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OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 19, 26 January 1996
From: OMRI-L <omri-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu>
CONTENTS
[01] KARADZIC SAYS HE'LL TRY HIS OWN BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMINALS.
[02] GOLDSTONE PLEDGES NEW INDICTMENTS.
[03] LIFTING OF SANCTIONS CONDITIONAL ON BOSNIAN SERBS' WITHDRAWAL.
[04] EU, MUSLIMS, CROATS TO FORM POLICE FORCE IN MOSTAR.
[05] ICRC APPEALS FOR PRISONER RELEASE.
[06] AGREEMENT ON MEDIA ACCESS IN BOSNIA.
[07] FORMER SERBIAN PREMIER AIMS TO HELP REBUILD RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[08] KOSOVO GOVERNOR SAYS ALBANIANS CAN FORGET INDEPENDENCE.
[09] ZAGREB MAYOR ELECTED.
[10] MACEDONIA, RUMP YUGOSLAVIA CLOSE TO RECOGNITION?
[11] OSCE CHAIRMAN IN ROMANIA.
[12] MOLDOVA TO TAKE ACTIVE PART IN NATO'S PFP PROGRAM.
[13] NEW GOVERNOR OF BULGARIAN NATIONAL BANK.
[14] UPDATE ON HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT GONCZ'S VISIT TO ALBANIA.
OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 19, Part II, 26 January 1996
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[01] KARADZIC SAYS HE'LL TRY HIS OWN BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMINALS.
Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told TV Pale on 24 January that he does
not dispute that there are war criminals among the Bosnian Serbs but
that he insists his Republika Srpska will try them itself. Nasa Borba
and the Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes on 26 January added that
Karadzic said his government is also preparing a case against Bosnian
President Alija Izetbegovic for war crimes. Karadzic apparently did
not comment on the Hague-based international tribunal's indictment of
him and top Bosnian Serb military commander, General Ratko Mladic. One
of the international community's top representatives in Sarajevo,
Michael Steiner, told German TV that he is convinced that Karadzic and
the others will eventually be caught and brought to justice. --
Patrick Moore
[02] GOLDSTONE PLEDGES NEW INDICTMENTS.
The Hague tribunal's chief, Judge
Richard Goldstone, told U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher on
25 January that he is now "completely satisfied" with Washington's
cooperation with his agency. He added, however, that the court is
swamped with information but still plans to issue new indictments
soon, German media reported. In Bosnia, a British journalist told the
BBC about a trip to the Srebrenica area, where there is much evidence
of mass graves. IFOR commander Admiral Leighton Smith said that there
are between 200 and 300 mass graves in the entire republic and that
his forces will secure them when they are under international
investigation. He stressed, however, that a larger police forces is
needed to deal with common crime, a problem that is expected to grow
as refugees return to their looted or destroyed properties. -- Patrick
Moore
[03] LIFTING OF SANCTIONS CONDITIONAL ON BOSNIAN SERBS' WITHDRAWAL.
The UN
Security Council on 25 January said the lifting of sanctions against
the Bosnian Serbs can be expected after 3 February and is conditional
on the Serbs' withdrawal to the borders of the Republika Srpska, Nasa
Borba reported on 26 January. The council will rely on NATO to
determine whether the Bosnian Serbs have fulfilled this condition by
the deadline agreed in the Dayton accord. Meanwhile, Bosnian Serb
leaders arrived in Belgrade on 25 January to ask Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic to lift the blockade of the Serbian-Bosnian border,
Reuters reported. Beta quoted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic as
saying that all disputes within the Bosnian Serb leadership are a
result of the "pointless sanctions on the Drina River." -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[04] EU, MUSLIMS, CROATS TO FORM POLICE FORCE IN MOSTAR.
EU administrator
for Mostar Hans Koschnick has announced that an EU-Muslim-Croatian
police force will be formed in that city, international and local
media reported on 25 January. Koschnick has said he will accept
Croatia's offer to provide some 100 police officers, noting that
continuing tensions in Mostar would threaten the Dayton peace accords.
Ejup Ganic, vice president of the Muslim-Croatian federation, said in
a letter to Koschnick that "the activities of criminal elements in
west Mostar (the Croatian sector) have not been stopped, despite the
presence of European police and administration." -- Michael Mihalka
[05] ICRC APPEALS FOR PRISONER RELEASE.
The International Committee of the
Red Cross on 25 January appealed for the three Bosnian factions to
release the 645 prisoners remaining in their custody, international
and local media reported. The ICRC also said "several dozen"
unregistered Serbian prisoners were being held in the central prison
in Tuzla. Amor Masovic, head of the Bosnian government commission for
the exchange of POWs, told Sarajevo TV the same day that the ICRC
statement was "misinformation" and that it was simply "not true" that
the ICRC plan for prisoner release was in accord with the Dayton peace
accords. Masovic stressed that the accords called for all prisoners to
be released, alluding to the several thousand prisoners whom the
Bosnian government claims the Bosnian Serbs are holding in the
Potocari camp. -- Michael Mihalka
[06] AGREEMENT ON MEDIA ACCESS IN BOSNIA.
The Dayton accords specify that
there is to be freedom of movement and freedom of the press in the
war-ravaged republic, but this has not always been the case in
practice. In particular, journalists from each of the three sides have
often had difficulty gaining access to the other two. Reuters reported
on 25 January, however, that the Muslims, Croats, and Serbs agreed in
Sarajevo to guarantee freedom of movement and access, including the
right of journalists to interview the other sides' officials. A
working group led by a Czech journalist will be set up to deal with
any problems. Steiner called the talks "very encouraging." -- Patrick
Moore
[07] FORMER SERBIAN PREMIER AIMS TO HELP REBUILD RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
Beta on
25 January reports that Milan Panic, the former federal rump Yugoslav
premier and the head of the California-based multinational ICN
Pharmaceuticals, recently traveled to the rump Yugoslavia where he
expressed a strong interest in assisting the country's economic
development. "If we [help] make better economic conditions here, the
political questions will be resolved relatively easily," he said.
Panic, who held office in the last half of 1992, welcomed Belgrade's
decision to back the Dayton peace agreement. Meanwhile, Nasa Borba on
26 January reported that Panic has met in Belgrade with high-profile
opposition party leaders such as Vuk Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal
Movement and Dusan Mihajlovic of New Democracy. -- Stan Markotich
[08] KOSOVO GOVERNOR SAYS ALBANIANS CAN FORGET INDEPENDENCE.
Serbian-appointed
Kosovo governor Aleksa Jokic has told a U.S. State
Department delegation that Kosovar Albanians will not be granted
independence, Nasa Borba reported on 26 January. At a press
conference, he said he was not informed that the U.S. is going to open
a USIA office in Pristina. Christopher Hill, head of the U.S.
delegation and an aide to Assistant Secretary of State Richard
Holbrooke, also met with Kosovar shadow-state President Ibrahim
Rugova, but it is not known if any concrete proposals were made for a
dialog between the Kosovar Albanians and Belgrade. -- Fabian Schmidt
[09] ZAGREB MAYOR ELECTED.
Jozo Rados, a member of the Croatian
Social-Liberal Party and the candidate of the seven opposition
parties, was elected mayor of Zagreb on 24 January by a vote of 33 to
15 with two abstentions, Hina reported the same day. He was the second
opposition candidate for the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman refused
to confirm the election of the first one. Two opposition members voted
against Rados, while some ruling party (HDZ) members voted for him.
Zagreb City Assembly President Zdravko Tomac, member of the Social
Democratic Party, responded to accusations that his party had reached
a compromise solution with the HDZ, by saying that the Social
Democrats are not in favor of radical moves. He added that Rados's
election was a way to settle Zagreb's political crisis, Novi list
reported on 26 January. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[10] MACEDONIA, RUMP YUGOSLAVIA CLOSE TO RECOGNITION?
Rump Yugoslav ForeignMinister Milan Milutinovic, speaking to his Italian counterpart,
Susanna Agnelli, on the telephone, announced his country will
recognize Macedonia "as soon as some simply technical questions are
resolved," Nasa Borba reported on 26 /January. Milutinovic did not
elaborate on the nature of those questions. Nova Makedonija the
previous day reported that rump Yugoslav-Macedonian talks were held in
Belgrade "in a constructive atmosphere" and may lead to mutual
recognition by early February. The daily said the main problem is the
question of continuity of the former Yugoslavia, but both sides are
seeking "a mutually acceptable solution." Meanwhile, Macedonian media
speculate that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic will visit Skopje
soon. -- Stefan Krause
[11] OSCE CHAIRMAN IN ROMANIA.
Flavio Cotti, chairman in office of the
OSCE, arrived in Romania on 25 January, Radio Bucharest reported.
Cotti met with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu to discuss,
among other things, the situation in Bosnia, the Republic of Moldova,
and Chechnya. The Romanian side asked the OSCE to step up its
involvement in the Moldovan-Dniester conflict and to intercede in
favor of the release of Ilie Ilascu and his colleagues from a Tiraspol
jail. The so-called "Ilascu group" is being detained by Dniester
authorities for alleged terrorist acts. Cotti, who is also foreign
minister of Switzerland, praised diplomatic contacts between the two
countries and noted that bilateral economic relations were expanding.
Cotti the same day also met with President Ion Iliescu. -- Dan Ionescu
[12] MOLDOVA TO TAKE ACTIVE PART IN NATO'S PFP PROGRAM.
Moldova will
participate in 85-90% of projects within the Partnership for Peace
program in 1996, a spokesman for the Moldovan armed forces told
journalists in Brussels on 25 January . Infotag quoted him as saying
that Moldova's participation in the program is limited by financial
possibilities and will be restricted to sending groups of observers.
He noted that NATO "understands and respects the neutrality of
Moldova, which, according to its constitution, cannot join any
military-political blocs." But he did not exclude future Moldovan
participation in NATO military exercises. Moldova plans to host this
year a PfP international seminar on military medicine. -- Matyas Szabo
[13] NEW GOVERNOR OF BULGARIAN NATIONAL BANK.
Lyubomir Filipov's
appointment as governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has
prompted personnel changes in a number of parliamentary committees,
Bulgarian media reported. The parliamentary Socialist majority on 24
January confirmed Filipov in that post as the successor of Todor
Valchev, whose five-year term had expired. Nikolay Koychev has
replaced Filipov as head of the parliamentary Economic Committee,
while Yordan Shkolagerski replaces Koychev as chairman of the
Committee on Labor, Social, and Demographic Problems. Both Koychev and
Shkolagerski are members of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. -- Stefan
Krause
[14] UPDATE ON HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT GONCZ'S VISIT TO ALBANIA.
Arpad Goncz,
addressing the Albanian parliament, called for Albania's full
membership in the Central European Initiative, Magyar Hirlap reported
on 26 January. Goncz also urged expanded political and economic ties
as well as deeper cultural and scientific cooperation. Later he met
with Prime Minister Alexander Meksi to discuss gradually lifting visas
requirements after concluding an agreement on extradition. Meksi
offered to ease restrictions on Hungarian business activities in
Albania. -- Fabian Schmidt and Zsofia Szilagyi
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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