OMRI Dailly Digest II, No. 80, 24 April 1995

From: "Steve Iatrou" <siatrou@hilbert.cdsp.neu.edu>

CONTENTS

  • [01] KARADZIC BANS DIPLOMATS FROM SARAJEVO AIRPORT.

  • [02] FRENCH CHIEF-OF-STAFF IN SARAJEVO.

  • [03] MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN YUGOSLAV AREA.

  • [04] MILOSEVIC MEETS LEADERS FROM KRAJINA AND BOSNIA.

  • [05] BOUTROS GHALI THREATENS TO WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPERS FROM CROATIA.

  • [06] UN TAKES TOUGHER APPROACH ON RUMP YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS.

  • [07] KOSOVAR OFFICIALS ON POSSIBLE DIALOG WITH SERBIA.

  • [08] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES STATE BUDGET.

  • [09] BULGARIA MAY CLOSE DOWN NUCLEAR REACTORS EARLY.

  • [10] ALBANIAN OIL SMUGGLING REACHES LOW POINT.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 80, Part II, 24 April 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [01] KARADZIC BANS DIPLOMATS FROM SARAJEVO AIRPORT.

    International media reported on 23 April that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has announced that Sarajevo airport "is a Serbian airport" and that no diplomats or other political visitors to the Bosnian government in Sarajevo will be allowed to use it. He added that the Contact Group diplomats are not welcome and that the Bosnian Serbs "will not accept the Contact Group [peace] plan, never, ever." He sent packing a group of U.S. and German diplomats who had spent the night of 22 April in sleeping bags on the airport floor. UN mediator Yasushi Akashi also got no farther than the airport on an attempted visit to Sarajevo. Karadzic gave a variety of reasons for his stand, which international media agreed is outrageous even by the standards of this conflict. But Reuters stressed that his toughness is the outcome of a deepening rift between the Bosnian Serb military and civilian establishments. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [02] FRENCH CHIEF-OF-STAFF IN SARAJEVO.

    France's highest army officer, General Marc Monchal, arrived in the Bosnian capital on 23 April to escort home the bodies of three peacekeepers who died in a munitions accident the day before. These deaths brought French UNPROFOR fatalities to a total of 36. AFP said that President Francois Mitterrand has invited the presidents of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, and rump Yugoslavia to ceremonies in Paris on 8 May marking the end of World War Two in Europe. It is unclear whether Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was also on the list. His presence would be crucial if the French were to try to use the occasion to stage the Yugoslav-area summit they have been pressing for. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN YUGOSLAV AREA.

    The 24 April Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the battlefields were largely quiet during the Orthodox Easter weekend. The main exception was around Brcko, in the narrow north Bosnian Posavina supply corridor, which links Serbia with its conquests in Croatia and Bosnia. Croatian Radio, for its part, said that armed Krajina Serbs blocked the reopened Zagreb-Belgrade highway in two places. Hina reported the previous day that Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak met with his Slovak counterpart, Jan Sitek, who was visiting Slovak UNPROFOR troops. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] MILOSEVIC MEETS LEADERS FROM KRAJINA AND BOSNIA.

    Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic met with Krajina Prime Minister Borislav Mikelic, Bosnian Muslim kingpin Fikret Abdic, and Bosnian Serb commander General Ratko Mladic at Milosevic's residence in Belgrade, Nasa Borba reported on 22 April. The men subsequently dodged reporters, who were unable to obtain any further information. AFP commented on 24 April that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague may also want to speak to Mladic. The dispatch notes that Mladic and Karadzic are suspected of war crimes, but no formal charges have been made. The Los Angeles Times on 22 April reported that Germany has agreed to extradite Dusan Tadic for trial in The Hague. Tadic is suspected of being the Bosnian Serb concentration camp guard who killed at least 32 people and tortured 61 others at Omarska. His trial would be the first international one for war crimes since the end of World War Two. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] BOUTROS GHALI THREATENS TO WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPERS FROM CROATIA.

    UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali has announced he may have to withdraw UNCRO contingents if the Zagreb and Knin authorities do not approve the peacekeepers' new mandate, AFP reported on 22 April. The Serbs and Croats differ strongly over the number of soldiers needed, where they should come from, what they should do, and where they should do it. Reuters the next day reported on observances by Croatian Jews to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Jasenovac. That concentration camp was the worst in wartime Croatia, where the Ustasha regime carried out its genocidal policies against Jews, Serbs, and Gypsies. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] UN TAKES TOUGHER APPROACH ON RUMP YUGOSLAV SANCTIONS.

    According to Nasa Borba on 22-23 April, UN Security Council Resolution 988 provides for sanctions against the rump Yugoslavia to be partially lifted for periods of 75 days rather than 100 days, as stipulated by Resolution 943. The council also voted to impose stricter conditions for the easing of sanctions against Belgrade. According to ITAR-TASS on 22 April, Russia has already made known its objections to the council's decision. Russian representative to the UN Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that Moscow objects, among other things, to additional limits on deliveries of aviation fuel to Belgrade. Nasa Borba on 24 April reported that all Serbian parties are highly critical of Resolution 988. Leader of the Serbian Radical Party and accused war criminal Vojislav Seselj commented that the endorsement of the new resolution is "evidence of [Serbian President Slobodan] Milosevic's incompetence." -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [07] KOSOVAR OFFICIALS ON POSSIBLE DIALOG WITH SERBIA.

    Fehmi Agani, deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, has made clear his views on a possible Kosovar-Serbian dialog by saying "Kosovo is not a Serbian internal question," Nasa Borba reported on 24 April. The Kosovars are demanding that a solution to Kosovar-Serbian differences be found within the framework of the Geneva Conference on Former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, Kosovar President Ibrahim Rugova has said that such a solution would be either an independent Republic of Kosovo or a confederation with Albania, in the event that "confederations are established on the territory of the former Yugoslavia." The Serbs, however, reject international meditation in the Kosovar-Serbian issue. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [08] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES STATE BUDGET.

    The parliament's Socialist majority on 21 April passed the 1995 state budget, BTA and international agencies reported the same day. The budget was approved by 123 to seven after an all-night session. Opposition deputies in the 240-member assembly left before the vote, saying they had to attend Mass on Orthodox Good Friday. The budget deficit is projected at 48.8 billion leva ($746 million), or 6% of estimated GDP. Inflation is projected to reach 45-50% in 1995. But Kontinent on 21 April reported that non- government institutes estimate inflation will reach 60-120% this year. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.

    [09] BULGARIA MAY CLOSE DOWN NUCLEAR REACTORS EARLY.

    Yanko Yanev, chairman of Bulgaria's Atomic Energy Committee, said on 21 April that the two oldest reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant may be closed down years ahead of schedule, Reuters reported the same day. Yanev said he will propose to the parliament that a fund be set up for the decommissioning of the two 440 megawatt reactors if reconstruction proves too expensive. New safety systems, additional filters and earthquake protection are needed, at an estimated cost of some $70 million. Reactor No. 1, the oldest at the power plant, has already been closed down for inspections. Yanev did not mention the two 1,000 megawatt reactors at Kozloduy, which are also Soviet-built. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI, Inc.

    [10] ALBANIAN OIL SMUGGLING REACHES LOW POINT.

    Reuters on 23 April reported that profits gained by Albanians smuggling black-market fuel into rump Yugoslavia have dropped from about $30 to $3.20 for one 200-liter container since Bulgaria and Romania have grabbed a bigger share of the illegal market. An Albanian official is quoted as saying that "trading here is at a low point. It is about twenty times less than it once was." Elsewhere, Italian coast guards held an Albanian cargo ship suspected of carrying radioactive cargo for three days in Pescara. Police found no trace of radioactive material, international agencies reported on 22 April. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a Prague-based nonprofit organization.

    HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute
    news2html v2.05 run on Tuesday, 16 May 1995 - 13:15:26