Yugoslav Daily Survey, 98-05-05

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

Yugoslav Daily Survey

CONTENTS

[01] YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL RECEIVED LORD HARLECH

[02] HAGUE TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATORS INTERVIEW WITNESSES OF THE MEDAK POCKET CRIMES

[03] BULGARIAN SOCIALISTS OPPOSE INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE KOSOVO ISSUE

[04] ITALIAN DEFENCE COUNCIL ON PERMEABILITY OF THE ALBANIAN ORDER

[05] TERRORISTS WANT ETNICALLY PURE TERRITORY, KOSOVO OFFICIAL SAYS

[06] YUGOSLAV CHIEF NEGOTIATOR SEES BASIC SOLUTIONS IN MINI-DEAL AS SOLID

[07] PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF CITIZENS RECEIVED LORD HARLECH

[08] SRPSKA PRESIDENT ADDRESSES OPEN LETTER TO US MILITARY ENVOY

[01] YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL RECEIVED LORD HARLECH

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Head of the Yugoslav Parliament's Lower House Foreign Policy Committee Ljubisa Ristic on Monday received Lord Harlech, member of the British Parliament's Upper House and Secretary of the Parliament's British-Yugoslav Group. The Yugoslav Parliament said in a statement that both sides had confirmed their mutual wish for the promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

Ristic thoroughly informed Lord Harlech about the present situation in Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo and Metohija.

[02] HAGUE TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATORS INTERVIEW WITNESSES OF THE MEDAK POCKET CRIMES

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Head of the Veritas documentation centre Savo Strbac said on Monday that a team of investigators of the Hague-based War Crimes Tribunal has began interviewing the witnesses of the crimes that Croatian troops had committed against Serbs in the Medak pocket area in September 1993.

Strbac told Tanjug that the 14-member team had arrived in Belgrade earlier in the day, saying the team was to hear accounts by 14 witnesses in the next two weeks.

He said the preparation and indictment of those responsible for atrocities committed against Serbs in the Medak pocket area would depend on cooperativeness of the witnesses, saying Veritas had submitted a list of the witnesses' names to the investigators on their visit to Yugoslavia on March 25.

He said the team had already heard accounts by international witnesses, including U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) commanders in Sector South of whom Gen. Jean Cot was believed to be most important.

In his report of September 19, 1993, Gen. Jean Cot said he had found no man or animal alive in the villages in the area through which he had passed and that devastation in the area had been complete, systematic and deliberate.

The Medak pocket area was part of a U.N. Protected Area (UNPA) and Sector South that had been under UNPROFOR control for 18 months at the point when Croatian troops launched a scorched earth campaign on September 9, 1993.

The target of the campaign, in which 86 persons were killed or had disappeared, were Serb villages south and southeast of Gospic. The villages of Divoselo, Citluk and Pocitelj were burnt to the ground.

Croatian army Gen. Janko Bobetko was the brains behind the campaign, while Gen. Mirko Norac and police Lt. Gen. Mladen Markac were in charge of the operation.

Croats handed over bodies of 71 victims, of whom 69 were identified. The identified victims included 28 civilians of whom 9 were women.

The others, who were listed as missing, included 14 civilians of whom 5 were women.

[03] BULGARIAN SOCIALISTS OPPOSE INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE KOSOVO ISSUE

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Bulgarian Socialists believe that any foreign interference in a country's internal affairs can only contribute to the escalation of the problem, rather than its calming, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Main Board member Uros Suvakovic has said.

Speaking to Radio Belgrade upon his return from Sofia, where he represented the SPS at the 43rd Congress of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Suvakovic said that the Bulgarian Socialists' stand was very clear and on the line of full support to the stands held by Serbia and Yugoslavia and the SPS.

They believe that this is our country's internal affair and understand why we allow no internationalisation, Suvakovic said and added that the Bulgarian Socialists' stands "fully correspond with the stands of the Bulgarian public."

Suvakovic said that he and his host, Bulgarian Socialist Party President Georgi Prvanov, had discussed the situation in the Balkans.

He said that Prvanov had expressed a firm support to the foreign policy position of Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia and voiced a wish for a further intensification of cooperation between the two parties.

[04] ITALIAN DEFENCE COUNCIL ON PERMEABILITY OF THE ALBANIAN ORDER

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

The Italian Defence Council will consider at its session, to be held on Monday afternoon, the situation in the Mediterranean and, in connection to this, the obligations and engagement of its military forces, the Italian media have said.

The La Repubblica daily said that the Defence Council will specially focus on the Kosmet problem, i.e. the situation in the Yugoslav-Albanian border via which arms smuggling for the ethnic Albanian terrorists has recently been stepped up as have clashes between Yugoslav border patrols and extremist gangs.

Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who chairs the Defence Council, said that "incidents on the Yugoslav-Albanian border must be prevented to avoid a large-scale conflict."

In order to secure a realistic presentation of the situation at today's meeting, Italian official military representatives on Sunday toured the Yugoslav-Albanian border and reported about this to the Defence Council.

Italy is a member of the Contact Group which is vigorously advocating the stationing of an international security force along the Albanian border to primarily prevent the transfer of manpower and weapons to Kosovo and Metohija, as concluded and condemned at the Contact Group talks in Rome, La Repubblica said.

[05] TERRORISTS WANT ETNICALLY PURE TERRITORY, KOSOVO OFFICIAL SAYS

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Head of the Kosovo District Veljko Odalovic said on Monday referring to the latest attacks perpetrated by ethnic Albanian terrorists that the terrorists were planning their actions in the Djakovica and Decani areas of Serbia's southern province of Kosovo-Metohija precisely because these areas border on Albania. They want to create an ethnically pure territory in parts of the Klina, Orahovac, Srbica and Glogovac areas and then simply move the border inwards, Odalovic told Belgrade-based BK TV.

The army will certainly not permit this to happen, and the state and its institutions will take the necessary measures to prevent the realization of such plans, he said.

Serbs and Montenegrins are the principal targets of terrorist attacks in those areas, he said. The inhabitants of villages in Djakovica and Decani areas are the targets of artillery and mortar attacks every evening, Odalovic said. The attackers want to spread fear among the inhabitants and force them to abandon their homes and thus ethnically cleanse the territory, Odalovic said.

The state will certainly not allow this, he underlined.

[06] YUGOSLAV CHIEF NEGOTIATOR SEES BASIC SOLUTIONS IN MINI-DEAL AS SOLID

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Yugoslavia's chief negotiator in talks on succession to former Yugoslavia said here on Monday that Yugoslavia had accepted all proposed solutions concerning essential matters in a so-called mini-deal on non-economic issues. These proposed solutions concern the issues of the archives, citizenship, pensions and acquired privileges.

"Yugoslavia, however, has serious reservations concerning questions that do not come under the heading of the "brief" agreement, such as the relevant date and conditions for succession," chief negotiator Kosta Mihailovic told Belgrade Radio.

Speaking about the outcome of the Yugoslav delegation's recent meeting with international negotiator Sir Arthur Watts, Mihailovic said that Yugoslavia's reservations concerned the demand that it hand over eight embassies to the newly independent republics. He explained that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia took the view that the issue of embassies has no place in the discussion of non-economic and humanitarian issues treated under the mini-deal. "Distribution of embassies comes under the heading of assets and is reserved for the general agreement on succession," he explained.

"The delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia does not see a reason why it should make such a concession, as that would constitute a partial division of assets which it has opposed on principle from the start of the talks," he added.

He said that another serious reservation concerned the fact, without a discussion, that the omission of the mention of the Vienna Convention in the Preamble to the mini-deal is made conditional on its quotation in the preamble to the future general agreement.

Referral only to this convention would mean ignoring completely the specific circumstances surrounding the creation of the assets of the now defunct Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which alone are subject to division.

Mihailovic stressed that the biggest differences, in terms of both substance and consequences, concerned the setting of a date relevant to division, on which the Yugoslav delegation has the greatest reservations.

"The Yugoslav delegation simply cannot agree to Sir Arthur Watts' proposal that June 1, 1991, be the relevant date, primarily because it takes the view that there are more than one dates relevant to the material issues of succession," he said.

He said that the reason for this was that the former Yugoslav republics left the monetary, financial and economic system of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at different times.

Commenting on a remark by Sir Arthur Watts, Mihailovic said that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had never denied access to documents relevant to the succession issue.

[07] PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF CITIZENS RECEIVED LORD HARLECH

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

President of the Chamber of Citizens of the Assembly of Yugoslavia Milomir Minic received on Monday Lord Harlech, member of the House of Commons and Secretary of the British-Yugoslav Parliamentary Group.

The two sides assessed in the talk that a mutual interest existed in intensifying and diversifying parliamentary cooperation between the two countries and in that way helping promote their overall relations, and they agreed on the directions of forthcoming activities, a statement released by the Yugoslav Parliament said.

Minic in detail informed Lord Harlech about the current political situation in Yugoslavia, the pursued economic and social reforms, and, in particular, problems in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija. The Yugoslav parliamentary official underscored that the international community's pressure on Yugoslavia could not help resolve problems in Kosovo and Metohija and only encouraged ethnic-Albanian separatists and terrorists.

Minic stressed that problems in Kosovo and Metohija could successfully be resolved only within Serbia, by peaceful political means and in the interest of all inhabitants in the province.

He set out that the recent referendum in Serbia had reaffirmed the unity of citizens and their unwavering commitment to having the issue of Kosovo and Metohija being resolved solely within the Republic of Serbia and based on respect for the highest international standards of the protection of human, civil and minority rights.

The President of the Chamber of Citizens pointed out Yugoslavia's great openness and interest in full cooperation with all international organizations and institutions and the need for the restoration of its legitimate rights and obligations stemming from membership in those organizations and institutions, the released statement said.

[08] SRPSKA PRESIDENT ADDRESSES OPEN LETTER TO US MILITARY ENVOY

Tanjug, 1998-05-04

Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic addressed on Monday an open letter to the special US military envoy to the Balkans James Pardew, underlining Srpska's intention to duly implement all segments of the peace agreement, including the military.

Plavsic underlined that Pardew's statements that the Republika Srpska Army continued to be a threat to the peace process and that that threat can be removed only when Premier Milorad Dodik's Government reorganizes the army and removes from command posts all officers who served during the war, especially General Manojlo Milovanovic, were unjustified.

Plavsic insisted in her letter that Pardew explain whether he was stating his own views or those of his administration.

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