OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 166, 25 August 1995

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

Open Media Research Institute Directory

CONTENTS

  • [01] CROATIA REJECTS CHARGES OVER KRAJINA.

  • [02] IMPASSE OVER SERBIAN REFUGEES FROM KNIN.

  • [03] SACIRBEY CRITICIZES NEW PEACE PROJECT.

  • [04] BOSNIAN TROOPS ATTACK BRITISH.

  • [05] RUSSIAN ENVOY MEETS SERBIAN PRESIDENT.

  • [06] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONDEMNS KARADZIC.

  • [07] SERBIAN ARMY SHOOTS AT KOSOVAR ALBANIANS.

  • [08] NEW TWIST IN BULGARIAN MILITARY DEATHS.

  • [09] PEDAGOGIC SEMINAR FOR MACEDONIAN-LANGUAGE TEACHERS FOR ALBANIA.

  • [10] ALBANIAN-GREEK TRANSPORT COMMISSION MEETS.

    •

    OMRI DAILY DIGEST

    No. 166, Part II, 25 August 1995

    SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [01] CROATIA REJECTS CHARGES OVER KRAJINA.

    Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic has again blasted the "false information" that claims that Croatian forces have systematically burned or destroyed abandoned Serbian property in Krajina, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on 25 August. Granic said that there were isolated cases of excesses that would be firmly punished, but that they were not the work of regular Croatian forces. To date 524 Serbian corpses have been counted, of which 24 civilians have been identified. The minister rejected Bosnian Serb offers of a territorial exchange in southern Croatia. Granic is visiting Austria, whose Prime Minister Franz Vranitzky has criticized Croatia over Krajina. The former Slovenian defense minister, Janez Jansa, in turn attacked the Austrian Socialist leader, saying that "Mr. Vranitzky does not hear the [Serbian] shells [falling] on Karlovac." Austrian conservative politicians have welcomed Granic. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [02] IMPASSE OVER SERBIAN REFUGEES FROM KNIN.

    Nearly 700 Serbs who fled Croatia's lightning victory earlier this month are still waiting to leave UN headquarters in Knin for Serb-held territory, international media reported on 25 August. Plans for them to depart have been held up by a dispute between Croatia and the UN over suspected war criminals in the group. Zagreb has identified 61 persons whom it will not allow to leave and wants to examine. The UN, however, will not release them without a detailed account of the charges and assurances that the UN can monitor the interrogations. Novi list quoted the leader of Croatia's Serbian People's Party, Milan Dukic, as accusing the Croatian military of deliberately destroying Serbian property in Krajina in order to discourage Serbs from returning. Croatian authorities in turn suspect the Serbs of making such charges in an effort to distract attention from Serbian war crimes. Slobodna Dalmacija cited a Roman Catholic official as saying that the Serbs had destroyed all Catholic church buildings in Krajina, but that the Croats would now "build even more beautiful churches." Sky Channel News on 24 August showed footage of Croatian troops guarding Serbian churches in Krajina. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [03] SACIRBEY CRITICIZES NEW PEACE PROJECT.

    Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said that new U.S. peace efforts are flawed because they include no plans for sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs if they reject the project. The VOA on 25 August also quoted him as likening Bosnia to a crippled man who had been hit by a drunk driver. Sacirbey added that lifting the arms embargo against his government would provide an impetus to the peace process by encouraging the Serbs to negotiate seriously. The Belgrade weekly NIN, however, quoted Bosnian Serb "parliament speaker" Momcilo Krajisnik as saying that EU mediator Carl Bildt had recently given the Serbs "guarantees [in Geneva] that there will be two separate states with compact territories within the former Bosnia- Herzegovina." Krajisnik called that "great progress," AFP noted. Bildt has been declared persona non grata in Croatia, and the Bosnian authorities refuse to meet with him. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [04] BOSNIAN TROOPS ATTACK BRITISH.

    News agencies reported on 25 August that suspected rogue members of the Bosnian army attacked British UN peacekeepers in Gorazde the previous night. A 15-minute fire-fight left two Bosnians dead but no British casualties, and the motive for the attack was unclear. The UN has protested the incident, but the British government called it "minor incursion." The U.K. troops are in the process of leaving the UN-declared "safe area," which is now supposed to be only protected by NATO air power. Former UN human rights monitor Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who quit in disgust over the international community's failure to protect Srebrenica and Zepa, said in Kuala Lumpur that his resignation was final. Elsewhere, Bosnian Radio reported that videos discovered in the rooms of Bihac-pocket kingpin Fikret Abdic revealed dissension in his followers' ranks. The tapes also suggested a link between Abdic's men and the death of Bosnia's foreign minister earlier this year. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.

    [05] RUSSIAN ENVOY MEETS SERBIAN PRESIDENT.

    Russian envoy Alexander Zotov met in Belgrade with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on 24 August to discuss peace prospects in the former Yugoslavia, Nasa Borba reported the following day. Zotov, Moscow's representative to the five-nation Contact Group, met with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on 21 August and with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic the following day. In other news, Tanjug reported on 23 August that rump Yugoslavia's new foreign minister, Milan Milutinovic, wrote UNESCO, urging the international body to protect the Serbian cultural legacy in Krajina. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [06] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONDEMNS KARADZIC.

    Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) issued a statement on 23 August condemning the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs, Serbian TV in Belgrade reported the same day. According to the report, the SPO has concluded that the recent Bosnian Serb attacks on Sarajevo are simply "one more incomprehensible, uncivilized, anti-Serbian action undertaken by the war adventurers in Pale." The statement went on to add that "it is now crystal clear that Radovan Karadzic and all his supporters want to stop the peace process and carry on the war at any cost." -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [07] SERBIAN ARMY SHOOTS AT KOSOVAR ALBANIANS.

    The Serbian army fired mortar shells on Albanian neighborhoods in Urosevac on 22 August, according to the Kosova Daily Report on 23 August. The attack damaged houses but no casualties were reported. Albanian political parties in the region and human rights groups denounced the incident as an attempt to provoke a conflict in Kosovo. Meanwhile, according to Serbian officials, about 5,000 Serbian refugees have arrived in Kosovo and another 7,000 are still expected. Refugees who are willing to settle in Kosovo are offered more farmland than refugees who want to settle in other regions, Politika says, but many refugees who arrive still end up wanting to leave the region soon after their arrival. Fifty Serb refugees left Prizren on 23 August for Serbia proper, the Kosova Daily Report said on 24 August. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [08] NEW TWIST IN BULGARIAN MILITARY DEATHS.

    The office of Sofia's Military Prosecutor has released revealing information relating to a case involving the deaths of 14 military personnel, Bulgarian Radio reported on 23 August. A military truck crashed and burned in Sofia on 11 August, resulting in the deaths (see OMRI Daily Digest, 14 August 1995). The prosecutor's office says a row of bullet holes, allegedly coming from the make and model of a firearm used by professional assassins, has been detected in one of the vehicle's doors. Investigation into the incident continues. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.

    [09] PEDAGOGIC SEMINAR FOR MACEDONIAN-LANGUAGE TEACHERS FOR ALBANIA.

    The Macedonian Ministry of Education and Physical Culture organized a seminar in Ohrid for teachers from Albania who will teach the Macedonian language in that country, the independent Macedonian news agency MIC reported on 23 August. The seminar focuses on Macedonian language, literature, and culture. Meanwhile, a new round of talks began in Tetovo between the Macedonian government and the ethnic Albanian political parties under the mediation of EU diplomat Gerd Ahrens. The aim is to solve the conflict about a law on higher education in the Albanian language for the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, BETA reports on 24 August. The leader of the Party of Democratic Prosperity of the Albanians, Arben Xhaferi, repeated demands that a university in the Albanian language be opened and the use of the language be allowed in parliament and public offices. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    [10] ALBANIAN-GREEK TRANSPORT COMMISSION MEETS.

    A two-day meeting of the Albanian-Greek Commission on Transport opened in Ioannina on 22 August, Radio Tirana reported on 23 August. The first session of the meeting focused on agreements on road transport, including goods transport, and addressed rail links between the two countries. A bilateral transport protocol is expected to be signed. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc.

    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
    For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz

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