded.

[11] MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR - STATEMENT

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

The Ministry of the Interior of Serbia informed that in terrorist attack against a police patrol in the village of Dubrava, municipality of Decani, in Kosovo and Metohija one police officer was killed and three officers of the Decani police station sustained serious injuries.

The statements of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior says:

"On 24 March 1998, around 10.45 a.m., in the village of Dubrava, municipality of Decani, in Kosovo and Metohija, am armed terrorist attack was carried out against a police patrol in an official vehicle on routine duty.

In the perfidious attack launched from an ambush with portable rocket launchers and automatic weapons, police officer Miodrag Otovic was killed and his colleagues Rajko Rajkovic, Filip Raicevic and Slobodan Jokic, all from the Decane police station, sustained serious injuries.

In the clash between the police and the terrorist gang, two terrorists were killed and one was caught. During interrogation, the arrested terrorist Rasim Selimani said that the attack was carried out by a group of around thirty armed terrorists infiltrated from Albania. During the action, three machine*guns, three automatic and three semi*automatic rifles, ten hand*grenades and large quantities of ammunition and military equipment of Chinese make from the regular armaments and equipment of the Albanian army, were seized.

It has been established that terrorist Rasim Selimani is President of the Board of Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo for the village of Glodjane.

The terrorist group was spotted on the night of 21*22 March in the forest above the village of Batusa, municipality of Djakovica, where 7 tin cases containing more than 4,000 7.62 mm bullets, automatic rifle frames and other military equipment, originating from the regular armaments and equipment of the Albanian army, were found."

[12] JOVANOVIC: GONZALES IS ACCEPTABLE AS E.U. AND OSCE ENVOY TO YUGOSLAVIA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Yugoslav Foreign Minister said late on Wednesday that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia "does not find acceptable any special envoy for Kosovo and Metohija, which is an internal affair of (the Yugoslav republic of) Serbia."

Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said that a statement from Wednesday's meeting of the "Contact group" in Bonn, however, presented Felipe Gonzales as an envoy of the European Union and of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Yugoslavia.

This was something quite different and signalled that Yugoslavia's position on this issue had been acknowledged, he added, in answer to a question from a Serbian state radio and television reporter.

He went on to say that "for Yugoslavia, Felipe Gonzales is first and foremost a prominent politician of Spain, Europe and, especially, the Socialist International."

"As an envoy of the European Union and of the OSCE, such a politician and such a figure can certainly play a positive part and contribute to the development of relations between Yugoslavia and these organisation, which is in mutual interest," Jovanovic said.

[13] ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS LAUNCHED A BOMB ATTACK IN DJAKOVICA

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

Ethnic Albanian terrorists threw a bomb at a Serb house in central Djakovica late on Tuesday, but nobody was hurt. The family Obradovic's house is inhabited by three brothers, their ten children and their parents.

In a swift intervention, police arrested two terrorists.

Police are looking for other attackers. Unofficial sources said that the attack had been launched by terrorist gangs, who are trying to withdraw towards Albania after the attack and a clash with the police near Decani on Tuesday.

There were no ethnic Albanian citizens' vehicles, moving or parked, in the streets of Djakovica late on Tuesday, which is interpreted as a sign that ethnic Albanians knew in advance that the attack would be launched in that part of the town.

[14] MONTENEGRIN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION VISITS WASHINGTON

Tanjug, 1998-03-25

A Montenegrin parliamentary delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Svetozar Marovic, was received in Washington on Wednesday by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Europe and Canada Ellen Malloy.

Attending the meeting with the Montenegrin delegation, on a two-day visit to the United States, was also acting Assistant Secretary of State in charge of democratic processes and human rights Steven Caufey.

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