Subject: BosNet REPORT - Balkan Institute: Last Week's Events From: Nermin Zukic Sender: bosnews@doc.ic.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ B o s N e t - Aug. 30, 1995 ======================================================================== BALKAN WATCH The Balkan Institute August 28, 1995 A Weekly Review of Current Events Volume 2.33 Week in Review August 21-28, 1995 ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE RICHARD HOLBROOKE AND BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC met today in Paris to discuss President Clinton's new peace initiative. Contact Group representatives are also scheduled to meet in Paris Tuesday, after which the U.S. delegation will fly to Belgrade to meet with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The Administration appointed Brig. Gen. Donald Kerrick, Roberts Owen, James Pardew, and Christopher Hill to replace three negotiators who were killed enroute to Sarajevo on August 19. The Clinton Administration backed away from reports that it would urge the Bosnian Government to give up the eastern "safe area" of Gorazde as part of a partition deal. The Administration insisted that its plan, which would give Bosnian Serb forces control over 49% of Bosnia, along with political ties to Serbia, does not actually "partition" Bosnia. Critics of the plan charge that the internal borders established by the plan would divide Bosnia de facto, if not de jure. They also claim that the Bosnian Serbs and Belgrade could, in any case, ignore any constitutional obligations arising from the plan. Holbrooke downplayed expectations that the plan would be accepted, particularly by the Bosnian Serbs. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic Wednesday demanded that any peace plan grant Bosnian Serb forces control over at least 64% of Bosnia. Bosnian Serb forces are also demanding that the territory they occupy be recognized as an independent state. BOSNIAN SERB SHELLING TODAY KILLED 37 CIVILIANS AND WOUNDED 85 IN SARAJEVO. The death toll is expected to rise. The majority of dead and wounded were struck by a single Serbian shell in the city's market. A shelling attack in the same location in February 1994 killed 68 people and wounded 200, and led to the creation of a NATO-backed heavy-weapons exclusion zone around the city. The U.N. and NATO soon abandoned enforcement of the ban. Intense shelling in the city Tuesday killed six civilians and wounded 38. In a separate shelling attack, six Egyptian UNPROFOR troops were wounded. The U.N. Rapid Response force fired six shells at Bosnian Serb positions near Sarajevo late on Tuesday, but only after Bosnian Serb forces had shelled the U.N. positions a second time. UNPROFOR BEGAN WITHDRAWING FROM THE UN-DECLARED "SAFE AREA" OF GORAZDE. After receiving permission from Bosnian Serb forces, some 90 Ukrainian soldiers completed their withdrawal Thursday. Their commander and an aide remained. The Bosnian Government is demanding payment for rent and "environmental damage" caused by the Ukrainian troops. The remaining 169 British and 10 Norwegian troops began withdrawing Friday. Their withdrawal is scheduled to be completed this week, but is also being delayed due to contractual disputes with the Bosnian Government. Bosnian soldiers said to be acting without authorization attacked the British troops shortly before they began to withdraw. They apparently were seeking to commandeer British equipment with which to defend the enclave. Two Bosnians were killed in the incident. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke assured the Bosnian Government Friday that NATO and the U.S. would uphold the London pledge of July 21 to protect Gorazde with airpower. CROATIA AND CROATIAN SERB FORCES Friday signed a truce for eastern Slavonia. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman warned during the week that Zagreb would seek a peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia for three or four months, but that the area would be liberated by force if such efforts failed. Hungary Thursday announced that it was reinforcing guards along its border near eastern Slavonia. UN General Secretary Boutros Boutros-Ghali recommended Thursday that UNCRO reduce its troop level to 2500 troops in eastern Slavonia by November 15. Croatian officials announced Thursday that they would delay military action to remove Bosnian Serb forces from artillery range of Dubrovnik while the Clinton Administration pushed its peace initiative. Croatia has massed some 15,000 troops around the historic Adriatic port, which has come under persistent artillery attack from Bosnian Serb forces around Trebinje. CROATIA RELEASED DOCUMENTS Thursday that it alleges to be orders issued by Croatian Serb political and military leaders for the evacuation of Croatian Serb civilians from the Krajina. If genuine, the documents would undermine allegations that the exodus was the direct result of Croatian Army operations. UN and European officials have evoked controversy by labeling the flight of some 120,000 Croatian Serbs as "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the Croatian Army. U.N. officials charged Monday that Croatian troops continue to burn and loot property abandoned by Croatian Serbs who fled the Krajina. U.N. officials also charge that Croatian soldiers committed random killings during the region's liberation. Croatian officials have condemned such acts and deny that they are part of any government policy. Croatian Serb and Bosnian Serb forces continued to purge Bosnian Croats and Muslims from the Banja Luka area. The UN sent a letter to Belgrade Monday to protest the deportation of some 1,000 Croatian Serb refugees from Serbia into Bosnia. The men are expected to be forced to join Bosnian Serb forces. The deportation of asylum seekers is a violation of international law. TADEUSZ MAZIOWIECKI, who resigned as UN human rights rapporteur last month in disgust over UNPROFOR and NATO's refusal to defend the "safe areas", issued his final report Wednesday. The report alleges that Bosnian Serb forces committed mass executions, rapes, and other war crimes following their capture of Srebrenica and Zepa. More than 6,000 Muslim men and boys from the two former enclaves are missing and presumed dead. US AMBASSADOR TO ROMANIA ALFRED MOSES said Friday that Romania and Hungary are unlikely to sign a long-delayed bilateral treaty in the foreseeable future. Moses said nationalist animosity remains too high. Negotiations have been stymied by the Romanian government's refusal to accept minority rights guarantees for the country's more than 2 million ethnic Hungarians proposed by the Council of Europe. Moses also urged the Romanian government to do more to stop fuel smuggling from its territory into Serbia. Romania joined Bulgaria and Greece Saturday in calling for an end to sanctions against Belgrade. --- QUOTES OF THE WEEK "The NATO commitment [to protect Gorazde], the American commitment, the commitment that came out of the London conference...still applies." Asst. Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke (Reuters 8/25/95) "We have been assured that there are existing mechanisms on the ground to help address the security needs of Gorazde.... Of course, we hope that when and if such action is called upon, there won't be any hesitation." Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey (Reuters 8/25/95) "The 'safe area' of Gorazde is probably more secure as a result of the decision to withdraw the British because the U.N. and NATO will have a hard time watching it fall like Srebrenica and Zepa." Anonymous U.N. official (Reuters 8/24/95) "The failure to maintain an international peacekeeping presence in the enclave is in blatant contradiction to the various international commitments to the protection of the enclave issued by governments at the London Conference in July." Statement by Doctors Without Borders (Reuters 8/24/95) "You might find this hard to believe, but for some countries, serving in the UN peacekeeping force is a matter of prestige and honor."-Anonymous UN official (New York Times 8/25/95) "Gorazde will be Serb either way."-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (Chicago Tribune 8/24/95) "I promise we'll keep working on it until we bring all the cows home." Secretary of State Warren Christopher, on the new U.S. initiative (Washington Times 8/23/95) --- CALENDAR Sept. 8: Fourth anniversary of Macedonia's referendum in favor of independence. Sept. 22: Third anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly's denial of the former Yugoslavia's seat to Serbia-Montenegro. --- Balkan Watch is a publication of the Balkan Institute. The Institute is affiliated with the Action Council for Peace in the Balkans. PO Box 27974, Washington, DC 20038-7974 Phone: (202) 737-5219 Fax: (202) 737-1940 E-mail: BalkanInst@aol.com ________________________________________________________________________ Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions. Zeljko Bodulovic Dzevat Omeragic Davor Wagner Nermin Zukic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------