novine.1.bale.,
CROATS GIVE MUSLIMS ULTIMATUM
(from the Fargo Forum, Monday, Sept. 7, 1992 (Fargo, North Dakota))
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)
In another move pushing Bosnia toward partition, Croat forces broke with the
mainly Muslim Bosnian army Sunday and threatened to drive Muslim forces from
territory around Sarajevo.
The move appeared to further weaken the Bosnian governmnet , and it
tightened the vise on the Serb-besieged capital, where shelling resumed
Sunday night after a day of relative calm in the 6-month-old civil war.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. But for the 24-hour period
ending at noon Sunday, the Ministry of Health said 10 people had died and
118 were wounded across the republic. More than 8,000 people -- some
estimates say 35,000 -- have died since the war began.
Sarajevo's already desparate living conditions worsened when the Serbs cut
off the city's main reservoir. And presaging the long, hard winter to came,
teh first snow fell in the surrounding mountains.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic has called for a unified, independent
country. But Serbs and Croats have taken control of most of Bosnia since
the fighting broke out after a February referendum approved secession from
the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
Velimir Maric, president of the Croatian militia for Sarajevo, said Croatian
headquarters in Mostar, southwest of Sarajevo, had given the Bosnian
government until today to withdraw from six suburbs around Sarajevo.
"After the ultimatum expires we will use all available measures to liberate
Croatian territories," Maric told reporters in Stup, a western suburb
controlled by Croats. "That could imply a conflict."
"Lots of blood will be lost ending one state and lots of blood will be lost
creating one state," he said. "No one who lives in Bosnia-Herzegovina is a
Bosnian. They are Croats, Muslims, and Serbs. First of all, I am a Croat."
The six suburbs, most of whose populations are predominantly Croat, were
Stup, Bare, Azic, Otes, Dagladi and parts of Nedzarici, all communities
along the city's western front line.
Bosnian government forces are surrounded on all sides by Serb fighters, and
the government has relied on these suburbs for much of its fuel, weapons,
and food, which arrive via Croat-Serb cooperation.
Mustafa Hajrulahovic, commander of Bosnian forces in Sarajevo, reacted to
the Croat ultimatum by saying: "We have to live in one republic, which is
un-cantonized. If they don't agree with that, we will fight until we
liberate our territory."
Maric said he would not help the Bosnian army try to break the siege of
Sarajevo unless he received orders from his commander, Mate Boban -- the
leader of ethnic Croats in Bosnia and an ally of President Franjo tudjman of
Croatia.
Maric, a 40-year-old food inspector before the war, read from a statement on
stationary of the Croatian headquarters in Mostar.
================================================
Los Angeles Times
Saturday, September 5, 1992
by William D. Montalbano
Times Staff Writer
Rome---... U.N. officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina told reporters that witnesses
on the ground said they saw two missiles fired at the Italian 46th Air Brigade
aircraft, which Ando said was clearly marked with U.N. insignia.
Residents close to the crash site, which is near the town of
Jesenic, 20 miles west of Sarajevo, told the British news agency Reuters
on Friday that they saw one of the two rockets slamming into the plane
from the direction of Konjic, a town in Muslim-Croatian territory, although
the area south of it is held by Serbian militiamen.
"I was watching the plane flying past toward Sarajevo when two seconds
later two rockets homed in on it from behind without a sound," Zahrovic
Fohrudin said.
Added Dudic Esad, a local Muslim fighter: "One hit the plane in the
rear. A wing fell off, and the plane burst into flames. The other rocket
missed. The plane spun straight down to the ground."
Loggers Mato Javran and Anto Behrcic, interviewed by an Associated
Press reporter, told a similar story. They said they saw what looked like a
rocket hit the plane; a wing broke off, and the plane begin to spin before
suddenly droping out of the sky.
The United Nations halted all relief flights to Sarajevo after the
crash. Asked when they might resume, Mike Aitchinson, a U.N. official in
Zagreb, Croatia, said, "Maybe never."
The plane which had departed from Split, Croatia, fell in the heavily
wooded mountainous region where Serbian, Bosnian Croatian and Muslim
irregulars are skirmishing for control. Serbian irregulars told reporters
that Muslims were responsible for shooting it down. They speculated that
Muslim fighters had mistaken the Italian plane for one belonging to the
Yugoslav air force.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, a Muslim, countered that "the
missiles came from area controlled by Serbs." He told reporters that the
United Nations should either provide military air escorts for future flights
or send troops to clear land corridors of heavy weapons and anti-aircraft
guns.
In Washington, the State Department said it had not yet received
official word about the cause of the crash.
... The Pentagon said Thursday that two of four U.S. helicopters
were fired upon, but not hit, as they helped search for the wreckage of the
Italian plane. On Friday, according to the Associated Press, the report was
modified: Pilots of two of the helicopters said they had seen flashes of
small-arms fire but could not be sure that shots had been fired at them.
But the Financial Times, a London newspaper, reported that a local
commander of the Croatian Defense Council admitted that his men had shot at
the helicopters.
...In an interview Friday with CNN, Acting Secretary of State,
Lawrence Eaglburger said that the helicopter incident illustrated the danger
of becoming more deeply involved in the Bosnian conflict.
That is "an example of the sort of thing I'am concerned about," he
said. "We need to recognize that there is a real distinction between trying
to assist in getting humanitarian aid into Sarajevo and getting engaged in
trying to make peace amongst the contending factions."
He said the limited role of providing and shielding humanitarian
assistance is the most appropriate one for the United States now.
Eaglburger said he would "hazard a guess...the plane was shot down."
"There are a lot of out-of-control people in the area," he said. "It
could have been anyone."
...In a speech to the Economics Club of Indianopolis that was
broadcast back to Pentagon, Cheney cited potential dangers to U.S. intervention
in th eregion, saying: "It doesn't strike me as the type of conflict in which
I am prepared to commit young Americans to combat."
...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
[The rest of this article deals with the usual background information and
physical description of the site of the wreckage.]
================================================
CNN Headline News
Sunday, September 6, 1992
10pm PST
[Toria Tolley]
"...Ethnic turmoil in Yugoslavia gets even more divisive. Croats
announced today that their forces are separating from Bosnian forces which
are mainly Muslim. They also threaten to liberate some sections of Sarajevo
if Muslims do not pull out from there by Monday."
novine.2.bale.,
CNN Headline News
Wed, Sept 9, 1992
10am PST
Sarajevo--- ...French call yesterday's attack on relief convoy equivalent to
an act of war...
[Wounded French soldier]: "...You can't believe that we are here on
humanitarian and peace mission..."
[French general]: "...There was a fighting between the two sides. After one
phone call Serbian side stopped. Bosnians didn't..."
Two French soldiers were killed, more wounded.
...As another frustration for U.N. peacekeepers there was a delay in exchange
of prisoners. Serbian busses came, and their prisoners were waiting for
hours in the scorching heat...
[U.N. officer to Bosnian representative]: "...We will wait here two
more hours, then..."
Bosnian busses never came.
It could be seen that most of Serbian prisoners were victims of "ethnic
cleansing", women and children. There was just one bus with soldiers.
...Peace neogotiators in Geneva condemned the shooting incident... U.N. does
not feel secure even for its headquarter in Sarajevo... The time may be coming
when U.N. will not be able to perform its mission any longer..."
novine.3.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report 09 SEP, 1992
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 14:03:48 +0100
Reply-To: rferl-daily-report-request@AdminA.RFERL.ORG
From: rferl-daily-report-request@admina.rferl.org
The RFE/RL Daily Report is a digest of lastest developments
in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It is published
Monday through Friday (except German holidays) by the
RFE/RL Research Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty, Inc.). Copyright 1992 RFE/RL, Inc.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
F..................................................................M...........
M
RFE/RL DAILY REPORT
No. 173, September 9, 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
NATIONAL PATRIOTS DEMONSTRATE IN ST. PETERSBURG. "Social Security
for Workers," was the slogan under which the extreme nationalist
Russian Party held a meeting in St. Petersburg on 7 September,
Ostankino TV reported. The meeting was permitted by the mayor's
office. The demonstrators condemned Yeltsin's leadership as
"criminal and Zionist." The demonstrators also demanded the release
of the chief editor of the newspaper Narodnoe delo, who has been
arrested and charged with the dissemination of anti-Semitic
material. The "red-brown opposition" in Russia plans to hold mass
demonstrations on 15 September. The protests will reportedly
include the picketing of the St. Petersburg and Ostankino TV
centers. (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL Inc.)
ATTEMPT TO REVIVE CPSU AS MASS MOVEMENT. On 8 September, Pravda
published a draft program aimed at reviving the Communist Party as
a mass movement. The program said Communists should hold a
conference in Moscow next month. The program also called for a
"rebirth" of the Soviet Union and its return to socialist
development. It said state socialism experienced "crisis" in the
1970s, but it blamed the "mistakes" and the "treason" of Mikhail
Gorbachev and others for turning the USSR toward capitalism. (Vera
Tolz, RFE/RL Inc.)
EXPORT OF RUSSIAN OIL PRODUCTS HALTED. The major Russian exporter
of petroleum products, Rosnefteprodukt, has suspended deliveries to
Japan and Western Europe, Reuters reported on 8 September. An
official of the company explained that this happens most years
because of increased domestic demand during the harvesting campaign
and because of the need to ship oil to the Far North before rivers
froze. An aide to the Russian Energy Minister was quoted as saying
that shipments of crude oil were continuing. Aleksandr Shokhin,
the deputy prime minister for foreign economic relations, was
quoted by the Financial Times of 9 September as saying that the
government had "lost control" over state-owned oil exporters and
wanted to recentralize purchases in order to meet obligations to
foreign states. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
JAPAN AGAINST CHINESE PURCHASE OF EX-SOVIET CARRIER. Japanese Vice
Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa on 7 September advised China not to
buy an ex-Soviet aircraft carrier under construction in Ukraine.
UPI quoted Kakizawa as warning that such a purchase would
destabilize the Asia-Pacific region. There have been persistent
rumors that China plans to buy the "Varyag," a sister ship of the
Russian Navy's "Admiral Kuznetsov," that was being fitted out in a
Ukrainian shipyard at Mykolaiv prior to the breakup of the Soviet
Union. The September edition of the "U.S. Naval Institute
Proceedings" says that the deal has been finalized, and that Russia
will provide twenty-two SU-27 fighters to equip the ship. (Doug
Clarke, RFE/RL Inc.)
FOUR CIS STATES WANT TO DISCUSS BORDER ISSUES WITH CHINA. Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan agreed on 8 September to
raise the issue of mutual troop reductions along their combined
8,000 kilometer border with China, as well as other border issues.
ITAR-TASS, which announced the agreement, said that it was reached
on the periphery of a meeting of CIS foreign ministers in Minsk.
The Russian and Chinese defense ministers discussed troop pullbacks
from their mutual border when they met in Moscow last month, but
failed to agree on how far back the troops should be withdrawn.
(Doug Clarke, RFE/RL Inc.)
KRAVCHUK CALLS FOR SPEEDY REFORMS. Ukrainian President Leonid
Kravchuk called for speedy implementation of economic reforms and
criticized political groups for engaging in polemics, Western news
agencies reported on 8 September. Kravchuk addressed a group of
cabinet ministers and other officials on the eve of the opening of
a new parliamentary session, saying that the time for political
rallies was over. At the same meeting, the new first deputy prime
minister, Valentyn Symonenko, outlined a new economic program
stressing "mass privatization." Symonenko argued that new
legislation was needed for the program to be successful. (Roman
Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
DISGRACED SHEVARDNADZE ASSOCIATE MAKES COMEBACK AS VICE PRESIDENT.
Soliko Khabeishvili, the former Georgian Communist Party Central
Committee secretary for industry, who was sentenced in the spring
of 1987 to 15 years' deprivation of freedom for allegedly accepting
75,000 rubles in bribes from three raikom first secretaries, is now
Georgia's vice president, according to Die Welt of 8 September.
Khabeishvili has been a close associate of Shevardnadze since the
late 1950s when both men were members of the Georgian Komsomol
Central Committee apparatus. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
UN PEACEKEEPERS KILLED. International media report on 8 September
that two French peacekeepers were killed and at least two others
wounded in an attack on a UN convoy by as yet unknown assailants.
Bosnian Muslims and Serbs each accusing the other of the attack,
which UN observers say was clearly deliberate. The 35-vehicle
convoy originated in Belgrade and was delivering supplies to UN
peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo. The attack occurred near
Sarajevo's airport. Fighting throughout most of Bosnia-Herzegovina
continues. Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen, cochairmen of the
international peace conference on the former Yugoslavia are due in
Zagreb today to start a three-day official visit which will also
take them to Belgrade and Sarajevo. The envoys are seeking ways of
resuming humanitarian aid flights and are expected to press for
guarantees from the warring parties to stop the attacks on relief
efforts. Sarajevo officials say that the city's food supply will
run out on 10 September. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
RIFT AMONG BOSNIAN SERBS? Radios Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
report on 8 September that Bosnia's ministry of internal affairs
has obtained evidence of a rift between Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb
army. The document charges that Karadzic is applying a double
standard to the army: in the past month he has been praising the
army and emphasizing its successes publicly, while privately
working toward replacing Mladic and his inner circle. For their
part the Bosnian Serb military leadership is unhappy with
Karadzic's behavior and handling of policy, particularly over his
handing control of Serb artillery over to UN forces, which Mladic
feels is being done at an unsuitable time for the Serbian army.
Mladic believes that the army now has no chance of holding its
current positions and will suffer further setbacks, as in Gorazde.
(Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
TENSE SITUATION IN THE SANDZAK. In a letter to the Geneva
conference on the former Yugoslavia, the Muslim Council of the
Sandzak says that about 70,000 Muslims have fled the region,
allegedly because of "Serbian military terror." Council president
Sulejman Ugljanin says that the Sandzak has been occupied by the
Serbian and Montenegrin army, which deployed 29,000 reserve troops
to the area between early February and June. According to Ugljanin,
the terror the Muslims are subjected to and the display of military
might and combat hardware have been stepped up since the London
conference in late August and show no sign of abating. The letter
states that 70 explosions have destroyed shops and properties owned
by Muslims in the Montenegrin towns of Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, and
Priboj. The Sandzak is a region straddling the Serbia-Montenegro
border. Radio Croatia carried the report on 8 September. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
VOJVODINA HUNGARIANS PROTEST RESETTLEMENT. Janos Vekas, vice
president of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Vojvodina, said
that by forcefully settling large numbers of Serbs in Vojvodina,
Hungarian-Serbian relations could be spoiled for a long period of
time. According to Vekas, each city in Vojvodina will have to make
room for some 4,000 Serbs, and citizens will have to take in the
refugees without compensation. The report was carried by Radio
Budapest on 8 September. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)
CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER ON FUTURE CZECH-SLOVAK RELATIONS. Speaking
to reporters in Prague on 8 September, Czech Foreign Minister Josef
Zieleniec said that the Czech Republic and Slovakia will exchange
ambassadors early next year. He also said that the priorities of
Czech foreign policy will remain the same as those of the
Czechoslovak foreign policy but that the Czech Republic will wield
less international influence and will scale down some of the
foreign policy projects initiated by former Czechoslovak Foreign
Minister Jiri Dienstbier. The Czech foreign minister further said
that attaining membership of the European Community, NATO, and West
European Union will be among the priorities. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL
Inc.)
KLAUS REJECTS CZECH-SLOVAK DEFENSE UNION. Speaking on Czech Radio
on 8 September, Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus ruled out the
possibility that the Czech Republic and Slovakia could form a
defense union or have a common army after 1 January 1993, when
Czechoslovakia is to split into two independent states. Klaus said
that there exists a strong army lobby in Czechoslovakia, consisting
of generals and high officers who would like to preserve a federal
arrangement for the army even after the breakup of Czechoslovakia.
Klaus rejected such a scenario but said that, in physical terms, it
may not be possible to separate the Czech and Slovak parts of the
army completely before 1 January 1993. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT FIRM ON STRIKES. Reviewing the strike scene on 8
September, the Polish cabinet restated its basic principles of
action. In a statement issued after the meeting, the government
reminded the public that Polish law does not permit the payment of
wages for strike days; that strikers' pay demands cannot be
addressed to the government, which is not a party to wage talks;
and that the government will do everything in its power to ensure
that no pay increases result from current strikes. Responding to
the proliferation of strike "mediators," the government stressed
that all official talks with unions must have the labor ministry's
approval and that no agreements will be reached with parties or
parliamentarians. Meanwhile, President Lech Walesa met with Maciej
Jankowski, leader of Solidarity's radical Warsaw region, to discuss
his idea of a "confederation of reformist forces." (Louisa Vinton,
RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIAN MINERS HOLD PROTEST RALLY. On 8 September some 1,500
miners from Cluj County took part in a protest rally in the city of
Cluj. The rally, which was also attended by delegations from other
regions, including Maramures, Moldova, and the Banat, demanded
state subsidies for the mining industry, cash payments to
compensate for recent subsidy cuts in prices for staples and
services, and adequate social protection. Radio Bucharest quoted
Eugen Tamas, president of the Federation of Romania's Mining Trade
Unions, as saying that 90% of union members favor a strike if
demands are not met by the authorities. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
"KING OF ALL GYPSIES" CROWNED IN ROMANIA. Ion Cioaba, self-styled
King of all Gypsies, was crowned on 8 September at the Bistrita
Monastery in Oltenia. Radio Bucharest reports that thousands of
Gypsies cheered as a priest laid a two-and-a-half-kg Swiss-made
golden crown on his head. The 57-year-old Cioaba swore to fight to
overturn centuries of contempt for Gypsies. Rival Gypsy groups that
do not recognize Cioaba as a leader and accuse him of collaboration
with Nicolae Ceausescu's regime protested the ceremony. According
to the last census, taken in January, 410,000 Gypsies live in
Romania, but Gypsy leaders maintain the figure is much higher. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
(END)
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novine.4.bale.,
UPI NEWS ---
Subject: French say gunfire against soldiers came from Bosnian zone
Subject: Conflicting versions of U.N. convoy incident
Subject: Bosnian Serb leader claims artillery ready for U.N. supervision
Subject: The prisoner exchange that wasn't
Subject: Attack on U.N. convoy called 'cold-blooded murder'
Subject: Fischer and Spassky started game five of rematch
Subject: U.N. says all sides violate human rights in Bosnia-Hercegovina
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: French say gunfire against soldiers came from Bosnian zone
Date: 9 Sep 92 09:59:44 GMT
PARIS (UPI) -- The French Defense Ministry Wednesday said machine-gun
fire that killed two French United Nations peacekeeping troops near the
Sarajevo airport came from a zone held by Bosnian forces.
``The logistic convoy coming from Belgrade was hit by light-infantry
fire and grenades as it entered a zone held by Bosnian forces south of
the Sarajevo airport,'' a ministry statement said.
The statement labeled the two dead soldiers ``victims of a deliberate
attack, and of a manifest provocation by persons wanting to make war,
and who are enormously bothered by the prospects of peace.''
Military officers on the scene said Tuesday's attack appeared
deliberate, because it lasted for about five minutes.
The slain troops, identified as Frederic Vaudet, 28, and Eric Marot,
21, died from bullet wounds to the head, even though they wore
protective United Nations blue helmets, the ministry said.
Three other French soldiers suffered slight injuries in the attack.
The latest bloodshed raised the total number of U.N. peacekeepers
killed in Sarajevo to four. Some 46 other U.N. soldiers have also been
injured.
Last week, four Italian pilots also died when someone shot down their
relief plane as it approached Sarajevo airport.
Italian authorities initially claimed the craft had been deliberately
targeted by Serbian forces, who allegedly fired two surface-to-air
missiles at it.
But Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported officials now
speculate the plane might have flown into the middle of a fight between
Serbian and Bosnian forces.
In the wake of the tragedy, U.N. officials in Sarajevo said they
considered a resumption of humanitarian flights unlikely in the
foreseeable future.
On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Butros Ghali said he agreed ``in
principle'' with the idea of providing military air support for
humanitarian flights, but said such a step would require a U.N. Security
Council resolution.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Conflicting versions of U.N. convoy incident
Date: 9 Sep 92 16:10:17 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- The U.N. military commander in
Sarajevo insisted Wednesday that Bosnian fighters shot dead two French
troops and wounded five others in a U.N. supply convoy. But witnesses
said the unprotected column drove directly into a pitched battle.
The conflicting versions surfaced a day after the incident occurred
on the edge of Sarajevo airport, a U.N.-controlled island set amid
shifting battlefields on the western fringe of the Bosnia-Hercegovina
capital.
Both versions agreed that fierce fighting had been raging outside the
airport for three days, with predominantly Muslim Slav Bosnian forces
pressingan attac from the suburb of Butmir against the Serb-held
settlement of Lukavica.
Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel Razek, the Sarajevo sector
commander of the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), contended a cease-
fire had been in effect for 20 minutes before the U.N. convoy began
moving from Lukavica into the airport complex at about 7:20 p.m.
Tuesday.
But, witnesses, including French soldiers aboard the convoy, said it
drove directly into raging crossfire between Bosnian units and fighters
belonging to Serbian forces seeking to carve a self-declared state out
of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
``We drove straight into a firefight. The range was very close, about
10 meters,'' said one of the French soldiers interviewed at the U.N.-
controlled airport. ``There was no time to fire back.''
Razek said gunfire fire was loosed by ``uncontrolled elements'' at
three trucks of the column as it moved into the airport complex.
``It was very clear that the fire came from the Bosnian side,'' Razek
told a news conference. ``It was just one or two persons on the ground
who were involved.''
``The accident resulted in two French soldiers being killed and five
were wounded,'' said Razek.
Razek, however, then became unsure of certain details of the incident
and contradicted himself on several key points.
He asserted that the head and tail of the convoy were each protected
by ``two or three'' armored personnel carriers dispatched from UNPROFOR
headquarters.
But U.N. sources and witnesses said there were no armored cars, a
breach of standing UNPROFOR orders that require them to be sent to
accompany all U.N. convoys entering war-torn Sarajevo.
Razek denied witness reports that at least one mortar round was
loosed at the convoy.
He said he supported the French convoy commander's decision to
proceed to the airport despite the dangerous conditions.
``I agree with this judgement. The light was enough for anybody to
recognize and identify the trucks and the shots came from a very short
distance...not less than 100 meters, maybe less,'' he said.
Later, however, Razek said: ``If the story (of fierce fighting) had
come to my ear a little earlier, I wouldn't have allowed the convoy to
proceed to the airport unless both sides could withdraw their elements a
proper distance from the road.''
Razek said he received assurances at a meeting with senior Bosnian
officials that they would investigate the incident.
Officials of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) were among
those who said that the clashes were still raging when the convoy
entered the airport complex.
``There was an intense battle going on and they (the convoy) tried to
cross the runway. The battle was so intense before they arrived that we
had gone to shelters,'' said Dag Espeland, the chief UNHCR logistics
officer based at the airport.
``I asked myself why they came in,'' he said.
In Zagreb, Croatia, Cyrus Vance, co-chairman of the ongoing
Yugoslavia peace conference, called the killing of two U.N. peacekeepers
``plain cold-blooded murder.''
``It simply cannot be tolerated,'' said Vance, who is touring the
region for talks with leaders of the warring factions.
Serbian forces beseiging Sarajevo and Bosnian defense units clash
almost daily in seesaw contests for control of several townhouse and
apartment colonies located right on the airport boundaries.
Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic said the goverment's information
also was that the U.N. vehicles drove into a firefight, and he
indirectly criticized UNPROFOR for not taking better precautions.
``We are very sorry for those two soldiers...but one should try to
program things more carefully. We always asked UNPROFOR people not to
travel at night. We always asked them to avoid direct fights,'' said
Ganic.
The French convoy bearing food, fuel and water was completing a
regular weekly supply run from Belgrade to the U.N. headquarters on the
western fringe of the embattled Bosnia-Hercegovina capital.
The two dead French soldiers were the first fatalities of the 800-
member French army contingent of UNPROFOR, which is assigned to
protecting the airport and U.N. humanitarian aid operations in and
around Sarajevo.
The incident brought UNPROFOR's overall casualties in Sarajevo since
May to at least four dead and 46 injured. The previous casualties have
all been blamed on attacks against UNPROFOR by the warring factions.
Last week, U.N. Under-Secretary Marrack Goulding, the head of the
United Nation's peace-keeping operations, warned that UNPROFOR could be
withdrawn from the war-ravaged city because of the high casualty rate.
The latest incident, however, did not affect U.N. humanitarian aid
distribution convoys, said Izumi Nakamitsu, the head of the UNHCR's
Sarajevo operations.
``We are not going to stop,'' she said, adding that cooperation
between the agency and the warring factions was increasing and raising
``the level of confidence.''
She said that the week-old suspension in the U.N.-supervised
humanitarian airlift did not threaten the estimated 500,000 people
blockaded in Sarajevo as the size of UNHCR truck convoys was being
increased.
By Friday, she said, daily convoys would be arriving with 180 tons of
food and medicines from Croatia's Adriatic port city of Split. The
amount is only 20 tons less than what the airlift was providing each
day.
The airlift was suspended after an Italian cargo plane crashed last
Thursday en route to Sarajevo with humanitarian supplies, possibly
because it was hit by missiles. Four Italian crewmembers were killed.
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Subject: Bosnian Serb leader claims artillery ready for U.N. supervision
Date: 9 Sep 92 13:58:02 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Radovan Karadzic, the leader of Serbian
guerrillas in Bosnia-Hercegovina, said Wednesday his forces' artillery
would be placed under U.N. supervision before the Saturday deadline.
``At midday today (Wednesday), U.N. observers should be placed on all
Serbian positions around Sarajevo, and tomorrow (Thursday) morning they
will come to positions around Bihac and Jajce. In this way we have
permitted the supervision of our artillery two days before the deadline,
'' Karadzic said.
Karadzic, the self-styled president of a self-declared Serbian state
in newly independent Bosnia-Hercegovina, said he would have talks with
Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen, the co-chairmen of the Geneva peace
talks on former Yugoslavia, in a Serbian stronghold near Sarajevo
Thursday.
Vance and Owen have given Karadzic's forces until Saturday to place
under U.N. supervision the heavy weaponry in areas surrounding the
Bosnia capital of Sarajevo, and the towns of Bihac and Jajce.
Karadzic said he was ready to make ``territorial concessions'' to the
Bosnia-Hercegovina authorities, but only after the ongoing war ceases.
The Bosnia-Hercegovina government is mostly made up of Muslim Slavs
but also includes moderate Croats and Serbs.
Karadzic's guerrillas have captured about 70 percent of the
republic's territory although Serbs comprise only 32 percent of the
population of 4.4 million.
Addressing reporters at a Belgrade hotel, he said he may negotiate
giving back anything between ``one to 20 percent'' of the territory.
Referring to the predominantly Muslim Slav city of Sarajevo, Karadzic
said the whole of the capital is ``on the land that is in possession of
Serbs.''
``A large part of Sarajevo will go to the Serbs...the old part of the
city would be given to the Muslims, while a part in which Croats live
would be an extra-territorial section,'' Karadzic said. He did not
elaborate any further.
Karadzic reiterated his stand that Bosnia-Hercegovina should be
divided into Swiss-style ``ethnic districts.''
A Serbian land-grab campaign, to carve out a self-declared Serbian
republic and attach it to neighboring Serbia, began late in March,
before the former central Yugoslav republic's independence was
internationally recognized early in April.
Bosnia-Hercegovina's population is comprised of 1.9 million Muslim
Slavs, 1.4 million Christian Orthodox Serbs and 750,000 Roman Catholic
Croats.
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Subject: The prisoner exchange that wasn't
Date: 9 Sep 92 17:49:27 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- This is a tale of arms and men,
the evils of drink and of more than 900 people who disappeared in the
prisoner exchange that wasn't.
It is also the story of a stolid Royal Canadian Mounted Police
sergeant from Winnipeg who tried to make it happen, but learned that in
the Balkans, things rarely come off the way one hopes.
``I respect these people here, but I don't respect their ability to
organize things,'' said Sgt. Jim Hull, the commander of the civilian
police unit of the U.N. Protection Force in Sarajevo.
U.N. police and troops Tuesday set out to oversee a swap of 470
Serbian and Bosnian war prisoners in Kobiljaca, a town wedged between
Serbian and Croatian lines, 15 miles northwest of Sarajevo.
The swap was agreed by the warring factions for 1 p.m. It began with
U.N. personnel escorting two buses of Bosnian captives from the Serb-run
prison of Kula, outside Sarajevo.
Things began going awry immediately.
The convoy arrived in Koblijaca an hour late because it was held up
at a Serbian checkpoint and forced to pick up more prisoners.
In Kobiljaca, U.N. personnel found seven more buses of Bosnian
captives, said Hull. ``These nine buses were later joined by two more
buses containing alleged prisoners.''
Hull said the U.N. unit was then told by negotiators of the two sides
that the exchange had grown, with 462 Bosnians to be swapped for 454
Serbs -- who had still not arrived.
U.N. officers waited three and a-half hours for the Bosnian side to
deliver the Serbian prisoners. During that time, they noticed ``the
Serbian military presence in the area appeared to increase and the
indulgence of alcoholic beverages was clearly evident,'' Hull said.
A U.N. armored car was sent to find the Serbian prisoners, who were
discovered 8 miles away in six buses. The buses were escorted by the U.
N. vehicle to within less than a mile of Kobiljaca, where they were
stopped at a Croatian checkpoint.
An argument erupted between the Bosnian negotiators and the Croatian
commander that soon embroiled bystanders, Hull said.
``It was learned that Croatian military were justifiably concerned
about the presence of many armed Bosnian soldiers who had come with the
convoy,'' he explained. ``This in all probability could have caused an
armed confrontation (with the Serbs).''
U.N. personnel also objected to the Bosnian soldiers. But, unable to
resolve the dispute and growing anxious because of the approaching dark,
the U.N. unit tried to coax the convoy to move by proceeding through the
checkpoint.
Only one bus followed, but ``broke down...and had to be left behind,''
Hull said.
The U.N. unit continued into Kobiljaca, where ``it was quite apparent
that tension was mounting among everyone present,'' he said.
``With this in mind and the fact that the liquor being consummed
during the day was now showing undesirable effects on the Serbian
soldiers and civilians present,'' the U.N. contingent abandoned the
exchange, Hull explained.
The prisoners were left with their captors and ``we have no idea
where they are,'' said Hull.
That, however, was not the end of the story.
More than seven hours after leaving Kula, the four-vehicle U.N. unit
set out to return to Sarajevo, but was forced to stop for about two more
hours at a Serbian checkpoint.
Hull said the halt resulted because a Serbian police chief wanted to
arrest the Bosnian prisoner exchange negotiators accompanying the U.N.
personnel back to Sarajevo.
The U.N. officers refused to surrender the Bosnians, and after
``cooler heads prevailed,'' the convoy was allowed to continue, Hull
said.
Despite the farcical nature of the incident, Hull was not amused.
``We, under the circumstances, don't find it very comical,'' he said.
``This is too deadly a situation...to be messing around.''
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Subject: Attack on U.N. convoy called 'cold-blooded murder'
Date: 9 Sep 92 18:17:31 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Mediators working to negotiate
peace among the Yugoslav republics arrived in the region to assess the
chances for progress Wednesday amid continuing confusion over who was
responsible for an attack on a U.N. convoy that killed two French
soldiers and wounded five.
Arriving in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, peace conference co-
chairman and former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance sharply
condemned the attack on the convoy Tuesday night, describing it as
``plain cold-blooded murder'' and saying those responsible should be
brought to justice.
Conflicting accounts continued to cloud the incident, which took
place on the edge of Sarajevo airport, a U.N.-controlled island set amid
shifting battlefields on the western fringe of the capital of Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
A U.N. military commander insisted Wednesday that Bosnian fighters
deliberately attacked the unprotected U.N. supply convoy, killing two
French troops and wounding five others, but witnesses said the column
accidentally drove into a pitched battle between Serbs and Bosnians.
Both versions agreed fierce fighting had been raging outside the
airport for three days, with predominantly Muslim Slav Bosnian forces
pressing an attack from the suburb of Butmir against the Serb-held
settlement of Lukavica.
Speaking upon his arrival in Zagreb, Vance acknowledged it was
difficult to know who was to blame for the incident, but he sharply
condemned the attack.
``It simply cannot be tolerated,'' Vance said. ``People who commit
those kinds of cold-blooded crimes will be apprehended if it is possible
to do so and submitted to the courts and be given the penalties...that
such cold-blooded crimes deserve.''
Vance and peace conference co-chairman David Owen were in the region
to meet with leaders of the warring factions to try to secure
humanitarian relief flights and land convoys into war-torn Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
A key issue is the interrupted airlift, still in abeyance following
the crash last week of an Italian Air Force plane on U.N. service, Vance
said. Four airmen were killed in the plane that possibly was shot down
by missiles.
Another major issue was the Vance-Owen demand that Yugoslav army-
supplied Serbian heavy artilllery be concentrated in U.N.-monitored
locations by Saturday.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic set for himself a deadline for
concentrating the weapons by Thursday, when he expected to meet Vance
and Owen in a Serbian stronghold near Sarejevo.
In Belgrade, Karadzic also told reporters Wednesday he may negotiate
giving back ``one to 20 percent'' of the Bosnian territory captured by
the Serbs who are trying to carve an separate nation out of the newly
independent republic.
Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel Razek, commander of the Sarajevo sector of
the U.N. Protection Force, doubted Karadzic could meet his self-imposed
deadline.
``I know there are some difficulties with their local commanders,''
Razek told a news conference. ``Our senior military observers are
working with them (the Serbs) to sort out all their difficulties.''
Referring to the fatal attack on the U.N. convoy, Razek said gunfire
was loosed by ``uncontrolled elements'' at three trucks of the column as
it moved into the airport complex.
``It was very clear that the fire came from the Bosnian side,'' he
said. ``It was just one or two persons on the ground who were involved.''
Razek said a cease-fire had been in effect for 20 minutes before the
convoy began moving from Lukavica into the airport complex Tuesday
evening.
But witnesses, including French soldiers in the convoy, said it
accidentally drove into a raging battle between Bosnians and Serbs.
``We drove straight into a firefight. The range was very close, about
10 meters,'' said one of the soldiers at the U.N.-controlled airport.
``There was no time to fire back.''
Razek said he received assurances from senior Bosnian officials they
would investigate the incident.
Officials of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees also said a fight
was raging when the convoy entered the airport complex.
``There was an intense battle going on and they (the convoy) tried to
cross the runway. The battle was so intense before they arrived that we
had gone to shelters,'' said Dag Espeland, chief UNHCR logistics officer
at the airport.
``I asked myself why they came in,'' he said.
Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic said the goverment's information
also was the U.N. vehicles drove into a firefight.
``We are very sorry for those two soldiers ... but one should try to
program things more carefully,'' Ganic said. ``We always asked UNPROFOR
people not to travel at night. We always asked them to avoid direct
fights.''
The French convoy bearing food, fuel and water was completing a
regular weekly supply run from Belgrade to the U.N. headquarters on the
western fringe of the embattled Bosnia-Hercegovina capital.
The dead soldiers were the first fatalities of the 800-member French
army contingent of UNPROFOR, which is assigned to protecting the airport
and U.N. humanitarian aid operations in and around Sarajevo.
The incident brought UNPROFOR's overall casualties in Sarajevo since
May to at least four dead and 46 wounded. The previous casualties all
have been blamed on attacks against UNPROFOR by the warring factions.
Last week, U.N. Under-Secretary Marrack Goulding, head of the United
Nation's peace-keeping operations, warned UNPROFOR could be withdrawn
from Sarajevo because of the high casualty rate.
The latest incident would not affect humanitarian aid convoys, said
Izumi Nakamitsu, head of the UNHCR's Sarajevo operations.
``We are not going to stop,'' she said, adding cooperation between
the agency and the warring factions was increasing and raising ``the
level of confidence.''
She said the week-old suspension in the U.N.-supervised humanitarian
airlift did not threaten the estimated 500,000 people blockaded in
Sarajevo as the size of UNHCR truck convoys was being increased.
By Friday, she said, daily convoys would be arriving with 180 tons of
food and medicines from Croatia's Adriatic port city of Split. The
amount is only 20 tons less than what the airlift was providing each
day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fischer and Spassky started game five of rematch
Date: 9 Sep 92 19:00:11 GMT
PRZNO, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer
and his longtime rival, former Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky, started
the fifth game of their controversial re-match Wednesday after a two-day
break.
Fischer is playing white in the game that started 3:30 p.m. in the
Maestral Hotel in Przno, near the plush Montenegrin resort of Sveti
Stefan in the southern Adriatic.
Fischer played the classical Ruy Lopez opening -- the same one he used
in game three -- and after the first 20 moves experts said Fischer
appeared to have a slight advantage.
``I am satisfied with this opening,'' said Fischer's second, Spanish
grandmaster Eugenio Torre.
``Fischer prepared well for this game, and the fight will be very
long and interesting,'' Torre added.
Spassky, now a naturalized French citizen, defeated Fischer in a
previous game Sunday. Monday and Tuesday were days off.
The match will continue until one of the longtime rivals achieves ten
victories. The result by now is 1:1, with Fischer winning the first game
and Spassky the fourth. Games two and three were draws. Under the
scoring system demanded by Fischer, drawn games are not counted in
scoring.
Fischer still demands to be called ``the chess champion of the world''
even though he went into seclusion shortly after earning that title and
has avoided public life and chess competition for the past 20 years.
Fischer became the world chess champion after defeating Spassky for
the title in the 1972 championship in Reykjevik, Iceland. He was
stripped of the honor a few years later after refusing to play Soviet
grandmaster Anatoly Karpov under the World Chess Federation rules.
Fischer, 49, is also in a deep trouble with the U.S. Treasury
Department, which said the match with Spassky would violate U.N.
sanctions against the new Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
The U.N. sanctions ban all financial and economical transactions with
two republics because of their involvement in the war against
neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Fischer publicly spat on the Treasury's cease-and-desist order at a
news conference Sept. 1 on the eve of the first game. He could face a
fine of up to $250,000 and a maximum 10 years in prison for defying the
order.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. says all sides violate human rights in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Date: 9 Sep 92 18:03:14 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- A U.N. human rights investigator charged
Wednesday that all warring parties in Bosnia-Hercegovina have committed
grave violations and proposed that peacekeeping troops be deployed to
cover the whole Balkan republic.
Former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki warned that there is
a ``real possibility'' that violence involved in the Serb-led so-called
``ethnic cleansing'' activities will spread to Kosovo, Sandzak and
Vojvodina, the other ethnic regions in the former Yugoslavia.
Mazowiecki, appointed by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in
Geneva, visited Bosnia-Hercegovina last month to investigate allegations
of mass execution of Muslims and Croats by Serbian forces in their drive
to claim large chunks of the republic's territory.
The investigator said his visits were limited by time and his
assessments were a ``diagnosis'' of the main problems existing in that
country with three distinct ethnic populations embroiled in a five-
month-old civil war.
``Massive and grave violations of human rights are occurring
throughout the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina,'' Mazowiecki said in a
report to the U.N. Security Council.
``Human rights violations are perpetrated by all parties to the
conflicts,'' he said. ``There are also victims on all sides. However,
the situation of the Muslim population is particularly tragic: they feel
that they are threatened with extermination.''
Mazowiecki said he has obtained ``credible evidence'' that Muslims
and Croats were subjected to the ethnic cleansing campaign in both
Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia. But on the other hand, Serbs in Croatia
have been also discriminated against, harrassed and maltreated and the
importance of human rights violations there cannot be underestimated.
``There is credible evidence that some prisoners have died of torture
and mistreatment in both Croatia and the various parts of Bosnia-
Hercegovina, and at the present stage of this investigation it cannot be
ruled out that executions may have been carried out systematically in
other regions,'' he said.
But he said allegations of systematic execution of Muslims and Croats
by Serbs in detention camps have been ``proven false'' by ``humanitarian
bodies'' in the Yugoslav territories.
Mazowiecki proposed that the Security Council expand the mandate of
the U.N. Protection Force in Croatia to cover the whole territory of
Bosnia-Hercegovina. The 14,000-strong U.N. peace force was set up
earlier this year to put an end to the civil war in Croatia, but its
troops were called to provide security to the Sarajevo airport and to
escort humanitarian convoys.
At the U.N. headquarters in New York, the death of two French
peacekeeping soldiers south of Sarajevo Tuesday was strongly deplored by
Secretary-General Boutros Ghali. France has also asked the Security
Council to meet urgently Wednesday to discuss the incident, which
occurred after a U.N. food convoy was reportedly ambushed.
U.N. spokesman Francois Giuliani said the United Nations has ordered
an investigation on the incident. He said Ghali may present next week a
plan to increase the strength of the U.N. peace force in Bosnia-
Hercegovina in order to deal with the war situation in that republic.
novine.5.bale.,
RFE/RL DAILY REPORT
No. 174, September 10, 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
YELTSIN ABRUPTLY CALLS OFF JAPAN VISIT. On 9 September, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin indefinitely postponed his long-planned
visit to Japan just four days before it was scheduled to begin.
Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe would not confirm whether
or not Yeltsin's decision stemmed from Japan's refusal to provide
large-scale economic aid to Russia until the Kuril Islands dispute
is resolved in Japan's favor, Western agencies reported. On 6
September, Yeltsin had noted that "I have to consider the attitude
of 150 million Russians," when considering the Kuril Islands issue,
"Novosti" reported on 7 September. Yeltsin also announced that his
trip to South Korea would be postponed until December when Yeltsin
is already scheduled to visit China. (Hal Kosiba, RFE/RL Inc.)
BURBULIS CRITICIZES JAPAN. Russian State Secretary Gennadii
Burbulis has warned Japan not to "exaggerate its role and
importance to the detriment of other states in the Pacific region."
He told ITAR-TASS on 9 September that Russian-Japanese relations
"are not the only prospects in this region" for Russia. Burbulis
said that according to a recent opinion poll published by Interfax
on 8 September, 60 percent of Russians oppose returning the Kuril
islands to Japan, and he noted that Yeltsin and government
officials must take the opinion and sentiments of the Russian
population into account. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
ON THE ROLE OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL. Russian President Boris
Yeltsin indicated in his phone conversation with Japanese Prime
Minister Kiichi Miyazawa that the decision to postpone his visit to
Japan had been made by the Security Council rather than by him
personally. If this statement is accurate, it demonstrates the
extent to which this recently created committee has become a major
collective decision-making body in Russia. However, First Deputy
Parliamentary Speaker Sergei Filatov, who is also a member of the
Security Council, was not present at the meeting and was unaware of
the postponement, Western news agencies reported on 9 September.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN FOOD SUPPLY DOWN. The Russian State Committee for
Statistics (Roskomstat) announced on 9 September that food
production during the past few months has declined by an average of
22% when compared with the same period of 1991, ITAR-TASS reported.
Roskomstat attributed part of the decline to shortfalls in
contractual deliveries from other CIS members and from the Baltic
states. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
SCALE OF RUSSIAN CAPITAL FLIGHT MINIMIZED. The Russian First Deputy
Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, Sergei Glaziev, announced
on 9 September that Russia has exported some $2 billion to date in
1992, Interfax reported. About half of this sum has been retained
abroad legally to purchase foreign goods and materials. The rest
has been transferred illegally but has also been used to buy
foreign goods. The total sum is far below some Western estimates of
capital flight: these Glaziev attributed to Western banks which
spread the reports in order to raise their interest rates charged
because of the implied risk factor. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
FURTHER RAISES FOR RUSSIAN COAL MINERS. Acting Prime Minister Egor
Gaidar and coal union officials signed an agreement on 8 September
that provides for gradual increases in coal miners' wages, Interfax
reported on 9 September. Starting on 1 September, average wages
for those working in mining, processing, and transportation of coal
will rise by 60%; by the end of the year, the increment will reach
80%. The average monthly wage for coal miners in July was 10,900
rubles. A union official said that the raises will not be funded by
means of budget subsidies. Instead, mines will increase wholesale
prices of coal by up to 30%--the current average price of coal is
95 rubles a ton--which should cover the pay raise. (Keith Bush,
RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIA ASKS PARDON FOR OFFICER CONDEMNED TO DEATH IN AZERBAIJAN.
Russian authorities have asked Azerbaijan to pardon an Russian
officer sentenced to death by the Azerbaijan Supreme Court's
military collegium on 31 August. According to ITAR-TASS, the
Russian Defense Ministry and a public committee concerned with
servicemen's social rights appealed on 9 September to Azeri leaders
to stay the execution of Lieutenant Evgenii Lukin. Lukin was in
charge of the guard at the Baku Military School on 7 September 1991
when it was attacked by an armed group seeking to obtain weapons in
the school's depot. When the attackers failed to retreat in the
face of warning shots, Lukin ordered his men to shoot to kill.
Three attackers lost their lives. The Russians claim that Lukin
should have been tried by a Russian court. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL
Inc.)
RUSSIAN OFFICER DEFECTS TO FINLAND. ITAR-TASS on 9 September
reported that a officer of the border guards defected to Finland on
1 September. According to the press center of the Russian Border
Forces, Major Andrei Vykhrystyuk--the commander of a guard unit on
the border with Finland--had been on the brink of a nervous
breakdown and was drinking heavily prior to the incident. The
agency report said that the major's father and wife were insisting
that he be repatriated. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL Inc.)
"NEW UKRAINE" CALLS FOR ORGANIZED OPPOSITION. The opposition
coalition "New Ukraine" held a press conference in Kiev on 8
September devoted to the current political situation in Ukraine,
DR-Press reported on 9 September. Volodymyr Filenko, the chairman
of the coalition, emphasized the need to form an organized
opposition aimed at gaining a majority in the parliament. Filenko
also did not exclude the possibility of "New Ukraine" participating
in a government of popular trust. The former economics minister,
Volodymyr Lanovyi, told reporters that he intends to establish a
National Center of Market Reforms. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
UKRAINIAN DELEGATION IN WASHINGTON. A Ukrainian parliamentary
delegation led by Ivan Plyushch, head of the Ukrainian parliament,
is in Washington for meetings with top American officials, Radio
Ukraine reported on 8 September. Members of the delegation are
scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Dick Cheney, National
Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, senators and congressmen, and
other US officials. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
TURKEY PROVIDING WEAPONS TO NAKHICHEVAN? According to an
unconfirmed report on 9 September by Armenia's Snark News Agency,
the military council of the Ninth Corps of the Turkish army has
decided, with the Turkish government's consent, to supply
considerable quantities of Soviet-made weapons and combat material
to the government of Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic.
To date, the Turkish government has publicly resisted pressure to
offer military assistance to Azerbaijan. Turkish Prime Minister
Suleiman Demirel visited Nakhichevan last month and promised
financial and food aid worth $10 million to counter the effects of
the Armenian blockade of the region. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)
"DNIESTER REPUBLIC" ESTABLISHES OWN AIR FORCE. The "Dniester
republic Supreme Soviet" on 8 September formally approved the
establishment of its own air force and a "department of military
aviation," consisting of "airplanes and helicopters based on its
territory," DR-Press reported from Tiraspol on 9 September. The
report clearly refers to the aircraft of Russia's 14th Army. Some
aircraft have already been turned over to the "Dniester" forces by
that Army, and they took part in the "Dniester" military parade on
the anniversary of the "republic" on 2 September in the presence of
the Army's commander, Major General Aleksandr Lebed, DR-Press
reported that day. An RFE/RL correspondent and the St. Petersburg
TV program "600 Seconds" reported on 7 and 8 September,
respectively, that the "Dniester republic" had warned that any
Moldovan overflight of the area without "Dniester" permission would
be treated as a military attack. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)
"DNIESTER REPUBLIC" OFFICIALLY REIMPOSES RUSSIAN SCRIPT ON
"MOLDOVAN" LANGUAGE. The "Dniester republic Supreme Soviet" on 8
September voted in a language law reimposing the Russian alphabet
on the "Moldovan" (i.e. Romanian) language in the territory under
its control. As cited by Radio Rossii, the "law" requires the use
of the Russian alphabet for "all situations in which the Moldovan
language is used." The measure is likely to force part of the local
Moldovan intelligentsia out of their jobs and out of the area.
Although the law formally stipulates the equality of the Russian,
Ukrainian, and "Moldovan" languages, the "Dniester authorities"
promote the old policy of linguistic russification. Moldovans, who
comprise 40.1% of the population, are the largest ethnic group in
the territory at issue, but ethnic Russians, who form only the
third-largest ethnic group (behind Ukrainians), rule the area.
(Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
UN COMMANDER BLAMES BOSNIANS FOR ATTACK. On 9 September the
commander of the UN forces in Sarajevo, Egyptian General Hussein
Ali Abdul Razik, said that the two French soldiers were killed on 8
September by bullets fired by "irresponsible elements" who
disobeyed orders of the local Bosnian commander. The shots came
from positions held by Bosnian government troops, Razik said,
"There is no mistake about this because visibility at the time of
the attack was good." State Presidency member Ejup Ganic denied
that Bosnian forces attacked the convoy. Bosnian Foreign Minister
Haris Silajdzic stated that "it's totally illogical" that Bosnian
forces would fire on "those providing relief." UNPROFOR
headquarters in Zagreb released a statement saying that the Italian
relief plane downed on 3 September was shot down in an area
controlled by Croatian forces. But the statement adds "exactly how
or by whom is the subject of intensive study." The statement also
lays blame on Bosnian government forces for the 8 September attack
on the convoy. International media carried the reports. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
VANCE SAYS RELIEF CONVOYS TO CONTINUE. UN envoy Cyrus Vance told
reporters in Zagreb on 9 September that overland relief convoys to
Sarajevo will continue despite the recent tragedy, which he
described as "cold-blooded murder." Vance, along with EC envoy Lord
Owen were in Zagreb for talks with UN, Red Cross, and Croatian
officials. They will continue with stops in Sarajevo and Belgrade
in an effort to secure further guarantees that overland convoys and
air relief flights will not be attacked. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL
Inc.)
IRANIAN ARMS SEIZED BY CROATIA. Radio Croatia and Western media
report on 10 September that Croatian security forces have impounded
an Iranian Boeing-747 aircraft loaded with arms bound for the
Muslim-dominated government forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
incident occurred on 4 September. Officials seized 4,000 guns and
more than one million rounds of ammunition and deported about 40
Iranians found hidden in the aircraft. The New York Times on 10
September stated that the interception of arms from Iran is the
first documented evidence of military support by an Islamic country
to the Bosnian government. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
PANIC STRIKES HARD. In his first interview since surviving the vote
of no-confidence in the Federal Assembly on 4 September, Milan
Panic, prime minister of the rump Yugoslavia, told Belgrade Radio
on 9 September that he has replaced the Yugoslav negotiating team
at the Geneva peace conference. Panic said the previous team had
"lost all battles," a clear reference to the Socialists ,who
brought Serbia-Montenegro into virtually total global isolation
after being accused of fomenting war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
new team will be led by Ljubisa Rakic, former dean of Belgrade
University's medical school. Panic also described the
no-confidence motion as a phase of democracy, but said he was
surprised at how "few details . . . and lies" his critics
presented. Panic also singled out the privatization of the media as
one of the most important domestic issues. Turning to the Kosovo
situation, Panic said that some laws there are clearly "detrimental
to Albanians and they ought to be changed immediately." He also
proposed that the state provide financial assistance for classes
taught privately in the Albanian language at the university,
secondary, and primary school levels. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL
Inc.)
POLAND'S FIRST POLITICAL PRISONER? On 9 September, Poland's
Supreme Court turned down a request by the chief prosecutor to
reconsider the case of Roman Galuszko, who was sentenced by a
Cracow military court in April to 18 months imprisonment for draft
evasion. Galuszko's request for alternate service on moral and
religious grounds was rejected; the draft board refused to accept
the Catholic faith as a valid argument against military service.
This rationale has stirred controversy. In another judicial
development, the Bialystok prosecutor announced on 9 September that
"criminal arson" caused the fire in January 1989 that killed
Stanislaw Suchowolec, an activist Solidarity priest. The communist
police had ruled the death accidental. Suchowolec was one of three
activist priests killed in mysterious circumstances in the period
before and after the round-table talks. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL
Inc.)
ROMANIA'S ETHNIC HUNGARIANS URGE TOKES TO END HUNGER STRIKE.
Magyar Bishop Laszlo Tokes has been urged by his supporters to
abandon his week-old protest fast. In a statement read on Radio
Bucharest, the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, which
represents the country's Hungarian minority, urged Tokes to
"preserve his strength to fight for the victory of truth and moral
values." Tokes began his hunger strike in an attempt to force the
authorities to identify the murderers of the 1,033 victims of the
1989 Romanian uprising. President Ion Iliescu offered last week to
meet Tokes but has effectively rejected the latter's demands from
the outset. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE ELECTIONS. Patriarch Teoctist of
Romania said in a pastoral address that the Romanian Orthodox
Church "would not express a preference for any candidate or party
in the presidential and parliamentary elections" scheduled for 27
September, Radio Bucharest reported on 4 September. However, the
patriarch added that this "political neutrality" did not mean
"indifference from the moral and social point of view;" he urged
the faithful to vote for "belief in God" and the "safeguarding of
freedom," in what Reuters reported to be an appeal "for the
preservation of Christianity against atheism and Communism."
(Michael Shafir, RFE/RL Inc.)
REMAINS FOUND IN MASS GRAVE IN ROMANIA. Western agencies report
from Bucharest that a mass grave containing about 140 skeletons
dating from the 1950's has been found on premises run by the
Securitate, the former secret police, an Interior Ministry
statement said. The remains, which appear to be from members of
peasant families who opposed collectivization, were found at
Caciulati, near Bucharest, according to the Association of Former
Political Detainees. (Michael Shafir, RFE/RL Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
(END)
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU), on the
Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.
For inquiries about specific news items, subscriptions, or
additional copies, please contact:
In USA:
Mr. Jon Lodeesen or Mr. Brian Reed
RFE/RL, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036.
Telephone: (202) 457-6912 or -6900
fax: (202) 457-6992 or -202-828-8783;
Internet: RI-DC@RFERL.ORG
or in Europe:
Ms. Helga Hofer
Publications Department
RFE/RL Research Institute
Oettingenstrasse 67
8000 Munich 22
Telephone: (+49 89) 2102-2631 or -2642
fax: (+49 89) 2102-2648
Internet: Pubs@RFERL.ORG
Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
novine.6.bale.,
RFE/RL DAILY REPORT
No. 175, September 11, 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
RUSSIAN LEADERS BLAME JAPAN FOR POSTPONEMENT OF TRIP. Vyacheslav
Kostikov, the Russian presidential press secretary, has blamed the
Japanese government for the postponement of President Boris
Yeltsin's trip to Japan. He told Izvestiya on 11 September that the
ruling Liberal-Democratic Party wanted to exploit the issue of the
Kuril islands for its electoral campaign. The first deputy
parliamentary speaker, Sergei Filatov, told Ostankino TV on 10
September that the "hysterical" approach to the Kuril islands in
Japan prevents the constructive resolution of the issue by the two
nations' respective leaders. Yeltsin's press department denied
reports that the Russian President also plans to postpone his
forthcoming trip to China. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
REACTION TO POSTPONEMENT OF YELTSIN'S TRIP TO JAPAN. Viktor Alksnis
and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, two leading Russian nationalists,
celebrated President Boris Yeltsin's decision to postpone his trip
to Japan as a victory for patriotic forces, Interfax reported on 11
September. Liberals, such as Russian Minister of Foreign Economic
Relations Petr Aven, warned that the postponement could effect
negotiations on Russia's foreign debt, since Japan maintained the
strictest position in Russia's negotiations with major creditors.
Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe told the Japanese news
agency Kyodo on 11 September that Yeltsin had indicated that he
plans to visit Tokyo in the beginning of 1993. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN OIL PRICES TO DOUBLE. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin told a news conference after a cabinet meeting on 10
September that the wholesale prices of energy carriers will be
raised next week, ITAR-TASS, Interfax, and the Financial Times
reported. The price of oil will roughly double, from 1,800-2,200
rubles a ton to 4,000-5,000 rubles a ton. This may be seen largely
as a technical correction for inflation: prices throughout the
economy have more than doubled since the last price increase for
oil. At the current rate of exchange, the new price will represent
some 14-18% of the world price. A 50% tax will be levied on income
derived from sales at prices higher than the guidelines. (Keith
Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN INDUSTRY HEAD CRITICIZES PRIVATIZATION PLANS. Minister of
Industry Aleksandr Titkin has sent a letter to President Yeltsin
condemning current plans for industrial privatization, Interfax
reported on 9 and 10 September. Titkin claims that the plans are
exacerbating chaos in industry and accuses the State Property
Commission of engaging in a "self-serving process" inconsistent
with national interests. He also outlined his own variant of
privatization that envisages an initial stage of industrial
restructuring managed by the ministry itself. (Erik Whitlock,
RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIA TO BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN GRAIN? Russian Vice President
Aleksandr Rutskoi told a news conference in Moscow on 10 September
that Russia will need to import only 12-15 million tons of grain
this winter, Interfax reported. The introduction of modern
technology and improved seed should obviate the requirement for
grain imports in 1993, in Rutskoi's opinion. Other estimates have
put the total grain imports required for calendar year 1992 at
around 25 million tons. Rutskoi may later regret having made this
prediction, although it is true that a smaller amount of feed grain
will be needed as livestock herds have been drastically culled.
(Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
CHERNOBYL TO REOPEN FOR A YEAR? The chairman of Ukraine's nuclear
power utility, Vladimir Fuks, told The Guardian of 10 September
that two of the reactors at Chernobyl will reopen in October.
However, Fuks insisted that the plant will be closed down for good
at the end of 1993. Subject to parliamentary approval, three
pressurized water reactors will be commissioned elsewhere in
Ukraine to replace the Chernobyl output. Official pronouncements
on the final closure of the Chernobyl reactors have been
contradictory. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
FIRST JEWISH GYMNASIUM IN KIEV. The first Jewish gymnasium
(secondary school) in Ukraine opened in Kiev this school year,
Nezavisimost reported on 5 September. The gymnasium, which was
formerly school No. 299, has 520 students who will be studying
humanitarian subjects, including the history, culture, religion,
and languages of the Jewish people. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
ANOTHER BOSNIAN CEASE-FIRE; MORE UN TROOPS. International media
report on 10 September that UN envoy Cyrus Vance and EC envoy Lord
Owen met separately with the leaders of the Muslim and Serbian
warring sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A new cease-fire agreement was
hammered out, and both sides agreed to meet in Geneva on 18
September. Vance said the most important outcome of the talks is
that Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnia's President, agreed to attend the
conference. Izetbegovic had previously rejected all efforts at
getting the Muslims to sit in the same conference room with the
Serbs. On 9 September Bosnian Croat leader Mate Boban agreed to
participate. Vance said Boban, Izetbegovic, and Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic would all be meeting in Geneva for the first time.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has formally
requested an additional 6,000 peacekeepers for Bosnia and proposed
expanding UN relief efforts to an additional 11 regions in the
republic. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
IRAN DENIES ARMS DELIVERY. At a news conference in Beijing,
Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani stated that Iran
will consider sending arms to Bosnia's Muslim-lead government if
diplomatic efforts fail to end the war. The Los Angeles Times
reports on 11 September that Rafsanjani also dismissed as "lies"
and "fabrications" US newspaper reports that Croatia had impounded
a planeload of Iranian arms headed for Bosnia. However, on 10
September, Radio Croatia reported that Croatia's government
officially confirmed that the Iranian arms were confiscated at
Zagreb airport on 4 September. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
TURKEY URGES ACTION. Turkish media report that Prime Minister
Suleyman Demirel, speaking at a meeting of Council of Europe
representatives in Istanbul, urged member states to convene a
summit to discuss means of ending the war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Turkey, which has historic ties to Bosnia dating back
centuries, fears that the conflict could touch of a Balkan-wide
war. Turkey is especially concerned about the fate of Muslims in
Bosnia and has offered 1,000 peacekeeping troops to assist the UN
force there. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL Inc.)
IS LIBYA SUPPORTING "REUNIFICATION?" Belgrade media are widely
speculating about an alleged proposal by Libya's leader Mu'ammar
al-Qadhafi's support for the reunification of the former Yugoslav
republics of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia with the rump
Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and Montenegro. Panic reportedly
described Qadhafi's idea as "very good" and indicative of the
Libyan leader's support of Panic's efforts toward establishing a
Balkan economic association. Radio Serbia carried the report on 9
September. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
MUSLIM MERCENARIES? Reuters reports on 10 September that Ashark
al-Aswat, a London-based Arabic-language daily, carries an
interview with one Abu Abdel-Aziz, identified as the leader of
foreign Muslim warriors who have gone to Bosnia to defend their
faith. Abdel-Aziz (a nom de guerre) would not give his nationality
and provided no estimate of the size of the foreign Muslim forces.
The story was datelined "Mujahideen Headquarters in Central
Bosnia." Rumors of mercenaries and other irregular fighters in
Bosnia have circulated before. (Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL Inc.)
JOVANOVIC RESIGNS; BLASTS PANIC. Vladislav Jovanovic, minister of
foreign affairs of the rump Yugoslavia, submitted his "irrevocable
resignation" on 10 September. In a letter sent to Prime Minister
Milan Panic, Jovanovic said Panic's approach to resolving the
crisis in the former Yugoslavia profoundly clash with Jovanovic's
"notion of national duty and dignity," adding that "I find it
impossible to continue to remain in a government that is
increasingly and openly pursuing a policy opposed to the interests
of Serbia and the Serb nation." Panic accepted the resignation
saying that he "greatly respects" Jovanovic as a person, but also
made it clear that there are differences between the two "in
approach and style of conducting foreign policy." Ilija Djukic,
Belgrade's ambassador to the People's Republic of China has been
tagged as Jovanovic's successor. Radio Serbia carried the report.
(Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
SUCHOCKA: FSM STRIKE "IRRATIONAL." Polish Prime Minister Hanna
Suchocka issued the government's sharpest warning yet to the
strikers at the FSM auto plant. In a written response to a plea for
action from one of the Solidarity regions most at risk if FSM were
to close, Suchocka called the strike "completely irrational"
because it was making a bankrupt of a firm with guaranteed growth
prospects. The government will not permit a minority to thwart a
majority with economic rationality on its side, she said. The
"state of unlawfulness" in Tychy could drive the government to take
"harsh measures" to restore the legal order. PAP carried the text
of Suchocka's letter. Meanwhile, a two-hour warning strike called
for 10 September by the Network (Solidarity locals at large
industrial plants) drew only a scattered response. (Louisa Vinton,
RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIAN HIGH COURT RULES ON ILIESCU'S SENATE CANDIDACY. On 10
September the Supreme Court of Justice rejected an action by
attorney Nicolae Cerveni against the Democratic National Salvation
Front (DNSF), the party backing Ion Iliescu's candidacy for a seat
in the Senate. Cerveni contends that the DNSF's decision to field
Iliescu violates the electoral law, which provides that parliament
candidates be members of the party they run for. Iliescu, who is
also the DNSF's presidential candidate, has no official party
affiliation. Meanwhile, Radio Bucharest reports that Iliescu
continues his electoral campaign in the provinces. On 10 September
he visited the town of Calarasi. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIA ACCUSES DIPLOMATS OF MEDDLING. On 9 September Traian
Chebeleu, a spokesman for the Romanian Foreign Ministry, suggested
that diplomats in Bucharest are meddling in the electoral campaign.
Rompres quoted Chebeleu as saying that his ministry has received
several complaints about alleged attempts by foreign diplomats to
influence the electorate. Chebeleu, who refused to say which
embassies were involved in these actions, insisted that Romania
welcomes foreign election observers, including members of the
diplomatic corps, on the condition that they observe neutrality.
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
SOLE MAGYAR OFFICIAL IN ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT DISMISSED. Radio
Budapest reported on 9 September that Andor Horvath, state
secretary for education and the only Romanian cabinet official of
Hungarian nationality, has been dismissed from his post. No reason
was given for the move. The educational sector is considered
crucial by Romania's two million ethnic Hungarians who are fighting
for more schools with instruction in Hungarian. (Judith Pataki,
RFE/RL Inc.)
BULGARIAN SOCIALIST PARTY TO BE EXCLUDED FROM SOCIALIST
INTERNATIONAL. The Bulgarian Socialist Party, successor of the
Bulgarian Communist Party, reportedly will not be invited to join
the Socialist International, a forum for socialist and
social-democratic parties around the world. In an interview on 10
September Hans-Eberhard Dingels, chief of the international
relations section of the German Social Democratic Party, informed
an RFE/RL correspondent that the BSP does not meet the admission
criteria. Moreover, one Bulgarian party is already affiliated with
the Socialist Internationalthe Social Democratic Party. (Duncan
Perry, RFE/RL Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
(END)
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU), on the
Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.
For inquiries about specific news items, subscriptions, or
additional copies, please contact:
In USA:
Mr. Jon Lodeesen or Mr. Brian Reed
RFE/RL, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036.
Telephone: (202) 457-6912 or -6900
fax: (202) 457-6992 or -202-828-8783;
Internet: RI-DC@RFERL.ORG
or in Europe:
Ms. Helga Hofer
Publications Department
RFE/RL Research Institute
Oettingenstrasse 67
8000 Munich 22
Telephone: (+49 89) 2102-2631 or -2642
fax: (+49 89) 2102-2648
Internet: Pubs@RFERL.ORG
Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
novine.7.bale.,
UPI NEWS --------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav's Panic to visit China
Subject: Yugoslav foreign minister resigns
Subject: Iran denies shiping arms Bosnian Muslims
Subject: Vance and Owen open peace talks in Sarajevo
Subject: Spassky wins game five against disappointing Fischer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav's Panic to visit China
Date: 10 Sep 92 09:25:06 GMT
BEIJING (UPI) -- Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic will visit China
for talks next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Panic is to spend Sept. 14 to 16 in Beijing on a ``working visit,''
according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin, who added that
officials arranged the visit ``not long ago.''
``The two sides will exchange views on the situation in the former
Yugoslavia, bilateral relations and international issues,'' the
spokesman said.
He reiterated Chinese calls for a peaceful resolution to the fighting
in the former Yugoslavia, saying, ``We hope that a proper settlement
will be found through peaceful means.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav foreign minister resigns
Date: 10 Sep 92 15:07:48 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Vladislav Jovanovic, foreign minister of
the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro, resigned Thursday
after criticizing Prime Minister Milan Panic for ``anti-Serbian policy,''
the Serbian official news agency Tanjug said.
In a short letter to Panic, Jovanovic said he ccould no longer stay
in Panic's Cabinet, which he said is ``openly acting against the
interests of Serbia and the Serbs,'' Tanjug reported.
``Your approach to the Yugoslav crisis and some of your recent moves.
..are deeply against my concept of patriotism and dignity,'' said
Jovanovic in his letter.
Jovanovic said his resignation was ``irrevocable''.
Political observers said that Jovanovic was considered to be closely
associated with Serbian hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic, and that
his resignation weakens Milosevic's position in the Yugoslav federation.
Panic, the Belgrade-born naturalized U.S. citizen and millionaire who
promised to bring U.S.-style democracy to the truncated federation and
to stop the ethnic war in neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina, has not
commented the resignation.
Panic's confrontation with Milosevic began just after the London
peace conference on the Yugoslav crisis in late August, when Panic was
accused of ``selling Serbia to Western powers'' by Milosevic's ruling
Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). But Panic won a no-confidence vote last
week despite the overwhelming SPS majority in the Federal Parliament.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Iran denies shiping arms Bosnian Muslims
Date: 10 Sep 92 15:22:37 GMT
BEIJING (UPI) -- President Hashemi Rafsanjani Thursday denied a report
of Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia-Hercegovina but indicated that Iran
would consider future sales to embattled Muslim forces in the war-torn
country.
``I would like you to know that they have not yet requested arms from
Iran,'' Rafsanjani said, but added his country would give U.N. sanctions
a chance to work.
He left the door open for future sales if the sanctions do not work.
``If they request arms from Iran, this is something we shall
consider,'' Rafsanjani said at a news conference.
According to a report in Thursday's New York Times, Croatian
officials in the capital of Zagreb confiscated 4,000 guns and more than
a million rounds of ammunition from an Iranian Boeing 747.
The report, attributed to Bush administration sources, said Croatian
officials found the war materiel and up to 40 Iranian nationals on a
routine inspection of relief supplies bound for Bosnia.
In the past few months Bosnian Muslims have lost much of their
territory to better equipped Serbian forces, and Muslim countries are
known to be disturbed by the increasingly one-sided civil war.
``The situation right now is very bad,'' Rafsanjani said. ``Only one
side has all the arms, and soon the other side will have to get them
from someone.''
The Iranian leader, who is on a four-day official visit to China,
rejected the New York Times report, saying his government had no such
airplane.
``I have not heard of any such thing,'' the president said. ``The
report is a mere fabrication.''
Rafsanjani told reporters the main purpose of his trip to China, his
first since assuming the presidency, was to cement close ties between
the two countries.
He denied persistent reports of Chinese arm sales to his country,
saying the only contracts discussed were for a new subway system and for
the sale of a small nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes.
``We have no military contracts to be signed here,'' Rafsanjani said.
An Iranian military delegation led by army logistics chief Gen.
Alastu Tuhidi arrived in China Tuesday to discuss ``the further
development of friendly relations between China and Iran,'' according to
China's official Xinhua news agency.
Western reports have said the talks would include co-production of
weapons in Iran, as well as future weapons sales by the Chinese.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Vance and Owen open peace talks in Sarajevo
Date: 10 Sep 92 16:38:43 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- European Community envoy David
Owen Thursday expressed horror at the Serb-inflicted devastation of
Sarajevo and vowed that he and U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance would ``slowly,
persistently, patiently'' end the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The two diplomats arrived in the Bosnian capital as fighting flared
on the city's fringes, and Serbian forces loosed sporadic artillery fire
into civilian areas.
Casualty figures were not immediately available.
Owen and Vance, the co-chairmen of the Geneva peace conference on
former Yugoslavia, began their visit almost seven hours later than
scheduled, driving immediately to the shell-shattered city center for
talks with Alija Izetbegovic, the republic's Muslim Slav president, and
other government officials.
Owen said he was shocked by the devastation wrought to Sarajevo by
the almost incessant artillery, rocket and tank fire loosed by
encircling hilltop Serbian gunners against what was once one of the most
picturesque cities in the Balkans.
``You see the whole wanton destruction. I don't think I have ever
seen anything so wanton, so ghastly,'' said Owen as he entered the
artillery-ravaged presidency building.
``Tower blocks shot to smithereens,'' he said. ``When you realize so
much of it was done from on top and not from street fighting...''
But, he expressed optimism that he and Vance could mediate an end to
the war that has left tens of thousands dead and injured, uprooted more
than 1 million from their homes and defied all previous international
attempts at mediation.
``Slowly, persistently, patiently, we will end this,'' vowed Owen.
Among the topics expected to be covered were the deaths of two French
U.N. soldiers and wounding of five others Tuesday when their U.N. supply
convoy came under fire on the fringe of Sarajevo airport.
The U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), France and others blamed
Bosnian fighters, although witnesses and French soldiers said the convoy
drove straight into a raging battle.
After the meeting with Izetbegovic, the envoys traveled to the
southwestern Serb-held suburb of Lukavica for a meeting with Serbian
leader Radovan Karadzic, the ``president'' of a self-declared state for
which extremist Serbs have been fighting for more than five months.
Karadzic's forces, backed politically and financially by the
neighboring communist-ruled republic of Serbia, beseiged Sarajevo to
press a demand that the city be divided into ethnic districts.
Bosnian forces dominated by Muslim Slavs, but also including moderate
Serbs and Croats, oppose the partition of the former Yugoslav republic,
which won international recognition as an independent state in early
April.
Both Owen and Vance wore blue flak-jackets as they emerged from
small, white U.N. armored cars at the entrance of the heavily guarded,
shell-pitted presidency building in the center of Sarajevo.
They were late because they chose to drive from Croatia's Adriatic
port city of Split rather than fly following shelling Tuesday evening
near the airport and last week's crash of an Italian humanitarian aid
flight, which was widely believed to have been downed by missiles.
The envoys' arrival coincided with fierce fighting in several areas
of Sarajevo, with military sources reporting a major advance by Bosnian
forces into the Serb-held stronghold of Nedzarici.
The sources said the advance was marked by the raising of the
republic flag on a building in the suburb, a strategic point from which
Serbian fighters had been thwarting Bosnian attempts to break through
their seige.
Serbian gunners persisted in sporadic shelling of the city and
blasted mortar rounds into the roof of the already badly damaged
television headquarters building.
The Bosnian government said its troops attacked Serbian forces when
they tried to move heavy weapons from a hill overlooking the downtown to
the Serbian stronghold of Pale, east of the city, to avoid detection by
U.N. military monitors.
Owen and Vance have given Karadzic until Saturday to fulfill an
accord to gather in U.N.-monitored locations all of the Yugoslav army-
supplied heavy weaponry that Serbian forces have been using to pummel
Sarajevo and the towns of Gorazde, Jajce and Bihac.
Karadzic said on Wednesday that the Serbs would complete the heavy
weapons concentrations by Thursday.
But, Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel Razek, the Sarajevo sector
commander of the U.N. Protection Force, Wednesday expressed skepticism
that the deadline would be met.
He also said he believed the Serbs had hidden large amounts of tanks
and artillery from U.N. monitors.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Spassky wins game five against disappointing Fischer
Date: 9 Sep 92 21:57:57 GMT
PRZNO, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Former Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky won
the fifth game of his controversial re-match with former world chess
champion Bobby Fischer Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Spassky won the game after 45 moves, after Fischer sacrificed a pawn
on his 24th move.
Expert observers said that Fischer made the crucial mistake on his
28th move, and he then played on after losing a rook.
``Fischer made a crucial mistake on his 28th move by playing with his
knight,'' said Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric. ``After that,
Spassky came into the winning position.''
Fischer played on after losing the rook, but there was no way back
and the game ended after five hours of play.
Fischer began the match playing with the white pieces at 3:30 local
time in the Maestral Hotel in Przno, near the plush Montenegrin resort
of Sveti Stefan in southern Adriatic.
Fischer began with a classical Ruy Lopez start, the same tactic he
employed in game three.
Spassky, now a naturalized French citizen, defeated Fischer in a
previous game Sunday. Monday and Tuesday were days off.
The match will continue until one of the long-time rivals achieves 10
victories. The score now stands at 2-1, after Fischer won the first
game. The second and third games were drawn, and under the rules of the
match, no points are awarded for draws.
Fischer, who has lived a secluded life away from competitive chess
for the past 20 years, still insists on being referred to as ``the chess
champion of the world''.
He won that title from Spassky in 1972 championship in Reykjavik,
Iceland, but was stripped of it when he refused to play Soviet
grandmaster Anatoly Karpov under the rules of the World Chess
Federation.
Fischer, 49, is also in trouble with the U.S. Treasury Department,
which banned him from competing in the match in rump Yugoslavia.
The Treasury's order endorsed the U.N. sanctions that ban all
financial and economical transactions with the former Yugoslav republics
of Serbia and Montenegro for their involvement in the war in neighboring
Bosnia-Hercegovina.
But Fischer publicly spat on the Treasury's cease-and-desist order at
a news conference Sept. 1, on the eve of the first game.
He now faces a fine up to $250,000 and a maximum 10 years in jail for
``willingly and knowingly'' defying the order.
novine.8.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 176, 14 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
THE DECISION ON JAPAN. State Secretary Gennadii Burbulis said,
during an interview on Russian TV broadcast on 13 September, that
the decision to postpone Yeltsin's trip to Japan came after
"discussions were held within the government, the Supreme Soviet,
and finally in the Security Council... It was in line with the
collective views of these three bodies that the president made his
final decision to postpone the trip." It is noteworthy that
Burbulis did not mention any role played by the Russian Foreign
Ministry in making the decision. Nonetheless, Burbulis explicitly
rejected the idea that conservatives had pressured Yeltsin into
canceling the trip. For his part, Yeltsin defended the trip's
postponement. Speaking to reporters upon arrival in Cheboksary on
11 September, Yeltsin said that Japan had been "too categorical"
on the issue of returning the islands to Japan. "We cannot deal
like that," the Russian president said. (Suzanne Crow)
AMBARTSUMOV, LUKIN DEFLECT CRITICISM ON JAPAN TRIP. Evgenii
Ambartsumov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Committee on
International Affairs and Foreign Economic Ties, said that Japan
had taken too hard a position on the question of the Kuril
Islands, and this put Yeltsin in a difficult position. Speaking on
the Russian TV program "Krasnyi Kvadrat," Ambartsumov said that
the question of guaranteeing Yeltsin's security was not the only
consideration in calling off the visit, adding that in Russia, a
negative feeling had developed about sending Yeltsin to Japan.
Speaking on the same program, Russia's ambassador to the United
States, Vladimir Lukin, said that the postponement of the trip
could not be viewed as a great tragedy. Lukin also blamed Japan,
saying that Tokyo's attempt to pressure Russia for the return of
the islands brought the opposite result and stiffened Russian
opinion against the move, ITAR-TASS reported on 13 September.
(Suzanne Crow)
HIGHER RUSSIAN STATE BUDGET DEFICIT. The Russian government is now
allowing for a deficit "not exceeding" 950 billion rubles in 1992,
Interfax reported on 13 September. The original budget deficit
was projected at 300 billion rubles, but parliament insisted on
additional expenditures for industrial subsidies and social
programs. The new limit represents about 7% of GNP at current
prices, and is far above the Gaidar administration's original aims
and the IMF guidelines. It looks like an understatement, though
because on 24 August the Russian finance minister admitted that
the deficit had already risen to almost 1 trillion rubles and was
heading towards a year-end total of 2 trillion rubles "which is
tantamount to hyperinflation." (Keith Bush)
VOLSKY, YASIN WARN GOVERNMENT. Arkadii Volsky, leader of the Union
of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, is turning up the political
heat on the government. Speaking at a news conference in Moscow,
Volsky announced that he would call a conference of industrial
managers by November to pressure the government if it does not
alter its economic policy to his liking, the Financial Times
reported on 12 September. Evgenii Yasin, chief economist at the
institute of Volsky's group, but also an advisor to the
government, had warnings of his own during the news conference.
Yasin said that hyperinflation was "closer than ever" as a result
of disarray in the state's financial and credit policy. He claimed
that new credit emission in September will be ten times greater
than in March. (Erik Whitlock).
UKRAINE DEMANDS REMOVAL OF KASATONOV. The Ukrainian parliamentary
Commission on Defense and Security and the Ukrainian Defense
Ministry demanded on 11 September that the current commander of
the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Igor Kasatonov, be relieved
immediately of his duties, Interfax reported. A statement released
by the two agencies reportedly criticized both Kasatonov and the
Russian Defense Ministry for resisting efforts by Ukraine to take
control of two naval academies in Sevastopol. Moscow apparently
wants to subordinate the schools to the CIS command and to keep
them under Russian jurisdiction. (Stephen Foye)
GENERALS DISMISSED FOR CORRUPTION IN BELARUS. Interfax reported on
11 September that the Belarus military prosecutor could bring
charges against several top generals, including the commanders of
the 5th and the 7th tank armies--identified as generals Rumyantsev
and Ivanitsky--for, among other things, illegally trading military
property. The prosecutor denied that Defense Minister Pavel
Kozlovsky was involved in illegal activities. He also said that
crime within the armed forces had more than doubled this year,
attributing the rise at least in part to the disbanding of the
army's military-political organs. (Stephen Foye)
FIGHTING CONTINUES IN AND AROUND NAGORNO-KARABAKH. Following the
total deadlock of the CSCE-sponsored preparatory Karabakh peace
talks in Rome on 10 September, Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of
violating the agreement on a cease-fire on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian parliament deputy Samvel
Shakhmuradyan was killed during an Azerbaijani artillery attack in
Mardakert on 11 September, ITAR-TASS reported; dozens of
Azerbaijanis and some Armenians were reported killed in heavy
fighting on 12-13 September in the Armenian-controlled Lachin
corridor that links Nagorno- Karabakh with Armenia, according to
the press center of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, as cited by
ITAR-TASS. (Liz Fuller)
WESTERN GEORGIA STILL POLITICALLY UNSTABLE. Six representatives
of the Georgian National Democratic Party were kidnapped by
supporters of ousted Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in the
West Georgian town of Zugdidi during the evening of 10 September,
ITAR-TASS reported. In an interview published in Le Quotidien de
Paris on 11 September, Georgian State Council Chairman Eduard
Shevardnadze stated that the parliamentary elections scheduled for
11 October have been postponed to a later (unspecified) date in
Abkhazia and parts of Western Georgia because the situation there
is so unstable. (Liz Fuller)
"DNIESTER REPUBLIC" FORGING AHEAD WITH OWN STATE STRUCTURES. Using
the breathing room gained through the cease-fire agreement, and
under the protective cover of the Russian troops, the "Dniester
republic" is creating state structures of its own. On 11
September, Interfax and DR-Press reported that a decree by
"Dniester president" Igor Smirnov established "Dniester border
troops," subordinated to the "Dniester Ministry of National
Security" which was created last week by the "Dniester Supreme
Soviet." Tiraspol further announced that it had succeeded in
creating the "Dniester republic's" own banking system, fully
separate from that of Moldova, and that it is now conducting its
own transactions with partners in the other CIS states, bypassing
Moldova, DR-Press reported on 13 September. (Vladimir Socor)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
BOSNIAN UPDATE. International media reported on 13 September that
Serbian and Bosnian forces around Sarajevo have begun making their
heavy weapons available for UN observation but that the Serbs had
failed to take similar steps in three other areas of Bosnia. The
republic's president, Alija Izetbegovic, said he will boycott
peace talks in Geneva this week because of continuing Serb attacks
against Bihac and Gorazde, where Muslims managed to drive the
Serbs back just over two weeks earlier. The 14 September
Washington Post reports that a UN report backs the Bosnian
government's position on the death of two French soldiers at
Sarajevo airport the previous week. The report says that the
relief convoy drove into the middle of a firefight between Bosnian
and Serbian forces, and concludes that the two were not
deliberately killed by the Bosnians, as France has charged.
(Patrick Moore)
ANOTHER NO CONFIDENCE VOTE FOR PANIC? Radio Serbia and Politika
report on 12 and 13 September that last week's resignation of the
foreign minister of the rump Yugoslavia may bring about a second
vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Milan Panic. According to
reports, a group of deputies from the ruling Socialist Party and
the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) will raise the
motion soon, but give no indication when. SRS leader Vojislav
Seselj, stated on 10 September that Panic continues "to make
mistakes," and specifically criticized Panic's decision to change
the rump Yugoslav negotiating team for the Geneva Conference on
the former Yugoslavia. Panic described the accusations as childish
and rejected the existence of a Serbian foreign policy describing
it as "political Mickey Mouse." (Milan Andrejevich)
novine.9.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Security Council allows 6,000 more troops in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Subject: China pledges aid for former Yugoslavia despite sanctions
Subject: U.N. officials say Serbian unmonitored tanks advancing from west
Subject: Bosnian-Serbs blamed for attack, Izetbegovic to attend talks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Security Council allows 6,000 more troops in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Date: 15 Sep 92 02:45:39 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council voted Monday to
allow Secretary-General Boutros Ghali to strengthen the U.N.
peacekeeping operations in Bosnia-Hercegovina by 6,000 trooops and to
accept financial contribution from Western countries to the peace force.
The 12-0 vote, with three abstentions, by the council also authorized
the establishment of a ``no-fly'' zone in the troubled former Yugoslav
republic.
One U.S. official said in Washington Monday that the European
Community wanted to monitor from the ground all military aircraft
flights over Bosnia-Hercegovina to thwart any interference with the U.N.
-led humanitarian airlift.
The United States has insisted that jet fighter patrols be used to
enforce the no-fly zone which was agreed upon at the European Community-
United Nations conference on the former Yugoslavia in London last month.
``The EC is thinking about ground monitors,'' a U.S. official said in
Washington. ``We are looking at it in terms of doing something like (air
combat patrols.)''
Last week Ghali asked the Security Council to send up to 6,000 more
peacekeeping troops to Bosnia-Hercegovina and to authorize them to use
force in self-defense.
Ghali said the new troops, possibly to be provided and paid for by
NATO countries, will be scattered throughout the war-torn Balkan
republic at four or five centers, in Banja Luka, Bihac, Doboj, Goradze,
Mostar and Tuzla. Each center will have an infantry battalion,
logistical and mine clearing units and medical evacuation groups.
Their main duty would be to provide security for humanitarian
operations being organized by the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees,
which is spearheading the relief activities in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The 6,000 troops will strengthen the existing 14,000-strong U.N.
Protection Force which was sent earlier this year to Croatia in an
effort to put an end to the civil war there. There also 1,600
peacekeepers in Sarajevo whose task has been to protect the
international airport for incoming humanitarian flights.
The resolution said the importance of air measures, ``such as the ban
on military flights'' over Bosnia-Hercegovina would reinforce the
security of humanitarian activities on the grounds.
The request for the additional 6,000 U.N. troops is aimed at
increasing security for an expanded food convoys, which the United
Nations said would be more effective in bringing larger quantities of
food and medical supplies to besieged cities in Bosnia-Hercegovina
before the winter than the airlift.
The council authorized Ghali to accept financial assistance from
troop contributors, which would ease the cash-strapped world
organization.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: China pledges aid for former Yugoslavia despite sanctions
Date: 15 Sep 92 10:16:21 GMT
BEIJING (UPI) -- Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic on his visit to
China said Tuesday Premier Li Peng had offered humanitarian aid to his
country in spite of international sanctions.
At a news conference at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, the
millionaire businessman-turned-diplomat said that Chinese Premier Li
Peng had thrown his support behind Panic's government and the upcoming
peace talks.
When pressed on the point, Panic admitted there had been no specific
promise by the Chinese, but said they had promised support in principle.
``(Li Peng) said he fully supports the new government, which is
trying to solve the problems peacefully,'' Panic said.
``Li said the Chinese government hopes parties concerned will
immediately accept a cease-fire and settle their conflicts through
negotiation,'' the official China Daily reported Tuesday.
Panic said Li Peng had talked of sending humanitarian aid such as
cooking oil and food to Serbia and Montenegro in spite of international
sanctions.
Panic was visiting China on a three-day ``working visit'' to secure
the support of China as part of the United Nations. Since limited
military and other sanctions have been placed on Belgrade, Panic has
seen his country increasingly isolated diplomatically.
As one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council, China holds the power of veto over any decision on sanctions
made by the council. While not committing itself to a veto, China has
said it is opposed to additional international sanctions and U.N.
military intervention.
Panic, a U.S. immigrant who prides himself on his close relationship
with the Bush administration, is the founder and chairman of the board
of the California-based pharmaceutical giant ICN.
The neophyte diplomat, who earlier this month emerged victorious from
a no-confidence motion in Serbia's parliament and a political test of
wills with hard-line Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, has wagered
his political life on obtaining a peace agreement in Bosnia and
establishing relations with Croatia.
He said he was optimistic about the upcoming peace conference, to be
held in Geneva beginning this Friday.
``An enormous amount of work has been done in the government of
Yugoslavia to prepare for this conference,'' Panic said.
``I think there is no question that Serbs are now prepared to give up
territory, to silence the guns, and to negotiate with Muslims and
Croats,'' he said.
Panic lavished praise on recent Chinese economic reforms, saying that
Chinese enjoyed greater political freedoms because of their recent
economic growth.
``It is much easier to change politics when you are rich than when
you are poor,'' he said, adding ``The only truly free man is an
economically free one.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. officials say Serbian unmonitored tanks advancing from west
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:21:30 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serbian tanks hidden from U.N.
monitors Tuesday methodically leveled houses in a Sarajevo suburb in a
thrust that could bring them into positions to cut the U.N.-controlled
airport off from the Bosnian capital, U.N. officials said.
The situation threatened to create serious problems between the Serbs
and the U.N. Protection Force, which is empowered by the U.N. Security
Council to use force if necessary to move humanitarian aid from airport
warehouses into the city.
A U.N. source said UNPROFOR had already asked Serbian leaders to
guarantee the unrestricted movement of U.N. vehicles and relief convoys
between the airport and downtown Sarajevo should Serbian forces gain
control of the airport road.
The drive was part of what senior UNPROFOR officers called the most
concerted Serbian advance on Sarajevo since the early stages of the more
than five-month-old war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The officers said that at least 10 Yugoslav army-supplied tanks were
involved in the Serbian thrust from Dogladi, through Bare and into
Adzici, Croat-dominated suburbs about 5 miles to the west of the center
of the beseiged city.
They said that at about 5 a.m., the Serbian tanks began firing for
about 90 minutes on homes in Adzici, methodically targeting one after
the other.
``They were raising them,'' said one officer.
Local media reports and witnesses said Croatian civilians were
fleeing Dogladi and Adzici in large numbers amid widespread destruction
of homes.
The Serbian advance began Monday, the officers said, coinciding with
one of the fiercest bombardments launched against Sarajevo since Serbian
forces moved in late March to carve a self-declared state out of the
former Yugoslav republic of Muslim Slavs, Serbs and Croats.
The division of Europe's newest country is opposed by forces loyal to
the Sarajevo government and comprised mostly of Muslim Slavs, but also
including Croats and moderate Serbs.
Monday's indiscriminate barrages left scores of civilian casualties
and came amid reports of an upsurge across Bosnia-Hercegovina in Serbian
attacks, including air raids around the Bihac area.
The U.N. officers said that just as with artillery used in Monday's
barrages, the tanks in Adzici were outside the 11 zones in which Serbian
leader Radovan Karadzic had agreed to gather all Serbian heavy weaponry
for U.N. observation by noon Saturday.
Ten other Serbian tanks, also outside the U.N.-observed
``concentration areas,'' unleashed pre-dawn barrages Tuesday from the
Serbian base of Lukavica into Bosnian-controlled Butmir, a housing
colony opposite the airport, the officers said.
Karadzic consented at least month's London peace conference to place
under U.N. monitoring all Serbian heavy weapons around Sarajevo, Bihac
and the towns of Gorazde and Jajce.
The U.N. officers said they were concerned by the Serbian advance on
Adzici because if it continued, it could bring the tank-backed Serbian
forces into the mostly Croat suburb of Stup, from where they would be
able to cut the road linking the airport and downtown Sarajevo.
The airport, which has been under U.N. control since June 29, is the
base of the U.N.-supervised humanitarian relief operations for Sarajevo
and other areas of the war-ravaged republic.
The fall of Stup carries other implications as the suburb has served
as a buffer zone in which Sarajevo residents have been able to purchase
for hard currency food and fuel from Croats in league with the Serbs.
The Serbian advance along Sarajevo's western boundary is apparently
aimed at retaking ground lost in recent weeks to Bosnian forces fighting
to break through the blockade of the city before the harsh Balkan winter
sets in.
A Bosnian commander, Zlatko Lagumzia, said he had lost 10 men in
fierce fighting Monday against Serbian forces backed by two tanks in the
western suburb of Ilidza.
He said he was forced to order his units to retreat, although
official government statements claimed Bosnian troops had held their
ground.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic on Sunday decided against
attending a new round of peace talks set for Friday in Geneva, in part
because of what he alleged was the deployment around Sarajevo of 100 new
Serbian tanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bosnian-Serbs blamed for attack, Izetbegovic to attend talks
Date: 15 Sep 92 12:13:51 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- The co-chairmen of the Geneva conference on the former
Yugoslavia Tuesday accused Bosnian-Serb forces of being responsible for
an air attack Monday on the town of Bihac, a U.N. spokesman said.
The two chairmen, Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen, have written to
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic condemning the attack in which four
unidentified planes attacked the town with rockets and cluster bombs.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told a news conference that Vance and
Owen had concluded that Serbian forces must have been responsible.
``Although the co-chairmen recognize that the Bosnian Serbs are not
the only source of the current hostilities, they are the only ones with
the aerial capability to mount attacks of this kind,'' U.N. spokesman
Fred Eckhard told a news conference.
``The co-chairmen deplore these attacks and have told Mr. Karadzic so
in a letter,'' Eckhard said. ``They have called on him to cooperate in
the fullest possible way with the peace process and the agreements
signed in London.''
Meanwhile, in an unexpected turnaround, Bosnian President Alija
Izetbegovic said he will after all be attending the talks in the Swiss
capital later this week, the U.N. official said.
The Muslim Slav president, who earlier said he would not attend the
Geneva talks, has changed his mind after a personal plea from Owen and
Vance, Eckhard said.
The spokesman said Croatia and the Serbian federal government would
also be represented. Radovan Karadzic will also attend the talks,
Eckhard said.
The conference in Geneva follows the London conference on the former
Yugoslavia. It is scheduled to bring leaders of the main ethnic factions
involved in the conflict together in Geneva Friday.
A news conference by Vance and Owen scheduled for Tuesday was
postponed for 24 hours and Eckhard said he hoped they would have more
details then.
novine.10.bale.,
Subject: Yugoslav camp detainees arrive in Britain
Subject: U.N. general says Serbs ignore weapon requests
Subject: Russia drops opposition to barring Belgrade from U.N.
Subject: U.N. says Italian relief plane shot down by missile near Sarajevo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav camp detainees arrive in Britain
Date: 15 Sep 92 20:11:43 GMT
LONDON (UPI) -- Sixty-eight sick and injured detainees from Serb-run
camps in Bosnia-Hercegovina were flown into Britain Tuesday in what is
planned to be the start of an ongoing evacuation of civilian prisoners
from the republic, officials said.
The detainees, who flew into Stansted airport north of London before
being moved to hospitals in the area for medical treatment, could be
joined by their families at a later date, the International Committee of
the Red Cross said.
The detainees, all men, appeared gaunt as they walked or were carried
on stretchers down the airplane steps to be received by a fleet of 25
ambulances.
The prisoners were being held at the Manjaca and Trnopolje detention
camps near Banja Luka in northwest Bosnia-Hercegovina, an ICRC spokesman
said.
They were handed over to ICRC officials in the region, before being
flown by a specially chartered plane direct to the United Kingdom, an
ICRC official said.
``These pepole were examined by ICRC doctors and selected based on
their health condition. Some of them were cancer victims or had similar
diseases not necessarily caused by the life in the camps,'' said Jack
McIver, political advisor at the EC monitoring mission in Zagreb.
The British government has agreed to allow the detainees' relatives
to join them at a later date, the ICRC said.
The airlift was organized in line with an agreement at the London
peace talks on the former Yugoslavia, which guaranteed the unconditional
release of all civilian detainees.
The ICRC said it had not yet received full information about
detention camps and prisoners, but added that it ``regards today's
operation as the first step in this release process.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. general says Serbs ignore weapon requests
Date: 16 Sep 92 19:13:03 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serbian forces have ignored
repeated requests to abide by an accord to place all of their heavy
weapons under United Nations monitoring as they pursue an advance in
Sarajevo's western suburbs, the U.N. commander in the Bosnian capital
said Wednesday.
``The Serbs have a military goal and they want to achieve it by all
means, and it is very difficult to convince them to put all heavy
weapons in concentration areas,'' Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel
Razek of the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) said in an interview.
Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic agreed at last month's London peace
conference to place all of his tanks, cannons and large mortars under U.
N. monitoring in 11 locations around Sarajevo, and publicly guaranteed
that he had done so by a Saturday noon deadline.
The plan was designed as a first step toward ending the more than
five-month war pitting Serbs determined to capture a self-declared state
against Bosnian forces comprised mostly of Muslim Slavs, but also
including Croats and moderate Serbs, who oppose the partition of the
former Yugoslav republic.
But, Razek said that Serbian forces failed to abide by the accord,
pounding Sarajevo on Monday for nine hours with both big guns gathered
in the so-called ``concentration areas'' and others hidden from
UNPROFOR.
Serbian forces also persisted Wednesday in using secretly retained
heavy weapons, including 10 tanks, in an ongoing attempt to smash
through Bosnian forces holding the western, mostly Croat suburbs of
Dogladi, Bare and Adzici, Razek said.
Razek said he had made numerous requests to Serbian commanders to
fulfill their London agreement and place all of their heavy weapons
under U.N. monitoring.
Asked what answers he received, Razek replied: ``The shelling tells
you.''
He noted that the Bosnian military was not obliged to place its heavy
weapons under U.N. ``supervision'' until UNPROFOR provided a written
guarantee that the Serbs had done so with all of their guns of more than
82mm.
``Up until now, frankly, I can't say that,'' Razek said. ``I cannot
give them (the Bosnian military) a written statement.''
Razek said he was scheduled to hold talks Thursday with Serbian
leaders on the issue at which he would again formally request they
observe the London agreement.
``I am going to discuss with them specifically if they are serious in
implementing this process or not,'' he said.
The talks were to take place a day before the start of a new round of
peace negotiations between the warring factions in Geneva under the co-
chairmanship of U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance and European Community
mediator Lord David Owen.
The Serbian advance in the western outskirts of Sarajevo began on
Monday under the diversionary cover of the bombardment of the city, one
of the worst of the war.
Explosions and machine gun fire echoed throughout the day and into
the night Wednesday from the dust-shrouded area, located only about 3
miles west of the center of the capital.
On Tuesday, U.N. officials said, Serbian tanks systematically blasted
Croatian homes to the ground in Adzici.
Razek said he believed the thrust was intended to retake ground
captured by Bosnian troops struggling to break the more than five-month-
old siege by Serbian forces seeking to divide Sarajevo into ethnic
districts.
The offensive was being overseen by a Serbian general who was
appointed to the Sarajevo area less than two weeks ago, said Razek, who
declined to disclose the officer's name.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Russia drops opposition to barring Belgrade from U.N.
Date: 16 Sep 92 19:27:39 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Russia no longer opposes denying Serbia and
Montenegro the United Nations' seat once occupied by Yugoslavia, an
administration official said Wednesday.
The Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the unrecognized successor states
to Yugolsavia, claim Belgrade's seat in the United Nations.
But the United States and the European Community, as a result of
Belgrade's relentless siege of Bosnia-Hercegovina, have pressed the
United Nations to deny Serbia and Montenegro the de-facto recognition
that would come with representation
British Ambassador David Hannay told the opening session of the U.N.
General Assembly Tuesday that ``it is anomalous and unacceptable that
representatives of...Serbia and Montenegro should continue to
participate in the work of United Nations.''
Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov said that denying Belgrade the seat
would hurt U.N. efforts to broker peace in the war-torn Balkans, with
which Russia has always had close strategic and philosophical ties.
Only the five permanent members of the Security Council, to which
Russia belongs and thus has veto power over any action, can approve the
measure.
But an administration official speaking under conditions of anonymity
said that the Russians have now dropped their opposition to the plan.
``I don't think they are a problem,'' the official said. ``Their
position has evolved. We're working on language to achieve this goal.''
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday the United
States was consulting on a resolution with the other four permanent
members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russia and Great
Britian -- to ``achieve our objective of denying Belgrade's claim.''
Boucher said that Serbia and Montenegro should apply for U.N.
membership if they want to join the 179-member body.
``We do not consider Serbia-Montenegro to be the continuation or the
sole successor to the former Yugoslavia,'' he said. ``We firmly believe
that Serbia and Montenegro should be required to apply for membership in
the United Nations and should meet the criteria for admission before
being admitted.''
The United Nations has admitted the former Yugoslav republics of
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. says Italian relief plane shot down by missile near Sarajevo
Date: 16 Sep 92 19:41:51 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The Italian relief plane downed near Sarajevo
this month was destroyed by a heat-seeking missile or an improved
version of the U.S.-made Stinger missile, the U.N. refugee agency said
Wednesday.
The preliminary report of the investigation by the Italian government
said the destruction of the plane, which killed four crew members on
Sept. 3, was caused by a heat-seeking missile SA9, or SA16, or an
improved Stinger missile, the U.N. Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva
said.
The plane, a G-222 aircraft which was carrying blankets for refugees
in Sarajevo, crashed 17 miles south of the capital of Bosnia-Hercegovina
and witnesses reported seeing at least two missiles fired at the plane,
one of which hit it.
The downing of the plane forced the suspension of the U.N.-led
humanitarian airlift campaign to bring badly needed food and medical
supplies to Sarajevo and besieged cities in the Balkan republic before
the winter.
``The results (of the investigation) obtained so far suggest without
any doubt that the aircraft G-222 had been struck at least by one
missile that had probably been provided with infra-red guidance,'' the
report said.
The report said the crash area was mountainous and there was no
evidence of any involvement of radar emissions or sophisticated radio-
controlled or radar-based missiles units. It concluded that the missile
must have been easily transportable.
The report did not indicate which side in the conflict in Bosnia-
Hercegovina was involved in the downing of the plane.
A news report from Islamabad, Pakistan, suggested last week that a
Stinger missile might have been involved in the crash. The report said
Muslim elements in Afghanistan may have given the Stingers to Muslim
Slavs in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The United States supplied the deadly
accurate Stinger missiles to the rebels during the war against the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The UNHCR said refugee commissioner Sadako Ogata met in Geneva on
Wednesday with representatives from the United States, Britain, Italy,
Canada, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden to discuss the investigative
report and the possible resumption of the humanitarian airlift. Ogata is
expected to recommend the resumption by week's end.
The agency has increased the number food convoys to Sarajevo and
other Bosnian cities since the suspension of the airlift which brought
about 200 tons of food in daily.
The Security Council on Monday allowed Secretary-General Boutros
Ghali to send up to 6,000 new U.N. peacekeeping soldiers to Bosnia-
Hercegovina. Their main task will be to provide security for the food
convoys. There are currently 1,600 U.N. troops guarding the Sarajevo
airport.
In a related development, the Bosnian U.N. Ambassador Muhamed
Sacirbey said at news conference that he was concerned that a recent
statement issued by U.N. forces in Sarajevo was a ``ploy to force my
government to negotiate from a position of diplomatic weakness.''
The U.N. statement, released Sept. 9, found Bosnian forces had
``deliberately perpetrated'' four attacks on the U.N. peace-keeping
forces in which three U.N. soldiers were killed in the past month. Among
the dead were two Frenchmen who were killed in an attack against an
unarmed food convoy on Sept. 8 at the Sarajevo airport.
Sacirbey called the U.N. statement ``repulsive as well as inaccurate
and inconsistent with our obvious objectives.'' He objected that an
official statement had been made before all the incidents could be
investigated.
Sacirbey pointed to reports about the attack on the French convoy
that contradicted the U.N. version of the incident. The reports said the
convoy had been caught in crossfire between the two militias.
``Clearly our troops were not trying to shoot or kill or injure any
U.N. troops,'' Sacirbey said.
The ambassador said the statement implied an effort to ``reach a
quick negotiated end (to the Yugoslavian conflict) that for Bosnia-
Hercegovina could mean capitulation.''
novine.11.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 177, 15 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
WARNINGS OF HYPERINFLATION IN RUSSIA. Somewhat belatedly, top
Russian officials have been warning of the very real possibility of
hyperinflation. President Yeltsin told regional officials in
Cheboksary on 11 September that supporters of cheap credits and
unrealistic social programs are pushing Russia into the abysss of
hyperinflation, according to Reuter. Evgenii Yasin warned on the
same day that hyperinflation had not yet arrived but that it was
closer than ever before, Biznes-TASS reported. And Sergei Vasiliev,
in an interview with The New York Times of 15 September, laid the
blame for looming hyperinflation squarely on the acting chairman of
the Russian Central Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko. (Keith Bush)
PLAUSIBILITY OF WARNINGS. The generally accepted definition of
hyperinflation is a rise in prices of 50% or more a month. This can
well happen in October, in the opinion of Anders Aslund,quoted in
the same New York Times article, "and once you hit hyperinflation,
it destroys most economic institutions." Indeed,the imminent
increase in the controlled wholesale prices of energy-carriers will
cause a substantial leap in the overall price index. But, as the
article suggests, these warnings are probably aimed primarily at
creating a sense of emergency and at organizing public pressure on
the parliament, the Congress of People's Deputies, and the Russian
Central Bank to act more responsibly. (Keith Bush)
RUSSIA TO RECEIVE MORE US FOOD AID. The Department of Agriculture
announced in Washington that the US is makinganother $1.15 billion
in loans available to Russia for foodimports this winter, according
to Western news agencies. Most of the aid, $900 million, is in the
form of loan guarantees for creditors providing import financing.
The Los Angeles Times on 15 September said that the Yeltsin
government had lobbiedWashington to approve the food aid early,
before winter got underway. Last year Russia began urgently
appealing for Western assistance only after the winter's food
supply crisis hadalready developed. Since the beginning of 1991,
the US has reportedly provided Russia with $5.75 billion in food
credit. (Erik Whitlock)
KHASBULATOV ON POSSIBILITY OF CONFEDERATION. Russian parliamentary
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov said during his trip to Kyrgyzstan that
he believes the establishment of an interparliamentary assembly of
CIS states, which will become official at the summit of CIS state
leaders in Bishtek on 25 September, is the beginning of the
creation of a new confederation of former Soviet republics. The
assembly is scheduled to become an independently operating
organization with the right to dispute decisions made by the
leaders of CIS states. Interfax quoted Khasbulatov as saying that
Ukraine's absence in no way affects the work of the
interparliamentary assembly because Ukraine will join the assembly
at a later stage. (Alexander Rahr)
"DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA" PREPARED TO FIGHT. The Coordinating Council of
the "Democratic Russia" movement has issued an appeal to the
Russian people to fight attempts by the old nomenklatura forces to
halt privatization and reform, DR-Press reported on 11 September.
The St. Petersburg regional section of the Democratic Party of
Russia decided to support "Democratic Russia" and to distance
itself from the central leadership of the Democratic Party of
Russia, headed by Nikolai Travkin, which had formed a coalition
with the Civic Union. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Civic Union
decided to join a nationwide campaign for the organization of a
referendum on private ownership of land. (Alexander Rahr)
RUSSIA ASSURES US ON BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS. U.S. State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher on 14 September said that Russia had
given assurances that it would end "all aspects" of its biological
warfare program. Western press accounts of his statement indicated
that the pledge had been given during talks between American and
Russian representatives in Moscow on 1011 September. Boucher said
that on-site inspections were among the measures agreed by both
sides. Last month American and British government sources expressed
doubts that the Russian program had been terminated despite
President Yeltsin's earlier order banning the production of
biological weapons. (Doug Clarke)
RUSSIANS BALK AT SOME CONVENTIONAL ARMS INSPECTIONS. Richard
Boucher said on 11 September that Russia had refused allied arms
inspectors access to parts of some military facilities inspected
during August and September under the terms of the Conventional
Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. That treaty became legally binding
on the signatories on 17 July 1992. According to Western agency
reports, Boucher acknowledged that the treaty was a complex one and
that problems during its implementation were "probably inevitable."
He indicated that the Russians had barred inspectors from entering
some storage, administrative, and other facilities in garrisons
said to be housing military equipment limited by the treaty. (Doug
Clarke)
GORBACHEV TO ATTEND SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS. Mikhail
Gorbachev will attend the next Socialist International as a guest
of honor, "Vesti" reported on September 14. (The Congress is
scheduled to open today in Berlin.) About 70 parties from various
states of the world have applied for membership and are waiting for
their application to be reviewed at the Congress, "Vesti" noted.
The list includes a number of Russian political parties, among them
the Social Democratic Party of Russia, which includes a number of
prominent politicians, such as Oleg Rumyantsev, the author of the
official draft of the new Russian Constitution and an ardent
Gorbachev critic. (Julia Wishnevsky)
SUPREME SOVIET TO RECONSIDER DEFENSE LAW. The chairman of the
Russian Supreme Soviet Committee on Legislation, Mikhail Mityukov,
told ITAR-TASS on 14 September that the "law on defense" will be
considered once again by the parliament at its upcoming session.
On 10 August, Yeltsin refused to sign the law, which had been
approved by the Supreme Soviet on 26 June, because, among other
reasons, it limited his authority to appoint the defense minister.
Mityukov said that members of his committee supported Yeltsin's
proposal that the President be granted sole authority to name the
defense minister, the chief of the General Staff, and the
commanders of all service brancheswithout the approval of the
Supreme Sovietand that the President himself should submit for
approval to the Supreme Soviet plans for the composition,
structure, and strength of the Russian armed forces and its
leadership. (Stephen Foye).
KOBETS NAMED TO NEW POST. Army General Konstantin Kobets has been
named chief military inspector of the Russian armed forces by Boris
Yeltsin, Interfax reported on 14 September. Kobets, 53, was a
deputy chief of the USSR General Staff (for communications), and
his role in organizing the defense of the Russian government
building during the failed August coup catapulted him into a
leading role in the post-coup Soviet and Russian armed forces. He
subsequently served as chief (and then chairman) of the RSFSR State
Committee for Defense and Security, as a military advisor to
Yeltsin, and as a Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Commission
for the Creation of a Russian Defense Ministry. It is unclear what
powers he will exercise as chief military inspector. (Stephen Foye)
STATE OF RUSSIAN TANK FORCES. The chief of Russian armored forces,
Col. Gen. Aleksandr Galkin, said in Krasnaya zvezda on 12
September that the most modern machinesT-726's and
T-80'sconstituted only 25% of the current total Russian tank fleet.
He nevertheless expressed optimism that design work in tank
production was moving ahead at an acceptable pace, and that the
value of the tank forces would not be underestimated during the
creation of a new, highly mobile and professional Russian army.
Galkin's remarks were summarized by ITAR-TASS on 12 September.
(Stephen Foye)
"SOVIET PEOPLE"A REALITY? Researchers at the Institute of General
Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences claim that the "Soviet
people," long the mainstay of the Brezhnev-Suslov nationalities
policy, really exist. The researchers say that their studies show
that "the Soviet people"a concept despised by many former Soviet
citizens and seen by many as a cover for Russification policiesis
not an artificial ploy and that there is a single genetic code for
the "Soviet people." Consequently, they argue, today's "dispersion
in national apartments," that is, the independence of the former
republics, is "only a temporary historical-geographical
fluctuation." The report was cited by Arkadii Volsky, President of
the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, interviewed
in Pravda of 9 September, in support of his argument that empires
like the Russian and the Soviet ones do not disappear "without
leaving a trace." Volsky stressed, however, his realization of the
fact that "the restoration of the Soviet Union at present is
excluded." (Roman Solchanyk)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
COURT RULES PRUNSKIENE COLLABORATED WITH KGB. On 14 September
after three months of hearings, the Lithuanian Supreme Court ruled
that former Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene had consciously
cooperated with the KGB, the RFE/RL Lithuanian Service reports.
The ruling was based on information supplied by the parliament
commission investigating KGB activities, including her pledge to
cooperate signed on 8 June 1980. The court noted that Prunskiene
did not present evidence disproving the commission's documents. The
parliament is empowered to suspend her as a deputy and schedule a
vote of confidence in her district, but is unlikely to do so since
new Seimas elections will he held on 25 October and Prunskiene had
announced several months ago that she will not run again. (Saulius
Girnius)
HEAVY SHELLING OF SARAJEVO. On 14 September the BBC said that
Serbian artillery subjected the Bosnian capital to some of the
worst shelling of the war. The 15 September Washington Post quoted
UN personnel as saying that this showed that the Serbs had not
revealed all their big guns to UN monitors and that both sides seem
to be fighting a conventional war for strategic advantage before
winter arrived in October. Serbian aircraft apparently based at
Banja Luka dropped cluster bombs on Bihac, and fired air-to-ground
missiles as well on 14 September. Western news agencies also
quoted UN sources as saying that the Serbs heavily shelled
Gradacac, Brcko, and Bosanski Brod. Meanwhile in Croatia, the 13
September Novi vjesnik gave extensive coverage to the second
anniversary of Croatian antiterrorist units. (Patrick Moore)
UN TO INCREASE ROLE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. On 14 September the
Security Council voted to send up to 6,000 more troops to protect
humanitarian efforts in the troubled republic in addition to the
1,500 UN forces already there. The BBC on 15 September said that
the vote was 120-3, with China, India, and Zimbabwe abstaining.
Canada, Britain, and France will contribute and pay for the bulk of
the new land forces, while the US will offer air and sea support.
Washington, London, and Paris failed to agree in time on the
modalities of a no-fly zone for Bosnia, so no decision was reached
on that issue. UN spokesmen have sa&id that Serbian aircraft shadow
UN relief flights to Sarajevo to minimize chances of being shot at
by Bosnian or Croatian forces. (Patrick Moore)
PANIC IN MOSCOW AND BEIJING. On 13 September Milan Panic, the prime
minister of the rump Yugoslavia, began a three-day visit to Moscow
and Beijing. Panic is seeking support from both countries in order
to prevent a possible vote on expulsion by the UN Security Council
later this month. In Moscow Panic met with Deputy Foreign Minister
Boris Kolokolov, who told ITAR-TASS that Panic gave him the
impression that his government "really is trying to resolve the
conflict." In Beijing Premier Li Peng said that all former Yugoslav
republics and the rump Yugoslavia "should have their own place
within the United Nations and other international organizations,"
stressing that "Yugoslavia's expulsion would have serious
consequences for all." But the Chinese leader did not explicitly
say whether China will support the rump Yugoslavia's claim to a UN
seat. Li Peng also said China is concerned over the worsening
situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and expressed deep sympathy with
the people there. Panic also requested from the Chinese
"humanitarian aid with oil." Xinhua and Radio Serbia carried the
report. (Milan Andrejevich)
CRISIS CONTINUES IN REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA. A team of CSCE experts
arrived in Skopje on 11 September to determine whether monitors
ought to be posted to the Macedonian-Serbian border in an effort to
check the possible expansion of the wars of Yugoslav succession. It
is not clear whether the observers would be military or civilian,
but the head of the mission, Robert Frowick, an American, noted
that posting observers would "demonstrate the support of the
international community for the territorial integrity of . . .
Macedonia," Reuters and BTA report. The border between the Republic
of Macedonia and the predominantly Albanian Kosovo region of Serbia
is especially volatile. In a related story, other Western agencies
report that the Republic of Macedonia's only oil refinery was shut
down on 12 September because 70,000 tons of crude oil were blocked
at the port of Thessaloniki, apparently as part of ongoing Greek
pressure to force the new republic to drop the word "Macedonia"
from its official name. (Duncan Perry)
BULGARIA'S EXILED KING SEEKS A COMEBACK. Simeon II, who departed
Bulgaria at the age of 6 following the onset of communism, said in
a Madrid interview on 14 September that a return of the monarchy is
in Bulgaria's best interest. He noted that the legislature could
create a grand national assembly and restore himwithout the need of
a popular referendum. The former king is a businessman in Spain,
where he lives with his family. He has been low-key about pressing
for his return to Bulgaria in order to give the legislature and the
population time to consider the prospect. Simeon has a following in
Bulgaria and a monarchist political party exists; however, he does
not seem to have majority popular support and certainly does not
have the support of a majority in the parliament. Simeon is married
to a wealthy Spaniard and has five children, none of whom speaks
Bulgarian. (Duncan Perry)
GANEV ASSUMES UNGA PRESIDENCY. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Stoyan
Ganev was elected president of the UN General Assembly and takes
over that post officially on 15 September, Bulgarian and Western
sources note. Ganev has energetically pursued a policy of
integrating Bulgaria with Western countries and has succeeded in
drawing Bulgaria closer to Europe; it joined the Council of Europe
during his tenure in the Foreign Ministry. Ganev is 37 years old, a
lawyer by training, and speaks Russian and English. (Duncan Perry)
ILIESCU MEETS POPE. Romanian President Ion Iliescu was received on
14 September by Pope John Paul II at his summer residence Castel
Gandolfo. Radio Bucharest, which described the private interview as
a "tete-a-tete," noted that Iliescu is the first foreign official
to see the pope after his surgery in mid-July. John Paul expressed
hopes that Romania will completely restore democracy and religious
freedom and that relations between the Vatican and Romania will
further develop. Iliescu later met in Rome with Italian president
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, with whom he discussed mutual ties and
prospects for Romania's association with the EC. Rome was the last
leg on Iliescu's three-day visit to Spain and Italy. (Dan Ionescu)
ROMANIA'S RUMP COMMUNIST PARTY BACKS ILIESCU. A spokesman for
Romania's reborn communist party, the Socialist Labor Party,
announced at a press conference on 14 September that his party has
decided to support incumbent president Ion Iliescu in the 27
September presidential race. Reuters quoted the spokesman as
saying that his party "will not field its own presidential
candidate in order to preserve the unity of the left wing." In a
press statement the SLP praised Iliescu for alleged "tolerance and
transparency" during his term in office, saying he tried "to defuse
tension and conflicts and strengthen the role of democratic
bodies." Iliescu, a former communist, was a high-ranking party
official before falling out of favor with late dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu in 1971. (Dan Ionescu)
ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION WITH THE EC. On 14 September a Romanian
delegation began a new round of negotiations in Brussels on
association with the European Community. In an interview with Radio
Bucharest, delegation leader Napoleon Pop said that the two-day
talks will focus on the text of some 10 articles (out of a
124-points association agreement) dealing with Romanian exports of
agricultural products, iron and steel, and textiles to EC
countries. (Dan Ionescu)
WARSAW SOLIDARITY HOLDS PROTEST MARCH. Several thousand members of
Solidarity's radical Mazowsze region marched through Warsaw on 14
September. The protesters said their aim was to pressure the
government and the parliament into providing an economic program
satisfactory to workers. The Mazowsze region's firebrand leader,
Maciej Jankowski, threatened a general strike as a last resort that
would determine whether "the elites will send us packing or we will
send the elites packing." Other demonstrators claimed that this
would be the "last peaceful demonstration" by unionists in Warsaw
and shouted, "We want facts, not pacts" and "No more thieving
privatization." (Louisa Vinton)
HUNGARIANS GET COMPENSATION FOR COMMUNIST SEIZURES. The head of the
national compensation office, Tamas Sepsey, told MTI that his
agency has ruled on 202,340 claims for compensation for property
seized by the communist regime and has paid out some 9.5 billion
forint. He reported that only 130,000 of the 830,000 applicants
for compensation wish to use the compensation vouchers to buy land;
during the first two weeks of land auctions 86 people received
land. Sepsey said that Hungarians living abroad are also eligible
for compensation but most of them do not know about the
opportunity. He promised to provide more information about
compensation through Hungarian embassies. (Edith Oltay)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
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novine.12.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 178, 16 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
SITUATION IN TAJIKISTAN. Authorities in Kulyab Oblast have accused
opposition forces of killing nine people and taking ten hostages
in a gun battle on 14 September, ITAR-TASS reported the following
day. The invaders apparently came from Kurgan-Tyube Oblast, which
has been attacked repeatedly by fighters from Kulyab who support
deposed President Rakhmon Nabiev. Ostankino TV's evening news
reported on 14 September that Tajikistan's leading Muslim cleric,
Kazi Akbar Turadzhonzoda, has protested the decision of
opposition-controlled Tajik TV to stop rebroadcasting Russian TV
programs. The head of Tajik TV claimed that Russian reporting on
events on Tajikistan was distorted. The kazi agreed, but objected
to "an information famine." (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SITUATION IN ABKHAZIA STILL "EXTREMELY COMPLICATED". The
tripartite commission charged with monitoring the Abkhaz peace
agreement met in Adler on 15 September and drew up an accord on
the disengagement of Abkhaz and Georgian forces in north-west
Abkhazia and a new ceasefire agreement to take effect at midnight
on 15 September, ITAR-TASS reported. Addressing the State Council
in Tbilisi, Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze said that he had informed
Russian President Boris Yeltsin by telephone that Abkhazia was
violating the ceasefire agreement. Shevardnadze characterized the
situation in Abkhazia as still "extremely complicated" and stated
that Georgia's military contingent in the region would be
strengthened. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA REJECTS UN EXPULSION OF YUGOSLAVIA. Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said on 15 September that
Russia opposes the idea of isolating rump Yugoslavia by expelling
it from international organizations such as the United Nations.
He noted that Russia could use its veto power during a vote at the
UN to block the expulsion of Yugoslavia, ITAR-TASS reported on 15
September. This statement is in line with remarks made by Milan
Panic in late July, apparently based on discussions during the
CSCE summit in Helsinki. Panic was quoted by Izvestiya on 31 July
as saying: "President Boris Yeltsin promised me that if necessary,
Russia will use its veto one hundred times in the UN Security
Council to oppose a resolution on the exclusion of Yugoslavia."
(Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CIS INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OPENS. The Interparliamentary
Assembly of the CIS has gone into its first session in Bishkek,
ITAR-TASS reported on 15 September. Parliamentary delegations
from Armenia, Belarus, Kazhakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan--the CIS states which have signed the agreement on the
creation of the Interparliamentary Assembly--are participating. A
delegation from Uzbekistan, which also signed the agreement, did
not arrive for the first session. The parliamentary delegations
are being headed by the speakers of the parliaments of the CIS
member states. The Assembly will discuss the development of
interstate relations inside the CIS, the role of parliaments in
the social protection of the population, and general economic
problems. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV ELECTED HEAD OF INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY. Russian
parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov has been elected Chairman
of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, ITAR-TASS reported on 15
September. Khasbulatov will preside over the work of the Assembly
for one year. It has also been decided that St. Petersburg will
become the seat of the Interparliamentary Assembly. The statute
of the Assembly was adopted and agreement has been reached on the
creation of permanent Assembly commissions on cooperation in
legal, economic, humanitarian, ecological and military affairs.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BANKER WARNS AGAINST RUSSIAN DEBT REDUCTION. The managing
director of the prestigious Washington-based Institute of
International Finance, Horst Schulman, announced at a news
conference that offering Russia debt relief would be a mistake.
According to a RFE/RL correspondent reporting on 16 September,
Schulman asserted that such action would send a very unfavorable
message to both creditors and debtors around the world: "in the
face of what is clearly [a] very unsatisfactory performance," debt
relief would be viewed as "an entitlement program" for Russia. In
Schulman's opinion, Russia has not done enough to pay its foreign
debts. He cited Russia's reluctance to raise domestic prices for
oil, a policy which would restrict domestic demand and free up
supplies for hard-currency sales. (Erik Whitlock/Robert Lyle,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN FARMERS DEMONSTRATE. Farmers gathered outside the Russian
government building in Moscow to demand economic assistance,
various Russian and Western news agencies reported on 15
September. In particular, the demonstrators called for more
investment in the agricultural sector, tax and debt relief, as
well as low-interest loans. Reports variously estimated the
number of participants at between four hundred and two thousand.
According to ITAR-TASS, the demonstration lasted an hour and a
half. The protest follows a similar action in August that was
viewed as largely ineffective. Interfax quoted demonstrators as
saying that this was their "last soft action," and that they would
use more serious methods in the future if the government did not
respond to their demands. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
VOLSKY CRITICIZES PRIVATE BUSINESS SPECIALISTS. President of the
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Arkadii Volsky, stated
that about one and a half million specialists are duplicating
various intellectual and business activities in countless
fictitious enterprises, Voice of Russia reported on September 13.
Although these people have created an enormous number of
foundations, analytical centers, consulting bureaus, and middleman
companies, the result of all this activity is next to zero, Volsky
was quoted by Voice of Russia as telling Patriot (no.35). Voice of
Russia accused Volsky of being a high-level KGB officer, a charge
it has made frequently in the past. (Victor Yasmann,RFE/RL, Inc.)
COMMUNIST PARTY HEARINGS RESUME WITH EXPERT TESTIMONY. After a
six-week recess, the Russian Constitutional Court resumed the
hearings on the status of the communist party on 15 September.
Opening the session, court chairman Valerii Zorkin said that 13
legal experts would testify on whether the communist party is a
true political party and whether the Russian Communist Party (RCP)
is independent from the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU), Interfax
reported. Zorkin noted that six of these experts have given
written opinions supporting the Russian president's ban, while
seven other experts contend that the ban was illegal. The court is
also expected to examine the question of who owned and disposed of
party property. Meanwhile, Valentin Kuptsov, the former RCP first
secretary, asked the court to legalize the party temporarily until
the court reaches a verdict, Russian and Western agencies
reported. (Carla Thorson, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NATIONALIST PARTIES RESUME PICKETING OF OSTANKINO. On 15
September, representatives of extreme Russian nationalist parties
resumed their picketing of the Ostankino TV station demanding
daily broadcast time on Russian TV, ITAR-TASS reported. Their
picketing of Ostankino first started this past summer, and it led
to the opposition obtaining broadcast time on a monthly basis; now
they want more. (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN HOLDS TALKS WITH TATARSTAN PRESIDENT. On 15 September,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin held talks in Moscow with the
Tatarstan President, Mintimer Shaimiev, ITAR-TASS reported. The
agency quoted Yeltsin's press office as saying the two presidents
discussed preparations for a draft treaty on the division of
functions between the Russian central and Tatar authorities. The
RuRFE/RL, Inc.)ar authorities agreed in July to prepare a treaty
on Tatarstan's sovereignty and its union with Russia. (Vera Tolz,
RFE
ORDERS FOR MILITARY HARDWARE TO GROW. ITAR-TASS reported on 11
September that state orders by the Russian government for military
hardware in 1993 will be higher than in 1992. No specifics on the
orders were provided. The increase was attributed to the need to
maintain the scientific and intellectual level of the defense
sector, and to reduce the effects of Russia's general economic
decline. The decision was reportedly reached at a closed-door
meeting of Russian government officials and leaders of the
military industries on 10 September. (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA OFFERS TO SELL WARSHIPS TO THE PHILIPPINES. A spokesman for
the Philippine Navy said on 11 September that Russia had offered
to sell fast attack craft, corvettes, and minesweepers to the
Philippines. According to the Chinese Zinhua news agency, the
spokesman said that the offer had come during a meeting that day
in Manila between a Russian delegation and the chairman of the
Philippine Navy's weapons board. The agency also quoted
Philippine Air Force chief, Brigadier Gen. Leopoldo Acot, as
saying that a proposal to purchase MiG-29 jet fighters from Russia
was being "carefully studied." (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT OPENS. The sixth session of the Ukrainian
parliament opened on 15 September against a background of
unresolved economic problems and the opposition's determination to
force new parliamentary elections and the dismissal of the present
government. Western news agencies reported on 15 September that
Prime Minister Vitold Fokin, in a message read to the lawmakers,
warned that the economy is in an "extremely deep crisis." Fokin
said that the government's new economic reform plan was still
being discussed and would be presented to parliament no later than
28 September. The lawmakers were met by protesters at the
parliament, which has become almost traditional for each new
parliamentary session. (Roman Solchanyk RFE/RL, Inc.)
BELARUS TO RATIFY CFE TREATY. Belarus President Stanislav
Shushkyevich told German leaders on 15 September that his
government would ratify the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE)
treaty by the end of the year. Shushkyevich was visiting Bonn and
his remarks were reported by Western agencies. The treaty, signed
by the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
and the former Warsaw Pact--including the successor states to the
USSR--sets limits on five categories of conventional weapons
allowed between the Urals and the Atlantic. The agreement came
into force on 17 July 1992 even though two of the 29 signatories,
Armenia and Belarus, had not yet ratified it. They were given 120
days to complete the process. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV PROMOTES ECONOMIC COOPERATION. Kazakhstan's President
Nursultan Nazarbaev told a meeting of industrialists in Alma-Ata
that political ambition is prevailing over economic rationalism in
the CIS, and he will propose to the CIS summit in Bishkek that
supragovernmental structures be created in the Commonwealth,
Russian TV reported on 14 September. On 15 September, the Russian
economics minister, Andrei Nechaev, and the chairman of
Kazakhstan's State Economics Committee, Tleukhan Kabdrakhmanov,
signed a protocol on economic cooperation between the two
countries, ITAR-TASS reported. This agreement provides for
prognoses of socio-economic development, cooperation in currency
and credit policy, and various joint mining and environmental
projects. Nechaev did not lend encouragement to a pet project of
Nazarbaev, the creation of a supranational currency authority.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
"DNIESTER" MOLDOVAN TEACHERS TO STRIKE FOR LATIN SCRIPT. Most
teachers in Moldovan schools controlled by "Dniester" Russian
authorities are protesting against the recent "Dniester" edict on
languages, which imposes the Russian alphabet on the "Moldovan"
(i.e. Romanian) language in place of the Latin alphabet (see
RFE/RL Daily Report, 10 September). The teachers have announced
plans for a general strike beginning on 20 September, Radio Rossii
and DR-Press reported on 14 and 15 September, respectively.
(Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
"DNIESTER REPUBLIC" CONTINUES CREATING STATE STRUCTURES. The
"Dniester republic Supreme Soviet" decided to set up a customs
system for the would-be republic, Interfax reported on 11
September; it began functioning on 15 September, Nezavisimaya
gazeta reported on the 16th. The same source reported that
Moldova's television relays located on the left bank of the
Dniester have been taken over by the "Dniester" authorities. On
14 September, Interfax reported that the "Dniester republic"
intends to introduce its own citizenship. Since 2 September,
using the breathing spell gained through the ceasefire and the
protective cover of Russian troops, ostensibly in Moldova to carry
out impartial peacekeeping duties, the "Dniester republic" has
also proceeded to set up a government with full-fledged
ministries, including those of Defense and State Security;
announced the establishment of its own air force and border
troops, and the intention to create its own professional army; it
has also formed its own banking system. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
MOLDOVA FEELS CHEATED. An unnamed senior official of Moldova's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representing Moldova on the Joint
Control Commission which nominally supervises the Russian
peacekeeping forces on the Dniester, "expressed concern over
certain activities of that body...The presence of the peacekeeping
forces is being used by the Tiraspol leaders to consolidate
illegal state structures in the Dniester area." The Moldovan
official called for "a rigorous control of the [Russian-Moldovan
ceasefire] convention by international bodies...to avoid arbitrary
or hostile interpretations," Rompres reported on 13 September. The
statement, the first of its kind from Moldova since the convention
was signed on 21 July, appears to reflect the apprehension that
Snegur's gamble in accepting the deployment of Russian
peacekeeping troops in Moldova in exchange for Russian promises to
restrain the "Dniester" secession, is backfiring against Moldova.
(Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
EC MOVES TO EXCLUDE SERBIA-MONTENEGRO FROM UN. Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the US, and Islamic Conference member
states will apparently join Britain and the EC in taking steps
this week to bar Serbia-Montenegro from holding the former
Yugoslavia's seat in the UN and related organizations.
International media reported on 15 and 16 September that it is not
yet clear whether Russia will agree to such a ban.
Serbia-Montenegro call themselves "Yugoslavia" but the state
remains internationally unrecognized, largely because its creation
is widely regarded as an attempt by the Belgrade authorities to
claim much of the legitimacy and assets of Tito's now defunct
federation. For its part, Serbia-Montenegro says that it does not
see how it can continue to participate in a UN-backed peace
process if that organization excludes Belgrade from its work, the
BBC said on 16 September. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
"NO-FLY ZONE" OVER BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA? International media also
report that the Security Council is expected to consider stetting
up a "no-fly zone" on the Iraqi model over the troubled republic.
Of the combatants, only Serbian forces have aircraft, and they
have been accused of shadowing UN relief flights as a way of
obtaining cover on bombing missions against Bosnian and Croatian
forces. Peace envoys Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen on 15 September
deplored Serb air attacks the previous day on four
Muslim-controlled towns in Bosnia, Western news agencies report.
UN peace-keeping operations chief Marrack Goulding said that the
attacks show how urgent it is to set up the "no-fly zone."
Meanwhile, 68 badly injured Bosnian refugees were taken by air
from Banja Luka to London for treatment. The Red Cross had
selected them from numerous inmates of Serbian "detention
centers." (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CROAT-MUSLIM CONFLICTS IN BOSNIA. Radios Serbia and Slovenia
report on 14 and 15 September that there has been a rise of
clashes between Croatian and Muslim militia in towns in
Herzegovina. In the Bosnian towns of Prozor and Vitez, local
education officials decided that instruction in primary schools
will be based on those in Croatia. Muslims have protested the
decision saying Muslim children would not attend schools modeled
on those of another state. The majority population in Vitez is
Muslim, but all authority is in the hands of the Croats. On 14
September Radio Bosnia-Herzegovina reported the republic's
Constitutional Court passed a decision saying that the
establishment of the "Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna" on 18
November 1991 was illegal. The Bosnian authorities have also
earlier condemned successionist moves by Serbian groups. Vecerniji
list on 15 September, however, quoted Bosnia's vice president as
playing down reports of tensions between Muslims and Croats.
(Milan Andrejevic, RFE/RL, Inc)
MACEDONIAN BORDER SECURITY TIGHTENED. As a response to the ongoing
Bosnian war and fear that it might spread to the Republic of
Macedonia, the Skopje government has decided to strengthen
security along its 240-km border with Serbia, Reuters and Makpres
report. The move came just after a CSCE mission recommended
patrols along the border to help head off expansion of the war
there. Evidently only main highways until now have had border
checkpoints. Military personnel will soon begin construction of
defense facilities along the border according to Nova Makedonija.
The CSCE patrols, which would augment the frontier guard force,
may be composed of civilian observers. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL,
INC.)
SERBIAN PREELECTION SCENE. On 14 September round-table talks
between the rump Yugoslav government and opposition parties
resulted in the adoption of parts of a declaration on the
electoral system and the financing of upcoming elections. The
adoption of these documents will be placed on the federal
assembly's agenda on 18 September. The remaining aspects of the
declaration referring to the role of the media are also slated for
debate soon. Meanwhile, Zoran Andjelkovic, a leading official in
the ruling Socialist Party (SPS) stated on 15 September that
Slobodan Milosevic, in addition to his candidature for SPS
chairman, will run as "the SPS candidate in the forthcoming
elections for the most responsible state functions in the
republic." Andjelkovic did not elaborate. Radio Serbia carried
the reports. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DEMONSTRATIONS OVER HUNGARIAN TV PRESIDENT. According to a 14
September Radio Budapest report, two demonstrations are being
organized involving Elemer Hankiss, the president of Hungarian TV.
Hankiss was dismissed by Prime Minister Jozsef Antall earlier this
year, but President Arpad Goncz refused to sign the dismissal
order. The first demonstration--against Hankiss--is organized by
the Committee for Free Hungarian Information, which includes some
journalists, members of the World Federation of Hungarians
Fighting in 1956, and some chapters of the Hungarian Democratic
Forum and the Christian Democratic Peoples' Party. The
demonstration will start next Saturday and, organizers say, will
last until Hankiss remains in office. The second
demonstration--in support of Hankiss--is organized by artists and
reportedly more resembles a picnic than a political event. (Judith
Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ROMANIA TIGHTENS VISA RULES FOR THIRD WORLD. Romanian Interior
Minister Victor Babiuc announced on 15 September that Romania will
tighten visa regulations for 24 countries in an effort to curb
illegal immigration. Under the new rules, citizens of those
countries need an invitation from a Romanian citizen or firm, and
these must assume financial responsibility for the visitors.
Albania is the only European country on the list; the others are
mostly Arab and Third World countries. Western agencies quoted
Babiuc as saying that many foreigners are using Romania as a
springboard to the West. There are currently some 30,000
foreigners in Romania who have overstayed their tourist visas.
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NATIONALIST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BESIEGED IN TIMISOARA. Some
2,000 protesters jeered Romanian presidential candidate Gheorghe
Funar in Timisoara. Funar, the mayor of Cluj, is running on the
ticket of the Party for Romanian National Unity (PRNU), the
political arm of the extreme nationalist Vatra romaneasca
("Romanian Hearth") organization. The protesters shouted
"Communist" and "Fascist" and threw fruit and vegetables at Funar
while he was laying a wreath at a monument outside the cathedral
in Timisoara to honor those killed in the December 1989
revolution. Many carried signs hailing the Democratic Convention,
the main opposition alliance. Radio Bucharest carried a PRNU
statement condemning the incident. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBUNOVS IS LATVIA'S INTERIM HEAD OF STATE. On 15 September the
Supreme Council ruled that the chairman of the Supreme Council
will serve as head of state until the Saeima (parliament)
convenes. Saeima deputies are still to be elected and an election
date has not been set, though elections are expected to take place
in the fall of 1993. The functions of the head of state are
representational. This decision supplements the law on the duties
and functions of the Supreme Council that was adopted on 5 August
and does not grant new powers to Supreme Council Chairman
Anatolijs Gorbunovs, Radio Riga reports. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
PRESIDENTIAL POLL IN LITHUANIA. On 15 September BNS reported on
the results of a poll conducted in late August and early September
by the Sociological Research Laboratory of the University of
Vilnius. The leading candidate for president is parliament
chairman Vytautas Landsbergis with 31% of the poll, followed by
Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party chairman Algirdas Brazauskas
with 19% and Lithuanian chargi d'affaires in Moscow Egidijus
Bickauskas with 5%. When asked who they would like to see in the
new parliament, 20% of the respondents mentioned Brazauskas,
18%--Landsbergis, and 12%--Bickauskas. BNS gave no margin of error
for the poll. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
IMF APPROVES FIRST CREDIT FOR LATVIA. On 15 September Latvia
became the first of the former USSR republics to achieve a full
stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, making
it eligible to draw loans of up to about $81 million over the
coming year. The credit is meant to support a comprehensive
economic reform that includes continued price liberalization and a
speeded-up privatization process. The IMF says that without
outside help Latvia's "decline in output and employment could be
significantly larger than anticipated," RFL/RL correspondent
reported on 16 September from Washington. (Dzintra Bungs,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
DIFFICULTIES WITH LITHUANIA-RUSSIA TRADE AGREEMENT. During a
meeting in Moscow on 18 September, Lithuanian Prime Minister
Aleksandras Abisala and Russia's acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar
were expected to sign a long-term trade agreement. On 15
September, citing unofficial sources, BNS said that the meeting
had been postponed to 22 September at Lithuania's request. Deputy
chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament Ceslovas Stankevicius, who
heads the state delegation for negotiations with Moscow, had
earlier told BNS that although agreements on mutual accounting and
payments were ready for signing, Russia's proposals on trade
required further discussion since Russia suggested quotas and
licenses that would allow it to introduce certain limitations that
were unacceptable since Lithuania wanted a real "free trade
agreement." (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EC TALKS ABOUT BALTS. The European Parliament in Strasbourg has
delayed a vote on commercial and trade agreements with the Baltic
States by one month. Europarliament socialist delegate Gary Titley
from the UK told an RFE/RL correspondent on 15 September that the
vote was delayed because of concern over Estonia's constitutional
referendum, citizenship law, and election law. Officials from the
Europarliament Secretariat, however, told the RFE/RL Estonian
Service on 16 September that the delay is "purely technical." The
draft agreement was submitted to the Foreign Trade Commission,
which must approve all agreements before they are considered by
the parliament. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ESTONIA'S JOBLESS RALLY FOR "HUMAN RIGHTS." About 1000
demonstrators rallied in support of "human rights" in Narva on 15
September, Estonian TV reports. The demonstration, organized by a
group calling itself the Estonian Association of the Unemployed,
demanded that the government "restore economic ties with Russia
and CIS member states in order to cut unemployment" in formerly
all-union factories, BNS reports. Unemployment in Estonia is
currently at an all-time high of 0.5%. Over 90% of Estonia's
current trade is with CIS member states. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT SAVORS VICTORY IN FSM STRIKE. As the FSM auto
plant began preparations to resume production, Deputy Prime
Minister Henryk Goryszewski commented that "for the first time, a
strike has ended in something other than a victory for the
strikers; this time, the public and its democratic state won out."
The strikers abandoned all wage demands and accepted the terms of
an agreement negotiated between the management and the trade
unions on 29 July, shortly after the strike began. This gives them
limited raises as soon as Fiat takes over the plant. Workers will
also receive loans from local authorities. Management has agreed
not to take disciplinary action against strike participants, and
to consider rehiring the 347 strike activists fired during the
strike. Both sides agreed to help speed Fiat's assumption of
control. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND'S ECONOMY GROWS, BUT SO DOES DEFICIT. Poland's industrial
output in August was 6.8% higher than in August 1991, the Main
Statistical Office reported on 14 September. Industrial
production for the first eight months of 1992 was just 0.8% below
last year's level. Economists from the Main Trade School reported
that Poland had not experienced the typical summer slowdown in
economic activity. Prospects for the rest of 1992 are good: firms
and banks report that new orders are up, while indebtedness and
inventories are down. Investment in machines and equipment rose in
August for the first time in a year. Deputy Finance Minister
Wojciech Misiag said on 14 September that the government had
already decided to ask the Sejm to revise the 1992 budget to deal
with the larger than predicted deficit. Misiag said a 30 trillion
zloty ($2 billion) shortfall was likely. PAP reported that the
unemployment rate at the end of August was 13.4%. More than
one-third of the unemployed are not entitled to benefits. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH DEFENSE MINISTRY OPPOSES LUSTRATION. Deputy Defense
Minister Bronislaw Komorowski told the Sejm's defense commission
on 15 September that passage of the "decommunization" laws now
under consideration would mean "the loss of virtually the entire
command structure of the Polish army." Only two generals--one the
military bishop, the other an academic worker--would survive the
process. Noting that 14,000 officers had been removed in 1990-91,
ministry officials argued that further cuts would undermine
Poland's defense capability. Proponents of lustration charged the
defense ministry with attempting to remove the army from
parliamentary supervision, but a majority of the Sejm commission
seemed to agree that the armed forces deserved special treatment.
The commission thus asked to participate in deliberations on the
six draft bills now before the Sejm. (Louisa Vinton RFE/RL, Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
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novine.13.bale.,
UPI NEWS, 17.09.1992.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fischer defeats 'tired' Spassky for 4-2 lead
Subject: Philippines to close its Yugoslav embassy
Subject: War is hell for dogcatchers, too
Subject: Fierce fighting in Sarajevo on eve of Geneva talks
Subject: Serbia threatens to topple Yugoslav prime minister
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fischer defeats 'tired' Spassky for 4-2 lead
Date: 17 Sep 92 01:50:09 GMT
PRZNO, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Former U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer
defeated an admittedly tired Russian opponent Boris Spassky with only 21
moves Wednesday, taking a 4-2 lead in their 20th anniversary rematch.
Spassky, who is having trouble sleeping and was said by experts to
have missed a winning position in a previous game, asked after
Wednesday's loss that their next game be delayed until Saturday.
``I feel tired, I will ask for the postponement of the 10th game,''
Spassky said after Wednesday's three-hour contest. ``I need two days
rest.''
International chess master Nikola Karaklajic was highly critical of
Spassky's play Wednesday. ``This ninth game was unbelieveable,'' he
said. ``Spassky blundered.''
Fischer leads by four games to two, with three draws, in the $5
million contest at the Mestral Hotel in Przno, near the southern
Adriatic resort of Sveti Stefan in the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro.
Spassky, who complained that he has been waking up at 4 a.m., visited
a doctor after Wednesday's game and was given medicine to help him
sleep.
The doctor, Ljubo Zivkovic, also persuaded Spassky to change his
diet.
Fischer also changed his diet earlier in the series after reportedly
realizing his eating habits were hurting his concentration.
``Boris is very tired,'' Spassky colleague Alexander Nikitin said
Wednesday. ``The last three games he played far from his shape.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Philippines to close its Yugoslav embassy
Date: 17 Sep 92 08:46:09 GMT
MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- The Philippines Thursday announced plans
to close its embassy in war-shattered former Yugoslavia to protest
alleged human rights abuses by Serbian forces against Bosnian Muslims.
``We deplore what has happened there to the point that...we are going
to close down that embassy,'' Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo told
reporters. ``The exact timing has to be worked out, but we will make the
appropriate formal notices today.''
The Philippines had previously recalled its ambassador to Yugoslav on
Aug. 19, warning that Manila would close the facility altogether if the
situation worsened.
International groups accuse Serbian guerrillas -- armed by the
Yugoslav central army -- of abusing captured troops in Bosnia-
Hercegovina, a former Yugoslav republic.
Serbian forces have been waging a five-month war against Bosnia-
Hercegovina, which declared independence from Yugoslavia earlier this
year.
The European Community and other groups have labeled Serbia the
primary aggressor in the conflict.
Earlier this month, the Philippines joined the 108-member Non-Aligned
Movement in condemning alleged Serbian abuses against Bosnians.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: War is hell for dogcatchers, too
Date: 17 Sep 92 15:32:41 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Two teen-aged girls watched
tearfully as Bambi thrashed in a vain struggle to escape the bite of
steel wire snares looped around his throat and rear haunches.
But Bambi's heart-wrenching howls and the girls' pleas for mercy
failed to deter his captors. They hauled the dog to their truck from his
adopted home in the war-ravaged city, a park between two shell-shattered
apartment blocks.
``We've lost everything and now they are taking our dog,'' wept Aida,
16. ``We like Bambi.''
The cries of the doomed sandy-haired mutt were muffled behind a door
at the rear of the truck.
``Everyone here gives him food,'' said Jana, 17.
For Sarajevo's four-man band of dogcatchers, Bambi's capture was a
tiny blow in their battle to contain a dangerous population explosion of
stray dogs. The strays are potentially potent sources of disease in the
besieged Bosnian capital.
Aida admitted reluctantly that perhaps it was best the popular
neighborhood pooch be put to sleep.
``He has been lethargic lately, and maybe he is sick. We all love him
and feed him, but maybe it is better to take him away,'' she said.
Aside from shelling and snipers, the canine problem is the most
serious faced by the sanitation department in the five-month-old Serbian
siege.
The blockade has severely restricted food supplies, reducing city
garbage by an estimated 45 percent.
At the same time, sanitation officials and workers said, the food
shortage is forcing residents to loose their pets to forage on the
devastated streets.
Many dogs, they said, also are finding their way into Sarajevo from
outlying villages abandoned by residents who fled the fighting or were
uprooted by Serbian ethnic cleansing.
Before the war, between 70 and 80 strays were caught each week in
Sarajevo and put to sleep by injection, said Vinko Raguz, manager of
public sanitation in the municipal sanitation department.
``The weekly average is now about 100 to 110 dogs,'' he said. ``Now,
many are running in packs.''
``The colonies of dogs are forming in the forests and the edges of
the town controlled by the Serbs,'' said Mirsad Kebo, the sanitation
department director. ``So, we can't go in and catch them.''
Ivan Ilic, a member of the dogcatching squad, said he and his
colleagues have been finding many pure-bred dogs among the ratty strays
they snag with the looped wire snares strapped on their wrists.
``We've seen valuable dogs, all kinds,'' he said. ``Poodles, cocker
spaniels, German shepherds are the most.''
All of the canines, no matter their pedigree, are difficult to handle
because of the food shortages, Ilic said.
``They are more dangerous because they are hungry,'' said the 20-year
veteran dogcatcher. ``They have had no food, or not the same selection
of food as they had before the war.''
``They are thin, but sometimes we find dogs in good shape, which
means they have just been kicked out,'' he explained.
Another problem is a lack of manpower.
``Before the war, we had two teams, but less dogs,'' observed Nikola
Dodik, another squad member. ``There are at least three times more dogs
than there were before.''
The dogcatchers, like the hundreds of thousands of other people in
Sarajevo, have not been immune from the ethnic hatreds that led to the
war in the former Yugoslav republic.
The team is comprised exclusively of Croats because the Serbian
dogcatchers all joined the Serbian forces encircling the city.
One of them, Ratko Rakic, was seen recently on the television channel
of the self-declared Serbian state by his former workmates. He was shown
manning an artillery piece, they said.
``I like catching dogs. I would never shoot a gun,'' said Ilic.
None of the dogcatchers have been killed or injured, and they are
escorted by the police when they have to enter dangerous areas.
``We have to go to such places when people call us,'' explained Ilic.
``The dogs enter the hallways of apartment buildings because they are
scared by shelling. But, then people can't get out of their homes.''
``Also at mating time, as many as 15 of them collect in one hallway,''
said Ilic.
The squad spends each day patroling different streets, parks and
alleyways in its yellow truck, constantly on the prowl for strays.
When one is sighted, the team stops and alights. Each member is armed
with a wire snare. They fan out in a circle with studied practice, and
then move in on their quarry with ruthless efficiency.
Many dogs sighted on a recent patrol proved too wily, slipping
quickly between the hunters and darting away.
In one case, an irate family refused to allow the team to take away a
litter of newborn puppies from an apartment building stairwell.
``I don't want to fight with people,'' said Franjo Ilic, Ivan Ilic's
brother and fellow dogcatcher.
Bambi posed no challenge, watching unsuspectedly with droopy,
bloodshot eyes until it was too late.
``We feel sympathy for these dogs, but now they are disturbing normal
life in the town,'' said Ivan Ilic, himself the proud owner of a
Macedonian sheep dog, a shaggy 110-pound giant.
``They have gone without vaccinations,'' he continued. ``They are
very fertile soil for infections.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fierce fighting in Sarajevo on eve of Geneva talks
Date: 17 Sep 92 17:46:56 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- The U.N. headquarters came under
attack Thursday as fierce fighting and Serbian barrages convulsed
Sarajevo throughout the day, igniting fires that filled the sky with
smoke and darkened hopes for progress on the eve of new peace talks.
No U.N. personnel were injured in the fifth attack on their building
since Aug. 6. Despite the violence, the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR)
announced the international humanitarian airlift into the Bosnian
capital may resume with a test flight Sunday by one of its aircraft.
Infantry clashes and shelling erupted at about 6 a.m. in several
areas less than a mile from the center of the Bosnia-Hercegovina
capital, and in western suburbs that have borne the brunt of a 4-day-old
attempted advance by tank-backed Serbian forces.
UNPROFOR said Serbian forces persisted in using heavy weapons
deployed outside 11 U.N.-monitored areas despite Serbian leader Radovan
Karadzic's guarantees that all of his Yugoslav army-supplied big guns
had been gathered in those zones.
The fighting came a day before a new round of internationally
mediated negotiations in Geneva on ending the war pitting extremist
Serbs bent on carving a separate state out of the republic and Bosnian
forces opposed to the division of the newly independent former Yugoslav
republic.
Bosnian troops mostly comprise Muslim Slavs, but also include Croats
and moderate Serbs.
UNPROFOR narrowly escaped a major disaster when two shells slammed
into its headquarters in a telecommuniations engineering center in the
western suburb of Alipasino Polje.
A 30 mm anti-aircraft round crashed at about 11 a.m. through a wall
and exploded into an empty third-floor office, spraying shattered
masonary and wood paneling across the carpet and breaking glass in
neighboring rooms.
A 122 mm tank round plowed a short time later through the front of
the largely glass building, exited a rear window, pounded down a fire
escape and rolled into a parking lot without exploding, U.N. officers
said.
It was later carried a safe distance away and detonated by French
army sappers.
``There was a good chance there could have been some casualties had
it exploded,'' said New Zealand Col. Richard Grey.
``Once again the PTT building has been shelled. It got direct fire
and also has been shelled by tanks,'' Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel
Razek, the Sarajevo sector commander of UNPROFOR, told a news
conference.
He said UNPROFOR has been unable to determine those responsible, and
he renewed an appeal to the warring factions to ensure the safety of the
contingent assigned to protect humanitarian aid operations.
``I should express my concern to both sides,'' said Razek.
UNPROFOR has suffered at least four dead and 46 injured since May.
Regarding the fighting, Razek said that U.N. military monitors had
observed at least 420 heavy artillery rounds fired between 7 a.m. and 4
p.m., all of them by Serbian gunners.
Of the total, he said, only 158 were loosed from Serbian heavy guns
gathered in the so-called U.N.-monitored ``concentration areas.''
The rest, he said, came from weapons the Serbs have maintained
outside the zones in violation of an agreement Karadzic made at last
month's London peace conference to place all tanks, artillery and large
mortars under U.N. observation.
Razek also said that he had been instructed by UNPROFOR headquarters
to inform the warring sides of Sunday's scheduled flight of an ordinary
U.N. plane into Sarajevo airport.
``It is a test flight. It would be encouraging for a resumption of
the normal flights,'' he said.
If the flight goes without a hitch, he said, a final decision will be
made on restarting the U.N.-supervised airlift of food and medicines for
the estimated 500,000 people trapped in Sarajevo by encircling Serbian
forces.
The airlift was suspended Sept. 3 after an Italian cargo plane en
route to Sarajevo was downed in a missile attack, killing four crewmen.
Responsibility for the attack has not been determined.
U.N. High Commission for Refugees officials said they were already
planning for a resumption of the airlift, saying it was vitally needed
as truck convoys on which they have been relying have not been able to
meet the city's daily food needs.
Much of the fighting and shelling focused on the residential areas of
Hrasno and Alipasino Polje and the western suburbs of Ilidza, Stup,
Nedzarici, Bare and Dogladi.
At one point, at least six different blazes were seen pouring out
huge pillars of black smoke, which mingled with clouds of dust drifting
slowly over the city's western skyline.
Serbian rounds scored direct hits on apartment buildings and the
already severely damaged fortress-like television station in Alipasino
Polje.
The Health Ministry said that during the 24-hour period that began at
1 p.m. Wednesday at least nine people were killed and 60 others wounded
in Sarajevo. They were among a total of at least 31 dead and 198 wounded
across the republic, the ministry said.
Sarajevo radio said Serbian multiply launched rockets and mortar
rounds burst on the fringes of the mosly Muslim Slav old city, and in
Hrasno, Mojmilo, and Alipasino Polje.
U.N. sources said Serbian tanks hidden from U.N. monitoring loosed
rounds at the predominantly Croatian suburbs of Stup and Dogladi, the
main focus of the ongoing Serbian armor-backed thrust.
The advance, which began Monday under the diversionary cover of a 9-
hour-long Serbian bombardment of Sarajevo, appeared designed to reclaim
land recently lost to Bosnian forces, who are intent on breaking the 5-
month-old Serbian siege of the city.
The fall of Stup would give Serbian tanks control of the road linking
downtown Sarejevo with the U.N.-controlled airport.
Thursday's fighting came on the eve of a new round of peace talks
slated to begin in Geneva.
Foreign countries plan to mediate negotiations between militant Serbs
-- who are attempting to carve out a self-declared state -- and Bosnian
forces, who oppose partition of the former Yugoslav republic. Most
Bosnian troops are Muslim Slavs, but some Croats and moderate Serbs are
also fighting on the Bosnian side.
Thursday, U.N. Protection Force officials said Serbian forces
continued to employ heavy weapons withheld from U.N. monitoring, in
violation of an agreement reached at last month's international peace
conference in London. Under the pact, Serbian guerrillas agreed to
concentrate all of their heavy weapons in areas monitored by the U.N.
However, the U.N. Thursday reported Serbians firing tanks and cannons
deployed outside the monitored areas. U.N. sources also said Serbian
gunners in at least one of 11 U.N.-monitored areas also joined in.
Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel Razek, the Sarajevo sector
commander of U.N. peacekeepers, was scheduled to meet Thursday with
Serbian military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic to discuss the apparent
violations.
However, U.N. sources said Serbian forces later announced Mladic
would be away from the area until next week.
In an interview Wednesday, Razek said Serbian leaders had ignored
repeated U.N. requests to comply with the weapons-concentration
agreement.
``The Serbs have a military goal and they want to achieve it by all
means and it is very difficult to convince them to put all heavy weapons
in concentration areas,'' Razek said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbia threatens to topple Yugoslav prime minister
Date: 17 Sep 92 18:58:27 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The battle between the Serbian
government and prime minister of the rump Yugoslav federation of
Montenegro and Serbia, Milan Panic, intensified Thursday with a ruling
Socialist Party leader threatening to call a new vote of no-confidence
in Panic's leadership.
The move follows Panic's plan to get United Nations membership for
the new truncated Yugoslavia, a move seen as threatening the former
Yugoslavia's old seat in the world body.
Serbian politicians believe the move would destroy any legitimacy
Belgrade might retain as the seat of government of a federated
Yugoslavia.
The Serbian-controlled rump Yugoslavia has not applied nor has it
been recognized by the European Community or the U.N., as were the three
other former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
Panic, who returned to Belgrade Wednesday night from a ``working
visit'' to China with a stopover in Moscow, said he planned to ``propose
to the government that it adopt a decision to apply for membership of
the new Yugoslavia in the United Nations and other international
organizations.''
``I deeply believe we don't have much choice (but to seek membership
in the U.N.),'' Panic told the Belgrade-based news agency Tanjug. Panic
said clinging to old Yugoslavia's seat in the U.N. would only lead to
humiliation, and that the seat would eventualy be lost anyway.
``The 'verdict' is already prepared and secured,'' he said, adding
that Yugoslav membership in the U.N. has already been questioned by the
Europian Community and United States.
President of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Borisav Jovic, said
Panic, by planning to ask for U.N. membership for the new rump
Yugoslavia, ``objectively suppports demands by some countries to exclude
Yugoslavia from the United Nations.''
Jovic said a ``question of further confidence of the Socialist Party
must be placed in the government of Mr. Milan Panic.''
He added that the Belgrade government could not ``give up the policy
of preserving the continuity of Yugoslavia.''
In a separate statement, the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic
said Panic's plan would further internationally isolate the new rump
Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro.
The Serbian Prime Minister, Radoman Bozovic, held an emergency
session of his Cabinet Thursday morning and issued a statement warning
that ``the revocation of international continuity would lead Yugoslavia
to a state of formal isolation.''
The statement recalled conditions that other East European communist
countries had to comply with in order to be internationally recognized
and said bluntly that it would be ``unacceptable'' for the rump
Yugoslavia.
Bozovic's government listed a number of ``unacceptable conditions.''
These included a special minority status for Serbia's provinces of
Kosovo, Vojvodina and Sandzak where large numbers of ethnic Albanians,
Hungarians and Muslim Slavs reside.
Panic survived a no-confidence vote in the rump Yugoslavian
parliament on Sept. 4, after he warned lawmakers the federation would
face further isolation if it fired him.
Panic, a Belgrade-born U.S. millionaire, left his Californian
pharmaceutical plant and went to Belgrade at the invitation of Serbia
after U.N. sanctions were imposed on the republic on May 30.
The United Nations slapped the sanctions on Serbia for its
involvement in the the ongoing war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Panic was sworn in as prime minister on July 14 and promised to
introduce Western-style democracy and a free market economy to the
republic.
novine.14.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 179, 17 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
ABKHAZ UPDATE. Georgian troops and Abkhaz National Guardsmen
clashed near the Black Sea town of Gagra on 16 September despite
the new ceasefire agreement due to take effect at midnight on 15
September, Reuters reported quoting local journalists. Under the
terms of the new agreement, all troops subordinate to the
Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus must leave
Georgian territory within ten days. The first plenary meeting of
the CIS inter-parliamentary assembly in Bishkek issued a statement
expressing concern that the armed conflict in Abkhazia could
spread to neighboring states and calling for the disengagement of
troops and an immediate ceasefire, ITAR-TASS reported. It also
called on CIS member states to provide humanitarian aid to
Abkhazia. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KAZAKH-MEDIATED KARABAKH PEACE TALKS FAIL. A meeting in Alma-Ata
on 16 September between Armenian and Azerbaijani working groups
ended in deadlock after the Azerbaijani delegation announced that
it was not empowered to conduct negotiations and proposed a
meeting between the Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan, ITAR-TASS reported. The Armenians agreed in principle
on the condition that the Azerbaijani side first respond to the
ceasefire proposal made on 25 August by Italian mediator Mario
Raffaelli. A further round of talks was scheduled for early
October. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FALL IN RUSSIAN TRADE VOLUME CONTINUES. The Russian Ministry of
Foreign Economic Relations reports that the volume of foreign
trade over the first eight months of this year is 27% less than
that of the same period last year. The report, carried by
ITAR-TASS on 16 September, indicated that trade with former
socialist countries (former members of the COMECON trading group)
remains the weakest, down 48%. Trade with developed industrial
and developing nations was down 21% and 20% respectively. This
year's trade deficit at the end of August was $200 million, which
is an improvement over the deficit of $700 billion at the end of
July, but way down from last year's January-to-August surplus of
$6 billion. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LIBERAL REFORMISTS ATTACK GAIDAR. Two leading Russian reformers
have attacked the leadership of acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar.
Grigorii Yavlinski told the Italian newspaper La Stampa on 16
September that the "center"--by which he meant the Russian
leadership--has already lost control over the political and
economic processes at the periphery. According to him, Russia will
soon disintegrate if the executive does not change its policy and
reestablish its lost authority in the regions. Meanwhile, the
Russian Minister of Economics, Andrei Nechaev, told Ostankino TV
on the same day that his ministry has provided Gaidar's cabinet a
new economic project because Gaidar has no clear reform concept of
his own. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FORMER SOVIET DISSIDENT'S TESTIMONY STRICKEN BY CONSTITUTIONAL
COURT. On 16 September, former Soviet dissident, Pyotr
Abovin-Egides, testified as an expert witness on behalf of the
communist party (CPSU), Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. In a
rousing defense of the CPSU, he attacked Russian President Yeltsin
as well as former Soviet President Gorbachev and the coup leaders,
arguing that, thanks to them, "the West won the third world war
without a single shot." Abovin-Egides said the ban should be
lifted since it "sows cruelty and hatred, intolerance of ideology,
extremism, bitterness, confrontation and social disparity." After
a short recess, however, the court struck the dissident's
testimony from the record because Abovin-Egides had failed to
speak about the issues and had abused his rights as an expert
witness by making ideological rather than legal arguments. Court
Chairman Valerii Zorkin repeated an earlier warning to both
parties in the case on the inadmissibility of anti-constitutional
proclamations and political evaluations. (Carla Thorson, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
RUSSIA SUPPORTS PANIC, UN MEMBERSHIP FOR RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
Following talks on 16 September with the prime minister of
Serbia-Montenegro, Milan Panic, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev told reporters that Russia wants "the new Yugoslavia, that
of Milan Panic, to receive international recognition and to occupy
a worthy place in the family of civilized free peoples." Kozyrev
added that Russia fully supports Panic's intention to apply for a
UN seat for the "new Yugoslavia," and he stressed that Russia will
do everything possible to see "full membership of a peaceful
democratic Yugoslavia at the United Nations." (Suzanne Crow,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUTSKOI ON KOZYREV. Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi is
quoted by Interfax on 15 September as saying that Foreign Minister
Andrei Kozyrev will remain in his job. Two months ago, Rutskoi had
openly declared that he insists on the dismissal of Kozyrev. But
he asserted that other reform-minded government members may be
replaced at the next parliamentary session which is opening on 22
September. Rutskoi stated that the atmosphere at the session will
be "tense" because of "conflicting opinions over developments in
the Russian economy." (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN DECREE ON TAIWAN. Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a
decree on 15 September on "Relations Between the Russian
Federation and Taiwan," ITAR-TASS reported on 16 September. The
decree was issued, according to its text, because of "differing
interpretations of the position of the Russian leadership with
regard to Taiwan." To clarify the Russian position, the decree
states: "In its policy, Russia proceeds from the premise that only
one China exists and that Taiwan is an indivisible part of it.
Because of this, Russia does not maintain official interstate
relations with Taiwan." (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CIS INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY ENDS FIRST SESSION. The first
session of the newly created Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS
states in Bishkek ended with the adoptation of an Assembly statute
and the formation of five Assembly Commissions: for legal affairs,
economics and finance, social politics and human rights,
environmental problems, and security, ITAR-TASS reported on 16
September. Ruslan Khasbulatov said that his election as first
chairman of the Assembly demonstrates that the other CIS states
trust Russia. He stated that the Assembly is scheduled to become a
supranational parliamentary organ which will "neutralize many of
the negative processes characteristic of the CIS." (Alexander
Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CIS SUMMIT DELAYED. The leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Ukraine and Belarus have decided to postpone the next summit of
CIS state and government leaders which had been scheduled for
24-25 September to 9 October, ITAR-TASS reported on 16 September.
According to a statement issued by the Kyrgyzstan president's
press service, CIS leaders want to further examine some documents
which will be discussed at the summit in Bishkek. (Alexander
Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN BUSINESSMEN CALL FOR PARLIAMENT DISSOLUTION. Speaking at a
press conference in Moscow on 16 September, the co-chairman of
Russia's Party of Economic Freedom, Konstantin Borovoi, said his
party supports the dissolution of the Russian Congress of People's
Deputies and the parliament, Interfax reported. He said a
constituent assembly should be set up instead. Borovoi accused
the congress and the parliament of blocking economic reforms in
Russia. He said he believed that at the next session the Congress
would try to force Boris Yeltsin to resign. Borovoi said his
party supports the idea of holding a referendum on the dissolution
of the congress. (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MINISTERS VISIT NUCLEAR TEST SITE. Pavel Grachev and Viktor
Mikhailov, the Russian Ministers of Defense and Atomic Energy,
respectively, arrived on 16 September at the nuclear test site on
the arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. They joined the Commander in
Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Feliks Gromov, who had arrived
the day before. ITAR-TASS reported that the purpose of the visit
was to investigate both the state of the technology at the test
site and to inquire into problems facing personnel stationed on
the island. Since the shutting down of the Semipalatinsk nuclear
testing site in Kazakhstan, Novaya Zemlya has been viewed by the
Russian government as the likely main site for any future nuclear
arms tests. (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MORE SQUABBLES OVER BLACK SEA FLEET. Accordin to Interfax reports
on 15 and 16 September, a disagreement has broken out between
Ukrainian and Russian military authorities over the disposition of
two Naval academies in Sevastopol. Ukraine apparently wants to
take control of the schools, while Russian officials contend that
previous agreements place the academies under CIS jurisdiction.
Interfax also reported on 16 September that Black Sea Fleet
commander Igor Kasatonov has protested what he says are attempts
by Kiev to transfer parts of the Kerchensko-Feodosisky naval base
to Ukrainian jurisdiction. On the same day, the commander of the
Black Sea Fleet from 1983-1985, Aleksei Kalinin, said on
Sevastopol radio that Ukrainian Defense Minister Konstantyn
Morozov ought to be dismissed for what he described as illegal
actions leading to the weakening of the fleet. (Stephen Foye,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN TROOPS TO LEAVE CUBA BY MID-1993. The Cuban government
announced on 16 September that the Russian troops still stationed
in Cuba will be withdrawn by the middle of 1993. Western agency
accounts quoted the official announcement as saying the presence
of the troops had lost its meaning. The Soviets had what was
known as a "training brigade" stationed in Cuba as well as a
number of military advisors and a large intelligence facility.
When the formal talks on withdrawing these troops began in
September 1991, there were some 8,000 Soviet military and
intelligence personnel in Cuba. In February of this year the
Russians announced that the "training brigade" had been
unilateraly cut from 2,800 to 2,150 men. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
RUSSIA TO PAY INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY DEBTS. Western agencies
reported that Russia promised to pay its outstanding debts to the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The announcement was
made to the agency's board of governors on 16 September at their
meeting in Vienna. As the legal successor to the Soviet Union in
the IAEA, Russia must also pay outstanding contributions for 1991.
The reports said that Russia is responsible for around 13% of the
agency's yearly budget of $186 million, or some $24 million per
year. Russia would loose its voting rights in the agency should
the debts remain unpaid. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT COMPANY FORGES AMERICAN TIES. The Russian
Yakovlev Design Bureau has established a joint collaborative
business alliance with an American aircraft engine manufacturer,
Textron Lycoming's Turbine Engine Division. According to a 15
September company press release at the Farnborough air show in
England, the American company will initially supply turbofan
engines to replace the present engines on the small YAK-40
regional airliner. Lycoming could also supply the engines for the
next-generation YAK-48 executive business aircraft. (Doug Clarke,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
"RUKH" LEADERSHIP MEETS. The leadership of "Rukh" met on 12
September and decided to convene a session of its Grand Council on
19 September, DR-Press reported on 13 September. The Grand
Council will discuss questions related to the convening of the
Fourth Congress of "Rukh," which should be held at the end of
October. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GERMAN "REBIRTH" SOCIETY IN UKRAINE. The "Rebirth" society, which
groups together members of the German minority in the former
Soviet Union, held its official presentation in Kiev on 15
September, Radio Ukraine reported. The Kiev branch of "Rebirth"
works closely with the German Cultural Union, which has forty-two
centers in the former Soviet Union. The group's aim is to unite
all Germans interested in their history and culture. (Roman
Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF WAR IN TAJIKISTAN. The turmoil and fighting in
Tajikistan during the last four months has caused a serious
worsening of economic conditions in the country. ITAR-TASS
reported on 16 September that a lack of fuel in Dushanbe has
caused interruptions in public transport and in deliveries of food
to the capital. Tajikistan may be in for a difficult winter.
Foreign correspondents have reported seeing crops neglected in the
fields while rural people were fighting for or against the
now-deposed President Rakhmon Nabiev. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA TOPS THE CSCE PRAGUE MEETING'S AGENDA.
Representatives of the 52 states participating in the CSCE process
convened in Prague on 16 September for a three-day meeting. An
RFE/RL corespondent reports that the meeting will hear reports by
special investigators on the situation in Serb-controlled
detention camps, and on the possibility of the civil war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina spilling over into the Serbian province of
Kosovo and the independent Republic of Macedonia. CSTK reports
that Macedonia's application to join the CSCE process was rejected
at the meeting. The meeting will also focus on the situation in
Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MAZOWIECKI ON FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. Speaking at a press conference in
Prague on 16 September, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, former Polish prime
minister and currently a special UN rapporteur for human rights in
former Yugoslavia, said that human rights are being widely
violated on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Muslims in
particular are victims of wide-spread human rights abuses as well
as of ethnic genocide. According to Mazowiecki, the situation is
most serious in concentration camps and besieged towns. Mazowiecki
proposed the creation of an independent press agency, which would
inform about the situation in former Yugoslavia in an objective
manner. He warned that the conflict could easily spread to
Kosovo, Vojvodina, and the Sandzak. Mazowiecki ruled out military
intervention in Bosnia but suggested that UN peacekeeping troops
be strengthened so that they can intervene when needed. (Jiri
Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITTLE-KNOWN SIEGE OF NORTHERN BOSNIAN TOWN CONTINUES. The 17
September Washington Post reports that Serbian forces around
Sarajevo continued "their three-day-old tank offensive" against
the Bosnian capital on 16 September, despite UN pleas to register
the tanks with monitors. The Croatian media in recent days, for
their part, have also been reporting on the months-old siege of
Gradacac in northern Bosnia, which is on the strategic route
connecting Serbia with Serb-held areas of Bosnia and Croatia but
where there are no Western correspondents. Croatian military and
local Muslims have successfully resisted intensified Serbian
shelling, which has destroyed over 80% of the mainly Muslim town,
including its landmark medieval tower and central mosques. The
local Croatian commander said that the spirit of Croat and Muslim
defenders was good. Elsewhere, Slobodna Dalmacija on 16 September
said that Cardinal Franjo Kuharic consecrated Herzegovina's new
archbishop on 13 September in Neum, with Muslim leaders, including
the Mufti of Herzegovina, in attendance. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
BOSNIAN CROAT LEADER REJECTS COURT DECISION. Mate Boban,
president of the self-proclaimed state of Herceg-Bosna and
chairman of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that a ruling by the Constitutional Court
of Bosnia-Herzegovina annulling a decision by the Croats to form
their own republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina is "completely
unconstitutional." The "Community of Herceg-Bosna," established in
November 1991 and comprising municipalities in the south of
Bosnia-Herzegovina where Croats are the majority population,
declared itself an independent state on 3 July. Sarajevo Radio
quoted Boban on 15 September as saying that his party will
"ignore" the court's ruling. Srecko Vucina, spokesman for the
Croatian Defense Council (HVO) in Mostar, indignantly rejected the
ruling, which he says "seeks to discredit everything that the HDZ
and HVO have done so far in the defense of the area around Mostar
and Herceg-Bosna." (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HIGH-RANKING ROMANIAN OFFICIAL IN BELGRADE. Teodor Melescanu, a
state secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, arrived in
Belgrade on 16 September. In an interview with Radio Bucharest,
Melescanu said that he discussed issues of mutual interest with
officials in Belgrade, including recent Western initiatives to
exclude the Yugoslav rump state from the UN. In a separate
development, Traian Chebeleu, a spokesman for the foreign
ministry, reafirmed his country's willingness to accept foreign
observers to monitor the traffic to and from Serbia and
Montenegro. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PROTESTS LEBED STATEMENT. On 16
September spokesman Traian Chebeleu said a recent statement by
Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, commander of the 14th Russian Army in
Moldova, may cause serious harm to Romanian-Russian relations. On
Moscow's "Ostankino" TV on 14 September Lebed reportedly described
the Romanian flag as "the flag of [Marshall Ion] Antonescu and
Romanian fascists." Chebeleu said he finds such statements
"irresponsible and insulting" to Romania. Romanian Foreign
Minister Adrian Nastase summoned the Russian ambassador to
Bucharest to protest Lebed's statement. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
POLISH PRIVATIZATION MINISTER UNDER FIRE. The Sejm voted on 17
September to consider a motion to dismiss Privatization Minister
Janusz Lewandowski, who served in the same post for most of 1991.
The motion was submitted by the Confederation for an Independent
Poland (KPN) on the basis of a report by the Supreme Chamber of
Control (NIK), Poland's central auditing institution. The
government coalition parties say they will oppose the motion, and
Solidarity deputies condemned the KPN's attack on Lewandowski as
"a political game." NIK officials admitted on 16 September that
their criterion for evaluating the ministry's performance was the
letter of the law, not economic rationality. They also conceded
that their inspectors were not experts in privatization.
Lewandowski has argued that legal shortcuts were unavoidable in a
system where private business was just taking root. The Sejm is
also scheduled to debate the government's mass privatization
program. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT SETS "PACT" TIMETABLE. Meeting with union
representatives on 16 September, labor ministry officials proposed
that negotiations on the government's draft "pact on state firms"
conclude by the end of the month. Signing would be possible by the
end of October. The labor ministry recommended that the unions
send a joint representation to the talks; this would be a major
departure for Solidarity, which has refused to negotiate in tandem
with the former procommunist OPZZ federation. The government's
economic committee recommended setting as a target the production
of at least 50% of GDP (excluding agriculture) by private firms by
the end of 1994. The committee also recommended shutting down
seven of Poland's 26 steel mills by 2002, which would eliminate
80,000 jobs. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT EVALUATES LAST TWO YEARS. In a speech to
Parliament on 16 September, Prime Minister Jozsef Antall drew a
positive balance of the performance of his government during its
first two years in office, MTI and Radio Budapest report. He
stressed in particular that the legal framework needed for a state
based on the rule of law has been created through the parliament's
legislative activity and that the government has successfully
adjusted its foreign and economic policy to the changing
international environment. Antall admitted that economic problems
remain and that the government has to take unpopular measures in
switching from a command to a market economy. He stressed,
however, that his government has been able to keep the country
solvent and has launched the largest and most successful
privatization program in all of Eastern Europe. (Edith Oltay,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
ESTONIAN ELECTION UPDATE. The Estonian Ministry of Internal
Affairs plans no special security measures in northeastern Estonia
for the 20 September parliamentary and presidential elections.
Deputy Minister Juri Kaljuvee told BNS on 16 September that he
does not expect any provocations that day because local
authorities "have realized that the prospects for international
cooperation are better in Estonia than in Russia." Meanwhile,
Lennart Meri, a presidential candidate and former foreign
minister, has received a positive response from Council of Europe
Secretary-General Catherine Lalumihre on the establishment of a
special international commission to look into charges against his
father, diplomat Georg Meri. Lennart Meri proposed convening a
special commission after widespread reports last week that Georg
Meri was a KGB operative in the interwar period. In his letter to
Lalumihre, Lennart Meri said that the charges brought against his
father "are absolutely false, but have been arranged in order to
undermine my [presidential] candidacy," BNS reports. (Riina
Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIAN PARLIAMENT SESSION. At its 15 September meeting the
Supreme Council two deputy speakers, Laima Andrikiene and Ceslovas
Jursenas, were reelected, Radio Lithuania reports. Two laws--on
competition and on the bankruptcy of enterprises--were passed and
will go into effect on 1 November. Economics Minister Albertas
Simenas noted that the purpose of the competition law is to
prevent the formation of monopolies and thus allow consumers. to
purchase goods at lower prices. An agency will be formed to
monitor prices and a council composed of producer, consumer, and
government representatives will apply sanctions when necessary.
(Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIAN MODERATE MOVEMENT. On 16 September representatives of
the Moderate Movement held a briefing at the Parliament, BNS
reports. The movement intends to present a general list of 27
candidates for the Seimas elections who will also compete in
single mandate districts. The list is headed by parliament deputy
Eugenijus Gentvilas and includes in its top ten Albertas Simenas,
Minister without Portfolio Stasys Kropas, and Zigmas Vaisvila, a
former deputy prime minister. The movement's election program
calls for 350 of the largest enterprises not to be privatized.
Smaller businesses would be privatized under this plan, and
foreign investors would be given the right to purchase the land on
which the enterprise stands. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STOLOJAN PLEDGES MORE SECURITY IN THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN. At a
cabinet meeting on 16 September, Romanian Prime Minister Theodor
Stolojan ordered increased security for presidential candidates.
The move followed an attack on nationalist candidate Gheorghe
Funar in Timisoara the previous day. Funar, who runs on the
ticket of the Party for Romanian National Unity, had to be rescued
by police from a crowd of about 2,000 jeering protesters. In a
separate statement broadcast by Radio Bucharest, the government
deplored the incident and urged the Timisoara police to identify
the culprits. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PARFENOV TRIAL STARTS IN RIGA. The trial of Sergei Parfenov,
former deputy commander of OMON units in Riga, opened on 16
September, Radio Riga reports. Parfenov is charged with abuse of
power and will have to answer for attacks against civilians by
members of OMON, a special force under the jurisdiction of the
USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, in Sigulda and the Vecmilgravis
section of Riga in 1990 and Ainazi in 1991. Parfenov, who
considers himself a Russian citizen and his supporters in Tyumen
region want the case to be tried in Russia, while the Latvian
authorities, who obtained his extradition from Tyumen, believe
that the trial should be held in Latvia. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
BALTIC COUNCIL APPEALS TO CSCE. Leaders of the three Baltic States
have appealed to the CSCE to not let up pressure for withdrawal of
Russian troops from their territories because of the recent
Russian-Lithuanian agreement for early pullout, BNS reports. In
the joint communiqui issued by the Baltic Council after its 16
September Tallinn meeting, council members state that the Helsinki
Declaration requirements can be considered fulfilled only when
agreements [similar to that with Lithuania] are concluded and the
whole of the Russian military has left all the Baltic States.
(Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIAN SUPREME COUNCIL ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA. On 15 September
the Supreme Council adopted guidelines for further negotiations
with Russia regarding the withdrawal of troops. Diena of 15
September says the document calls for the unconditional withdrawal
of all troops by the end of 1993; the recognition that Latvia has
borders that have been fixed and recognized by international
treaties (especially the Latvian-Russian peace treaty of 11 August
1922); no naturalization of new citizens as long as a foreign army
is present in Latvia; and the necessity of Russian forces in
Latvia to act according to regulations approved by the Supreme
Council. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIAN-POLISH DEFENSE ACCORD SIGNED. On 16 September in Riga
Polish Minister of Defense Janusz Onyszkiewicz signed a military
cooperation accord, Radio Riga reports. Details were not
reported. During his three-day visit to Latvia, Onyszkiewicz met
with Latvian officials and saw military training facilities at
Sigulda and the naval harbor in Liepaja. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
DUBCEK'S CONDITION STILL SERIOUS. Two weeks after the car crash
in which he broke his spine, ribs, and pelvis, Alexander Dubcek,
leader of the 1968 Prague Spring and former chairman of the
Czechoslovak parliament, is still too ill to have further surgery.
Dubcek underwent an operation on his spine immediately after the 1
September accident. A statement from the Prague hospital treating
Dubcek, released by CSTK on 15 September, says that another
operation, as well as long-term rehabilitation, can take place
only after stabilization of the patient's condition and after he
is transferred to a specialized clinic. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
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Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
novine.15.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 180, 18 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
KULYAB APPEALS FOR CIS TROOPS. The authorities in Tajikistan's
Kulyab Oblast, a stronghold of support for deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, have appealed to the leaders of the Central Asian
states and Russia to send CIS troops to stop the fighting in
Tajikistan, ITAR-TASS reported on 17 September. Nabiev had asked
for a CIS peacekeeping force prior to his fall. The opposition
found the request provocative, but in recent days several
government and opposition figures have suggested that CIS military
help may be necessary to restore stability in the country. On 17
September, the government asked a CIS division stationed in
Tajikistan to help local Internal Affairs forces guard important
installations; the same day, ITAR-TASS reported that Kulyab guards
had taken control of the Nurek dam. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SHEVARDNADZE CRITICIZES ABKHAZ MONITORING COMMISSION. Georgian
State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze travelled to Sukhumi on
17 September, where he criticized as "ineffective" the tripartite
commission set up to monitor the 3 September Abkhaz ceasefire
agreement, Interfax reported. Shevardnadze complained that
fighters subordinate to the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of
the Caucasus still remain in Abkhazia. Speaking on Georgian
television, Georgian Defense Minister Tengiz Kitovani stated that
Georgia "will use force" if the troops in question do not leave
Georgia within ten days, Radio Rossii reported. A Turkish foreign
ministry spokesman stated on 17 September that Turkey will send 15
tons of food aid and medical equipment to Muslims in Abkhazia,
Western agencies reported. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY WARNS GEORGIA. A statement issued by the
Russian Defense Ministry on 17 September charged that Russian
troops and civilians in Georgia were being repeatedly attacked by
Georgian units, and warned that Russian forces reserve the right
to fight back. In particular, the Defense Ministry has blamed
Georgia for a helicopter attack that occurred last month on a
hydrofoil carrying Russian refugees and vacationers. While the
Defense Ministry claims to have "irrefutable proof" that Georgia
was behind the attack, Georgia has denied involvement. The
exchange was reported by ITAR-TASS and Western agencies. (Stephen
Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN DECREE RAISES ENERGY PRICES. Russian President Boris
Yeltsin signed a much-anticipated decree raising basic energy
prices, various Russian and Western news agencies reported on 17
September. Prices on oil products will double from the current
price of 1,800-2,200 rubles. Coal prices will rise 30%. According
to ITAR-TASS, the decree also eliminates the ceiling on oil
prices, replacing it with a tax structure that discourages setting
prices in excess of 4000 rubles. The report was not clear on
details of the new price-setting rules. To soften the impact on
consumers, the decree calls on the government to raise price
subsidies for household energy consumption, transportation, and
basic agricultural goods. Commenting on the inflationary impact
of the decree, government economic advisor Aleksei Ulyukaev said
that the government predicted an economy-wide increase in prices
of 20-25%. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GERASHCHENKO WARNS OF DRASTIC BUDGET CUTS. Outspoken Russian
Central Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko claims that the
government may be forced to make big cuts in spending in October,
ITAR-TASS reported on 17 September. He said that the government
had as yet only collected 40% of the revenue planned for the year.
Therefore, he asserted, "we may be forced to simply restrict the
expenditure side of the budget and keep it within the limits of
collected revenues." Gerashchenko suggested that the budget cuts
would be across-the-board and include social programs. The
government has recently predicted a 1992 year-end deficit of about
1 trillion rubles, significantly higher than the one approved in
its original budget. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GOVERNMENT UNDER ATTACK. Acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar was
quoted by the Russian TV program "Vesti" on 17 September as saying
that the government has lost its ability to maneuver. Gaidar's
first deputy, Vladimir Shumeiko, told journalists that some
personal changes will soon be conducted in the government,
Ostankino TV reported on 16 September. The right-wing
parliamentary opposition bloc "Russian Unity" demanded the
convening of an extraordinary congress which would replace the
government, according to ITAR-TASS on 17 September. The foreign
edition of ITAR-TASS's newspaper 24 reported on 17 September that
a decree for the appointment of Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi
as prime minister has already been prepared by President Yeltsin.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STANKEVICH FOR COALITION GOVERNMENT. Presidential advisor Sergei
Stankevich told Rossiiskie vesti on 17 September that he favors
the establishment of a coalition government which would include
representatives of the Civic Union and the democrats, but he did
not rule out the possibility of forming a more right-wing
coalition without the democrats. He criticized Gaidar's government
for its adherence to macroeconomic theories, and said he supported
the more cautious reform approach of the Civic Union. He listed
his major political achievements as follows: successfully
convincing President Yeltsin to adopt policies that strengthen the
Russian state, solving the crisis in the Trans-Dniester region,
and drawing greater public attention to the problems which
Russians are experiencing in the non-Russian former Soviet
republics. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GAIDAR ON INCREASING ARMS EXPORTS. Prime Minister Egor Gaidar,
currently touring various cities in Russia, said in Tula that the
government would permit increased arms exports, according to
Russian news agencies on 16 and 17 September. Gaidar suggested
that weapons producers would be allowed to directly contract with
foreigners for the sale of output, as long as the deals in
question were not covered by state orders and were approved by the
government. He emphasized that increasing the opportunities for
sales abroad would not mean weakening government control and
supervision of weapons exports. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LAWYER DEFENDS COMMUNIST PARTY IN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT. Speaking
on 17 September at the Constitutional Court hearings on the
Communist Party, Defense Attorney Boris Lazarev said Yeltsin's
decrees first suspending and then banning the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union and Russian Communist Party were illegal, since
at the time of their adoption only the Soviet Supreme Court had
the right to make decisions on the status of political parties.
ITAR-TASS quoted Lazarev as calling Yeltsin's leadership
"incompetent." Lazarev also rejected the accusation that the CPSU
was "unconstitutional." The lawyer argued that there was no
legislation in the country defining the "constitutional
responsibilities of parties" at the time when Yeltsin's decrees
were adopted. (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CORRUPTION IN RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY? Vasilii Lipitsky, leader
of the People's Party of Free Russia, commonly known as "the party
of [Vice-President] Aleksandr Rutskoi," has appealed to President
Yeltsin and the Russian parliament, requesting that they
investigate corruption in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Writing in the 37th issue of Megapolis Express, Lipitsky says that
representatives of his party had been unable to attend the current
session of the Socialist International in Berlin, to which they
had been invited, because the Foreign Ministry failed to provide
them exit visas. Instead, they were advised to seek visas in a
private "co-operative" firm, run by foreign ministry officials who
sell exit visas for their private gain. The party, Lipitsky
writes, refused to be served by such a "co-operative" out of
principle. (Yeltsin's decree on the fight against corruption
forbids governmental officials from becoming involved in
commercial activities.) (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV FAVORS GENERAL CIS CITIZENSHIP. The Chairman of the
Interparliamentary Assembly, Ruslan Khasbulatov, favors the
establishment of a common citizenship on the territory of those
CIS member states who support the new Assembly, Nezavisimaya
gazeta reported on 17 September. He also suggested that the
Russian Foreign Economic Bank should take complete control of all
CIS foreign currency accounts. Meanwhile, the Russian first
deputy parliamentary speaker, Sergei Filatov, revealed in an
interview with Moskovskie novosti (no.38) details on his political
battle against Khasbulatov at the most recent Congress. Filatov
attacked Khasbulatov for building a personal dictatorship in the
parliament, and hinted that the speaker may soon be replaced.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LUKYANOV SAYS COUP LEADERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE DECISIVE. Former
Soviet parliament chairman, Anatolii Lukyanov, who is now in jail
on charges of participating in the attempted coup last year, gave
an interview to Nezavisimaya gazeta on 17 September. Lukyanov
said that he would act more decisively if the August events were
repeated today. He said that the Committee for the State of
Emergency, which tried to seize power after putting Gorbachev
under house arrest in August 1991, was poorly conceived and
organized. (Lukyanov was not a member of the committee). Lukyanov
said the committee's actions were not a coup but rather an attempt
to rescue the Soviet socialist system. He said that he still
supports "full-blown Soviet power and a renovated Soviet
federation." (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NO RUSSIAN NAVAL BASE AT NOVOROSSIISK. Black Sea Fleet commander
Admiral Igor Kasatonov said on 16 September that Russia has no
plans to build a naval base in Novorossiisk because the port there
is inadequate for heavy naval traffic. His comments come as
Russian access to Ukrainian Black Sea ports is becoming
increasingly limited and follows the evacuation of Russian naval
personnel from the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti. (Stephen Foye,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
MOROZOV ON UKRAINIAN MILITARY REFORM. Ukrainian Defense Minister
Konstantin Morozov said in an interview in Krasnaya zvezda on 17
September that Kiev intends to build two operational commands on
the basis of the three existing military districts in Ukraine. He
also said that a new service -- the Air Defense Troops -- would be
formed by combining two currently existing force branches
(presumably the Air Force and Air Defense Forces. See Krasnaya
zvezda, 5 September). The interview was summarized briefly by
"Novosti." This past summer the commander of the Ukrainian Air
Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Mikhail Lopatin, had criticized proposals
to subordinate his forces to the Air Force (see Krasnaya zvezda, 1
August). (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS WANT TO KEEP MISSILES. At a conference
in Washington on 16 September, members of the Ukrainian parliament
indicated that Ukraine might balk on its pledges to transfer
ex-Soviet long range ballistic missiles to Russia for destruction.
According to a UPI account of the meeting, parliamentarian Yurii
Kostenko said Ukraine must retain these weapons on its territory
for "national security reasons." The Ukrainian legislators told
the conference that the republic needed the considerable amount of
hard currency that the enriched uranium in the warheads would
bring on the open market. (The United States has recently agreed
to buy the enriched uranium from Russian nuclear weapons in a deal
that some experts estimate might ultimately be worth $5 billion.)
Other CIS representatives at the conference cautioned that the
Ukrainian statements were not those of the government. (Doug
Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
COMPETING DEMONSTRATIONS IN KIEV. On 16 September, the second day
of the new parliamentary session in Kiev, Ukrainian lawmakers
arriving for work were greeted by demonstrators and pickets
defending opposite points of view. DR-Press reports that in the
morning war and labor veterans with red flags and portraits of
Lenin were demanding an improvement of their overall situation.
They were joined by activists from the Socialist Party of Ukraine
and the "Toiling Ukraine" Association. Several hours later
demonstrators from "Rukh" arrived with the national blue and
yellow flag and stayed until the end of the day. In the meantime,
the parliament discussed a package of economic legislation. (Roman
Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UN OBSERVERS INVITED TO TAJIKISTAN. The UN delegation that arrived
in Tashkent earlier in the week in response to an urgent plea from
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has received an invitation from the
government of Tajikistan to visit that country as well,
Khovar-TASS reported on 17 September. Karimov had asked the UN to
send representatives to examine the destabilizing influence in the
Central Asian region of recent events in Tajikistan. The
invitation from the Tajik government promises that the visitors
will be given an opportunity to meet leaders of a variety of
political parties and movements. The Tajik authorities are
presumably eager to present their version of events to the outside
world. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV MEETS WITH KAZAKHSTAN'S GERMANS. On 17 September, on
the eve of his official visit to Germany, Kazakhstan's President
Nursultan Nazarbaev met with representatives of the country's
German population and reiterated promises to do everything
possible to make continued residence in Kazakhstan a more
attractive option than emigration, KazTAG-TASS reported on 17
September. The German representatives requested that Nazarbaev
raise the issue of assistance promised earlier by German
government officials which has not materialized; they would also
like to be able to travel to Germany without a visa. Nazarbaev
earlier said that an autonomous German region would not be set up
in Kazakhstan. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
IZETBEGOVIC PROTESTS SERB ATTACKS. The BBC on 17 September said
that the Bosnian president urged the UN to take action in the wake
of Serb air attacks on four Bosnian cities or towns. The Security
Council is expected to discuss soon proposals for setting up a
"no-fly zone" over the troubled republic, where only the Serbs
have aircraft. Meanwhile, the Serbian bombardment of the Bosnian
capital entered its fourth day, and Sarajevo Radio said that it
was the worst shelling since the Serbs began the war in Bosnia in
the spring. The 18 September Washington Post quotes the UN
commander in Sarajevo as saying that "this is not the atmosphere
to implement the UN mandate." Both sides seem to be trying to
consolidate their positions before winter sets in next month.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BOSNIAN PEACE TALKS TO OPEN IN GENEVA. International media report
that the latest round of UN- and EC-sponsored negotiations is
slated to start on 18 September, with mediators meeting separately
with each of the three warring sides. There has been much public
posturing in recent days, especially by Serbian and Muslim
leaders. The Muslims threatened at one point to boycott the
gathering, while the Serbs say they will press for a partition of
the republic, which is a nonstarter for the Muslims. Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman is known to be mistrustful of the Muslims
and supportive of partition, but most Croatian politicians argue
that no lasting peace is possible without the Muslims, and that
Croatia's own state interests require Zagreb to insist on the
sanctity of existing frontiers. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
IS "ETHNIC CLEANSING" SPREADING TO THE SANDZAK AND VOJVODINA? The
9 September Split independent weekly Nedjeljna Dalmacija reported
at length on moves by Serbian irregulars in Montenegro to
intimidate local Muslims with the at least tacit cooperation of
Montenegrin authorities. Most of the action has taken place in
the ethnically mixed Sandzak area, but Muslims and Albanians have
also been forced to flee Podgorica, the capital, for safer havens.
Serbs blame the tension on "Islamic fundamentalists," but the
paper said that the pressures seem to be coming almost exclusively
from the irregulars, many of whom are outsiders who drift in and
out from the front in Bosnia. Elsewhere, on 17 September Western
news agencies carried related stories, with one account saying
that 69,000 out of 400,000 Muslims had fled the Sandzak in the
face of "provocations." Other accounts told of similar moves
directed at the ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina. (Patrick Moore,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
ATTEMPT TO EXPORT ARMS TO FORMER YUGOSLAVIA STOPPED. Czechoslovak
TV reported on 17 September that a private Czechoslovak firm,
Ikona Frydlant, attempted to export five Soviet-made MI-8 attack
helicopters to former Yugoslavia, most likely to Croatia. At least
one of the helicopters was obtained in Poland. The shipment was
stopped by Czechoslovak authorities. An official at the Ministry
of Foreign Trade said that under Czechoslovak law the company's
officials cannot be punished but the helicopters can be
confiscated. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BULGARIAN, MACEDONIAN OFFICIALS MEET. Bulgarian Prime Minister
Filip Dimitrov met with a delegation of officials from the
Republic of Macedonia led by Vice President Jovan Andonov on 17
September, an RFE/RL correspondent reports. Present for the
discussions, which focused on trade and other economic issues,
were Rumen Bikov and Aleksandar Pramatarski, Bulgarian ministers
of trade and industry, respectively, and Petrush Stefanov,
minister of economics of the Macedonian republic. (Duncan Perry,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
SLOVAK FOREIGN MINISTER TO BUCHAREST. On 16 and 17 September Milan
Knazko, minister of international relations and vice-president of
the Slovak government, paid an official visit to Romania. Knazko
held talks with Foreign Minister Adrian Nastase, Trade and Tourism
Minister Constantin Fota, and other Romanian officials. He was
also received by Prime Minister Theodor Stolojan. The talks
focused on political, economic and cultural cooperation. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GERMANY TO SEND BACK ROMANIAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS. The German Interior
Ministry announced on 17 September that Bucharest agreed to take
back thousands of Romanian citizens who failed to obtain political
asylum in Germany. Western agencies said that German Interior
Minister Rudolf Seiters will sign an agreement on the deportation
next week in Bucharest. Deportations will begin on 1 November.
So far this year, more than 43,000 Romanian citizens--of whom
about 60% are Gypsies--have applied for asylum in Germany. Romania
declared itself ready to accept even those refugees who had
destroyed their identity papers in order to prevent repatriation.
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIANS PROTEST SOCCER INCIDENT IN BRATISLAVA. According to
CSTK, 16 people were injured on 16 September in Bratislava during
a European Championship Cup match between Slovan Bratislava and
Ferencvaros Budapest. It was not clear how many injuries were
caused by police called in to suppress fights between Slovak and
Hungarian fans, but CSTK described the police action as "brutal."
250 policemen took part in the action. The Hungarian Foreign
Ministry made an official protest to Czechoslovakia. Hungarian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Janos Herman told MTI that video films
and eyewitness accounts indicate that the Slovak police
indiscriminately beat up and seriously injured many of the
estimated 7000 defenseless Hungarian fans. Some Hungarian police
officials who witnessed the incident, however, defended their
Slovak colleagues saying that Hungarian fans provoked the police
action. (Jiri Pehe & Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LEWANDOWSKI SURVIVES DISMISSAL VOTE. Voting on 18 September, the
Sejm narrowly rejected a motion to dismiss Polish Privatization
Minister Janusz Lewandowski. The vote was 189 to 174 with 36
abstentions; the abstentions counted as "no" votes. The
postcommunist and patriotic-fundamentalist opposition parties
banded together in the attack on Lewandowski. The KPN, which
sponsored the motion, had based its charges on a state audit for
1991 that criticized the privatization ministry for undervaluing
state assets and overspending on foreign consultants. The KPN did
not conceal, however, that its larger aim was to bring
privatization to a halt. The close vote reveals the fragility of
the government's parliamentary base and suggests that new
challenges from supporters of state socialism are likely. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT COUNTERS COALITION SPECULATION. Although
cabinet members admit that the government needs 30 more votes in
the Sejm to secure a stable majority for its programs, the prime
minister's press secretary told Polish TV on 17 September that
"the government is not considering expanding the coalition." Jan
Maria Rokita, minister for public administration, said the same
day that "we aren't going to beg anyone for help." The government
has nothing against expanding the coalition to include the Center
Alliance or the Peasant Party, he said, but the initiative would
have to come from the parties themselves. The Center Alliance,
which had walked out on the original coalition at the last minute
in July, met outside Warsaw earlier in the week to
debate--apparently inconclusively--whether to join the hard-line
opposition or parley for a place in the government. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SAVOV UNDER ATTACK IN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. Stefan Savov, president
of the Bulgarian National Assembly, is under fire from opponents
in the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the predominantly Turkish
Movement for Rights and Freedoms, an RFE/RL corespondent reports.
Savov, who has been accused by his detractors of bias and
intolerance regarding those who do not share his views, is
currently the head of the Democratic Party, an organization which
is part of the ruling Union of Democratic Forces coalition. The
proceedings could begin against him as early as 18 September and
will likely generate bitter debate. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIAN-RUSSIAN TALKS ON RETURN OF KGB FILES. On 16 September
the two delegations discussed the return of KGB files, the RFE/RL
Lithuanian Service reports. The deputy chairman of the commission
to return KGB archives, Sajudis chairman Juozas Tumelis, noted
that although the talks were long and boring, they were positive
since Russia no longer disputes Lithuania's right to have them.
Expressing concern that the files on the so-called "national
defenders" might be used to prosecute these agents for genocide,
Russia said that they should remain in Russia under joint control.
Lithuania, however, would only agree to this if they were kept in
a third country. Groups of experts are to prepare a protocol on
limiting access to the files, especially for journalists, for the
next meeting, scheduled for 2 October. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM LITHUANIA. The Lithuanian
government commissioner for army withdrawal problems, Stasys
Knezys, noted that Russia has started serious preparations for its
troops to leave Lithuania by asking permission to take out
equipment and other property, BNS reported on 17 September.
Household goods are removed first, followed by military cargoes
and fighting equipment. Battle equipment has been taken apart and
removed only from missile complexes such as those near Klaipeda
and Vilnius. Knezys noted that the number of Russian troops has
decreased by 12,000 since the beginning of the year due to
Lithuania's efforts not to allow new recruits. (Saulius Girnius,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
ELECTION CONTROVERSY HEATS UP. A three-member team of
investigators appointed by rival election coalitions in Estonia
has found no evidence of KGB collaboration among the four
candidates standing for president in the 20 September elections,
BNS reports. The investigative commission, however, confirmed the
authenticity of documents suggesting that the father of
presidential candidate Lennart Meri was a high-level KGB agent.
Meri denies charges that his father, interwar diplomat Georg Meri,
was a collaborator, but the commission's findings have rocked the
Lennart Meri campaign just three days before elections. (Riina
Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BALTIC ADMISSION TO CE EXPECTED AFTER ELECTIONS. The Baltic
States are expected to be admitted as full members of the Council
of Europe after they hold new parliamentary elections. Currently
they have a guest status. The decision to admit each country
separately came at the request of the EC Executive Commission
after it had considered a report critical of Estonia's treatment
of its Russian minority, according to RFE/RL correspondent's
report of 15 September. Latvian Supreme Council deputy Andrejs
Pantelejevs told the press on 16 September that the Baltic States
can hope to become EC members sometime in 1993, but not
simultaneously, since the pace of political development in each
country is different. He also noted EC objections to capital
punishment, which is still allowed in the Baltics, BNS reports.
(Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NATO TO TRAIN BALTIC OFFICERS? An Estonian defense official says
that NATO is willing to help train Baltic officers. According to
BNS of 17 September, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Col. Raul
Luks said NATO officials had issued Estonia invitations for five
officers to study at the organization's schools in Rome and
Stuttgart. Luks was given the invitations at a NATO seminar held
this week in Brussels. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIA RATIFIES ACCORD WITH CE. On 16 September the Latvian
Supreme Council ratified an accord with the European Community on
commercial and economic cooperation. The ten-year agreement
signed on 11 May, grants Latvia most-favored-nation status in
trade with EC member states and can be renewed every year
automatically if neither side objects. On 16 September the
Latvian Supreme Council also ratified the 1 March 1954 Hague
Convention which, among other things, restricts the use of
weapons, BNS reports. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SKODA PLZEN TO STOP PRODUCTION. CSTK reported on 17 September
that Skoda Plzen, the largest heavy-engineering plant in the Czech
Republic, will cease production on 1 October because of lack of
cash. According to plant officials, the shortage is caused partly
by the fact that Czechoslovak State Railways owes the company 1.3
billion koruny that cannot be collected. The company itself owes
4.4 billion koruny and creditor banks have refused to postpone the
payment. Earlier this year, Skoda Plzen successfully concluded
several joint venture deals with Western companies, including the
German firm Siemens. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND'S STRIKE BALANCE. With the resumption of production at the
FSM auto plant in Tychy on 17 September, relative labor peace
returns to Poland. FSM's management rehired all those fired for
organizing the 55-day strike there. Poland's statistical office
reports that the August strike wave did not affect the overall
level of industrial production, which in August exceeded 1991
levels for the fifth month running. Thirty strikes ended in
August, including twelve in the copper mining and smelting
industry. Some 30,000 workers took part. Prime Minister Hanna
Suchocka met with Solidarity leader Marian Krzaklewski on 17
September to open talks on the "pact on state firms." Krzaklewski
said that Solidarity would not negotiate jointly with the former
official OPZZ federation, a measure the government hoped would
save time. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU), on the
Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.
For inquiries about specific news items, subscriptions, or
additional copies, please contact:
In USA:
Mr. Jon Lodeesen or Mr. Brian Reed
RFE/RL, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036.
Telephone: (202) 457-6912 or -6900
fax: (202) 457-6992 or -202-828-8783;
Internet: RI-DC@RFERL.ORG
or in Europe:
Ms. Helga Hofer
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novine.16.bale.,
UPI NEWS, 21.09.92. ---------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav peace chief warns Bosnian Serb leader
Subject: Fighting, shelling resume in Sarajevo after day-long break
Subject: Serb-organized protests by women, children block aid convoy
Subject: Bosnia-Hercegovina rejects ``ethnic cleansing'
Subject: Bosnian leader urges U.N. to enforce terms of London peace conference
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Subject: Yugoslav peace chief warns Bosnian Serb leader
Date: 21 Sep 92 14:58:28 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance warned Radovan Karadzic,
leader of the Bosnian Serbs, during the weekend that continued fighting
in Sarajevo may bring peace efforts to a halt, U.N. sources said Monday.
Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the U.N., said he could not confirm the
report although he said that Vance and Karadzic met in what he described
as a ``one-on-one situation'' Sunday.
``But it is clear that if the fighting in Sarajevo continues the
search for a political solution is going to intensify as the fighting
intensifies,'' Eckhard told a news conference.
``This could be a last spasm of fighting or it could be a renewed and
more deadly flareup -- we just don't know. But it is not going to make
the climate in the political talks easier.''
Karadzic left Geneva Monday along with other delegates, although all
three factions involved -- Serbs, Croats and Muslims -- promised to keep
delegations in place to continue talking with U.N. official Martti
Ahtisaari.
Ahtisaari will continue talks through the week, while Vance and Lord
David Owen, the European Community's mediator, will fly to Greece
Tuesday for a one-day visit to discuss the crisis in ex-Yugoslavia,
Eckhard said.
Eckhard said this was part of a program under which Vance and Owen
would visit all neighboring states of the former republic to discuss its
future in the wake of its breakup.
Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said it was awaiting
replies from the 19 nations involved in its airlift to Sarajevo before
deciding whether to resume aid flights.
All three parties involved in the conflict agreed Saturday that
security guarantees would be given to U.N. aircraft flying into and out
of of Sarajevo airport.
But a UNHCR spokesman said High Commissioner Sadakao Ogata was
consulting with the 19 and would not announce when the airlift would be
resumed before she had agreement from all of them.
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Subject: Fighting, shelling resume in Sarajevo after day-long break
Date: 21 Sep 92 16:22:20 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Heavy fighting raged Monday
around Sarajevo, shattering a one-day lull in serious strife and cutting
power to most of the city in what the Bosnian government charged was a
Serbian breach of a new internationally brokered accord.
Shellfire and infantry duels began around 8 a.m. across the tree-
studded ridgelines and slopes of Zuc mountain, which divides the
Bosnian-controlled northern verge of Sarajevo and Serb-held areas around
the town of Vogosca, and raged throughout the day.
Fighting and shellfire also flared in several neighborhoods near the
downtown and convulsed hotly contested western suburbs near the U.N.-
controlled airport, witnesses and news reports said.
The Health Ministry said that at least 22 people were killed and 64
others injured in Sarajevo during the 24-hour period ending at 1 p.m.
They were among at least 55 people who died and 296 others who were
injured around the war-torn republic.
Shortly after 10 a.m., electricity was cut to most of the town. The
Bosnian government blamed the disruption on the destruction of a 110-
kilowatt feeder cable by Serbian forces bent on ``using electricity...as
a method of pressure against the citizens of Sarajevo.''
There was no independent confirmation of the charge.
The allegation was made by Energy and Industry Minister Rusmir
Mahmutcehajic in a letter to U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance and European
Community mediator Lord David Owen, the co-chairmen of the ongoing
Geneva peace talks.
Matmutcehajic said the alleged Serbian act violated an accord reached
in Geneva on Sunday in which the warring Bosnian factions agreed to
safeguard electricity and water sources.
He urged Vance and Owen to work for a return of electricity to
Sarajevo, which recently enjoyed a restoration of power after U.N.-
brokered repairs to Serb-sabotaged supplies.
The clashes and shelling also preceded the resumption in Geneva of
the latest round of internationally mediated talks on ending the war
that began when extremist Serbs, backed by neighboring Serbia, set out
in late March to capture a self-declared state.
The division of the newly independent former Yugoslav republic is
opposed by Bosnian forces, dominated by Muslim Slavs, but also including
moderate Croats and Serbs. But, they maintain an uneasy alliance with
Croatia-backed ultra-nationalist Croats seeking an autonomous enclave.
U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials were awaiting
word from Geneva on a final decision on the resumption of humanitarian
aid flights that were suspended when an Italian military plane was shot
down Oct. 3 as it approached Sarajevo.
Larry Hollingsworth, the chief UNHCR coordinator for the city, said
the city's population of an estimated 500,medicines available to the city,
which has been under Serbian blockade
for more than five months.
UNPROFOR sources confirmed serious fighting along the front spanning
Zuc mountain, where fierce clashes erupted on Friday as Serbian units
apparently sought to drive back Bosnian forces bent on breaking the
siege of the city.
Nirmin Silajdzic, a Bosnian officer in the frontline suburb of Hotonj
on the eastern edge of Zuc, said Serbian gunners laid down intense
artillery barrages in advance of a ``wave'' of infantry attacks, which
he claimed were beaten back.
``They can't manage to get through our lines,'' he said.
Witnesses said fighting then erupted around Stup, a western suburb
that tank-backed Serbian units have been trying to capture for just over
a week in an apparent attempt to consolidate their grip on the
potentially weakest point in their blockade.
UNPROFOR officers said artillery rounds flew over the top of their
headquarters on the western side of the city.
Explosions and gunfire marked outbreaks of clashes in Hrasno, located
about a half-mile from the city center, and Sarajevo radio said Serbian
shellfire hit parts of the downtown and the suburbs of Mojmilo and
Dobrinja.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured and in
excess of 1 million others uprooted by the war.
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Subject: Serb-organized protests by women, children block aid convoy
Date: 21 Sep 92 15:00:53 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Local Serbian authorities
organized protests by women and children to prevent a U.N. aid convoy
from reaching a beseiged Muslim Slav town in a new tactic that has
prompted a review of relief delivery plans, a U.N. official said Monday.
``It's easy to stop a convoy with women and kids, and it's very
difficult to do anything about it,'' said Larry Hollingsworth, the chief
U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) coordinator in the Bosnia-
Hercegovina capital of Sarajevo.
``The implications are very worrying,'' Hollingsworth said in an
interview.
He said that because of the incident, UNHCR is reconsidering plans to
send desperately needed food and medicines this week to Jajce, 105 miles
northwest of Sarajevo, a predominantly Muslim Slav town under intense
Serbian attack for weeks.
``We have to step back and watch,'' he said.
Hollingsworth said that he set out Friday to lead a convoy of seven
relief-bearing trucks and nine support and U.N. military protection
vehicles to Srebrenica, a Muslim Slav town about 50 miles east of
Sarajevo.
Murat Effendic, a Srebrenica official based in Sarajevo, said Serbian
fighters for more than five months have encircled and bombarded the
town, where at least 37,200 people are trapped with little food or
medical supplies.
Leaders of the self-declared state for which extremist Serbs are
fighting agreed to allow the UNHCR convoy into Srebrenica.
After driving virtually all night, Hollingsworth said, the convoy was
forced Saturday morning to abandon its original route by mines laid on a
road outside the Serb-controlled town of Milici.
The column detoured via Serb-held Bratunac, where ``we were stopped
on the main street by a large group of women dressed in black and
children,'' Hollingsworth said.
``They began to shout 'Why no food for us? Why should you feed people
who are killing us?' There were about 100 women and children. They
blocked the road completely and we just couldn't get through,''
Hollingsworth recounted.
He said the protesters demanded they be given the relief supplies
carried on half of the aid-bearing trucks.
``We went back to Milici to try again. When we got there, a bridge
was absolutely jam-packed with kids,'' he said. ``They were shouting 'Go
away, go back.' They were about five-years-old and up. They were being
orchestrated by two women in uniforms.''
``We tried to reason with them, but it was no use and the convoy
returned to Sarajevo,'' he said.
Hollingsworth said the protests were organized by local Serbian
leaders in an unprecedented tactic of the more than five-month-old war
to prevent U.N. relief supplies from reaching Muslim Slav recipients.
``We had approval from the topmost Serbian authorities to get in and
I have no doubt that they wanted us to get in. The protests were
orchestrated by local Serbs,'' Hollingsworth said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bosnia-Hercegovina rejects ``ethnic cleansing'
Date: 21 Sep 92 17:04:33 GMT
Geneva (UPI) -- The government of Bosnia-Hercegovina told United
Nations mediators Monday it rejects ``ethnic cleansing'' on its
racially-mixed territory and pledged that all racial groups would be
proportionally represented in state bodies in the future.
The pledge was made in a document handed by the Bosnia-Hercegovina
delegation to Cyrus Vance, the chief U.N. mediator in talks now going on
here on the future of the former Yugoslavia.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Haris Silajdzic told a news conference later
the document was proof of his country's good faith in the talks, largely
bogged down in mistrust for the past two weeks.
``Bosnia-Hercegovina is an independent, sovereign and internationally
recognized state of peoples with equal rights -- Croats, Muslims, Sedrbs
and all others,'' he said. ``We all have to live together.''
Silajdzic spoke as Vance and Lord David Owen, the European Community
mediator in the talks, continued their round of meetings with
representatives of the Serbian community in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the
Croatian minority and with the government itself.
The talks are a spinoff of the larger UN-EC peace conference which
has been going on here since early September.
Vance had earlier met with Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian
Serbs. U.N. sources said he had warned no meaningful progress was
possible until the fighting stops in Sarajevo.
Fred Eckhard, the U.N. spokesman, said it was hard to tell whether
the shooting which was going on Sunday night and early Monday was simply
the residue of previous fighting or a new outbreak.
Meanwhile United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata
continued her consultations with the 19 nations involved in the U.N.
Sarajevo airlift, on whether they are prepared to resume regular flights
ore not.
A test flight by a U.N. plane Sunday made it safely but U.N. sources
said despite the fact Mrs. Ogata had won written promises from all three
warring factions in Bosnia-Hercegovina on Saturday that they would
respect a resumed airlift, some countries are still wary of resuming
flights.
An Italian plane on U.N. business was shot down, apparently by a
missile, two weeks ago, halting the airlift. Mrs. Ogata's office said
she was hoping to resume it ``momentarily'' but did not yet have the
agreement of all 19 countries concerned.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bosnian leader urges U.N. to enforce terms of London peace conference
Date: 21 Sep 92 21:41:05 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The president of Bosnia-Hercegovina appealed
Monday for the United Nations to either enforce the terms of the London
peace conference among the former Yugoslav republics or lift sanctions
against his country ``to allow us to defend ourselves.''
President Alijah Izetbegovich told the U.N. General Assembly he
wanted to create a constitutional commission that would include all
ethnic and religious groups in his embattled republic to write a
constitution for a multi-ethnic society that would be a ``living and
breathing Jackson Pollack painting.''
He rejected the partition of his republic into warring enclaves of
Serbs, Croatians and Muslim Slavs as ``impractical and immoral,'' and
said if the United Nations could not enforce the terms of the London
peace conference ``then I ask you to allow us to defend ourselves,'' a
reference to the U.N. arms embargo in the region.
Izetbegovich's emotional appeal came amid a day of speeches to the
General Assembly by leaders from around the world, including one by
President Bush, who joined many other officials throughout the day in
discussing issues related to the war in the Balkins.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Velayati, whose Islamic government
strongly supports Muslim Slavs in Bosnia-Hercegovina, told the General
Assembly that the Bosnian Serb attacks on Muslims were ``crimes...with
few parallels in the post World War II.''
Velayati called for the Security Council to put an end to the Serbs'
``aggression'' and urged the Bosnian people to defend themselves. He
also said Iran would welcome any move to end the ``fratridical
bloodshed'' in Afghanistan and called for talks to settle communal
disputes in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
President Bush called Monday for the world body to strengthen its
ability to ``prevent, contain and resolve conflicts across the globe''
and offered to provide U.S. logistic and training facilities to assist
the peace-keeping effort.
But Bush, in a 30-minute address to the General Assembly, did not
mention whether he intended to pay the $733 million the United States
owes to the United Nations, which is facing a severe cash and personnel
shortage to carry out its peace-keeping operations.
Bush's remarks raised eyebrows in the hall because except for small
observer missions, the United States has never taken part in U.N. peace-
keeping activities since 1945, in part because the success of the U.N.
peace-keeping operations depend upon neutrality. The majority of
peacekeepers come from Nordic countries, Canada and non-aligned
countries.
The U.S. president, making his fourth appearance before the General
Assembly, strongly endorsed Secretary-General Boutros Ghali's ``Agenda
for Peace,'' which calls for the establishment of a standing army to
sent be immediately to areas where a conflict threatens to explode.
The standing army, to which each country would contribute one
infantry battalion, would be placed under United Nations command. Each
country would be called to defray the cost of maintaining the battalion,
thus easing the United Nations' cash crunch.
``I welcome the secretary-general's call for a new agenda to
strengthen the United Nations' ability to prevent, contain and resolve
conflicts across the globe,'' Bush said. ``I call upon all members to
join me and take bold steps to advance that agenda,'' he said.
The first speaker to the podium Monday was Brazilian Foreign Minsiter
Celso Lafer. Brazil has been the traditional first speaker to open the
political debate of the assembly, which this year comprises 179 member
states.
Lafer as well as Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock voiced support
for Ghali's Agenda for Peace. More than 40 heads of state and
government, and scores of foreign ministers have asked the right to
speak in the first three weeks of the 47th General Assembly session.
The war in Yugoslavia, reform of the United Nations and economic woes
in developing countries will receive particular attention from the
assembly.
novine.17.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 182, 22 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
ISKANDAROV WARNS TAJIK GROUPS TO STOP FIGHTING. On 21 September,
the chairman of Tajikistan's Supreme Soviet, Akbarsho Iskandarov,
issued a warning to the leaders of armed groups that are still
fighting each other in the countryside, ITAR-TASS reported.
Iskandarov, who is the acting president of the country, threatened
that if the fighting does not stop by 24 September, force will be
used to disarm the opposing sides. He did not say what force would
be used--Tajik militiamen have been ordered to stay out of the
fighting and the country has no armed forces of its own--but in
the last week various government and opposition figures have
suggested that a CIS peacekeeping force might not be a bad idea
after all. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KARABAKH UPDATE. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains
unclear, with Azerbaijani and Karabakh defense officials making
contradictory claims over casualty figures in recent days and
control of the Lachin corridor linking Karabakh with Armenia.
Interfax quoted Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossyan as stating
that a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would be "a good
prerequisite" for a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart
Abulfaz Elchibey. Addressing the UN General Assembly, Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati criticized the Security
Council for not sending observers to monitor Iranian-brokered
ceasefire agreements in Karabakh earlier this year. Velayati said
the Karabakh conflict can only be solved through negotiations,
preserving the territorial integrity of both states involved,
according to an RFE-RL correspondent's report. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA CONCERNED AT ABKHAZ CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS. Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Rozanov told a press conference in
Moscow on 21 September that Moscow is "most profoundly concerned"
that Abkhazia and Georgia are not complying with the terms of the
3 September Abkhaz ceasefire agreement, ITAR-TASS reported.
Georgian deputies to the Abkhaz parliament accused the Abkhaz of
"totally ignoring" the ceasefire. Meanwhile Georgian Defense
Minister Tengiz Kitovani extended the curfew in Sukhumi for a
further month and appointed Colonel Gubaz Urashvili as city
commandant to replace Giorgi Gulua. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CONFLICT IN PARLIAMENT. Right-wing factions in the Russian
parliament, organized in the "Russian Unity" bloc, plan to remove
President Boris Yeltsin and his reformist government from power,
Western news agencies reported on 20 September. "Russian Unity"
intends to form a government of national confidence and hold
parliamentary elections next year. The democrats in the
parliament prefer to defend Yeltsin and impeach the conservative
parliamentary speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov. The Civic Union seeks a
centrist role and opposes the removal of Yeltsin or Khasbulatov.
Meanwhile, acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar predicted that he
would survive an expected onslaught at the forthcoming session of
the parliament. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV ATTACKS GOVERNMENT. The speaker of the Russian
parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, attacked the government on the eve
of the opening of parliament. In an interview with Ostankino TV on
21 September, he strongly criticized Deputy Prime Minister for
Privatization, Anatolii Chubais, for "ignoring laws adopted by the
parliament." The liberal deputy Viktor Sheinis has warned of a
"personal dictatorship" by Khasbulatov. He told ITAR-TASS on the
same day that Khasbulatov wants to transform the parliament into a
"ministry for adopting laws." The first deputy speaker, Sergei
Filatov, accused Khasbulatov of creating a new
administrative-command system through the parliament, Radio Rossii
reported on 20 September. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
AVEN, MOZHIN ON YEAR-END ECONOMIC FIGURES. Minister of Foreign
Economic Relations, Petr Aven, and senior negotiator on debt
issues, Alexei Mozhin, told reporters in Washington that Russian
industrial production can be expected to fall 30% by the end of
1992, according to Western news agencies on 21 September. The
figure represents an accelerated decline from the 13-15% drop from
the period between last June and this June, 21.5% from July to
July, and 27.5% from August 1991 to August 1992. Aven and Mozhin
also said that September's inflation rate in Russia was 20%, much
higher than the 7-8% officially reported for July and August.
Despite the increase, Aven claimed, by year-end a 9% inflation
rate was a "realistic figure." (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GAIDAR CALLS FOR STRICTER FINANCIAL POLICIES. Russian Prime
Minister Egor Gaidar has added some detail to his call last week
for tougher fiscal and monetary policies. According to Interfax
on 21 September, Gaidar said at a conference in Moscow that since
April, national financial policy has been too lax. He devoted
particular criticism to the Central Bank for overly expansionary
credit policies, and to Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko personally
for interfering in strictly governmental affairs. "I would like
the Central Bank president to understand that he is responsible
not for investment policies, nor for socialist economy..., but for
monetary and credit policies," he said. Gaidar reportedly also
expressed his support for requiring Russian exporters to sell all
their hard currency revenues to the state at some fixed exchange
rate. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBACHEV, OTHER LEADERS, TO TESTIFY IN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT. The
Constitutional Court has agreed at last to call former CPSU
leaders to testify at the current hearings that will decide the
legality of President Yeltsin's decree banning banning the
activities of the Communist Party and confiscating its property,
Russian TV newscasts announced on 21 September. The leaders
invited to testify include former CPSU General Secretary Mikhail
Gorbachev, former leader of the Russian Communist party, Ivan
Polozkov, former Politburo members Egor Ligachev, Nikolai Ryzhkov
and Aleksandr Yakovlev, and the Director of the KGB and former
Minister of Internal Affairs, Vadim Bakatin. The "Novosti" anchor
reminded the audience of an earlier interview with Mihail
Gorbachev, during which the former General Secretary had declared
that he would never testify at the hearing, even if he were
delivered to the court in handcuffs. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
YELTSIN COULD SUSPEND BUT NOT BAN THE COMMUNIST PARTY, EXPERTS
SAY. Three of the four legal experts who have testified since the
Constitutional Court resumed its hearings on 15 September (Boris
Lazarev, Yurii Eremenko and Aleksei Mitskevich) have agreed that
only the first of the three decrees issued by President Yeltsin on
the Communist Party was justified. The decree, issued by Yeltsin
the day after the attempted coup against Gorbachev on 23 August
1991, stated that the activities of the Soviet and Russian
Federation's Communist Parties would be suspended until the court
investigated their involvement in the coup. Two other decrees,
dated 25 August and 6 November, 1991 respectively, announced the
confiscation of the party's property and a ban of its
organizational activities. According to the experts, only the
Russian Supreme Court, not the president, who is merely the chief
executive in Russia, is entitled by law to ban public
organizations and confiscate property. (Julia Wishnevsky,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN TO SIGN DECREE ON DEVELOPING DISPUTED ISLANDS. Sakhalin
regional government chief Valentin Fedorov has told a Japanese
newspaper that Russian President Boris Yeltsin intends shortly to
sign a decree promoting the development of the four southern Kuril
islands claimed by Japan. Fyordorov's interview was carried by
the Asahi Shimbun on 21 September, and was reported by UPI. He
told the newspaper that Yeltsin's decree would allow firms on the
islands to dispose independently of their products and would
simplify the procedures for setting up corporations, including
joint ventures, on the islands. On 18 September Nagao Hyodo, an
official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, warned Russia that a
plan for a Hong Kong firm to develop tourist facilities on one of
the islands was "unacceptable." He also expressed concern about a
reported deal in which an Austrian company would build a golf
course on another of the disputed islands. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
"GORBACHEV" CAR STOLEN. One of the three "Volga" cars of the
Gorbachev Foundation has been stolen, according to "Novosti" of 20
September. The "Novosti" anchor cited a Moscow police official as
suggesting that the crime must have been an inside job,
perpetrated by a person familiar with the workshift of the
Foundation's guards. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
JOUSTING OVER BLACK SEA FLEET CONTINUES. The press center of the
Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol said on 21 September that 50 officers
from the Higher Naval Academy in that city had taken the oath of
loyalty to Ukraine, bringing the number of officers that have
sworn loyalty to Ukraine to about 50% of the total. At the
Sevastopol naval engineering school, the rate was reported to be
over 60%. The figures were reported by Interfax. It also reported
that Russian and Ukrainian working groups were scheduled to resume
negotiations concerning the fleet on 23 September. On 18
September, Interfax had said that the talks were scheduled to
reopen on 21 September. (Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MEETING OF UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS. The foreign
ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Anatolii Zlenko and Andrei
Kozyrev, met in New York on 20 September, ITAR-TASS reported. The
two diplomats exchanged views on world affairs and problems
confronting the current session of the UN General Assembly.
Special emphasis was placed on preparation of the
Ukrainian-Russian treaty and economic relations between the two
countries. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE (AGAIN) THREATENS TO RESIGN. Having
threatened in late July to resign if Georgian troops used force to
quell armed resistance in Mingrelia by supporters of ousted
President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze again stated on
21 September that he would step down if ongoing violence threatens
to jeopardize the parliamentary elections scheduled for 11
October, according to Radio Tbilisi. Shots were fired during the
night of 21-22 September at the State Council headquarters in
Tbilisi but noone was injured, ITAR-TASS reported. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
PONTIC GREEKS FLEEING ABKHAZIA. Ethnic Greeks, of whom there were
14,664 in Abkhazia at the time of the 1989 census, are fleeing
Abkhazia and other southern regions of the former USSR in whole
families to escape persecution, according to a statement released
in Athens by the Pan-Hellenic Union of Pontic Fugitives and
summarized on 21 September by ITAR-TASS. The homes of many Greeks
in Sukhumi have been attacked by Georgian troops. The Greek
government has so far ignored repeated requests from the refugees
for assistance. Greek emigration from the USSR last year stood at
approximately 2,000 per month. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ACTING PREMIER APPOINTED IN TAJIKISTAN. Tajikistan's acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov has appointed Abdumalik
Abdullodzhanov acting Prime Minister to replace Akbar Mirzoev, who
resigned in August, ITAR-TASS reported on 21 September. Mirzoev
was a native of Kulyab Oblast and a close associate of deposed
President Rakhmon Nabiev. The 43 year old Abdullodzhanov is
apparently one of the new Tajik entrepreneurs--he has been general
director of a holding company called "Non" (Bread). (Bess Brown ,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV IN GERMANY. On 21 September, the first day of his
official visit to Germany, Kazakhstan President Nursultan
Nazarbaev told KazTAG and TASS correspondents that he had met not
only with German President Richard von Weisacker, but had
discussed financial help to German-populated regions of Kazakhstan
with Economics Minister Juergen Moelleman, and technical
assistance in reorganizing Kazakhstan's banking system with the
head of the Deutsche Bank. The bank is interested in investing in
extractive industries in Kazakhstan. An agreement was signed with
Siemens to build medical equipment and telecommunications
equipment factories in Kazakhstan. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN-MOLDOVAN TROOP TALKS. The second round of bilateral talks
on the status and terms of withdrawal of Russia's 14th Army from
Moldova, held on 16 and 17 September in Chisinau, "ended without
any results," Interfax reported. Moldovan delegation head and
ambassador to Russia, Petru Lucinschi, told the Moldovan media
that future negotiations will be "lengthy and difficult" and that
the chief gain thus far is Russia's consent to negotiate at all
and recognition that its troops are based in a sovereign state.
Lucinschi indicated that Moldova would agree to a withdrawal of
Russian troops by 1994 but that Russia would not discuss any dates
as yet. President Mircea Snegur assured the Russian delegates
that the Moldovan army would welcome in its ranks officers and
NCOs of the 14th Army after the latter's withdrawal. Snegur also
urged the inclusion of "Dniester" Russian leaders in the talks
since they will eventually have to persuade their people to accept
the Army's withdrawal. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA LINKS WITHDRAWAL T0 ADDITIONAL ISSUES. Russia's ambassador
to Moldova and chief delegate to the troop talks, Vladimir
Plechko, told the Moldovan media on 17 September that the talks
are based on the Yeltsin-Snegur convention of 21 July on settling
the conflict in eastern Moldova and on "other issues pertaining to
interstate relations." The statement confirms earlier indications
that Russia seeks to link an eventual withdrawal of the troops to
the Dniester conflict and other issues and obtain concessions from
Moldova on those issues. Russia also confirmed the decision,
taken at the first round of talks in August, to withdraw a pontoon
unit (nominally a regiment but currently down to battalion
strength) from Bendery on the right bank of the Dniester.
(Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT REACHES OUT TO GAGAUZ. In a conciliatory
gesture of a kind that has previously been spurned, Moldovan
President Mircea Snegur travelled to Comrat raion to meet with
"Gagauz republic Supreme Soviet Chairman" Mikhail Kendigelyan and
with the chairmen of the Soviets of the three raions in which the
Gagauz form majorities or pluralities of the population,
Moldovapres reported on 18 September. While the agenda of the
talks was kept confidential, Moldova's Presidential Office told a
RFR/RL Research Institute correspondent that Snegur offered the
Gagauz administrative-territorial autonomy in the form of a
"national county" within Moldova. The concept has been under
discussion for some time by a special joint commission of the
Moldovan parliament and government. Snegur invited Gagauz
representatives to Chisinau for negotiations on this basis in the
coming days. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GAGAUZ MILITANTS ERECT "BORDER" AGAINST MOLDOVA. The militant
Gagauz "self-defense detachments" commanded by Ivan Burguji, which
have been armed by ex-Soviet troops stationed nearby, and which
conducted several successful guerrilla attacks on Moldovan
authorities this year, have begun erecting a "border" to separate
the territory of the "Gagauz republic" from Moldova. The armed
detachments guard the "border," illegally subjecting travellers to
checks and searches. Moldova's Presidential Office feels that the
move is an effort to torpedo Snegur's negotiations with the
Gagauz. Although politically marginal among their people, the
"self-defense detachments" have previously frustrated attempts by
Gagauz moderates to reach a compromise with Chisinau. (Vladimir
Socor , RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
PANIC AT THE UNITED NATIONS. Western agencies report that Milan
Panic, Prime Minister of the rump Yugoslavia, arrived in New York
on 21 September and met overnight with the foreign ministers of
the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The
meeting, arranged by Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev at
the Russian Mission, heard Panic discuss a new peace proposal.
Panic will be allowed to appeal his country's status to the UN
General Assembly on the 22nd. In accordance with the UNSC
recommendation of the 20th, however, the assembly is expected to
vote in favor of excluding "Yugoslavia." US President Bush
addressed the UNGA on 21 September at the start of its three-week
debate on the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Bush called for
strengthening UN peacekeeping operations and offered the use of US
military facilities for the training of UN troops. (Charles
Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW FRAMEWORK FOR BOSNIA PROPOSED. On 21 September Bosnian Foreign
Minister Haris Silajdzic proposed a new constitutional framework
for the republic to the Geneva conference on Yugoslavia. The plan
would preserve Bosnia as a single state but decentralize some
functions to different regions. This is an apparent attempt to
appease Bosnian Serbs, who have called for partition of the
republic along ethnic lines, Western agencies report. Relief
flights have still not been resumed into Sarajevo, where severe
fighting continues. (Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW CHIEF MUFTI IN BULGARIA. On 19 September Fikri Sali Hasan, the
29-year-old regional mufti for Kardzhali, was chosen as grand
mufti of Bulgaria, Radio Sofia reports. His appointment was
announced at the conclusion of the National Conference of the
Muslim Faithful in Bulgaria, where 665 representatives of
congregations from throughout the country selected him. Hasan's
appointment brings to an end the conflict between reformers and
those who had supported Nedim Gendzhev, the former grand mufti,
who had been appointed during the communist years. Gendzhev was
accused of working for the state security apparatus and was
criticized for his passivity throughout the late 1980s when the
government attempted to force the Bulgarization of ethnic Turks.
(Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CZECHOSLOVAK FEDERAL ASSEMBLY TO DEBATE BREAKUP. The Czechoslovak
parliament is scheduled to debate a draft law on possible modes of
division of the Czechoslovak federation. The law provides for four
different ways of dissolving the federation, and the debate will
proceed along lines worked out by the two republics' leaders,
Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus and his Slovak counterpart,
Vladimir Meciar. It remains highly questionable, however, that
Parliament will approve legislation, which would require the
support of a three-fifths majority. Not only are large groups
among the opposition expected to vote against dissolution, but
individual representatives of the ruling parties are said to favor
a nationwide referendum on the future of Czechoslovakia rather
than having Parliament decide. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
REGISTRATION OF SEIMAS CANDIDATES COMPLETED. The deadline for
registering candidates for Lithuania's 25 October Seimas elections
was midnight 20 September. The chairman of the Main Election
Commission Vaclovas Litvinas announced that 8 political parties
and 18 sociopolitical movements have formally registered, Radio
Lithuania reports. There will be more than 800 candidates
competing for the 70 seats distributed proportionally, and more
than 400 candidates for the 71 single-mandate seats. Various
right-wing coalitions that signed the "Accord for a Democratic
Lithuania" on 19 September will at times compete against each
other in the single-mandate districts since their component parts
have registered 126 candidates. The lists of candidates will be
published in the newspapers on Friday. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
ANTALL DEFENDS CSURKA. Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall
said in a interview with Newsweek that the uproar surrounding
recent allegedly racist and anti-Semitic statements by Istvan
Csurka, one of six vice presidents of the ruling Hungarian
Democratic Forum, has been overblown and it is only a domestic
political issue. Antall also said that he does not believe Csurka
is a Nazi and that the statement Csurka published in late August
represents his own personal opinion. Csurka is a writer, a
Hungarian enfant terrible, "a devilish child in political life who
has a fancy for taking risks," continued Antall. In the same
interview, Antall said that Hungary will do everything possible
not to become involved in the Yugoslav crisis but strongly
supports autonomy for Hungarians living in the Serbian province of
Vojvodina. (Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HUNGARIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES. Tibor
Fuzessy, minister in charge of intelligence, counterintelligence,
and antiterrorism, said that Hungary is redirecting its attention
to neighboring countries instead of the West, MTI reports. This is
necessary because these countries are vigorously building up their
spy networks in Hungary. Hungarian agents, earlier employed in
the West, are being relocated to the neighboring countries,
Fuzessy said. Also, despite the cleanup in the security agencies,
most staff is left over from the communist past due to the special
nature of the work. New personnel in the agencies will come only
after years or even decades, Fuzessy said. (Karoly Okolicsanyi,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT IN ISRAEL. Arpad Goncz met on 21 September
with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during the Hungarian
president's four-day official visit in Israel, MTI reports. At a
joint press conference Goncz stressed that Hungarian Jews now
living in Israel are a most important bond between the two
countries and said that, despite the appearance of some "old and
dusty ideas," no responsible political force in Hungary tolerates
anti-Semitic or racist ideas. Rabin said that Israel is worried
about recent extremist and sometimes anti-Semitic incidents in
Europe, from which Hungary is not exempt, but expressed hope that
they are only the actions of a small minority. Goncz also met with
Jerusalem's mayor, and visited the Holocaust Memorial Park, the
Knesset, and Bethlehem. In the evening Goncz was received at a
reception hosted by Israeli President Chaim Herzog. (Karoly
Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ILIESCU QUIZZED ON RADIO BUCHAREST. As part of his campaign for
reelection in the 27 September election, Romanian President Ion
Iliescu was interviewed on Radio Bucharest on 21 September by four
journalists from some of the country's main dailies. Speaking
about his time in office, he described his decision to outlaw the
Romanian Communist Party, taken at an anticommunist meeting on 12
January 1990, as "a moment of weakness" (the decision was reversed
on the following day). But Iliescu was unrepentant about his role
in the wave of violence from mid-June 1990, claiming that he had
shown "patience, calm, self-control, and emotional balance." (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STOLOJAN MEDIATES LABOR CONFLICT. On 21 September Romanian Premier
Theodor Stolojan received members of a commission investigating
the labor conflict between the railway trade unions and the board
of directors of Romanian Railways. Four union leaders are
currently on a hunger strike to protest the signing of a
collective labor contract as well as their dismissal after having
organized two strikes in May. The four have refused food for more
than one month and recently announced their decision to refuse
liquids as well; doctors say this may lead to rapid death. The
commission informed Stolojan that the decision of Romanian
Railways to dismiss the union leaders is illegal, but the railway
administration insists it acted in accordance with the law. (Dan
Ionescu , RFE/RL, Inc.)
10,000 SOVIET TROOPS STILL IN POLAND. Polish officials announced
on 10 September that the withdrawal of former Soviet troops is
proceeding according to plan. Some 10,000 soldiers remain, along
with 63 armored carriers, 5,000 other vehicles, 4 transport
planes, and two helicopters. All combat planes and tanks are
already withdrawn. Gen. Zdzislaw Ostrowski, the Polish
government's plenipotentiary for the former Soviet troops, said
that most conflicts with the Russian forces had ended with the
departure of Gen. Viktor Dubynin, now serving as Russian chief of
the general staff. Still, the Russian side is failing to keep
Poland informed about the exact strength of its forces. The
biggest problem, Ostrowski noted, is dealing with the more than
7,000 buildings and bases vacated by the Russian forces. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIANS REQUESTED TO FILL OUT WEALTH INVENTORIES. The
Hungarian government is instructing taxpayers to fill out a wealth
inventory by 30 November 1992, Nepszabadsag reports. The move was
made to clamp down on widespread tax evasion, a main reason for
the present growing budget deficit. The wealth inventory will not
have direct tax benefits, but rather will serve as a base to
establish increases in incomes in the future and make the work of
the tax authorities easier. (Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIA'S FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER RESIGNS. Latvian Prime Minister
Ivars Godmanis announced on 18 September the resignation of
Minister of Foreign Trade Edgars Zausajevs. The official
explanation is that Zausajevs had taken a new job, although
Godmanis did not say what his new job is, Diena reports. It is
not known who will replace Zausajevs. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
LATVIA'S ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH TAIWAN. Upon his return to Riga
on 17 September, Godmanis reported to the press on his visit to
Taiwan. His delegation focused on economic relations and signed
an accord guaranteeing the protection of foreign investments in
Latvia. Taiwan expressed interest in using Latvian ports to
expand trade in Europe. While Latvia does not expect to upgrade
diplomatic relations with Taiwan, consular relations will be
inaugurated in the near future, BNS reported on 18 September.
(Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FOOD PROCESSORS' DEBT TO LATVIAN FARMERS GROWS. According to data
from the Ministry of Agriculture, food processing plants under
state jurisdiction are badly in debt to the farmers who supply
them with milk and meat. On 11 September the debt was estimated at
1 billion rubles and by 18 September the amount had grown to 1.3
billion rubles, Diena reports. Minister of Agriculture Dainis
Gegers noted that a credit of 600 million rubles was allocated to
food processing plants early in June so that they could repay the
existing debts and begin prompt payments to the farmers. Noting
that the credit must be repaid by 1 October, Gegers said he is
deeply concerned about the situation and does not rule out the
possibility of calling for the resignation of some plant
directors. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIAN ELECTRICITY PRICES UP IN OCTOBER. On 11 September the
government decided to raise prices on electricity in mid-October,
largely due to demands by countries exporting energy to Latvia for
payment in hard currency. Prime Minister Godmanis said that Latvia
will have to pay 120 million German marks a year to Estonia for
imported electricity. He noted that the economic crisis is likely
to worsen, since many enterprises are already unable to pay for
their energy needs, BNS reported on 14 September. (Dzintra Bungs ,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIAN ECONOMIC STATISTICS. On 21 September Radio Lithuania
reported a Statistical Department announcement that for
January-August 1992 sales of industrial production decreased by
about 45% from the previous year, resulting in losses of about 127
billion rubles. The average monthly wage in August 1992 as
compared with the same period in 1991, however, increased more
than ninefold to 7,668 rubles with the greatest increase (512
rubles) occurring in the last month. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
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RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 183, 23 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
SITUATION IN TAJIKISTAN. On 22 September deputies of
Tajikistan's Supreme Soviet went to the town of Kulyab to
negotiate with supporters of deposed President Rakhmon
Nabiev, who are fighting opposition forces in the southern
part of the country, AFP reported from Dushanbe. The same
source had reported the previous day that Dushanbe residents
had demonstrated all day in front of the Supreme Soviet
building, demanding arms to protect themselves against
attacks by pro-Nabiev forces. Also on 21 September the
independent daily Charogi ruz criticized the appointment of
Abdumalik Abdullodzhanov as interim prime minister, accusing
him of corruption and association with Tajikistan's economic
mafia. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AGREE ON CEASEFIRE. At a meeting in
Sochi on 19 September the defense ministers of Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia signed an agreement on a
ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier and a two-month moratorium on
military activity in the region, according to Krasnaya zvezda
of 23 September. The ceasefire is to take effect at midnight
on 25 September after which Armenia and Azerbaijan have
pledged to begin the "phased withdrawal" of troops from the
area. Observers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine,
Belarus and Kazakhstan will monitor the ceasefire. Whether
representatives from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
participated in the meeting and whether Karabakh defense
units consider themselves bound to comply with the ceasefire
is not clear. A three-day ceasefire along the border between
Nakhichevan and Armenia was agreed on 22 September,
Azerinform reported. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GAIDAR REPORTS ON STATE OF THE ECONOMY. Russian Prime
Minister Gaidar presented a dim evaluation of the Russian
economy to parliament on 22 September, various Russian and
Western news agencies reported. Gaidar said that from August
1991 to August 1992 industrial production had fallen 27%. In
the agricultural sector, although grain production is up from
last year, cattle and poultry stock have dropped
substantially. Milk production is down 17% and eggs 12% from
last August's levels. Unemployment was officially 300,000 in
August and expected to quintuple by year-end. Gaidar also
confirmed that the budget deficit stood at 101.3 billion
rubles at mid-year, which is 7.5% of GNP, higher than the 5%
promised the IMF. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUBLE DOWN, INFLATION UP. The ruble dropped 14.7% in
value against the dollar on 22 September, according to
various Russian and Western news agencies. The dollar reached
241 rubles, up from the 205.5 at the previous Thursday's
trading on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. The
direct cause of the change was attributed by some observers
to the recent announcement of energy price increases. Recent
reports have also borne out expectations of increased
inflation, a significant factor in exchange rate
fluctuations. Russian government officials have said
September's inflation rate is running at 20%, up from
July-August's 7-8%. Prime Minister Gaidar told parliament on
22 September that consumer prices had risen 15 times between
last August and this August. This is significantly higher
than the officially reported thirteen-fold increase from June
1991 to June 1992. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA SUSPENDS CREDITS TO UKRAINE. Prime Minister
Gaidar, speaking before the Russian parliament on 22
September, said that the Central Bank is suspending ruble
credits to Ukraine, according to ITAR-TASS. Gaidar said
credits would not be forthcoming until the two states worked
out an agreement on trade payments. The controversy over
Russian credit to other CIS republics erupted earlier this
week, when reform parliamentarians accused the central bank
of giving away Russia's "national wealth" by lending Ukraine
hundreds of billion of rubles. According to Western news
agencies, Ukraine government officials are very displeased
over the suspension. First Deputy Finance Minister Viktor
Ilyin is quoted as saying that "The action will lead to an
even greater crisis because Ukrainian firms are likely to
stop supplying Russian customers." (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
MINISTRY OF FINANCE FORECASTS YEAR-END FOOD PRICES. A
report published by the Ministry of Finance suggests what the
Russian consumer may expect in food prices by the end of
1992. The forecasts of what appear to be retail trade prices
were reported by ITAR-TASS on 22 September. Beef is to rise
to 160-220 rubles per kilogram as compared to the recent 84
rubles (reported by Ekonomika i zhizn, no. 36). The price
of a liter of milk is predicted to increase from 12 to
between 15 and 19 rubles. Butter can be expected to rise to
225-280 rubles/kilogram from last month's 189. Wheat bread
may cost 37 rubles, up from 24 rubles. The report says that
the 23-fold increase in procurement prices for grain over
last year is the primary culprit for the general rise in food
prices. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA TO JOIN IMF BOARD. Russia has gained a seat on
the IMF Board of Governors, an RFE/RL correspondent reported
in Washington, D.C. on 23 September. Approval for Russia's
inclusion in the Board was granted on Tuesday at the annual
meeting of the IMF/World Bank in Washington. Konstantin
Kagolovsky, an ambassadorial-level official with the Russian
government's department for relations with international
financial organizations, is expected to represent Russia on
the board. (Erik Whitlock/Robert Lyle, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUTSKOI CHALLENGES REFORMERS. Vice President Aleksandr
Rutskoi told Delovoi mir on 19 September that although he
remains loyal to President Boris Yeltsin, he--together with
other leaders of the Civic Union--will put pressure on the
executive branch to adopt the Civic Union's alternative
economic reform program. Rutskoi said he favors the
introduction of a market system through a strengthening of
law and order and the reestablishment of economic ties
between former the Soviet republics. He accused democrats in
Yeltsin's entourage of having made several attempts to
isolate him from the president in the months before the Sixth
Congress last April, but he indicated that after the
Congress, his access to the president has improved.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV'S SECRETARIAT. Parliamentary speaker Ruslan
Khasbulatov has set up a personal secretariat which consists
of former CPSU Central Committee officials. The secretariat
is supervising the work of the parliamentary department, the
membership and structure of which are almost identical to the
staff of ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's chief of
staff, Valerii Boldin. Deputies are dependent on the speaker
because he has power over foreign travel, apartments, and
other privileges. Novoe vremya (no 38) commented that the
Russian parliament has become an institution dominated by
deputies' group interests. In such a situation deputies care
more about preserving their own interests than about adopting
laws. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PARLIAMENT SESSION OPENS. Parliamentary speaker Ruslan
Khasbulatov opened parliament with a conciliatory speech
calling for "concrete action" rather than confrontation,
Interfax reported on 22 September. The parliament rejected
the proposal by a number of liberal deputies to force
Khasbulatov to give an account of his work to the parliament,
and it also rejected the proposed formation of a commission
to assess the work of the Director of the Russian Central
Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko. The parliament did, however,
approve several other proposals by liberal deputies to
investigate the performance of the parliamentary presidium.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KOZYREV CRITICIZES ESTONIA OVER ELECTIONS. In his
speech at the UN on 22 September, Russian Foreign Minister
Andrei Kozyrev harshly criticized the recent Estonian
elections. While registering his "special discomfort" at
discrimination against Russians, Ukrainians, and Jews in some
of the former Soviet Republics, he singled out Estonia for
violating the rights of its Russian minority. Claiming that
42% of Estonia's population was ineligible to vote in the
election, Kozyrev stated that this violated international law
and that Russia would raise the issue at the UN. At the same
time, however, Kozyrev said that Estonia's action would not
affect Russia's commitment to withdraw its troops in the
shortest time possible. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA SUPPORTS STANDING UN ARMY. At the United Nations
in New York on 22 September, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev supported the idea of establishing a standing UN
army. UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali has called for the
formation of such a military force, which would be put under
UN command and which could be used on short notice in trouble
spots, but which would be paid for by those countries
contributing forces. This proposal has also received the
support of the United States and Great Britain. Kozyrev was
quoted by the UPI as also saying that UN peace-keeping forces
"should return fire . . . when fired upon." (Doug Clarke,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER CRITICIZES RUSSIA OVER SUBMARINE
INTRUSION. Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt on 22 September
stated that he suspected Russia of being responsible for a
submarine intrusion in Swedish waters on 21 September,
according to Western news agencies. Bildt noted that the
incident, in which Swedish forces fired depth charges,
grenades, and a torpedo at the intruding submarine, matched
the pattern of earlier incidents. Bildt suggested that the
failure of the new Russian government to halt the intrusions
may indicate that it has only weak control over the actions
of its navy. The strong measures taken against the most
recent intruder suggest that Sweden is making the cessation
of such intrusions a high priority in its relations with
Russia. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
VOLKOGONOV SAYS NO AMERICAN POWS ALIVE IN RUSSIA. In an
interview with Western news agencies on 21 September, Gen.
Dmitri Volkogonov claimed that no evidence has been found
indicating that any American POWs are alive or being held
against their will in Russia. Volkogonov is an advisor to
President Boris Yeltsin and the chairman of a joint
US-Russian committee established to investigate reports of US
POWs in Russia. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WHERE IS THE CIS INTERPARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY MOVING TO?
The newly created CIS Interparliamentary Assembly is
scheduled to be moved to the Tavricheskii palace in St.
Petersburg, DR-Press reported on 20 September. The palace is
now being used by a Russian government personnel education
center. In a letter to the St. Petersburg mayor, Anatolii
Sobchak, the director of the center protested the decision to
move the Assembly into the palace. He recommended to Sobchak
that the Assembly be moved into the former House of Political
Education, which is still in Communist possession. (Alexander
Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CRIMEAN SEPARATISTS LIST DEMANDS. The Republican
Movement of Crimea (RDK) has issued an appeal to the Crimean
parliament, which is scheduled to open on 24 September, Radio
Rossii reported on 20 September. The RDK wants Crimean
lawmakers to defend the Crimean constitution; pass an
electoral law based on multiparty participation and laws on
citizenship and public associations; repeal its moratorium on
a referendum on the Crimea's state status; and set a date for
new parliamentary elections. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV IN GERMANY. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan
Nazarbaev and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl signed agreements
on the protection of German investments in Kazakhstan and on
economic cooperation on 22 September, but the Kazakh
president was unable to obtain concrete commitments from the
German government to provide financial aid to the Central
Asian country, the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported
on 23 September. The German economics ministry has promised
to consider a Kazakh request for more credits and expert
assistance for Kazakhstan's privatization program. Nazarbaev
boasted to a meeting of German industrialists that Kazakhstan
could be the world's most important oil exporter in the next
century. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ECONOMIC DECLINE CONTINUES IN KYRGYZSTAN. Price
liberalization on 1 September has resulted in a reduction of
output at Bishkek's dairy products and flour combine. In
addition, industrial and agricultural output throughout
Kyrgyzstan has declined 20% this year, and food output is
down almost 40%, KyrgyzTAG-TASS reported on 22 September.
Although wage rates have risen twice in 1992, they have not
begun to keep up with raging inflation; the report estimates
that an average salary can cover only half the cost of food
for a normal family. In addition, the threat of mass
unemployment is looming as 920 firms plan staff reductions.
Prime Minister Tursunbek Chyngyshev complained that natural
disasters this year have overtaxed the country's budget.
Angry citizens have already begun demonstrating against the
price rises. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ROMANIANS IN NORTHERN BUKOVYNA PUBLISH FIRST BOOK IN
LATIN SCRIPT SINCE WW II. For the first time since 1944, a
Romanian-language book in the Latin script has been published
in northern Bukovyna, the Romanian media reported on 17 and
18 September. The book, a literary and historical almanac,
was published by the Chernivtsy-based Eminescu Society for
Romanian Culture. Moldovans/Romanians in the region are
currently beginning to reinstate the Latin script in the
native language press, education, and public signs. The
Ukrainian authorities' flexibility in this matter contrasts
sharply with the attitude of the "Dniester" Russian
authorities, who have just reimposed the Cyrillic alphabet on
the "Moldovan" (i.e. Romanian) language in place of the
Latin script. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
"YUGOSLAVIA" EXPELLED FROM UNITED NATIONS. By a vote of
127 to 6, with 26 abstentions, the UN General Assembly voted
to exclude the rump Yugoslavia from membership in that body.
All Eastern European states (except Yugoslavia itself) and
all but three of the ex-USSR states voted with the majority.
The precedent-setting UNGA resolution specifies that the rump
Yugoslavia may not automatically take over the old
Yugoslavia's membership in the United Nations (presumably
including the specialized agencies), although the document
specifically mentions only exclusion from the General
Assembly. The new Yugoslavia will have to apply for
membership. In an eleventh-hour appeal, Prime Minister Milan
Panic argued that expulsion of his country from the UN would
be unjustified and would hamper his efforts to promote peace
in the area. Whatever the outcome of the vote, Panic
promised, Belgrade will continue its support of UN peace
efforts. (Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SKUBISZEWSKI AT THE UN. Polish Foreign Minister
Krzysztof Skubiszewski asked the United Nations to establish
an emergency system to address serious human rights
violations. Speaking before the UN General Assembly on 22
September, Skubiszewski said that Poland supports Austria's
proposal for such a system, which should be discussed at the
UN conference on human rights in Vienna next June.
Skubiszewski demanded that all detention camps in the former
Yugoslavia be closed immediately. He added that Poland will
offer one of the former Soviet military bases on its
territory for the training of UN peacekeeping forces. In
1993 Poland will put two or three infantry battalions at the
disposal of the UN Security Council. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
ROMANIA TO SEEK COMPENSATION FOR IRAQ EMBARGO. Romanian
Foreign Minister Adrian Nastase said in an interview with
Radio Bucharest on 22 September that his country will seek
compensation for losses resulting from the UN embargo against
Iraq. Nastase, on his way to New York to attend the UN
General Assembly session, claimed that Romania's transition
to a market economy and its economic reform program had been
seriously affected by the losses in its trade with Iraq,
which Romanian sources put to some $3 billion. Nastase added
that he would also discuss the negative impact of the UN
sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro on the Romanian
economy. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
US CALLS FOR WAR CRIMES COMMISSION FOR YUGOSLAV AREA.
On 22 September the US government gave the UN a report on war
crimes in the conflict, the Los Angeles Times reports on 23
September. The document blames all sides for atrocities, but
singles out the Serbs for committing war crimes as "part of a
systematic campaign toward . . . the creation of an
ethnically pure state." The daily says that the text paves
the way for eventual war crimes trials. On 22 September the
New York Times reported on an alleged massacre of over 200
Muslim men by Serbs at Varjanta, near Travnik, in Bosnia.
Western news agencies have carried similar stories, and
Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger told reporters
that Washington is looking into the reports. (Patrick Moore,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
LORD OWEN WARNS OVER KOSOVO. The BBC on 23 September
quotes the EC chief negotiator in the Yugoslav crisis, Lord
Owen, as warning that the conflict could turn into a general
Balkan conflagration if it spills over into Kosovo. On a
visit to Greece he said that the Albanians in Kosovo should
not demand independence but that they should receive back the
autonomy that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic took away
from them in recent years. Meanwhile, Western and other
media continue to report on the alleged presence of foreign
Islamic warriors in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Die Zeit on 17
September said that they number in the hundreds at the most.
Stories are already legion about culture shock between devout
Muslims from the Middle East who have come to fight a jihad,
and the highly secular and European Bosnians who want just to
defend their homes. Reuters stated on 22 September that the
Bosnians want weapons, not volunteers. The Bosnian
authorities reportedly have about 40,000 men who are ready to
fight but who lack weapons. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FEDERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES GOVERNMENT REPORT ON BREAKUP.
The Federal Assembly has asked the Czechoslovak government to
present, by mid-October, a program that would prevent a
disorderly breakup of the country. CSTK reports that the
parliament approved, "with reservations," a government report
on the state of the federation. The government was also
asked to prepare a concept for Czech-Slovak relations after
the federation's disintegration by mid-November. In a
separate development, former Czechoslovak President Vaclav
Havel urged Czechs and Slovaks to dissolve the country in an
orderly manner, avoiding "chaos and civic conflicts."
According to CSTK, Havel expressed his concern that the
division might not be carried out "as elegantly, cleanly, and
professionally" as possible. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT COMPLETES PRIORITY PLANS. Prime
Minister Hanna Suchocka announced on 22 September that the
government will complete work on its five priority action
plans by the end of the week. These plans are designed to
restructure state industry, fight corruption and organized
crime, modernize agriculture, revive public finances, and
guarantee a minimum of social security. Suchocka will present
the plans to the public, as promised, by 10 October, exactly
three months after she took office. Suchocka said the
government has worked with great speed and hopes the same
will be true of the trade unions and the parliament. Gazeta
Wyborcza reported that one of the government plans will
substantially expand police powers, permitting freer use of
firearms and "sting" operations. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
PARTY LEADERS CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF LATVIAN
GOVERNMENT. On 17 September political leaders representing
the liberal, conservative, liberal-democratic, democratic
labor, and renaissance parties signed a document calling for
the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Ivars
Godmanis and for the formation of a government of popular
accord, Diena reported on 17 September and Radio Riga on 22
September. The signers envisage the new government as
focusing primarily on Latvia's catastrophic economic
situation and stipulate that such a government would exist
only until the election of the new parliament. This call can
also be seen as an effort by political parties, with
memberships ranging from former liberal communist to national
democrat to work together as a coalition. (Dzintra Bungs,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
TURMOIL CONTINUES AROUND BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT. A Gallup
poll conducted in Bulgaria in recent days and published in
168 chasa on 22 September indicates that if elections were
held now, 33% of the respondents would vote for the governing
Union of Democratic Forces, 28% for the Bulgarian Socialist
Party, 8% for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and 16%
for other parties. Some 15% said they would not vote. Unity
in the UDF remains fractured, while the BSP has said it will
not support a no-confidence vote in the government, though it
still hopes to bring down Stefan Savov, president of the
National Assembly. MRF and UDF leaders have evidently not
resolved their differences, leaving the effectiveness of
their loose coalition in the parliament in doubt. (Duncan
Perry & Nick Kaltchev, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EX-POLICEMAN TRIES TO SET UP ROMANIAN FASCIST PARTY.
Ionica Catanescu announced in Bucharest on 22 September that
he will try to set up a National Legionary Party in order to
revive the pre-war Romanian fascist movement, known as the
Iron Guard or the Legion. Reuters reports that Catanescu
appears to be the sole member so far. This move, coming only
a week before the 27 September elections, is being
interpreted by some as an electoral maneuver by the left to
win sympathies by conjuring up the ghost of fascism. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KADAR FAULTS AUSTRIA. Hungarian International Economic
Relations Minister Bela Kadar has charged that Austria
conducts restrictive trade policies, hindering the growth of
Hungarian exports, Hungarian Radio reports. Kadar said that
Austria will have to liberalize its foreign trade if it wants
to be an EC member and wishes to maintain its position as the
country to which Hungary gives most preferential trade
treatment. Kadar warned that if Austria does not change its
trade policy, Hungary will have to retaliate. (Karoly
Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT ACCEPTS JURISDICTION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COURT. Hungarian deputies voted on 22
September to accept the Hague International Court's
jurisdiction, Hungarian Radio reports. Formal acceptance of
the court's jurisdiction is a precondition for Hungary to
seek adjudication in the Hague. Hungary is planning to ask
the court to rule in its dispute with Czechoslovakia over the
Gabcikovo hydroelectric dam system. (Karoly Okolicsanyi,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
JARUZELSKI DEFENDS MARTIAL LAW. General Wojciech
Jaruzelski appeared before a Sejm commission on 22 September
to defend the imposition of martial law in 1981 as a "lesser
evil" that had saved Poland from a "national tragedy." The
Sejm commission is considering a motion submitted by KPN
deputies to try Jaruzelski and the rest of the Council of
State and the Military Council of National Salvation on the
grounds that the martial law decree violated the
constitution. Senator Ryszard Reiff, the only member of the
Council of State to oppose martial law, challenged
Jaruzelski's suggestion that he had saved the country from a
Soviet invasion. Martial law was a "historical error," Reiff
said. The party should have followed the example of First
Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka in 1956, Reiff argued, and
persuaded "the Russians that what was good for Poland was not
necessarily bad for Russia." (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DELAY IN SIGNING TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM LITHUANIA? On 22
September the Russian Supreme Soviet committee on
international affairs and foreign economic relations urged
President Boris Yeltsin to delay the signing of agreements on
Russian troop withdrawal from Lithuania until the interests
and rights of Russians there are taken into consideration,
ITAR-TASS reports. The committee points out that although
three of the seven draft agreements on the withdrawal have
been signed, they are not legally binding since the main
treaty has not been signed. The committee urges that all
agreements with Lithuania be submitted to the Supreme Soviet
for approval. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LANDSBERGIS COMMENTS ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL. On 22
September the Lithuanian Parliament public affairs office
issued a statement by Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas
Landsbergis, who is on an official visit to Belgium, noting
that the efforts of the Russian parliament committee to
terminate the agreements on troop withdrawal are indicative
of "representatives of imperial thinking," who are interested
"not in peace and cooperation, but in increasing tension and
expansion." He said that he does not believe that they would
"be able to compromise the policies of the new democratic
Russia" by terminating the agreements signed two weeks ago.
(Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIAN-RUSSIAN TALKS CONTINUE. On 21 September Latvian
representatives met with leaders of the Northwestern Group of
Forces to continue discussions of specific issues related to
the pullout of Russian troops from Latvia. One point of
discussion was the takeover by Latvia of bases vacated by
NWGF, but not on the list of facilities to be turned over to
Latvia this year. On 22 September another round of
Latvian-Russian talks started in Jurmala. The principal point
of discussion was also troop withdrawal, and Latvia's
comprehensive proposal as to how all troops could be pulled
out by fall of 1993, Radio Riga reported on 21 and 22
September. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SKODA PLZEN TO FIRE OVER 1,200, LAY OFF 2,000 MORE.
According to CSTK, Skoda Plzen, the Czech Republic's largest
industrial employer, plans to dismiss about 1,200 workers in
October and lay off another 2,000 temporarily due to
financial problems. Czech Minister of Trade and Industry
Vladimir Dlouhy said that most of the employees will be
rehired once the company is in a healthier position and
announced that they will continue receiving 60% of their
salaries as unemployment benefits. Skoda's main problem has
been the huge sums owed to the company by the state-owned
railways for the delivery of locomotives. Dlouhy ruled out
any state subsidies and said that the dispute between Skoda
and the railways would have to be settled in court. (Jan
Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ROMANIA'S GYPSY KING ASKS GERMANY TO COMPENSATE NAZI
VICTIMS. In an interview with German ZDF TV broadcast on 22
September, Ion Cioaba, the self-proclaimed "king of all
Gypsies," threatened to launch mass demonstrations if Germany
refuses to pay compensation for Nazi atrocities against
Gypsies in World War II. The interview was conducted in the
Transylvanian town of Sibiu. Germany faces a flood of
refugees, including thousands of Romanian Gypsies, which has
provoked racist backlash. Cioaba promised to call his fellow
Gypsies home if Bonn agrees to pay compensation. Cioaba's
authority, however, appears to be rather limited; on 11
September another Gypsy chieftain from Romania, Iulian
Radulescu, proclaimed himself an emperor of all Gypsies. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.19.bale.,
UPI NEWS, 23.09.92. ---------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Croatians, Muslims at odds over former Yugoslav tourist town
Subject: General Assembly bars Serbia-Montenegro federation
Subject: Serbian bombardment kills hospital patients
Subject: Karadzic condemns U.N. Yugoslav ouster
Subject: French soldiers wounded in Sarajevo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Croatians, Muslims at odds over former Yugoslav tourist town
Date: 23 Sep 92 02:08:04 GMT
MOSTAR, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Before the Yugoslav war broke out
in April, tourists flocked to this south-central Hercegovina town to
take in its distinctly Muslim flavor.
Before the war, Mostar was 34 percent Muslim, 33 percent Croat and 10
percent Serb.
Now Croatian flags hang on nearly every government building, Croatian
currency is circulated and taxes are paid to the local Croatian
authorities.
Most of the distinctive buildings that once attracted tourists have
been leveled or riddled with bullet holes. All but one of the city's 11
mosques have been destroyed.
The local Croatian leadership plans to rebuild Mostar and make it the
capital of their self-declared republic of Herceg-Bosna, which comprises
roughly one-third of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The plans are much to the
dismay of the internationally recognized Bosnia-Hercegovina government
in Sarajevo as well as area Muslims.
``They want to make Mostar the capital and claim it is a Croatian
city, but it's a Muslim city built by Muslims,'' said Faris Nanic,
secretary-general for the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) in Zagreb.
The SDA supports Alija Izetbegovic, president and Muslim religious
leader in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
``They have already organized their canton government, which is not
respected in Sarajevo because it is illegal and non-constitutional and
has introduced laws in discrepancy with Bosnian-Hercegovina laws,'' said
Izmet Hadziosmanovic, president of the SDA in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The Bosnia-Hercegovina government favors a republic with four
ethnically mixed regions, all under the authority of a centralized
Parliament in Sarajevo.
But the leadership of the self-declared state of Herceg-Bosna headed
by Mate Boban wants separate Croatian, Muslim and Serbian cantons. Boban
is president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Hercegovina and
regional commander of the Croatian army (HVO).
``The Muslims are trying to create a mini Yugoslavia but it won't
work,'' said Sreck Vucina, Croatian army spokesman in Mostar. ``They
would have the majority and it would be the same as the former
Yugoslavia when the Serbs had the majority control before.''
Although the Bosnians and Croatians officially are allied against a
common enemy -- the Serbs -- their differing political aims threaten to
add another destabilizing element to the war-torn republic.
``In this area around Mostar and Stolac, Muslims have around 3,000
fighters and it could have long range consequences for both people if
any of the problems go too far,'' Hadziosmanovic said.
Rising tensions in the last month already have led to clashes between
the Bosnian army and Croatian forces in other central Bosnia-Hercegovina
towns such as Jajce and Travnik, which Boban's government claims for the
Croatian state of Herceg-Bosna.
Recently in Stup, a suburb of Sarajevo -- the Bosnian army attacked
Croatian forces in an apparent bid to break the siege of the capital.
``A number of HVO soldiers were killed, but no official number of
casualties has been released, said Ivo Primovac, a Croatian army
commander in Grude. ''This incident was only between Muslims and Croats
and it was really stupid because the Muslims should realize how much
they need the Croats.``
The Bosnian government is resentfully dependent on the Croats. Its
army is sorely lacking in weapons. Although Bosnia admits to receiving
arms from Islamic countries, deliveries have to come through Croatian
territory.
Primovac, and other HVO officials said the recent seizure in the
Croatian capital of Zagreb of weapons on an incoming flight from Iran
was a government warning to Muslim forces to respect the HVO command.
Officially, the Croatian government has said it seized the weapons to
enforce the international arms embargo against all three warring
factions.
The Bosnian army has very little influence in Mostar or elsewhere in
Herceg-Bosna, where the HVO outnumbers it more than two to one.
The HVO controls 30 percent of Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Bosnian-Serbs
60 percent and the Bosnian army about 10 percent.
``We cannot afford this,'' said Middhad Hudur, second commander of
the Bosnian army in Mostar. ``The Croatian army is stronger and we can't
afford to have a second enemy.''
HVO officials say they had to impose their authority over the region
because the Bosnian army and the Sarajevo government is too weak to
enforce their laws.
``The B-H army can't even liberate Sarajevo and nowhere does it have
power. Someone had to take control,'' Vucina said.
Nevertheless, Muslim leaders say unless the HVO submits to the
command of the Sarajevo government they will demand it.
``Unless they respect agreements they've made, the Muslims are going
to take the step of general disobedience to the laws of the HVO. This
will make our relationship even worse,'' Hadiosmanovic said.
More than 90 percent of the population within 10 municipalities in
the southwest region of Bosnia-Hercegovina are Croatian.
Croatian forces claim another 20 municipalities with substantial
Muslim and Croatian populations in a strip of land stretching northeast
through the middle of the republic fall into this Croatian area as well.
While the Croatian army holds the southwest Croatian territory,
allied Bosnian and Croatian forces still are fighting the Serbs for the
other 20 municipalities.
Serb forces withdrew from Mostar about a month ago, although they
continue to lob artillery shells daily into the city from a nearby
stronghold.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: General Assembly bars Serbia-Montenegro federation
Date: 23 Sep 92 02:20:31 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly
Tuesday to reject the claim Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro
to hold the seat of the former Yugoslavia and barred it from the world
body.
The assembly voted 127-6 with 26 abstentions to adopt the measure
despite a plea by Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic not to expel his
government because it is a ``peace-loving Yugoslavia.''
The Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia ceased to exist earlier this
year after four of its six republics seceded and are recognized by the
United Nations as independent states. The Serbian government in Belgrade
and Montenegro then claimed succession to the Yugoslav U.N. membership.
The vote to bar a delegation from the General Assembly was
unprecedented. The vote was taken at the recommendation of the Security
Council, a move disputed by some countries as contrary to the principles
of the U.N. Charter.
In 1974, South Africa was expelled from the assembly after its
credentials were rejected by the same body as a protest to that
country's apartheid policies. The assembly did not revoke Pretoria's U.
N. membership, however.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbian bombardment kills hospital patients
Date: 23 Sep 92 11:32:56 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Clashes in Bosnia-Hercegovina
and its capital Sarajevo eased Wednesday only hours after Serbian
guerrillas in two separate assaults bombarded a hospital and a Red Cross
kitchen, killing at least 14 people and wounding another 48, Sarajevo
Radio said.
In a separate attack, a Serbian mortar shell Tuesday evening wounded
at least 17 people in a downtown Sarajevo street, the radio said.
Serbian guerrillas used tanks, mortars and infantry weapons in firing
on Bosnian forces positions and civilian targets Wednesday morning, the
radio said.
``There were only sporadic explosions early today in Sarajevo,'' a
police spokesman said.
A lull in clashes came after fighting intensified Tuesday evening
following relatively calms spells earlier in the day.
A Serbian tank shell hit the hospital in Bihac, a predominantly
Muslim Slav town in northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The shell struck a dining room on a lung disease ward while patients
had their dinner, Sarajevo radio said.
It indicated the attack on the Bihac hospital was in retaliation for
the downing of three Serbian air force jet fighters that Bosnian forces
reportedly shot down earlier Tuesday in the area between Velika Kladusa,
Bosanski Novi and Prijedor.
In Sarajevo, the predominantly Muslim Slav city that has been under a
Serbian siege since early in April, Serbian guerrillas fired a mortar
shell Tuesday evening into a Red Cross soup kitchen in Blagoje Parovic
Street, killing three persons and wounding another 28, the radio said.
Another mortar shell struck on Cetinjska Street Tuesday evening,
wounding at least 17 people, Sarajevo radio said.
Squads of workers, accompanied by officials of the United Nations
Protection Force (UNPROFOR), Wednesday morning went out to repair high-
voltage overhead long-distance electricity cables that were damaged in
fighting in the past week.
Large sections of Sarajevo, where about 350,000 to 500,000 residents
and refugees have been trapped since late in March, were without
electric power and water supplies.
A U.N.-sponsored humanitarian aid airlift has been suspended since
Sept. 3 when an Italian cargo plane was downed on its flight to
Sarajevo.
U.N. officials planned to reopen the international relief airlift but
sought additional guarantees from the warring sides.
Road convoys that carried food and medical supplies to besieged
Sarajevo were not enough to meet the city's demands of about 200 tons of
food per day and the city and the newly independent republic were
running short of food and medicines.
French Gen. Phillipe Morillon of the UNPROFOR in Sarajevo said U.N.
troops, that are to have self-defense rights to fire back if attacked
will be posted along corridors in Bosnia-Hercegovina to ensure relief
deliveries.
Morillon arrived in Sarajevo during the weekend to work out the
deployment of 6,000 troops that were authorized by the U.N. Security
Council last week as an expansion to the 1,500-member U.N. force to
ensure humanitarian aid deliveries as the cold Balkan winter approaches.
Serbian guerrillas late in March launched a campaign to carve a self-
declared state out of Bosnia-Hercegovina and annex it to Serbia, the
dominant republic in the former Yugoslav federation.
Militant leaders of the 1.4 million Christian Orthodox Serbs, that
make 32 percent of the republic's 4.4 million population, have declared
a ``Serbian Republic'' on about 70 percent of Bosnia-Hercegovina's
territory.
About 1.9 million Muslim Slavs and most of 750,000 Roman Catholic
Croats advocate an independent Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Serbian guerrillas have been fighting against Bosnia-Hercegovina
forces that comprise mostly Muslim Slavs but also include moderate Serbs
and Croats.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Karadzic condemns U.N. Yugoslav ouster
Date: 23 Sep 92 18:15:40 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The leader of Serbs in Bosnia-
Hercegovina, Radovan Karadzic, condemned the international community
Wednesday for barring the Yugoslav delegation from the United Nations
and announced he ``will no longer make one-sided concessions'' in future
peace negotiations.
``The exclusion of Yugoslavia from the United Nations, as in the case
of our exclusion from the CSCE (Council on Security and Cooperation in
Europe), is just the continuation of international community pressure on
the Serbian people,'' Karadzic told a news conference in the Serbian
capital of Belgrade.
He said the U.N. decision, by hitting at only one side, would not end
the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. ``Until all three sides are equally
pressured to stop fighting, the war will not end,'' Karadzic said.
Karadzic's criticism of the U.N. decision was echoed by ruling party
leaders in the new Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro, who
blamed the Western powers and federal Prime Minister Milan Panic for the
new Belgrade government losing the right to retain the seat of the old
administration.
``The (U.N.) resolution is completely unlawful, and shows that the
West has succumbed to the will of Muslim countries,'' said Batric
Jovanovic, a Socialist Party of Serbia delegate in the Serbian
Parliament. ``Western countries are too dependant on Arab oil,'' he
charged.
Opposition lawmakers, however, put the responsibility on Serbia's
hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic, the federation's most powerful
politician whose support for a land-grab in Bosnia-Hercegovina and
elsewhere touched off the wars among the Yugoslav republics.
``Milosevic has done the impossible: we are the first country in the
world to be kicked out of the U.N.,'' said Vuk Draskovic, the leader of
Serbian Renewal Movement. ``Not even Saddam Hussein, Emperor Bokassa or
Idi Amin Dada accomplished that,'' he added sarcastically.
At his news conference, Karazdic conceded the U.N.- and European
Community-sponsored Geneva peace talks were fairly constructive
regarding humanitarian aid issues, but he condemned Muslim Slav
representatives for not agreeing to divide the newly independent
republic into ethnic ``cantons.''
``There will be no more tolerance and we will not make any more
unilateral concessions, since all have been responded to by tougher
sanctions,'' said Karadzic.
He was referring to Serbian claims they have complied with a London
peace conference agreement to put heavy artillery under United Nations
Protection Force (UNPROFOR) supervision in several locations, including
the beseiged Bosnia-Hercegovina capital of Sarajevo.
While some Serbian heavy weaponry has been placed in sites where they
can be observed by UNPROFOR, other Serbian artillery in the republic has
remained hidden from U.N. inspectors and continues to shell civilian
targets.
Regarding the Geneva talks, Karadzic said that he was satisfied that
Croatia was ready to cooperate to stop the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
``The Croatian position is identical with that of the Serbs,'' said
Karadzic, referring to the de facto division of Bosnia-Hercegovian
between Serbs and Croats, who have established a territory they call
Herceg-Bosnia.
``We have recognized Herceg-Bosnia,'' Karadzic said, ``but now we
need to stop fighting and begin re-establishing economic relations.''
During the news conference Karadzic put up an ethnic map to show
reporters the envisioned configuration of a future Serbian state that
comprises nearly 60 percent of the republic.
``These are and will be our borders, whether we become independent or
decide to unite with some other nation,'' said Karadzic.
He said that he was ready to give up some 20 perecent of Serb-held
territories to Muslim Slavs as these areas are not ethnically Serbian
but were captured because of their strategic importance.
The war in Bosnia-Hercegovina began in late March when Serbian forces
launched a campaign to carve out a separate state on nearly 70 percent
of the republic.
Most of the Serbs want to merge their ``state'' with the new Serbia-
dominated Yugoslav union. The two-republic union was forged on April 27,
with the aim of inheriting the international status of the former six-
republic Yugoslav federation.
Bosnia-Hercegovina's 1.9 million Muslim Slavs and many of the 750,000
Roman Catholic Croats want their separate republic to remain independent
of the new Yugoslavia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: French soldiers wounded in Sarajevo
Date: 23 Sep 92 17:47:53 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Two French U.N. soldiers
suffered minor wounds Wednesday from a mortar round in sporadic shelling
and clashes in and around Sarajevo that prevented work on restoring
electricity to the war-ravaged Bosnian capital.
U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) officials said the mortar shell was
believed to have been a stray round.
It slammed into the yard of the Tvornica Armatura factory, located
near the U.N. headquarters on the western end of Sarajevo, as the two
French soldiers and two local workers were cutting metal sheeting to
protect the Sarajevo airport control tower, they said.
Ukrainian Col. Viktor Bezrouchenko, the UNPROFOR chief of operations,
said one local worker was injured along with the French servicemen.
``None was seriously wounded,'' said Bezrouchenko.
The incident brought to at least 48 the number of UNPROFOR troops
injured since May. Four others have been killed.
Most of the casualties were caused by what U.N. officials have
condemned as deliberate attacks by both warring factions.
Adnan Abdel Razak, the UNPROFOR spokesman, said the French soldiers
were evacuated to Zagreb by a U.N. aircraft that also returned the
UNPROFOR deputy commander, French Gen. Phillipe Morillon, to the
Croatian capital after a four-day visit to plan a 6,000-troop expansion
of the 1,500-man U.N. contingent.
U.N. officials said that before his departure, Morillon held talks
with Serbian military officials about the possible relocation of the U.
N. headquarters to a hotel in the Serb-held western suburb of Ilidza.
The move would fit closely with Morillon's stated goal of deploying
U.N. troops in Ilidza to secure a corridor through which humanitarian
aid could enter Sarajevo through encircling Serbian lines.
Serbian forces, backed by neighboring communist-ruled Serbia, have
bombarded and besieged Sarajevo as part of their more than five-month
campaign to carve a self-declared state out of the former Yugoslav
republic of Muslim Slavs, Serbs and Croats.
Forces loyal to the government, comprised mostly of Muslim Slavs, but
also including moderate Serbs and Croats, are fighting to preserve the
republic's newly won independence and territorial integrity.
Fierce overnight fighting, during which Serbian barrages of the
Sarajevo set several major fires, eased after dawn to intermittent
clashes and Serbian sniper fire and shelling of civilian areas, police
and news reports said.
Skirmishes between Bosnian and Serbian lines along the city's
northern battlefront prevented a U.N.-supervised team of civilian
technicians from repairing an overhead cable that carries power to
Sarajevo, UNPROFOR officials said.
``We made a morning attempt and one in the afternoon. At both times
there was fighting in that area, shelling and mortars, and we could not
reach the line,'' said Razak.
The Bosnian government charged that Serbian force deliberately
severed the line on Monday, depriving electricity to most of Sarajevo in
violation of an agreement reached Sunday in Geneva on safeguarding
utilities.
The republic Health Ministry said that at least 14 people were killed
and 89 others injured in the capital during the 24-hour period that
ended at 1 p.m.
Among the casualties were three dead and 28 wounded from a Serbian
mortar shell that slammed into a Red Cross soup kitchen on Blagoje
Parovic St. on Tuesday evening, Sarajevo radio said.
At about the same time, another mortar shell explosion at Cetinjska
Street wounded at least 17 people, it said.
Heavy fighting, meanwhile, was reported in other areas of the newly
independent former Yugoslav republic, including new alleged air attacks
by warjets supplied to Serbian forces by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav
army.
Sarajevo radio said the heaviest clashes raged in the area around the
northwestern city of Bihac.
On Tuesday, a Serbian tank shell plowed into a dining room of a lung
diseases ward at Bihac hospital as patients were eating dinner, killing
at least 11 people and wounding 20 others, the radio said.
In Maglaj, central Bosnia-Hercegovina, fighting was escalating and
dead bodies were reported to be lying all over the streets, according to
local radio reports.
Local defense in the area is requesting more help from the Croatian
Army and the Bosnian-Hercegovina Army to defend the municpality from
Serbian infantry attacks, the report stated.
``Children are getting killed; dead bodies are all over the streets,
everywhere...There is not a single building that didn't suffer
devastation,'' the radio reports said.
Despite attempts, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
workers have been unable to reach Maglaj and surrounding areas with
relief supplies.
``Access is just not possible... It's just too dangerous,'' Michael
Keats, spokesperson for the UNHCR said.
``To get to Tuzla, (a nearby municipality), you have to cross the
front lines four times,'' Keats said.
If the reports are correct, the Bosnian-Serb army has made
substantial advances in the last month in their attempt to secure their
recently established corridor through north-central Bosnia which
connects the region with Serbia and Montenegro.
Bihac, a muslim populated pocket in the northwestern Serbian occupied
region of Bosnia Hercegovina, is the last muslim bastion in the area and
the local muslim defense has been able to repel Serbian advances.
However, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning the region came under
heavy attack as well from Serbian positions, Croatian radio reported.
In addition, Slavonski Brod, in Croatian on the border with northern
Bosnia, suffered some of the worst fighting since the war broke ot in
Bosnia-Hercegovina Wednesday.
Nine people died and nine were wounded in the center of town by
shells fired from Serbian strongholds acrss the river Sava, Erich Ganpe
at the Slavonski Brod information centre said.
``The material damage was very bad,'' Ganpe said but he would not
elaborate on what was actually hit for fear of informing the Serbian
side about the attack.
Slavonski Brod is of high strategic importance because the Sava river
is the borderline between northern Bosnia and Croatia.
The bridge, which connects Slavonski Brod with northern Bosnina is
the last one standing along the river and is the life-line for thousands
of Bosnian refugees fleeing the war-torn republic.
The republic Health Ministry said republicwide casualties, including
those in Sarajevo, since 1 p.m. Tuesday totalled at least 25 people
killed and 282 injured.
Serbian guerrillas late in March launched their drive to capture a
self-proclaimed state declared on 70 percent of Bosnia-Hercegovina,
where the 1.4 million Christian Orthodox Serbs comprise only 31 percent
of the population.
Militant Serbian leaders seek to join their territories to Serbia.
The 1.9 million Muslim Slavs, most of the 750,000 Roman Catholic
Croats and a tiny minority of Serbs oppose the partition of the
republic.
novine.20.bale.,
UPI NEWS, 24.09.1992. -------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Zagreb, Sarajevo form joint defense against Serbs
Subject: Bosnian president to visit Pakistan
Subject: Seven U.N. soldiers wounded in blast
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Zagreb, Sarajevo form joint defense against Serbs
Date: 23 Sep 92 21:18:13 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The presidents of Croatia and Bosnia-
Hercegovina announced Wednesday to form a joint committee of defense
against ``aggression'' and to ask the Security Council to lift the arms
embargo imposed on the two Balkan republics.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovich, president
of Bosnia-Hercegovina, made public a document they signed at U.N.
headquarters in New York saying that the diplomatic, political and
humanitarian efforts by the United Nations ``have not stopped
aggression...nor have they substantially alleviated the suffering of the
civilian people.''
They said a joint committee will be set up ``in order to coordinate
defensive efforts until aggression is stopped entirely.''
``The republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Republic of Croatia will
jointly request the abrogation of the embargo on arms exports'' as
decreed by the Security Council last summer when the civil war broke out
in Croatia, the document said.
The document is an annex to the Agreement on Friendship and
Cooperation between the two republics signed on July 21, 1992. It was
designed to enhance their ``common interests'' in defending their
independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the presidents said
in a joint news conference.
Izetbegovich said he held talks with members of the Security Council
in New York while attending the General Assembly session, but none of
them supported the request to lift the arms embargo.
``I explained to them the situation and reminded them that our
countries have the right to self-defense, but that right was deprived by
the international community,'' Izetbegovich said.
He said both he and Tudjman will work for the removal of the arms
embargo. In addition to the arms embargo imposed on all six republics of
the former Yugoslavia, the Security Council earlier this year imposed
trade sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro to protest the Serb-led
war in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bosnian president to visit Pakistan
Date: 24 Sep 92 14:38:23 GMT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic is
due to arrive in Islamabad Saturday for a two-day official visit amid
reports that guerrillas from neighboring Afghanistan were training
Bosnian Muslim fighters.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Afghan mujahideen guerrillas
were training Bosnian Muslims near Sarajevo and supplying them with U.S.
-made stinger missiles.
Pakistan is a close ally of the mujahideen who fought against a
Soviet-installed regime in Kabul for 14 years from their bases inside
Pakistan and toppled it.
A government spokesman in Islamabad denied Pakistan is ``giving any
military assistance to Bosnia'' but said Islamabad has ``promised $10
million in humanitarian assistance to the Bosnian Muslims.''
Last month a delegation of Islamic scholars from Bosnia visited
Pakistan and appealed to local Muslims to ``send arms to their brothers
in Bosnia.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Seven U.N. soldiers wounded in blast
Date: 24 Sep 92 16:51:10 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Seven U.N. troops sustained
injuries Thursday when an explosion ripped into their armored car hours
after Serbian shellfire hit a car and a public bus, killing at least
three people and wounding 15 others, officials and news reports said.
It was the second consecutive day that the U.N. Protection Force
(UNPROFOR) suffered casualties.
UNPROFOR officials said they were almost certain a land mine caused
the explosion that wounded a Canadian captain and six Egyptian soldiers
in the latest incident.
Bosnian fighters, however, contended that the armored personnel
carrier in which the seven were riding was hit by a rocket launched by
Serbian extremists.
``They fired a rocket from a house,'' said one Bosnian soldier,
Rusmir Salihspahic.
UNPROFOR officials and witnesses said the incident occurred about 4
p.m. in Adzici, a key flashpoint on the embattled western edge of the
Bosnian capital, as the armored car was escorting a truck carrying two
corpses to a pre-arranged body exchange between Bosnian and Serbian
units.
``The APC (armored personnel carrier) blew up in front of our eyes,''
said Eileen Kleinnan, a photographer riding in an armored Land Rover
belonging to the British Broadcasting Corp. ``Everyone just abandoned
their vehicles and ran for cover.''
She and other witnesses said a firefight then erupted between Bosnian
and Serbian units, as the personnel carrier blazed in the middle of the
road.
Another UNPROFOR armored vehicle was dispatched to rescue the wounded
and other Egyptian troops who were unhurt, and take them back to the U.
N. headquarters. Meanwhile, the vehicle was left in the road with the
bodies inside it.
The incident ocurred 24 hours after two French troops were wounded by
a mortar shell. It brought to more than 50 the number of UNPROFOR
soldiers wounded since May, most of them in deliberate attacks. Four
members of the force have been killed.
The developments came amid fresh clashes on Sarajevo's northern and
western flanks, the main centers of fighting for 10 days, and sporadic
skirmishes and sniper fire in several downtown neighborhoods, witnesses
said.
Sarajevo radio and Dr. Sead Dezdarovic, a surgeon at the French
hospital, said a Serbian artillery round smashed at about noon into a
passenger car as it crossed an intersection near the former Yugoslav
army's Marshal Tito Barracks near the downtown, killing the two
occupants.
A short time later, he said, another round scored a direct hit on a
public bus close to the same location, killing at least one passenger
and seriously injuring 15 others.
The car and the bus were using a pot-holed backroad that has become a
major pedestrian and vehicular route into the city center because much
of it is shielded by high-rise buildings from Serbian artillery and
snipers.
Serbian forces, armed by the Yugoslav army and backed financially and
politically by neighboring Serbia, have been bombarding and besieging
Sarajevo for almost a half year as part of a campaign to rip a self-
declared state out of the former Yugoslav republic.
Forces loyal to the Bosnian government comprised mostly of Muslim
Slavs, but also including moderate Serbs and Croats, have been waging an
uphill battle to preserve the republic's newly won independence and
territorial integrity.
The attack on the bus prompted an indefinite suspension in the
already vastly diminished public bus service, forcing thousands of
people to walk home after work, Sarajevo radio reported.
It said a total of at least six people were killed and 37 others
injured during the day from Serbian shelling and sniper fire in the
city.
A U.N. official renewed a warning of widespread hunger in Sarajevo
unless action is taken to compensate for the suspension of the U.N.-
organized humanitarian airlift.
The blockade of Sarajevo has left the estimated 500,000 residents and
refugees dependent on U.N. relief, which have been severely scaled back
since the airlift was halted by a Sept. 3 missile attack on an Italian
plane that killed four crewmen.
U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) logistics chief Dag
Espeland said a Swiss company has offered to lease UNHCR three giant
Ilyushin-76 cargo planes of the Russian airline, Aeroflot, to deliver
food and medicines.
He said the cost would be a relatively cheap $2 million per month,
and that the three aircraft could fly 150 tons of supplies into
Sarajevo's U.N.-controlled airport per day.
``I measured everything today and it would be no problem,'' Espeland
said, adding that he had informed his superiors of the offer.
He said the planes would go a long way to making up for the loss of
the humanitarian airlift.
Espeland said truck convoys from Croatia's port city of Split had
managed only to bring in a daily average of 44 tons of relief, compared
to the 183 tons provided by the airlift.
``We are only getting a drop in the bucket,'' he said, and he renewed
a warning that ``in three weeks, we will start seeing hunger here.''
Positioned on hilltops surrounding Sarajevo, Serbian guerrillas
pounded the city Thursday with tank, howitzer, mortar and anti-aircraft
machine gun fire, targeting both civilian and government forces
positions.
Most of Sarajevo was without electricity or water for its fourth
consecutive day with repairmen being prevented from fixing high-voltage
cables because of the shelling.
Bosnian forces, comprising Muslim Slavs, moderate Serbs and Croats,
blamed Serbs for Thursday's attack but Serbian guerrillas said they were
responding to fire from from Muslim Slav and Croatian forces.
Fighting was reported in the areas of Bihac, Gradacac, Jajce, Doboj,
Srebrenica, Bratunac and Visegrad, the radio said.
Two French U.N. soldiers suffered minor wounds Wednesday from a
mortar round in sporadic shelling and clashes in and around Sarajevo
that prevented work on restoring electricity to the war-ravaged Bosnian
capital.
U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) officials said the mortar shell was
believed to have been a stray round.
It slammed into the yard of the Tvornica Armatura factory, located
near the U.N. headquarters on the western end of Sarajevo, as the two
French soldiers and two local workers were cutting metal sheeting to
protect the Sarajevo airport control tower, they said.
Ukrainian Col. Viktor Bezrouchenko, the UNPROFOR chief of operations,
said one local worker was injured along with the French servicemen.
``None was seriously wounded,'' said Bezrouchenko.
The incident brought to at least 48 the number of UNPROFOR troops
injured since May. Four others have been killed.
Most of the casualties were caused by what U.N. officials have
condemned as deliberate attacks by both warring factions.
Adnan Abdel Razak, the UNPROFOR spokesman, said the French soldiers
were evacuated to Zagreb by a U.N. aircraft that also returned the
UNPROFOR deputy commander, French Gen. Phillipe Morillon, to the
Croatian capital after a four-day visit to plan a 6,000-troop expansion
of the 1,500-man U.N. contingent.
U.N. officials said that before his departure, Morillon held talks
with Serbian military officials about the possible relocation of the U.
N. headquarters to a hotel in the Serb-held western suburb of Ilidza.
The move would fit closely with Morillon's stated goal of deploying
U.N. troops in Ilidza to secure a corridor through which humanitarian
aid could enter Sarajevo through encircling Serbian lines.
Serbian forces, backed by neighboring communist-ruled Serbia, have
bombarded and besieged Sarajevo as part of their more than five-month
campaign to carve a self-declared state out of the former Yugoslav
republic of Muslim Slavs, Serbs and Croats.
Forces loyal to the government, comprised mostly of Muslim Slavs, but
also including moderate Serbs and Croats, are fighting to preserve the
republic's newly won independence and territorial integrity.
novine.21.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 184, 24 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
TAJIK LEADER CALLS FOR VOLUNTEERS. Acting President Akbarsho
Iskandarov has signed a decree calling for volunteers to join
Internal Affairs troops and Russian units to try to stop the
fighting in Kurgan-Tyube Oblast south of Dushanbe, Interfax
reported on 23 September. The same day ITAR-TASS reported that
about 50,000 refugees from Kurgan-Tyube have gone to neighboring
Kulyab Oblast, where 800,000 inhabitants are reported to be
already on the verge of starvation. Attempts to send food
shipments by road from Dushanbe have been blocked by fighting
along the highway. Ostankino TV on 21 September reported having
learned that Tajikistan's foreign minister planned to ask the UN
General Assembly to authorize UN peacekeeping forces for
Tajikistan. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW ABKHAZ CEASEFIRE; Shanibov DETAINED. A new ceasefire agreement
was signed on 23 September by Georgian, Abkhaz and Russian
representatives, whereby Abkhaz and Georgian troops would be
withdrawn from the River Bzyb, which is to become a demilitarized
zone, ITAR-TASS reported. The agreement also provides for the
creation of a commission which will begin work on 1 October to
stabilize the situation in Sukhumi; at that time Georgia will
withdraw from the area all its troops except those needed to
protect roads and railways. Meanwhile, Yuri Shanibov, the
chairman of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus
(the body responsible for sending volunteers to fight in Abkhazia)
has been detained in Nalchik by investigators from the Russian
procurator's office, which last month began proceedings against
him for "endangering the security of the state and spreading war
propaganda," an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Moscow. (Liz
Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
AZERBAIJAN CLAIMS STRATEGIC GAINS IN ADVANCE OF CEASEFIRE.
Azerbaijani forces retook the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Martuni on
23 September and subjected the capital of Stepanakert to aerial
bombardment; fierce fighting was also reported along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, ITAR-TASS reported. Commenting on the
19 September meeting at which the ceasefire agreement was
concluded, Azerbaijan Minister of Defense Rahim Kaziev told
ITAR-TASS that until a clear mechanism for enforcing the ceasefire
is worked out, it is premature to claim that the conflict has been
resolved. Russian Defense Minister Grachev told Russian
journalists that one reason why Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to
the ceasefire was that they are running out of military hardware.
Azerbaijan President Abulfaz Elchibey was quoted last week by
ITAR-TASS as claiming that the war was costing each side 25-30
million roubles per day. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN RETURNS DRAFT LAW TO PARLIAMENT. Russian President Boris
Yeltsin has sent back to the parliament a draft law on the
constitutional protection of the power of state institutions,
arguing that the draft violated the Russian constitution, Interfax
reported on 23 September. The parliament's draft envisioned the
creation of "parallel power structures." Yeltsin said that these
bodies would confer executive power on the parliamentary
presidium, a development that he opposed. He recommended that the
matter be reviewed by the Constitutional Supervisory Committee.
The draft further demonstrates the effort by parliamentary speaker
Ruslan Khasbulatov to strengthen his position. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV AGAINST REMOVAL OF GOVERNMENT. Although many
conservative deputies, such as Communist leader Sergei Baburin,
insisted on a vote of no-confidence in the government,
parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov told the parliament to
let the team of Acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar continue
working, ITAR-TASS reported on 23 September. Khasbulatov backed
away from a confrontation with the government after President
Boris Yeltsin publicly declared that he also no longer sought to
abolish the present legislature. Khasbulatov rejected demands by
conservative deputies to convene an extraordinary Congress and
stated that preparations for the next Congress will start, as
required by the constitution, in November-December. (Alexander
Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SHOKHIN ON IMPORTS, WESTERN LOANS. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr
Shokhin said that Russia is having some problems making use of
credits extended by Western nations and international agencies,
the New York Times reported on 24 September. Shokhin, in
Washington with other high level Russian officials to discuss debt
issues, claimed that Russia had not yet drawn on the $1 billion
dollar loan approved by the IMF in August because the interest
payments, at 7.5%, would be too burdensome. Shokhin also said
that at the current low ruble rate of exchange, Western imports
were too expensive for many Russian enterprises despite the
availability of Western financing. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA BUILDS GRAIN RESERVES. The Russian grain reserve, which
will total over 20 million tons, is being divided into federal and
regional "funds," Interfax reported on 23 September. Regional
authorities apparently will send grain procured in their
localities in excess of current consumption and local reserve
requirements to the federal fund. The federal fund will serve as
the reserve for the needs of the army, large cities, and
territories with low local grain production. Any shortfalls in
building the funds will be made up for with imports. The Russian
grain reserve was established by presidential decree in late
August. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CIVIC UNION COOPERATES. The leaders of the Civic Union, Arkadii
Volsky and Aleksandr Rutskoi, stated at a press conference that
they want to cooperate with the government, ITAR-TASS reported on
23 September. Volsky said that the Civic Union's economic program
should not be regarded as an alternative program. He criticized
the government for refusing to invite leading economists from the
beginning to work on its reform plan and for not having learned
from the Chinese reform experience, which preserved the state
sector. Volsky's economic aide, Iosif Diskin, said that the Civic
Union's economic program seeks first of all to protect key
industries from economic decline and only at the second stage does
it envision measures to stimulate production. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY CALLS FOR INCREASED MILITARY EXPENDITURES IN
1993. According to a Reuters report of 22 September, Russian
Minister for Industry Alexander Titkin called for a 60% increase
in defense spending in 1993 over planned levels. Titkin reportedly
made the suggestion in an internal government memorandum obtained
by Reuters. The planned 1993 military procurement budget is
reportedly 164 billion rubles, a 10% percent increase over current
levels. Titkin argued that expenditures should increase to 263
billion rubles to prevent plant closures and the loss of up to
800,000 jobs in defense and related industries. In the absence of
such an increase, Titkin claimed that production of such weapons
as the MiG-29, MiG-31 and T-72 tank would have to be halted. (John
Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GROMOV ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL PLANS. In a speech to the
Russian Supreme Soviet on 22 September, Deputy Defense Minister
Boris Gromov stated that the 14th Army will be withdrawn from
Moldova "only when the situation in the region gets stabilized,"
according to Interfax. He estimated that this might happen in 2
to 3 years. Gromov also repeated Russian plans to withdraw troops
from Lithuania by the end of 1993, and from the other Baltic
states by the end of 1994 if withdrawal agreements are reached.
All but 6000 troops are to be withdrawn from Poland by 15 November
1992, with the rest leaving by the end of 1993. (John Lepingwell,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
SUPREME SOVIET COMMITTEE CRITICIZES LITHUANIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL
AGREEMENT. The agreement to withdraw troops from Lithuania was
criticized on 22 September by the Russian Supreme Soviet's
Committee on International Affairs for failing to protect Russian
interests and the rights of Russian servicemen in Lithuania,
according to ITAR-TASS. The committee requested that the
agreement be renegotiated. The committee's reaction, together
with the increasing strength of Russian nationalists in the
Supreme Soviet, suggests that the treaty with Lithuania, and
potential treaties with Latvia and Estonia may run into
parliamentary roadblocks and possibly even non-ratification.(John
Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
US-RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS GLOBAL DEFENSES. On 21-22 September,
US and Russian officials met to discuss potential areas of
cooperation in the development and deployment of early warning
systems and ballistic missile defenses. In a communique issued on
22 September and carried by ITAR-TASS, they reported positive
discussions on topics including the exchange of ideas on global
defense systems, cooperative technical development projects, and
legal bases for cooperation. There was also discussion of a
possible "demonstration experiment" to exchange early warning
information. Despite the positive report, however, the indications
are that two sides are not close to substantive agreements on
joint defenses. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW RUSSIAN NAVAL COMMAND APPOINTMENTS. On 22 September, Krasnaya
zvezda reported that to replace retiring officers new personnel
were being appointed to the Russian Navy high command. Admiral
Valentin Selivanov, formerly commander of the Leningrad naval
base, was appointed chief of the main staff. Vice-Admirals Georgii
Gurinov and Vasilii Eremin were both appointed deputy commanders
of the Navy. Vice Admiral Aleksandr Gorbunov was appointed deputy
commander for combat readiness. The announcement indicated that a
substantial restructuring and restaffing of the Navy command is
underway. Interfax on 23 September reported that the controversial
commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Igor Kasatonov, also may
be appointed deputy commander of the Navy. (John Lepingwell,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA REJECTS SWEDISH SUBMARINE ALLEGATIONS. A spokesman for the
Russian Ministry of Defense on September 23 rejected Swedish
charges that a Russian submarine had entered Swedish waters,
ITAR-TASS reported on 23 September. The spokesman pointed out that
the Swedish Navy had been unable to identify the submarine and
claimed that Russian submarines carry out their training exercises
and combat operations outside the territorial waters of other
states. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PRUNSKIENE DENIES VOLUNTARY COOPERATION WITH KGB. In interviews
given to Literaturnaya gazeta, (No. 39) and Komsomolskaya pravda,
on 16 September, the former prime minister of Lithuania, Kazimiera
Prunskiene, called the verdict of the Lithuanian Supreme Court
confirming her collaboration with the KGB a "politically biased
decision" (See, RFE/RL Daily Report, 15 September). Prunskiene
said that her reports about her scientific contacts abroad that
were discovered in the KGB's archives were signed in her own name;
the agents of the KGB, however, usually had to sign their
"denunciations" (a term that was used in KGB domestic operations)
with their KGB cover name. Prunskiene failed to mention that she
was accused of collaboration not with the KGB's domestic services,
but with the first department of the Lithuanian KGB, which was an
element of the Soviet KGB's foreign intelligence service. (Victor
Yasmann, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KASATONOV FAVORED FOR CRIMEAN PRESIDENCY. Komsomolskaya pravda of
22 September reports that the extraordinary congress of the
All-Crimean Movement of the Electorate for the Republic of the
Crimea has named Admiral Igor Kasatonov, the commander of the
Black Sea Fleet, as its choice for president of the Crimea. The
congress expressed its dissatisfaction with the Crimean
parliament, calling for its early dissolution and new elections.
The congress also demanded that the moratorium on a referendum
defining the Crimea's state status be lifted. (Roman Solchanyk,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT MEETS ON THE ECONOMY. The Ukrainian Cabinet
of Ministers has met to discuss steps to intensify economic reform
in the country, Ukrainian radio and TV reported on 22 September.
The main speaker was First Deputy Prime Minister Valentyn
Symonenko, who presented an overview of his plan, which is said to
propose that Ukraine abandon the ruble zone in the very near
future. According to the report, the plan demonstrates the
government's determination to take full responsibility for
implementing economic reforms. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GEORGIAN RADICAL QUESTIONS LEGITIMACY OF ELECTING PARLIAMENTARY
SPEAKER. The chairman of the Georgian National Independence
Party, Irakli Tsereteli, has demanded that the Georgian Supreme
Court rule on whether the proposal to elect a parliament chairman
by majority vote with no alternative candidate conforms with the
Georgian Constitution, ITAR-TASS reported on 23 September. A court
ruling is expected by the end of this week. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
NAZARBAEV IN FRANCE. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev
arrived in France on 23 September for a three-day state visit,
Western agencies reported. He signed a friendship treaty with
France providing for regular top-level meetings between France and
Kazakhstan and also signed the CSCE Charter. Before ending his
official visit to Germany and traveling to France, Nazarbaev
signed a deal with Daimler-Benz under which the German firm will
assemble buses in Kazakhstan and deliver used Mercedes cars and
trucks to the Central Asian state. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BIRLIK, DEMROSSIYA TO ISSUE STATEMENT ON ABUSES IN UZBEKISTAN.
The Democratic Russia Movement and the Uzbek Popular Front
movement Birlik have prepared a statement on human rights abuses
in Uzbekistan, a DemRossiya official told an RFE/RL correspondent
on 23 September. The DemRossiya Coordinating Council has asked
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian Supreme Soviet to
look into the charges raised in the statement, including the use
of violence against the opposition in Uzbekistan, before Russia
concludes a bilateral treaty with that country. (Bess Brown,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
CROATIA, BOSNIA ANNOUNCE DEFENSE PACT. International media on 23
September quoted Presidents Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Alija
Izetbegovic of Bosnia in New York as saying that they have reached
a defense agreement covering the territory of the two republics.
This follows upon previous understandings and agreements reached
earlier this year, but details of the new text are not yet
available. Regular and paramilitary Croatian units alike in
Bosnia and Herzegovina formally follow a policy of good relations
with the Muslims, but there have been some clashes between Bosnian
and Croatian regular forces in recent weeks. The Croatian
authorities blame agents of the ex-Yugoslav military intelligence
for sowing mistrust between what they term "two victims of the
same [Serbian] aggressor." Time alone will tell what, if anything,
the latest Tudjman-Izetbegovic agreement will mean in practice.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SERBS SHELL BIHAC, SLAVONSKI BROD. Western news agencies on 23
September reported that Serbian artillery hit the hospital in the
besieged mainly Muslim town of Bihac, killing 11 and wounding 20.
Meanwhile in eastern Croatia, almost daily bombardment has
continued for four months against Slavonski Brod and the
surrounding villages. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KOSOVO DEVELOPMENTS. Fehmi Agani, vice president of Kosovo's main
party, the Democratic Alliance, told reporters on 18 September
that Kosovo's Albanian delegation attending the peace talks at the
UN-EC mediated conference on the former Yugoslavia in Geneva will
demand recognition as an independent republic. Kosovo, formerly an
autnomous province within Serbia, is about 90% Albanian. Agani
also said his party received the rump Yugoslav federal
government's 14-point draft program on Kosovo and commented that
Albanian parties will not agree on Kosovo remaining a part of
Serbia. He added that the proposals are only initiatives for
future talks. He did say, however, that his party regards the
government's proposal on lifting all restrictive measures on the
Albanian-language media as encouraging. Belgrade media carried the
report on 20 September. Western agencies report on 23 September
that street names in Pristina have been "Serbianized," and the
city's university has been named after Dositej Obradovic, an
18th-early 19th century Serbian scholar. According to the reports,
Albanian children and their teachers have been barred from
entering schools by Serbian police. Last month federal Prime
Minister Milan Panic ordered all schools opened to Albanians,
despite protests from local Serbs and Serbia's government. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HAVEL SAYS THAT REFERENDUM WOULD NOT HELP SITUATION. Former
Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel said in an interview with the
Czech daily Mlada Fronta dnes published on 24 September that it is
too late for a referendum on the future of the Czechoslovak
federation. Havel, who was one of the staunchest supporters of a
referendum on Czechoslovakia's constitutional setup, said that the
democratically elected Slovak leadership wants an independent
state and will not allow anything but a "ratification" of the
republic's independence. Even if Czechs vote in favor of a common
state, it will not have any impact on developments. Havel
stressed that Slovaks have the right to be independent and that it
is in the interest of all involved to carry out the division in a
proper way. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY TROUBLES. Stefan Savov, president of the
National Assembly and leader of Bulgaria's Democratic Party, faces
a no-confidence vote on 24 September. The vote, postponed from 23
September, results from accusations that he has failed to
represent the parliamentary coalition majority even-handedly. His
ouster is being sought by the leaders of the Movement for Rights
and Freedoms, Bulgaria's predominantly Turkish party. They issued
a declaration on 23 September calling for the removal not only of
Savov, but also of Prime Minister, Filip Dimitrov as well as for a
restructuring of the government and a new strategy to stimulate
economic reform. According to the declaration obtained by RFE/RL's
Sofia Bureau, the MRF alleges that the Coordinating Council of the
UDF has often forgotten that the parliamentary majority the
governing Union of Democratic Forces holds in the National
Assembly results from an informal UDF-MRF coalition, which has now
all but fallen apart. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Socialist Party
has indicated it supports the idea of a restructured Dimitrov
cabinet. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND, HUNGARY AGREE ON FREE TRADE ZONE. Poland and Hungary
intend to create a bilateral free trade zone, possibly as early as
1 January 1993, Western agencies reported. Polish Prime Minister
Hanna Suchocka and her Hungarian counterpart Jozsef Antall reached
agreement on the issue on 23 September, during Suchocka's two-day
official visit to Budapest. Czechoslovakia had been envisaged as a
third partner to the agreement, but its disintegration prompted
Hungary and Poland to press ahead with a bilateral arrangement.
The final agreement, to be signed in November 1992 in Cracow, is
expected to boost bilateral trade, which Antall says has declined
such that trade with Poland now only accounts for 1.5% to 2% of
Hungary's total. Suchocka and Antall signed agreements
eliminating double taxation and facilitating the flow of capital
between the two countries. Antall also urged the EC to provide a
clear outline of the conditions the "triangle" countries would
have to fulfill to become full members of that body. (Louisa
Vinton & Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
VISEGRAD TRIANGLE MILITARY LEADERS TO MEET. MTI reports, quoting
government sources, that the Defense Ministers of Poland,
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary will meet on 25 September in Tatranske
Zruby, Czechoslovakia, to discuss European security issues,
including the Yugoslav crisis. (Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LIVE FROM WARSAW: WALESA ON RFE. In a 50-minute live broadcast
from Warsaw on 23 September, Polish President Lech Walesa took
questions from RFE/RL journalists and listeners. Walesa expressed
the hope that the borders between Poland and its neighbors will
cease to divide and instead begin to bring together different
nations. He added that while politicians can create the
conditions for international cooperation, they cannot dictate it.
The interview with Walesa was broadcast by RFE/RL to Belarus,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.
(Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SOLIDARITY REFUSES TALKS WITH POSTCOMMUNIST UNIONS. Meeting
behind closed doors in Gdansk on 23 September, Solidarity's
National Commission decided to enter into negotiations with the
government on the "pact on state firms," but "staunchly refused"
to sit at the same table with other trade unions during the talks.
A spokesman charged that the former official OPZZ federation is
more interested in the legitimacy it could gain from sitting at
Solidarity's side than in the outcome of the negotiations. The
Solidarity leadership also rejected a demand from its radical
Mazowsze region for changes in the union's parliamentary caucus.
The region had expressed outrage that some Solidarity deputies had
voted against the motion to dismiss Privatization Minister Janusz
Lewandowski on 18 September. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BIG OPPOSITION RALLY IN BUCHAREST. Thousands of Romanians marched
through central Bucharest on 23 September to show their support
for Emil Constantinescu, the main opposition candidate in the 27
September elections. Constantinescu is running on the ticket of
the Democratic Convention (DC), an alliance of 18 centrist parties
and organizations. In a rally following the march, DC supporters
called for "true democracy" in Romania and denounced incumbent
president Ion Iliescu as "Bolshevik." Western agencies report that
in his speech Constantinescu stressed the need for "moral rebirth"
and the DC's concern for minority rights in Romania. Geza
Domokos, a prominent member of the Hungarian minority in
Transylvania, also addressed the crowd. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
ROMANIA'S NSF LEADER ON POST-ELECTORAL STRATEGY. Petre Roman,
leader of the National Salvation Front and former prime minister,
praised his opposition rivals at a press conference on 23
September. Roman said that the DC is likely to win the elections
and to form Romania's first genuinely democratic government since
the 1989 anti-communist revolution. He further pledged his party's
support for the DC in the parliament, even if the NSF is not part
of the next government; but added that the offer was limited to
the period necessary to achieve stability in Romania. Roman
declined to be drawn out on press speculations that he could
become foreign minister in the new cabinet. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
ESTONIA REBUTS RUSSIAN STATEMENT. The Estonian Foreign Ministry
has rebuked the Russian government for interfering in Estonia's
internal affairs. In a sharply worded statement issued by Tallinn
on 23 September, the Estonian government takes issue with remarks
made by the Russian government's press spokesman Gennadii Shipitko
to ITAR-TASS on 22 September alleging that last weekend's
elections in Estonia ignored the interests of Russian-speakers
there. The Estonian Foreign Ministry "regards [the statements] as
a threat directed at the Republic of Estonia . . . and as an
attempt to influence the activities of the newly-elected Riigikogu
(parliament) and the soon-to-be elected president." (Riina Kionka,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
LANDSBERGIS CONCLUDES VISIT TO BELGIUM. On 23 September Lithuanian
Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis completed a
three-day official visit to Belgium. On 21 September he met with
King Baudouin I and Belgian Senate officials. On 22 September he
participated in ceremonies opening the Lithuanian embassy and gave
a speech at the Royal Institute for International Relations. On 23
September he held talks at NATO headquarters with
Secretary-General Manfred Woerner and urged NATO to send observers
to oversee Russian troop withdrawals and help the Baltic States
establish their own armed forces. He also had meetings with EC
president Jacques Delors and European Parliament chairman Egon
Klepsch. On 24 September he held a press conference on the visit,
broadcast live by Radio Lithuania. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIA TO ABANDON RUBLE ON 1 OCTOBER. On 23 September Prime
Minister Aleksandras Abisala told national television that
Lithuania will abandon the ruble as its currency on 1 October,
replacing it with temporary coupons that can be exchanged for
rubles on a one-to-one basis until that day. Thereafter rubles
will be exchanged as foreign currency in Lithuanian banks. The
coupons will be valid until the introduction of the litas at some
as yet unannounced date. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UNEXPECTED SUCCESS OF CZECHOSLOVAK ECONOMIC REFORM. According to
Josef Tosovsky, the President of Czechoslovak State (Central)
Bank, Czechoslovak economic reforms have been successful and will
continue even after the country's disintegration. Tosovsky told
reporters in Washington on 22 September that inflation is under
control and the rate will remain lower than 10% throughout the
year; GDP growth is expected to be higher than last year.
Tosovsky said that the country's economy is doing so well that it
will not need to draw on the remaining $285 million of its current
stand-by loan from the IMF. The IMF reportedly anticipated a $600
million balance-of-payments deficit for Czechoslovakia, but it
turns out that the country had a $1 billion surplus for the first
eight months of the year instead. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ITALIAN CONCERN INVESTS IN POLISH STEEL MILL. On 23 September,
the Italian firm Lucchini signed an agreement with trade unions
from the Huta Warszawa steel mill. Officials say the agreement
paves the way for a $300 million investment in Poland's troubled
steel industry. In return for a 51% share in the mill, Lucchini
has granted a six-month moratorium on dismissals and promised
average monthly wage increases of 2 million zloty ($143) over the
coming 18 months. The work force endorsed the agreement almost
unanimously, Polish TV reported. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister
Henryk Goryszewski told an audience of bankers, managers, and
unionists in Poznan that "Poland must be open to foreign capital."
Poland's shortage of domestic resources rules out "capital
autarky," Goryszewski said. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FOREIGN CAPITAL FLOW TO HUNGARY CONTINUES. MTI reports that in
the first seven months of 1992, $827 million worth of capital came
into Hungary. This year's plan calls for $1.5 billion, but present
trends indicate that at the end of the year final amounts will be
higher. (Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ESTONIA: GOOD WORKS FOR THE JOBLESS. The outgoing Estonian
government adopted a ruling on 23 September saying that the
unemployed may be used in emergency relief works for up to 10 days
each month with a maximum of 80 hours per month, BNS reported.
Labor Minister Arvo Kuddo is quoted as saying that those who
refuse to participate in the program for reasons other than health
will be denied unemployment benefits for a two-week period.
(Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.22.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fighting flares in Bosnia amid international peace efforts
Subject: Relief supplies won't resume until UN gets security guarantees
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fighting flares in Bosnia amid international peace efforts
Date: 25 Sep 92 12:19:27 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Clashes flared in the capital of
Sarajevo and across the newly independent republic Friday as United
Nations and European Community peace mediators planned to investigate
reports of ``ethnic cleansing'' in northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina,
officials and news reports said.
At least one person was killed and three injured in fighting between
Serbian guerrillas and government forces in the predominantly Muslim
Slav city of Sarajevo, a police spokesman said.
``Aggression is spreading,'' said the Bosnia-Hercegovina government-
run Sarajevo Radio in a reference to Serbian efforts to carve out a
self-declared state and annex it to neighboring Serbia, the dominant
state of the disintegrated six-republic Yugoslav federation.
U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance and EC peacemaker Lord David Owevn,
the co-chairmen of the Geneva peace talks on former Yugoslavia, arrived
at midday Friday in Banja Luka, the Serb-held town and a major military
base in the northwest of the republic.
Vance and Owen expressed ``deep concern over reports...of ethnic
cleansing'' in the Banja Luka area and decided to personally investigate
these allegations, the Serbian-run Tanjug news agency reported.
In Banja Luka Vance said, ``We heard of ethnic cleansing in the area
of Banja Luka and we will personally ask questions to clarify the
situation.''
Serbian officials dismissed accusations their guerrillas were
``cleaning up'' the Banja Luka area of Muslim Slavs and charged that
Muslims were forcing the Serbs out of the region.
Fighting went on unabated across Bosnia-Hercegovina and in and around
Sarajevo Friday after a Canadian captain and six Egyptian soldiers of
the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) suffered injuries
Thursday while riding in an armored vehicle outside the capital.
The incident, a second one involving UNPROFOR troops in the past two
days, occurred at Adzici, on the western outskirts of Sarajevo.
Serbs traded accusations with Muslim Slavs of having carried out the
attack on the UNPROFOR vehicle.
But, witnesses agreed that after the explosion that ripped the U.N.
armored vehicle a firefight broke out between Bosnian and Serbian
forces.
Since the UNPROFOR deployed its troops in Bosnia-Hercegovina in May,
four members of the force have been killed and more than 50 soldiers and
officers wounded, most of them in deliberate attacks.
After sporadic clashes overnight, fighting intensified Friday morning
with Serbian guerrillas blasting mortar and howitzer rounds on downtown
Sarajevo and its suburbs.
Shortly after 9 a.m., a mortar shell killed a man in a Sarajevo
street and injured three other people, the radio said.
Large sections of Sarajevo remained without electricity and drinking
water as repair squads could not fix damage due to ongoing fighting.
In a report from the western Bosnian town of Bihac, close to the
border with Croatia, another former Yugoslav republic, Sarajevo Radio
said one person was injured in a Serbian attack on a hospital.
It was the 14th attack in the past month on the hospital in the
predominantly Muslim Slav town of Bihac, the radio said.
On Tuesday, a Serbian tank shell hit a lung disease ward killing 11
patients and injuring another 20 as they were having dinner in the
hospital dining room.
Serbian forces, armed by the Yugoslav army and backed financially and
politically by the communist regime in neighboring Serbia, have been
bombarding and besieging Sarajevo for neaerly six months as part of
their land-grab campaign.
Forces loyal to the Bosnian government comprised mostly of Muslim
Slavs, but also including moderate Serbs and Croats, have been fighting
to preserve the republic's newly won independence and territorial
integrity.
Sarajevo, with an estimated 500,000 residents and refugees, has been
encircled by Serbian forces since early April.
A U.N.-sponsored humanitarian aid airlift was suspended on Sept. 3,
cutting the delivery of much needed relief supplies to the city, when an
Italian cargo aircraft was shot down just outside Sarajevo.
Food and medical supplies trucked to Sarajevo by land convoys are not
sufficient to provide about 200 tons of relief needed per day.
Fighting was reported in the areas of Bihac, Brcko, Maglaj, Tesanj,
Zenica, Tuzla, Olovo, Zavidovic, Breza, Gradacac, Jajce, Doboj, Sarajevo
radio said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Relief supplies won't resume until UN gets security guarantees
Date: 25 Sep 92 15:55:57 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- The United Nations relief airlift of supplies to
Sarajevo is to remain suspended until participating nations have further
security guarantees from the warring factions in Bosnia-Hercegovina and
may never be revived, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said
Friday.
The 19 nations participating in the airlift have told the High
Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, they will not resume flying
until she has received additional guarantees from the three rival
factions that the planes will not be fired on.
Refering to the airlift, suspended since Sept. 3, UNHCR spokesman
Sylvana Foa said, ``We're seeking guarantees but there's a limit as to
how far we can go in negotiating military agreements with the Bosnian
factions. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.''
She spoke as U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance and EC peacemaker Lord
David Owen flew to Sarajevo for a three-day visit.
A U.N. spokesman, Pierre Mehu, said they planned to visit Banja Luka,
headquarters of the Serbian community in Bosnia and investigate reports
of intimidation and growing tension between Serbs, Croats and Muslims.
Mehu said Owen and Vance would stay in Bosnia-Hercegovina until
Sunday, meeting with Radovan Karadzic, the Serbian leader in Bosnia and
several of his aides.
novine.23.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 185, 25 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
RUSSIA REFUSES TO SELL WEAPONS TO TAJIKISTAN. In order to end the
fighting between supporters and opponents of deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, the government of Tajikistan asked to buy heavy
weaponry from Russia, but Moscow turned the request down, the
deputy chairman of Tajikistan's National Security Committee told
ITAR-TASS on 24 September. The same day inhabitants of Dushanbe
gathered in front of the Supreme Soviet building to protest the
government's inability to stop the fighting. Volunteers from
Dushanbe and mountain raions that support the opposition have
joined a self-defense force organized by inhabitants of Kofirnihon
(formerly Ordzhonikidzeabad) Raion on the Kulyab-Dushanbe road to
stop an armed group from Kulyab that is trying to reach Dushanbe.
The Nurek power station remains in the hands of fighters from
Kulyab. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT TO DISCUSS FIGHTING IN ABKHAZIA. On 25
September the Russian parliament will debate a draft proposal to
deploy Russian peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia in order to
safeguard the civilian population and the normal functioning of
industry and transport, ITAR-TASS reported. Abkhaz parliament
Chairman Vladislav Ardzinba is quoted as arguing that Russia
cannot remain indifferent to the situation in Abkhazia as some
90,000 Russians live there; he also accused Georgia of violating
virtually all the provisions of the 3 September ceasefire
agreement. A Georgian State Council spokesman threatened on 24
September to begin "a real war" in Abkhazia if all North Caucasian
armed groups fail to comply with the ultimatum to leave the area
by 25 September, Reuters reported. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CONFUSION OVER RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN TRADE QUARREL. Details
concerning the dispute over trade payments between Russia and
Ukraine remain unclear. At issue is the reversal of an agreement
between Russian Central Bank chief Viktor Gerashchenko and the
Ukrainian government to pay unsettled trade accounts. When the
story first emerged, Russian sources reported that the Gaidar
government had only suspended credits issued to Ukraine as part of
the agreement. On 23 and 24 September, Western sources suggested
that Russia had halted all financial transactions between the two
countries, thus effectively freezing trade. Who owes whom what is
also unclear. Ukrainian Central Bank chief Vadim Hetman, according
to Western sources, claims that Russian enterprises owe Ukraine
360 billion rubles, whereas Ukrainian enterprises owe Russia only
60 billion rubles. Russian observers have given significantly
different figures for outstanding payments. (Erik Whitlock,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN POLITICIANS QUESTION RESULTS OF WESTERN AID. The Boston
Globe quoted the leader of the Industrial Union, Arkadii Volsky,
as saying on 24 September that the Russian government was
"slavishly following the advice of people from abroad, especially
those who are not taken seriously in their own countries." The
first deputy parliamentary speaker, Sergei Filatov, stated that
"the great value placed on foreign aid, which is not making itself
felt, is in fact the worst mistake [which the government is
making]," according to Interfax on 23 September. Other criticism
of Western assistance recently came from the speaker of the
parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, the first deputy prime minister,
Vladimir Shumeiko, and many other conservative deputies.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GAIDAR WILL NOT RETREAT. Acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar told
The Financial Times on 24 September that he will not retreat from
his market reforms approach. He said, however, that he may reach
a compromise with the Civic Union on the issue of military
conversion. He stated that those CIS states which do not want to
remain in the ruble zone will not receive any more credits from
the Russian central bank. He expressed his intention to cooperate
closely with the head of the central bank, Viktor Gerashchenko,
emphasizing that he does not think that the latter wanted to
undermine the government's financial policy. He also told
ITAR-TASS also on 24 September that government structures will be
altered due to new requirements. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POPOV SAYS REFORM IS HALTED. The leader of the Russian Movement
for Democratic Reforms, Gavriil Popov, told Interfax on 24
September that Russia will try to divide Western countries against
each other by choosing one Western partner, to whom Moscow will
open its markets and resources rather than cooperating with the
entire European community. Popov stated that the IMF reform
program turned out to be unacceptable to Russia and that one must
now think of implementing a different transition concept which
takes into account Russia's unique situation. Popov asserted that
acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar has already given up on pursuing
his own initial reform program and now is adopting ideas supported
by the leader of the "industrial lobby," Arkadii Volsky.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NEW WAGE REGULATIONS FOR RUSSIAN STATE EMPLOYEES. The wages and
salaries of most employees paid directly out of the state budget
will be raised and set under new, simplified regulations, Russian
news agencies reported on 24 September. According to ITAR-TASS,
the new regulations provide for wage indexation, adjusting wages
upwards quarterly to offset inflation to some degree. Interfax
reported that the regulations will be introduced starting in the
fourth quarter of this year and will initially double wages and
salaries from their June 1992 levels. The new regulations, which
Labor Minister Gennadii Melikyan proposed, may affect the earnings
of as many as 15 million Russians. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ADJUSTMENTS IN RUSSIAN VOUCHER PROGRAM EXPECTED. With only a week
left until the start of the distribution of
privatization-vouchers, the Russian parliament is considering
important changes in the program. Parliament's Supreme Economic
Council will suggest such modifications as allowing citizens to
use their vouchers not only as claims on state enterprise assets,
but also to purchase land and municipal property, according to
Interfax on 24 September. Other changes under consideration are a
ban on the resale of vouchers and an extension of their expiration
date, currently set at 31 December 1993, to the end of 1994.
According to "Novosti" on 18 September, Gosznak began printing the
vouchers last week, and it is reportedly producing 4 million
daily. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CANDIDATES FOR MOSCOW MAYORAL POST. The names of four politicians
have so far been mentioned as confirmed or possible candidates in
the forthcoming mayoral election, Ekho Moskvy reported on 23
September. Two of them--the liberal economist, Larisa Pyasheva,
and the chairman of the Krasnopresnenski Raion Soviet, Aleksandr
Krasnov--have already declared their candidacies. The other two
candidates are Svyatoslav Fedorov, the distinguished eye surgeon
from the Party of Economic Freedom, and Ilya Konstantinov, the
Secretary of the Christian-Democratic Movement. The latter has
announced that if elected, he will cut foreign aid and establish
order in the city. The present Moscow mayor, Yurii Lushkov, told
Interfax on 24 September that the candidates' announcements about
running for his office were "not serious because neither the
President nor the parliament have yet approved a new mayoral
election. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KHASBULATOV REINSTATES PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT OF THE MBRF. On 22
September, the opening day of the Russian parliament's new
session, the parliamentary speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov,
reestablished a parliamentary commission to monitor the activities
of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation (the MBRF or
MB, formerly the KGB). Khasbulatov himself closed the commission
down a few months ago. However, the speaker has changed his mind
due to a personal clash with Russian Security Minister Viktor
Barannikov, who had written an message to his employees in the
margins of a manuscript of Khasbulatov's book, Reforming the
Reforms: The Speaker's Thoughts. Barannikov asked his assistant
how Khasbulatov had spent the royalties for the book, citing
information that Khasbulatov had donated the money to the Russian
Assembly and other ultranationalist opposition organizations,
Russian TV reported on 23 September. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
MAJORITY OF RUSSIAN CITIZENS NOSTALGIC ABOUT THE OLD DAYS. 80
percent of the citizens in the Russian Federation questioned in an
opinion poll conducted by the well-known sociologist, Professor
Grushin, say that life before perestroika was better than it is
now. The results of the poll were published in Moskovskaya pravda
on 24 September. According to the poll, 67 percent of the
respondents still favour socialism. 50 percent of the
respondents--the majority of whom are members of the older
generation--have favorable thoughts about Stalin. 72 percent of
those supporting Stalin are Muslims. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
SUPREME SOVIET PASSES REVISED LAW ON DEFENSE. The Russian Supreme
Soviet on 24 September passed a version of the Law on Defense that
incorporated some revisions requested by President Boris Yeltsin.
According to ITAR-TASS, the new law allows the President to
appoint the Defense Minister, Chief of the General Staff, and
their deputies without the formal approval of the Supreme Soviet.
However, the president will not gain the exclusive right to make
appointments until a new constitution is adopted, leaving some
uncertainty in the appointment process. The law also specifies
that the Supreme Soviet will approve the structure and composition
of the armed forces as recommended by the President, rather than
the Prime Minister. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
US OBJECTS TO RUSSIAN SUBMARINE SALE TO IRAN. On 24 September
acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger expressed US
concern over Russia's planned sale of three diesel-powered
submarines to Iran, according to Western news agencies. Russian
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev defended the sale as enhancing
communications with Iran as well as benefitting the Russian
economy. Baltfax and the BBC on 24 September reported that the
first of the Kilo-class submarines had set sail from a Russian
naval base in Latvia where it was undergoing an overhaul and crew
training. The Latvian government has protested the deal and the
presence of Iranian crews several times during the past year.
(John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LANGUAGE QUESTION IN THE DONBASS. A group of political parties in
the Donbass has issued an appeal to the oblast council
recommending that a local referendum be held on the language
question, Radio Ukraine reported on 23 September. The appeal
states that the people themselves should decide which language
they speak, read, and think in and in which language their
children should be taught. The referendum would decide whether
Russian should become the second state language in the region.
(Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BELARUS TO SPEED NUCLEAR WEAPONS REMOVAL? Interfax on 24 September
reported that President Stanislav Shushkevich has requested the
acceleration of research on the removal of nuclear weapons from
Belarus. Although Belarus is committed to eliminating all nuclear
weapons on its soil within seven years, the instructions
reportedly call for investigating scenarios in which the weapons
could be removed in two to five years. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
BELORUSSIAN FILM DIRECTOR SHOT IN TAJIKISTAN. The noted
Belorussian filmmaker, Arkadii Ruderman, has become a victim of
the civil war in Tajikistan, "Novosti" reported on 23 September.
Ruderman gained fame in 1988 for his documentary exposure of the
attempt by Belorussian communist authorities to play down the
centennial celebration of the Jewish painter Marc Chagall, who was
born in Vitebsk but whose achievements the regime refused to
recognize. For his daring documentaries exposing the ills of the
communist regime, Ruderman won the highest awards at prestigious
Soviet film festivals in 1988 and 1989. In November 1988,
Ruderman was the first Russian TV journalist to interview the then
dissident Czechoslovak politician Aleksandr Dubcek. Ruderman and
his crew visited Tajikistan to make a film investigating the
"artist's role in politics" for the Ostankino TV company,
"Novosti" said. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV IN FRANCE. On 24 September, the first full day of his
state visit to France, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev
met with state officials and businessmen, and thanked France for
taking in thousands of Kazakhs and Russians who had fled Russia
and Kazakhstan after the 1917 October Revolution, ITAR-TASS
reported. Nazarbaev and French Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy
signed an agreement on the protection of investments similar to
that signed by Nazarbaev in Germany earlier in the week. Seeking
to persuade businesses to invest in Kazakhstan, Nazarbaev pointed
out his country's rich natural resources--France's ELF-Aquitaine
already has made a deal to develop oil fields in Kazakhstan--and
also its stable political situation and commitment to developing a
market economy. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
CAMPAIGNING ENDS IN ROMANIA. The presidential and parliamentary
election campaign ended on 24 September with a televised debate
among the six presidential candidates. During the three-hour live
program, Ion Iliescu defended his political career under former
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He stressed that he had broken with
Ceausescu in 1971 because of the latter's attempt to introduce a
Chinese-style cultural revolution in Romania. Recent polls seem
to indicate that Iliescu is regaining ground as the date for
presidential and general elections, 27 September, approaches.
Iliescu's main challenger is Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic
Convention. The other candidates for president are Gheorghe Funar
of the nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity; Caius Traian
Dragomir of the center-left National Salvation Front; Mircea Druc,
former premier of Moldova, running as an independent; and Ion
Manzatu, candidate of the fringe Republican Party. In a separate
development, the US House of Representatives decided on 24
September to postpone a vote on whether to restore Romania's
most-favored-nation status until after the elections. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY PRESIDENT RESIGNS. Stefan Savov,
president of the National Assembly resigned at 17:00 on 24
September, Radio Sofia reports. A replacement must be elected
within 14 days. The action headed off a no-confidence vote called
for the same day and, at least for the moment lessens tension
between the governing Union of Democratic Forces and its informal
coalition partner, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The
leader of the latter party, Ahmed Dogan, has pledged not to press
forward with a call for a no-confidence vote on the government in
order to give the UDF time in which to reorganize its cabinet. The
MRF continues to insist on a change in certain cabinet positions,
apparently including the ministries of finance, defense, trade,
and interior. UDF leaders so far appear unwilling to give in.
(Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GERMANY, ROMANIA AGREE TO EXPEL ILLEGAL MIGRANTS. Western
agencies reported on 24 September that in Bucharest German
Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters and his Romanian counterpart
Victor Babiuc signed an agreement on returning illegal migrants.
The accord, which allows Germany to repatriate rejected
asylum-seekers to Romania even if they do not have identity
documents, was described by Seiters as "an important step forward"
in Germany's struggle to control the flood of illegal immigrants
from Eastern Europe. More than 57,000 Romanian citizens, of whom
some 60% are Gypsies, applied for asylum in Germany from January
to August this year. Germany hopes to sign similar agreements with
other East European countries. In Czechoslovakia, for instance,
CSTK reported on 23 September that more than 21,000 refugees--most
from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union--have been caught
this year on the German border. Czechoslovakia is a major transit
point for economic refugees heading to Western Europe. (Dan
Ionescu & Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SERB STEP UP BOMBING RAIDS ON JAJCE. Reuters on 24 September
reported that Serb warplanes again attacked Jajce in central
Bosnia, which they first bombed on 12 August. This picturesque
town set in the mountains constitutes an important gap, together
with Gradacac and Brcko, in attempts to link up Serbia with
Serbian-held territories in Bosnia and Croatia. Muslim and
Croatian forces are defending all three towns against recently
intensified Serbian pressure. Jajce dates back to at least the
14th century, and was a symbol of Tito's Yugoslavia because he
effectively launched his federalist program there at a conference
in 1943. Elsewhere, the Serbs subjected Sarajevo to heavy
shelling at a time when the UN peacekeepers are considering
leaving the city for safer ground, Western Agencies report.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PANIC DISCUSSES SITUATION. Milan Panic, Prime Minister of the rump
Yugoslavia, told a group of Yugoslav journalists in Washington on
24 September that his recent activities at the UN "achieved more
than we expected." He described his meeting with the foreign
ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members as "a
fantastic turnabout," because the ministers openly expressed
support for his peace plan. On the home front, Panic said "I will
never surrender Kosovo," and went on to criticize his detractors
by saying "those who have been accusing me of wanting to give up
Kosovo have, in fact, given everything away, and caused human
losses without saving or changing anything." According to Radio
Serbia, Panic said he finds the world's reactions to Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic "inexplicable and intolerable" and
that "never before has the world talked about or judged a man in
this way." Nonetheless, the New York Times of 25 September says
Panic is losing patience in Milosevic: "I think I am through with
him. . . . We are on a collision course." Western agencies
report that Panic has sharply criticized past Serbian leaders for
what he calls years of tragic mistakes and decisions. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PATRIARCH AND CARDINAL CALL FOR PEACE TALKS. Western news
agencies on 24 September said that Serbian Orthodox Patriarch
Pavle and Croatia's Cardinal Franjo Kuharic issued a joint
statement in Geneva calling for immediate negotiations between
Croats and Serbs. They condemned all ethnic cleansing and called
for refugees to return home, as well as for the release of all
prisoners and the closing of all camps. Muslim leader Jakub
Selimoski, who had previously called for a meeting of all three
religious leaders, did not attend; Pavle and Kuharic expressed
regret at his absence. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CANDIDATES FOR LITHUANIAN SEIMAS. On 25 September Lietuvos aidas
published the list of 448 candidates in the 71 single-mandate
districts for parliamentary elections on 25 October. The number of
candidates varies from 3 to 11. In 5 districts three current
parliament members, and in 25 districts, two members will be
competing against each other. The most notable race is in
Kaisiadorys District, where former prime minister Gediminas
Vagnorius of Sajudis will run against Lithuanian Democratic Labor
Party chairman Algirdas Brazauskas. Both will undoubtedly be
elected since they are the third and first candidates,
respectively, on their parties' lists. In the 70 multiple-mandate
districts, 743 candidates from 26 political parties and movements
are registered. There will clearly be new deputies since in 11
single-mandate districts no incumbent deputies are competing.
(Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CZECHOSLOVAK PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ELECT PRESIDENT. In its fifth
attempt since the beginning of July, the Czechoslovak Federal
Assembly failed to elect a new federal president on 24 September,
CSTK reports. Jiri Kotas, chairman of the tiny Free
Bloc-Conservative party, won only 40 votes in the 300-member
assembly. Since Czechoslovakia is to split into two states on 1
January 1993, the vote was treated as an empty formality by many
deputies after Kotas had been officially nominated by one of the
deputies. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CZECHOSLOVAK PREMIER WRITES ANTALL ABOUT GABCIKOVO DAM. In a
letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall on 23 September,
Czechoslovak Prime Minister Jan Strasky argues that the
Czechoslovak-Hungarian dispute over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros
hydroelectric dam project should be solved with the help of a
European Community commission of experts. Strasky says that
submitting the matter to the International Court of Justice in the
Hague, as proposed by Antall in his letter to Strasky on 18
August, would be "a step backwards." Published by CSTK, the letter
further says that the so-called variant C of the dam project,
pursued by Czechoslovakia after Hungary unilaterally withdrew from
the project, will not, as claimed by Hungary, lead to the
diversion of the Danube on the current Czechoslovak-Hungarian
border, but only to the diversion of some of the river's water.
(Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST EXTREME RIGHT IN HUNGARY. MTI and wire
services reported that an estimated 50,000 people demonstrated in
central Budapest on the evening of 24 September against the recent
resurgence of the extreme right-wing nationalism. The rally was
staged by the Democratic Charter, a civil rights group organized
mainly by opposition party members in September 1991, and endorsed
at the last moment by the Association of the Free Democrats, the
leading opposition party. The demonstrators were addressed by the
writer Gyorgy Konrad, one of the leaders of the Association of
Free Democrats, who called on the crowd to defend democracy.
Other speakers said that Hungary cannot be diverted from the path
of peaceful change and called on Prime Minister Antall to make a
clean break with his party's extreme nationalist wing. A similar
rally took place in Miskolc. (Karoly Okolicsanyi, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EAST-CENTRAL EUROPEAN DEFENSE MINISTERS CONFER. The Czechoslovak,
Hungarian, and Polish ministers of defense meet today in Slovakia
to discuss prospects for cooperation in view of the impending
split of Czechoslovakia into two separate states and the
consequent division of its armed forces into Czech and the Slovak
units. (Jan de Weydenthal, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND WANTS TO INCREASE ARMS SALES. Jan Straus, an official in
the Polish Trade Ministry who issues arms export licenses, said at
a 24 September Warsaw news conference that Poland hopes to
increase its exports of arms to developing countries. In a UPI
account of his comments, Straus said that he knows of no case in
which a Polish firm violated the UN arms embargo on sales to
regions where there are conflicts. He said that a total of 51
firms have been licensed to sell arms. Straus revealed that in
years past Poland was ordered by Moscow to export arms to various
countries without receiving payment. He said that Poland plans to
develop its exports to "so-called Third World countries." (Doug
Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
US SENATE PANEL VOTES RESTRICTION ON RUSSIA AID. On 23 September
the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment by
its chairman, Sen. Robert Byrd, to restrict nonhumanitarian aid to
Russia until all Russian troops are withdrawn from the Baltic
States or a negotiated timetable for their withdrawal is approved,
Reuters reports. Humanitarian aid was defined as food, clothing,
and medicine in order to restrict most of the aid to Russia. Sen.
Patrick Leahy said that he has been told the Administration
strongly opposes the amendment. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
TALKS ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM LATVIA STALEMATED. The latest
round of talks on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Latvia,
held in Jurmala on 22 and 23 September, ended in a stalemate,
Radio Riga reports. The Russian side says Latvia was not
sufficiently forthcoming over its offer to withdraw its troops by
the end of 1994--earlier Moscow had proposed 1999--while
maintaining some strategic installations in Latvia. Russia also
wants Latvia to assume greater responsibility for the welfare of
the active and retired Russian military in Latvia. The Latvian
side simply wants all troops out by fall of 1993. Sergei Zotov,
leader of the Russian delegation, expressed dismay over Latvia's
desire to internationalize the troop withdrawal process and to
bring up the issue at the UN, while Latvia felt offended that the
Russian delegation continues to act as if Latvia joined the USSR
voluntarily. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RIGHTS OF ESTONIA'S RUSSIANS ON AGENDA. Vasilii Svirin, Russia's
chief negotiator for talks with Estonia, told reporters that the
next round of talks between the two states would focus on the
rights of ethnic Russians in Estonia. Svirin called that
particular sphere of problems "one of the most difficult" in the
talks. The next round of talks is set for October. BNS reported
Svirin's remarks. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINE ENDORSES BALTIC STANCE. Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Anatolii Zlenko has confirmed his country's support for Baltic
efforts to achieve a speedy withdrawal of Russian troops from
their territories. Zlenko also told Janis Lovniks, the newly
appointed Latvian chargi d'affaires in Ukraine, that his country
considers the presence of former USSR troops in the Baltic States
to be a violation of international norms, BNS reported on 23
September. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EC TO HELP FIGHT BALTIC SEA POLLUTION . On 24 September in
Helsinki the European Community signed a new convention to fight
pollution in the Baltic Sea, Western agencies report. In order to
give the document more weight the Baltic littoral countries
- --Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany,
and Denmark--asked the EC to endorse the new convention drawn up
in April to replace a 1974 treaty. The new convention will go into
effect as soon as all the signatory states ratify it. Meanwhile,
these states are already monitoring and trying to curb pollution,
especially with regard to the dumping and incineration of waste
materials. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIA NEEDS MONEY TO MAINTAIN PRISONS. Latvia's minister of
internal affairs, Ziedonis Cevers, appealed to businessmen for
funds to be used to maintain various law enforcement facilities,
including prisons. He said that his ministry has not received an
expected 500 million rubles from the state budget, and if the
deficit cannot be covered, certain detention facilities will have
to be closed and some law enforcement activities will have to
stop, Radio Riga reported on 22 September. The reason the ministry
has not yet received its allocation is that payments into the
state budget are coming in more slowly than anticipated. (Dzintra
Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
JEWISH GENOCIDE DAY COMMEMORATED IN LITHUANIA. On 24 September
Lithuania joined Israel in commemorating "Jewish Genocide Day,"
the RFE/RL Lithuanian Service reports. In official ceremonies,
presided over by Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis, 20
crosses--12 posthumously--were presented to people who at great
risk had rescued Jews from certain death during World War II. It
is planned to award more medals in the future. (Saulius Girnius,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.24.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Peace envoys cite ``shattering'' image of 'ethnic cleansing'
Subject: Afghan president visits Pakistan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Peace envoys cite ``shattering'' image of 'ethnic cleansing'
Date: 26 Sep 92 18:59:16 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Peace envoys Cyrus Vance and
Lord David Owen said Saturday that witnesses had painted a ``shattering
picture'' of so-called ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces in the ex-
Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Meanwhile, sporadic shelling around the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo
Saturday morning followed a night of fierce clashes across the republic
which left 54 people dead and 285 wounded, Health Ministry officials
said.
In Sarajevo alone, at least 21 people were killed and 104 wounded in
a 24-hour period ending at 1 p.m. Saturday, the ministry said.
Owen and Vance, co-chairmen of an ongoing Yugoslav peace conference,
visited the Serbian-held town of Banja Luka Friday in response to U.N.
reports of rising ethnic tensions in the city. The men later left the
region via Croatia, another former Yugoslav republic.
``We were very troubled by what we saw in Banja Luka,'' Owen told
reporters at the airport in the Croatian capital Zagreb before leaving
for Geneva, Switzerland. ``We heard concrete evidence of ethnic
cleansing.''
During their visit, Owen and Vance met with Catholic, Muslim and
Serbian religious leaders who confirmed people were leaving en masse
last week from the towns of Bosanski Petrovac and Kljuc, about 25 miles
west of Banja Luka in northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Owen added the reports were later independently confirmed by other
witnesses.
He said several witnesses confirmed accounts of an incident in
Travnik in central Bosnia where 3,000-4,000 people attempted to cross
through the front lines to safety.
``We are only just seeing the full story and it's a shattering one,''
Owen said.
Owen and Vance went to Banja Luka after U.N. officials reported
``nasty harassment'' of non-Serbs by Serbian irregulars had escalated
there.
According to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Michael
Keats, non-Serbs in Banja Luka were losing their jobs and being arrested
for no reason. Owen and Vance said they saw evidence of harassment by
Muslims and Croats as well, but on a much smaller scale.
U.N. officials estimate thousands of refugees have been forced to
leave their homes by Serb militia since the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina
began in April, when Serbian forces launched an attack to pre-empt
international recognition of the former Yugoslav republic.
In an effort to carve a Serbian state from the republic and join it
to a truncated Yugoslavia made up of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbian
guerrillas have captured about 70 percent of the republic's territory.
Bosnian forces opposing the Serbs are mostly comprised of Muslim
Slavs with a smaller number of Croats and moderate Serbs.
In Banja Luka before the war, approximately 68,000 Muslims and Croats
coexisted with the Serb majority in the city of 195,000. Recent
estimates now put the number of Muslims and Croats at between 30,000 and
40,000.
Owen said while the situation in Banja Luka was ``tense,'' he was
optimistic the situation would not get out of control.
In Sarajevo, heavy overnight fighting eased by Saturday morning, with
Sarajevo police reporting relative calm in the predominantly Muslim Slav
city under a Serbian siege for six months.
``There was intermittent shelling coming from Serbian positions and
Serbian snipers continued their activities,'' a Sarajevo police
spokesman said.
Government-run Sarajevo radio accused Serbian forces of using jet
fighters to support infantry assaults on the Muslim Slav-held towns of
Jajce, Maglaj. Gradacac, Doboj and Tuzla.
The radio said Serbian forces stepped up the number of combat flights
from Banja Luka, which is major military base of the Serb-led Yugoslav
army.
It said Serbian jet fighters rocketed and and bombarded with cluster
bombs the central Bosnian town of Jajce, 80 miles northwest of Sarajevo.
The town of Maglaj, about 50 miles southwest of Banja Luka, came under
fire from jetfighters at about 7 a.m. as well as from tank, howitzer and
mortar rounds.
Sarajevo radio reported heavy clashes in the northern town of
Gradacac but gave no details of the fighting.
The combat flights flew from their base in Banja Luka just one day
after Vance and Owen were in the city.
Meanwhile, Sarajevo, Jajce, Gradacac, and Maglaj were running short
of medical supplies, food as well as electricity and fresh drinking
water, the radio said.
An international humanitarian airlift to Sarajevo has been suspended
since Sept. 3, when an Italian cargo plane was shot down over Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
Both Owen and Vance said they would urge nations participating in the
now scaled down humanitarian airlift to Sarajevo to resume flights as
soon as possible.
The U.N. Protection Force has been flying in two test flights a day,
down from the dozens of aid flights to the besieged city earlier this
month.
``With winter coming on, it is simply vital we get people flying the
airlift again,'' Vance said.
Vance and Owen said they had confirmation of a bomb attack on the
road from Split to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia which they said was
designed to delay humanitarian aid convoys destined for Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
Owen said the attack ``could have little other purpose than to delay
the humanitarian aid process.
``We are facing a very large deterioration in the humanitarian
situation and we will both take it up to the highest level in the hope
that we can sort this matter and get something done about it,'' he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Afghan president visits Pakistan
Date: 26 Sep 92 00:21:22 GMT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani
arrived Friday in Pakistan amid speculation that he may meet Bosnian
President Alija Izetbegovic, who is expected to arrive Saturday.
The visit follows media reports from Bosnia that Afghan Mujahideen
fighters were helping Bosnian Muslims in their fight against the Serbs.
Officials in Islamabad said Rabbani, who landed at the northern city
of Peshawar, will begin his official appointments Saturday when he comes
to Islamabad.
It is Rabbani's first presidential visit to Pakistan, which helped
the Afghan resistance in toppling the Soviet-installed regime in Kabul.
Rabbani and other Mujahideen leaders fought their 14-year war against
the communists from Peshawar before returning to Kabul in April this
year after the collapse of the communist government.
Diplomatic sources said Rabbani may meet Izetbegovic, who arrives
Saturday evening but has no meetings scheduled with Pakistani leaders
until Sunday. Both the leaders were to be in Islamabad until Sunday
evening.
Rabbani will go to Iran from Pakistan. Iran has proposed forming an
Islamic force to help the Bosnian Muslims when the Bosnian foreign
minister visited Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, two months ago.
Izetbegovic told Pakistani television in New York Friday he was
``grateful to Pakistan and other Muslim countries for the solidarity you
showed with us.''
Pakistan was one of the first countries to expel Belgrade's
ambassador after Serb rebels attacked Bosnia.
novine.25.bale.,
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Serbian nationalists systematically massacred
about 3,000 Muslims in two Bosnian detention camps, secretly cremating
and disposing of the bodies in a rendering plant, the Los Angeles Times
reported Sunday.
The newspaper said the State Department now deems credible eyewitness
reports of the mass killings last May, according to senior U.S.
officials.
``This could have been happening in other places too,'' one State
Department official said, although he doubted that such killings were
taking place today ``given the exposure that has taken place since
August.''
The State Department reports, obtained by American diplomats,
generally confirm and amplify eyewitness accounts of the killings
published last August in New York Newsday.
Officials said the State Departement last week obtained graphic,
first-person accounts of the killings at two Serbian detentian camps
operated at a brick factory and a pig farm near the Bosnian town of
Brcko, about 75 miles north of Sarajevo.
The Brcko killings were carried out under the direction of an
ultranationalist Serb leader known as Vojislav Seselj and one who goes
by the single name Arkan.
Based on the reports, a senior State Department official told the
Times, acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger urged the United
Nations last week to establish a commission to investigate the war
crimes in Bosnia.
A State Department official said American diplomats interviewed a
number of former prisoners of the camps at Brcko.
``Many people were killed, in groups of up to 50 at a time,'' the
State Department official said. ``A total of about 3,000 people -- men,
women and children -- were killed in the camps at Brcko.''
The official said at least some of the prisoners were beaten and
tortured before they were killed.
One of the former prisoners at the camp told U.S. diplomats that ``he
several times had to transfer dead people to an animal rendering plant,
where they secretly cremated bodies at night to evade detection,'' the
senior State Department official said.
The two worst detention camps were reported to be a brick factory and
a pig farm in the Brcko area.
After the reports last August, Serbian officials in Bosnia denied any
wrongdoing and escorted Western reporters on a tour of Brcko, insisting
there were no detention camps in or near the city.
But some Serbian officials later acknowledged that thousands of
prisoners were shuttled from one place in Bosnia to another in an effort
to prevent Western human rights officials and journalists from finding
the camps.
novine.26.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: State Dept. confirms 3,000 Muslims massacred in Serbian camps
Subject: U.N. says Serbs forced exile of 2,500 from northern Bosnia
Subject: Pilgrims brave Bosnia war hoping for vision of Virgin Mary
Subject: Peace mediators talk with Serbian leaders
Subject: Mourners attacked in Sarajevo, five killed
Subject: U.S. has eyewitness reports of mass executions in Bosnia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: State Dept. confirms 3,000 Muslims massacred in Serbian camps
Date: 27 Sep 92 16:06:16 GMT
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Serbian nationalists systematically massacred
about 3,000 Muslims in two Bosnian detention camps, secretly cremating
and disposing of the bodies in a rendering plant, the Los Angeles Times
reported Sunday.
The newspaper said the State Department now deems credible eyewitness
reports of the mass killings last May, according to senior U.S.
officials.
``This could have been happening in other places too,'' one State
Department official said, although he doubted that such killings were
taking place today ``given the exposure that has taken place since
August.''
The State Department reports, obtained by American diplomats,
generally confirm and amplify eyewitness accounts of the killings
published last August in New York Newsday.
Officials said the State Departement last week obtained graphic,
first-person accounts of the killings at two Serbian detentian camps
operated at a brick factory and a pig farm near the Bosnian town of
Brcko, about 75 miles north of Sarajevo.
The Brcko killings were carried out under the direction of an
ultranationalist Serb leader known as Vojislav Seselj and one who goes
by the single name Arkan.
Based on the reports, a senior State Department official told the
Times, acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger urged the United
Nations last week to establish a commission to investigate the war
crimes in Bosnia.
A State Department official said American diplomats interviewed a
number of former prisoners of the camps at Brcko.
``Many people were killed, in groups of up to 50 at a time,'' the
State Department official said. ``A total of about 3,000 people -- men,
women and children -- were killed in the camps at Brcko.''
The official said at least some of the prisoners were beaten and
tortured before they were killed.
One of the former prisoners at the camp told U.S. diplomats that ``he
several times had to transfer dead people to an animal rendering plant,
where they secretly cremated bodies at night to evade detection,'' the
senior State Department official said.
The two worst detention camps were reported to be a brick factory and
a pig farm in the Brcko area.
After the reports last August, Serbian officials in Bosnia denied any
wrongdoing and escorted Western reporters on a tour of Brcko, insisting
there were no detention camps in or near the city.
But some Serbian officials later acknowledged that thousands of
prisoners were shuttled from one place in Bosnia to another in an effort
to prevent Western human rights officials and journalists from finding
the camps.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. says Serbs forced exile of 2,500 from northern Bosnia
Date: 27 Sep 92 23:37:15 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- United Nations officials presented more
accounts Sunday of the forced exile of about 2,500 Bosnians, mostly
Muslims, from northern Bosnia-Hercegovina last week.
Agents of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees who traveled to
central Bosnia-Hercegovina to speak with the victims told U.N. officials
in Zagreb that the refugees, in addition to being terrorized, were
forced to pay for their ``ride into exile,'' said Michael Keats, a UNHCR
spokesman.
The Bosnians, mostly from Bosanski Petrovac in northwest Bosnia-
Hercegovina, were loaded on to 30 buses and trucks and taken to Travnik
in central Bosnia-Hercegovina, about 65 miles southeast of Bosanski
Petrovac.
The Bosnians were forced to pay a local Serb-run ``relocation agency''
for the transport, Keats said.
In Travnik, the people were ``dumped on the front lines between
Muslim and Serb forces,'' then forced to cross 6 miles of ``no-man's
land'' to safety, Keats said.
As they ran across, Serbian snipers shot at them, killing four people
and wounding others, Keats said.
One man arrived in Travnik with his ``nose bashed in and clothes
soaked in blood'' after having been beaten by Serbs, the UNHCR staff
agent told Keats.
Many of the people who fled had ``horror stories'' of beatings and
mass killings that were ``absolutely convincing,'' the staffer told
Keats.
The alleged attacks and forced exodus were in retaliation for the
massacre of 16 Serbs last week by Muslim commandos, the mayor of
Bosanski Petrovac, a Serb, told the UNHCR.
But Serbian authorities denied conducting any reprisal killings,
Keats said
The approximately 2,500 people who fled to Travik are now scattered
around the city. Some are staying outside, some in other people's homes
and others in barns or whatever shelter they can find, Keats said.
There are virtually no more Muslims left in Bosanski Petrovac. They
have all either left in this last mass exodus or fled previously, Keats
said.
``It's either get out or get killed,'' Keats said of the situation in
Bosanski Petrovac.
In addition the UNHCR said it had reports of mass killings in areas
around Bosanski Petrovac.
One man, a Muslim from Orasac, about 19 miles northwest of Bosanski
Petrovac near a U.N. Protected Area in Croatia, told U.N. officials he
hid in a cupboard while Serb-irregulars rampaged through his house.
When he finally came out, he found his grandparents dead on the
floor, six people dead in a house next door and two other handicapped
people with their throats slit in another nearby house.
The man is now under the protection of the French battalion in the U.
N protection force, Keats said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Pilgrims brave Bosnia war hoping for vision of Virgin Mary
Date: 28 Sep 92 02:08:13 GMT
MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Within earshot of the gunfire
and artillery bombardments of the Yugoslav war, international pilgrims
continue to seek miracles and enlightenment in this village made famous
by the reported sightings of the Virgin Mary.
While the war has deterred about 90 percent of the tourist flow that
once brought up to 5,000 visitors a day, enough still come to pack the
300-capacity community Catholic church wall-to-wall. At a recent mass,
about 200 people spilled outside and heard the service on loudspeakers.
``It's the safest place in the world,'' said Sister Frances Schug, a
nun from Wisconsin in the United States. ``Bombs fell here and they did
not explode.''
According to a well-spread rumor, Croatian police who control the
area have found unexploded artillery shells in the village. The
perpetuators of the tale credit the Virgin Mary with protecting the
town.
``I am convinced there is something special here,'' said Blago
Krlsic, 39, a Croatian Army soldier with a rosary around his neck.
``Look at all the people here. If it weren't special, they wouldn't come
from all over.''
Krlsic is one of many soldiers who come to Medjugorje for confession
and prayer. Visiting the town, he said, makes him ``feel less afraid
when the Serbs are attacking.''
A mass is said in English each day to accommodate the international
crowd that has flocked to this sacred town for the past 11 years.
The pilgrims are drawn to Medjugorje by the story of six children who
saw a vision of the Virgin Mary on a small hill near the village. The
children resisted attempts by villagers and authorities to force them to
recant their story.
Despite official attempts to crush the belief something of great
religious significance was occurring, the children said they continued
to see the apparition and receive messages from it.
As the story spread around the world, pilgrims swarmed to the town in
increasing numbers. The government relaxed its opposition after seeing
the profit generated by the ballooning tourist traffic.
The children have grown. Two of them, Mirjana Dragicevic and Ivanka
Ivankovic, stopped seeing the visions years ago, after claiming to have
received 10 ``secrets'' promised them by the Virgin. They have since
married and have their own children.
The other four claim to have received nine of the secrets and are
still seeing the visions and talking with the Virgin.
Ivan Dragecivic, at 27 is the oldest of the visionaries. He lives on
a nearby farm and returns to Medjugorje daily to speak with Mary in the
upper loft of the community church.
Each day, visiting pilgrims line up outside waiting for Dragecivic to
go to the loft in hopes of being allowed to watch him during his moment
of ecstacy. The loft is too small to accommodate everyone.
On a recent visit, an American woman from Wisconsin pleaded with the
pilgrims to let her send her son through. The 9-year-old boy wore a
baseball cap to cover his bald head.
``Please,'' she begged, ``let him in. He has brain cancer.''
He was allowed through, although somewhat reluctantly, by the others
waiting in line and joined about 50 people in the loft.
Onlookers held their rosaries and watched silently as Dragecivic
kneeled before a giant oil painting of Mary and gazed up with open eyes,
moving his lips as if in a silent conversation with her.
``The most important thing the Virgin Mary said tonight when she
appeared in my prayer...was that she blessed all the people present,''
he said after his five-minute vision was over.
``Mary asked for peace tonight as she does all the time. Tonight
there were no special messages for the world,'' he said. ``The holy Mary
said she was happy and then she talked to me and I talked to her and a
lot of what we said was private.''
The small village, where early pilgrims once were invited into
private homes, has taken on the look of a package tour destination over
the years. Big hotels and restaturants stand where once there were small
farms and markets.
Across the street from the church, the main strip is lined with cafes
and shops that sell Jesus dolls and rosaries in all colors from pearly
white to neon green.
``We can see in the Western world that people don't know how to live
with money,'' said Slavko Barbaric, a priest who arrived in Medjugorje a
few months after the first apparitions were reported. ``We can just hope
and pray that it doesn't taint things here because it can become very
dangerous.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Peace mediators talk with Serbian leaders
Date: 28 Sep 92 14:15:11 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- International mediators Cyrus Vance and
Lord David Owen arrived Monday for talks with Serbian leaders on issues
that included the deployment of fresh U.N. peacekeepers in neighboring
Bosnia-Hercegovina and the resumption of a humanitarian relief airlift
to Sarajevo.
U.N. special enovy Vance and European Community mediator Owen flew
into the Serbian capital of Belgrade from Geneva on a one-day visit to
meet leaders of the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro.
Vance and Owen, the co-chairmen of the Geneva peace conference on the
disintegrated Yugoslav six-republic federation, drove from Belgrade's
Surcin Airport directly to the Palace of Federation for talks with
Dobrica Cosic, president of the truncated Yugoslavia.
They refused to answer reporters's questions as they entered a
conference room for talks with Cosic, a Serbian writer who became
president of the small Yugoslav federation which was forged on April 27.
Col. Gen. Zivota Panic, the chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army,
attended the talks in the Federation Palace.
French Gen. Philippe Morillon, deputy commander of the United Nations
Protection Force (UNPROFOR), and Cedric Thornberry, in charge of
UNPROFOR's civilian affairs, also attended the talks, a Yugoslav
official said.
Generals Panic and Morillon were to have separate talks, the official
said.
The two peace mediators, who last week visited the Croatian capital
of Zagreb and the Serb-held town of Banja Luka in northwestern Bosnia-
Hercegovina, were also scheduled to meet Serbian hard-line President
Slobodan Milosevic before they fly back to Geneva later in the day,
Serbian officials said.
As the peace talks began in Belgrade, reports from the Bosnia-
Hercegovina capital of Sarajevo said fighting flared across the war-
ridden republic.
Serbian guerrillas continued their land-grab campaign to rip off a
self-declared ``state'' from Bosnia-Hercegovina, the former central
Yugoslav republic which comprises 1.9 million Muslim Slavs, 1.4 million
Christian Orthodox Serbs and 750,000 Roman Catholic Croats.
At least five people were injured Monday in the predominantly Muslim
Slav city of Sarajevo as Serbian forces fought sporadic artillery and
infantry battles with Bosnia-Hercegovina forces, that are made up of
Muslim Slavs but also include Croats and moderate Serbs, Sarajevo Radio
said.
Sarajevo has been under a Serbian siege during the past six months
and with approaching cold winter months its 500,000 residents and
refugees lack food and medical supplies.
Officials of the UNPROFOR in Sarajevo said they planned to open road
and railway corridors from Croatia into Sarajevo through the Serb-held
stronghold of Ilidza.
They plan to establish the land corridor into Sarajevo via Ilidza as
soon as possible. A contigent of 6,000 troops are to be deplopyed in
Bosnia-Hercegovina to help the current 1,500 UNPROFOR peacekeepers to
ensure humanitarian aid deliveries.
The war in Bosnia-Hercegovina broke out late in March when Serbian
leaders launched their campaign to capture the ``Serbian republic''
which they declared on 70 percent of the republic.
Muslim Slavs and most Croats oppose the partition of Bosnia-
Hercegovina into ethnic districts.
Serbian guerrillas have been armed by the Serb-led Yugoslav army and
backed financially and politically by communist-ruled Serbia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Mourners attacked in Sarajevo, five killed
Date: 28 Sep 92 15:53:17 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serbian gunners blasted a
funeral for an elderly woman Monday, killing five people and wounding 20
during a day of artillery and sniper attacks on the beseiged Bosnian
capital.
Serbian forces turned off pumps to the city's water supply Sunday in
Serb-controlled Bacevo on Sarajevo's western outskirts, again leaving
its 400,000 people virtually without water, said Salem Karovic, chief of
the city's water distribution system.
``During the night, they switched off the pumps without previous
announcement,'' Karovic said.
The action, if confirmed, would be a violation of an agreement the
Serbs made one week earlier at peace talks in Geneva not to use water
and electricity as weapons against civilians.
Most of the city's trapped population, already having spent the past
week without electricity, was forced to dip into reserves held in
bathtubs or venture into sniper-lined streets with cans and buckets in
search of the rare water trucks.
Sarajevo's electricity was cut a day after the Geneva agreement,
allegedly by Serbian shells that hit a main cable.
Continued fighting has blocked U.N.-supervised attempts to repair the
lines.
A total of 31 people were killed and 215 wounded in attacks
throughout Bosnia-Hercegovina during the 24-hour period that ended at 10
a.m. Monday, including nine killed and 65 wounded in Sarajevo, republic
officials said.
The count did not include those among the 40 to 50 mourners attacked
about noon Monday by at least two grenades or mortar shells that
witnesses said landed some 10 to 50 yards from them in a cemetery in
Boljakov Potok in the northwest part of the city.
Three mourners died at the cemetery, two others died after being sped
to hospitals in private cars and some 20 others were wounded, officials
said.
Another six civilians were wounded around 1 p.m. Monday when a shell
landed on a street in western Sarajevo.
The shells in Boljakov Potok fell just as the assembled mourners were
awaiting the burial of an elderly woman who had died of natural causes,
said Bezdrob Muharem, who suffered shrapnel wounds to his back and leg.
Muharem, 27, sat afterward on a bench at the city's state hospital
alongside his friend, Ferid, in his 40s, whose wounded right calf and
foot dribbled blood steadily through a white tourniquet.
Ferid stared blankly as hospital workers slapped water on his face
and then, only while being lifted to stretcher, managed to mutter a plea
that doctors not amputate his leg.
The U.N. Protection Force deputy commander has arrived for talks with
the Serbian leadership on opening a corridor through Serbian forces
besieging the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, U.N. officials said.
French Gen. Phillipe Morillon also was to discuss with Radovan
Karadzic, the Serbian Democratic party chief, the need to end several
days of fighting that virtually have closed the main road linking the
airport with the city, preventing humanitarian aid deliveries, the
officials said Sunday.
Morillon flew in from the Croatian capital of Zagreb as Serbian
artillery pumped intermittent shellfire into the city and Sarajevo radio
announced a republic-wide air raid alert amid reports of Serbian air
attacks around the northern town of Bosanski Brod.
The republic's Health Ministry said that during the 24-hour period
that ended at 1 p.m., at least 34 people were killed and 199 were
wounded across Bosnia-Hercegovina. Of the total, at least 14 people died
and 71 others were wounded in Sarajevo, the ministry said.
In Zagreb, Croatia, meanwhile, U.N. officials released further
confirmation of the forced exile of about 2,500 Bosnians, mostly
Muslims, from northern Bosnia-Hercegovina last week. Michael Keats,
spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees,. says witnesses
told U.N. officials they were forced to pay as much as $66 for their
``ride into exile.''
In Sarajevo, renewed clashes along the airport road between the Serb-
held suburb of Ilidza and Bosnian lines at the western end of the city
prompted Morillon to cancel plans to visit the U.N. mission and drive by
armored car to his meeting with Karadzic in his stronghold of Pale, east
of Sarajevo.
Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdul Razek, the UNPROFOR commander for
Sarajevo, told United Press International that the main focus of the
talks would be the establishment of a road and rail corridor from
Croatia's Adriatic port city of Split into Sarajevo through Serbian
lines in Ilidza.
``The intention is to establish a free corridor to allow the free
movement of people, vehicles and humanitarian aid and to reduce the
number of checkpoints,'' Razek said.
UNPROFOR hopes to create the corridor under a plan to expand within
several weeks the 1,500-member multi-national contingent by 6,000 troops
in order to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance to war-
stricken areas across Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The conflict erupted in Bosnia-Hercegovina, whose population is
comprised of Muslim Slavs, Serbs and Croats, in late March, when armed
Yugoslav army Serbs launched an offensive to capture a self-declared
state before international recognition of the former Yugoslav republic's
independence.
The partition of the republic is opposed by Bosnian forces comprised
overwhelmingly of Muslim Slavs, but also including moderate Serbs and
Croats.
Razek reiterated that UNPROFOR would not use force to ensure
humanitarian aid deliveries, and said it hoped to broker agreements
between the warring factions to establish supply corridors to other
cities along which U.N. troops would be deployed to monitor the accords.
``UNPROFOR intends to set up observation points to be connected by
patrolling paths,'' he said.
U.N. officials said Morillon would also discuss with Karadzic the
possible establishment at a hotel in Ilidza of an UNPROFOR headquarters
for Bosnia-Hercegovina as part of the coming force expansion. The
Sarajevo sector headquarters would remain at its current location on the
western end of the city, they said.
And, they said, Morillon was to raise the failure of both sides to
respect a cease-fire along the airport road as required under a June 5
agreement that turned Sarajevo airport over to U.N. control.
They said Razek planned to discuss the issue later in the day with a
Senior Bosnian defense officer, Stjepan Siber.
U.N. High Commission for Refugees or UNHCR officials said three days
of fighting in the area of the highway had prevented the transfer of aid
from the agency warehouse at the airport into Sarajevo, which requires
an average of 220 tons of food daily.
UNHCR warehouses have been empty for about a week because convoys
have been able to deliver only an average of 44 tons of food daily since
the Sept. 3 downing of an Italian transport plane prompted the
suspension of the U.N.-supervised airlift.
``If it (fighting near the road) continues to be like this, like it's
been the last few days, the average will go down,'' said one UNHCR
worker.
At least 75 tons of food have been sitting at the airport since
Friday, the worker said.
An estimated 500,000 residents and refugees in Sarajevo depend on U.
N. humanitarian relief because of the almost six-month Serbian blockade
of the capital, which Karadzic wants partitioned into ethnic districts.
Many others areas of the republic have also been cut off from food
and medical supplies by months of fighting.
U.N. officials and aid workers have expressed grave concerns that
time is running out to prepare the war-ravaged republic for the harsh
Balkan winter and that a humanitarian nightmare is in the making.
Karadzic has proclaimed an independent Serbian state on about 70
percent of Bosnia-Hercegovina, although Christian Orthodox Serbs
constitute about 31 percent of the population of 4.4 million.
His forces have been armed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army and
backed financially and politically by communist-ruled Serbia, to which
Karadzic eventually hopes to join his self-declared state.
The 1.9 million Muslim Slavs and most of the 750,000 Roman Catholic
Croats oppose the partition of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Some Croats, however,
favor the establishment of separate ethnic regions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.S. has eyewitness reports of mass executions in Bosnia
Date: 28 Sep 92 18:19:37 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Credible witnesses have told U.S. officials they
saw Serbian troops slaughter more than 3,000 men, women, and children at
detention camps in the Bosnian town of Brcko last spring, the State
Department said Monday.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials recently received
reports from two individuals who survived the Serbian brutality at Brcko
that 3,000 Bosnian Muslims were executed there during May and June.
Although the administration had been told previously of the mass
executions, he said the fresh reports are the first from witnesses.
``These are the first eyewitness reports we've received of these
killings in the Brcko area,'' Boucher said. ``The previous information
that we had was either second-hand or some of the information that we
had raised questions about its credibility.''
He said the information had been turned over to United Nations
authorities that are investigating Serbian atrocities in Bosnia-
Hercegovina, which has been under siege since March by troops from
Belgrade attempting to annex the nascent republic and ``cleanse'' it of
all Muslims and Croats.
novine.27.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 186, 28 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
TAJIK FIGHTERS TAKE RUSSIAN TROOPS PRISONER. An operation by law
enforcement agencies to disarm supporters of deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, who are from Kulyab Oblast but who have been
fighting in Kurgan-Tyube Oblast, was supposed to have started on
26 September, ITAR-TASS reported. The following day, however, the
same source reported that armed groups from Kulyab had seized four
tanks, an armored transporter, and an armored car from Russian
forces stationed in Kurgan-Tyube, and that they had captured five
members of the Russian unit. According to the commander of the
Russian division, the unit that lost the equipment was surrounded
by some 350 fighters from Kulyab who wanted to obtain more
equipment and weaponry the same way. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT CRITICAL OF GEORGIA ON ABKHAZIA. Following
discussion on 25 September of the situation in the North Caucasus
and Abkhazia, the Russian parliament issued a statement saying
that it "denounces the policy of the Georgian leadership...and
demands that the government immediately stop combat operations,
withdraw armed units from Abkhazian territory and strictly fulfill
international covenants on human rights." The statement also
called for the "introduction of necessary contingent of
peace-keeping forces" and offered the services of the Russian
Federation as a mediator in the conflict, ITAR-TASS reported on 25
September. (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ANGRY SHEVARDNADZE TO MEET WITH YELTSIN ON ABKHAZIA. Eduard
Shevardnadze, chairman of Georgia's State Council, made an
unscheduled stop in Moscow on his way home from the United Nations
to discuss with Russian President Boris Yeltsin the Russian
parliament's statement on Abkhazia. Shevardnadze was quoted by
Russian TV on 27 September as saying: "I cannot recall any
precedent for such crude, high-handed, and unforgivable
interference in the internal affairs of our Republic."
Shevardnadze described the Russian parliament's actions as
"impudent and overtly aggressive" and said that the future of
Russo-Georgian relations, not just the question of Abkhazia, will
be the subject of his meeting with President Yeltsin; Shevardnadze
added: "My task is to save these relations," ITAR-TASS reported on
27 September. The meeting is scheduled to take place on 28
September. (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA. At least 20
people were injured in a confrontation between police and
thousands of demonstrators in the Kabardino-Balkar republic in the
North Caucasus on 27 September, Interfax reported. The
demonstrations followed the detention on 23 September of Musa
Shanibov, the chairman of the Confederation of the Mountain
Peoples of the North Caucasus, by investigators of the Russian
procurator's office. Russia had earlier declared unlawful the
activities of the confederation, which has sent volunteers to
Abkhazia to support the Abkhaz against Georgia. Following the
violent protests a state of emergency for two months was declared
in the republic, ITAR-TASS reported. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WITHDRAWAL OF CONFEDERATION'S VOLUNTEERS FROM ABKHAZIA SUSPENDED.
Abkhazia's separatist leaders said on 27 September that the
pullout of the volunteers sent by the Confederation of Mountain
Peoples of the North Caucasus would be delayed indefinitely
because of Georgia's violations of the ceasefire in Abkhazia,
Interfax reported. Georgia had threatened to remove them by force
if they were not withdrawn by 25 September. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
NAGORNO-KARABAKH CEASEFIRE APPARENTLY BROKEN. ITAR-TASS reported
on 26 September that Azerbaijani Defense Minister Rakhim Gaziev
ordered his troops to lay down their arms in compliance with a
ceasefire arranged the previous weekend, but there were no
confirmed reports that the ceasefire was actually being observed
by Azerbaijani or Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. The
agreement, mediated by Russia, called for a ceasefire in
Nagorno-Karabakh for two months, and a truce along the
Azerbaijani-Armenian border for an undetermined period. Also on 26
September, Interfax quoted an Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman
as saying that his country would observe the agreement if the
Azerbaijani side did the same. On 27 September, however, ITAR-TASS
reported that Armenian troops were continuing to attack
Azerbaijani positions along the entire front in Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
VOLSKY DESCRIBES 13-POINT PROGRAM. Arkadii Volsky, leader of the
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, outlined his
"anti-crisis" program to an ITAR-TASS correspondent in St.
Petersburg on 26 September. The thirteen points that comprise his
program include refocusing the reform to stabilize production.
Also among Volsky's proposals is the creation of a two-sector
economy for the transition period. The private economy should be
encouraged and receive state support; however, the state should
"reestablish regulation of the development of the economy." For
the state sector, Volsky vaguely described the introduction of a
"new mechanism of management" and a restructuring policy for state
enterprises. With regard to the voucher-privatization program,
Volsky said without modifications existing plans could turn out to
be "a great deception of the workers." (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
VOLSKY PROPOSES NEW UNION. The leader of the Civic Union, Arkadii
Volsky, has proposed the creation of a "Euro-Asiatic" union of six
or seven of the members of the CIS, The Financial Times reported
on 28 September. He obviously meant those of the CIS members
states who signed the agreement on the formation of the
Interparliamentary Assembly. Volsky also visited Kazakhstan in
September and assisted Kazakh entrepreneurs in the organization of
their own industrialists' union. That was a significant step
toward the reestablishment of ties between the Russian and Kazakh
industrial complexes. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
OPPOSITION TO PRIVATIZATION. Conservative deputies made an attempt
in parliament to postpone or hold a nationwide referendum on
privatization. One of the conservative deputies even threw a
handful of vouchers in the face of Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii
Chubais, who is responsible for the privatization program, Western
news agencies reported on 25 September. But parliamentary speaker
Ruslan Khasbulatov called upon deputies to end the debate, saying
that people have certain expectations and that parliament would be
making a mistake if it blocked the voucher plan. Khasbulatov
proposed establishing a special parliamentary committee to monitor
privatization. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DEMOCRATS SUPPORT RADICAL REFORM.The "Democratic Russia" movement
fears that the Civic Union may push it to the sidelines of the
political arena, thereby depriving it of its popular support in
society, ITAR-TASS reported on 26 September. Leaders of
"Democratic Russia" issued a statement calling for a consolidation
of all democratic forces on the issue of holding a referendum on
private land ownership. They asserted that from the fourteen
factions in the Russian parliament, only two--"Democratic Russia"
and the "Radical Democrats"--support the government's radical
reform course. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA TO CUT OIL EXPORTS TO CIS. Minister of the Economy Andrei
Nechaev disclosed at a news conference in Moscow that Russia is
planning to cut oil exports to other CIS republics by half next
year, according to Western news agencies on 26 September. The
action is intended to maintain domestic and hard-currency export
needs in the face of rapidly falling Russian oil production (at
the rate of a million barrels per day, according to a recent World
Bank study). Nechaev said the overall reduction in exports to the
CIS region would be between 30-40 million tons. The reduction
would be very damaging to the other CIS economies, which are
heavily dependent on Russian supplies. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
SACHS, LIPTON CRITICIZE IMF. "Something is wrong, seriously wrong,
with the IMF's role in Russia," wrote Jeffrey Sachs and David
Lipton, two US economists advising the Russian government on
economic reform, in The Washington Post on 27 September. The two
claim that the IMF has to increase its presence in Russia and
thereby exert a greater influence on Russian economic policy:
"Without [IMF representatives] in residence... the IMF simply has
not done the things it can to make the difference." The economists
also criticized specific Fund pronouncements and actions,
including not effectively organizing Western aid for Russia and
opposition to separate national currencies in the other CIS
republics. Sachs and Lipton urged the US Congress, which is
considering a $12 billion increase in its contribution to the
Fund, to pressure the IMF into making "fundamental management
changes." (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA HALTS SUBMARINE SALE TO IRAN. The Russian government has
decided to halt the sale of three Kilo-class diesel submarines to
Iran due to alleged disagreements over payment. On 25 September,
Vladimir Pakhomov of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, informed
ITAR-TASS that the sale was not currently on the agenda. Also on
25 September, however, the Pentagon confirmed reports that one of
the submarines was already en route to Iran with a training crew
on board, according to Western news agencies. If the submarine
returns to the Russian naval base in Latvia from which it set
sail, it could exacerbate political tensions between Latvia and
Russia. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAYEV CRITICIZES UKRAINE OVER NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev criticized Ukraine on 26 September
for vacillating on the elimination of its nuclear arms, Western
news agencies reported. According to Nazarbayev, "Ukraine cannot
say one thing today and do another thing tomorrow." While Ukraine
has reiterated its willingness to eliminate all nuclear weapons on
its territory by the end of the decade, some Ukrainian
parliamentarians have been criticizing the commitment and raising
doubts about it. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SHAPOSHNIKOV CONFIRMS CIS MISSILES REMAIN TARGETED ON THE US. On
25 September, Commander in Chief of CIS forces, Marshal Yevgenii
Shaposhnikov, confirmed that CIS missiles are still targeted on
the United States. In January 1992, President Boris Yeltsin made
several vague promises and assurances that Russian missiles would
not be targeted on US cities, but these statements were discounted
by the military as political in nature and technically
meaningless. Shaposhnikov did confirm that many missiles have been
taken off alert, according to Western news agencies. (John
Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
PRIMAKOV PROPOSES MORATORIUM ON FOREIGN ESPIONAGE. The director
of the Russian foreign intelligence service, Evgenii Primakov, has
offered to recall his spies from countries that agree to cease
their intelligence activities in Russia. In an interview with The
Sunday Times on 27 September, Primakov said that such a step must
be fortified by "a government guarantee." He also revealed that
his agency has closed about 30 former KGB stations in Africa and
Far East; because of personnel and budget cuts about half of all
his intelligence officers will be recalled by the end of the year,
he added. Primakov's offer echoed the US-Soviet intelligence pact
proposed by Dr. Georgii Arbatov last year (see RFE/RL Daily
Report, 27 November, 1991). At that time, Arbatov proposed a
reciprocal cessation of agent recruitment by Russia and the United
States, and a concomitant redirection of intelligence resources on
both sides towards analytical work; meanwhile, counterintelligence
forces on both sides would verify that the respective countries
were abiding by the treaty. (Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CRIMEA AMENDS CONSTITUTION. The Crimean parliament, meeting for a
two-day session on 24 and 25 September, adopted amendments to its
constitution and approved a state flag and symbols, Ukrinform-TASS
reported on 25 September. The Crimean constitution now states that
the Republic of the Crimea is part of Ukraine, with which it
conducts its relations on the basis of mutually agreed upon laws
and agreements. The Crimea's powers are defined by its
constitution and the Ukrainian law delineating power between Kiev
and Simferopol. The Crimean government will have its permanent
representation in Kiev. Every Crimean citizen is simultaneously a
Ukrainian citizen, and Crimeans reserve the right to have dual
citizenship. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN, NAZARBAEV, ELCHIBEI ON CIS. Yeltsin's press secretary
said on 25 September that Yeltsin had sent a personal message to
the leaders of the CIS states in advance of the summit meeting in
Bishkek on 9 October in which he proposed that individual CIS
states should move towards integration insofar as they were ready,
ITAR-TASS reported. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev said
he shared Yeltsin's view, ITAR-TASS reported. Nazarbaev said no
one should be dragged into the CIS, and some states could be
associated members and others observers. Azerbaijan's president
Abulfaz Elchibei said on CIS TV on 22 September that he personally
was against Azerbaijan being a member, because it still lacked the
hallmarks of genuine independence, namely a national currency,
army, and gold reserve. Elchibei had said three days earlier,
however, that it was a matter for the parliament to decide. (Ann
Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
TURKMENISTAN PLACES HOPES ON GAS. The gas pipeline that is to be
built from Turkmenistan to Europe via Turkey will enable
Turkmenistan to break into the world market, Turkmen President
Saparmurad Niyazov said in an interview with the Moscow journal
Svobodnaya mysl, ITAR-TASS reported on 27 September. Niyazov
believes that Turkmenistan can cushion the shock of introducing a
market economy through selling its gas, oil, and cotton. Western
economists have been inclined to agree with him. In the interview
Niyazov also praised his country's stability. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
ROMANIAN ELECTIONS ORDERLY, GOOD TURNOUT. On 27 September
Romanians voted in the second presidential and general elections
after the collapse of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in December 1989.
The elections came at the end of a relatively calm electoral
campaign, in sharp contrast with the one in May 1990, which was
marred by violence, fraud, and intimidation. There were six
presidential candidates and more than 10,600 candidates from 83
parties and alliances competing for seats in the 471-seat,
two-chamber parliament. An estimated 75% of the 16.4 million
electorate turned out at the 14,000-odd polling stations, under
the eyes of more than 500 foreign and 8,000 domestic observers.
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ILIESCU LEADS--RUNOFF LIKELY. Preliminary results circulated by
Romanian TV shortly before the polling stations closed at 9:00
p.m. showed incumbent President Ion Iliescu leading with 48% of
the vote over his main challenger, Emil Constantinescu (33%),
running on the ticket of the Democratic Convention (DC), an
alliance of 18 centrist parties and organizations. If accurate,
these projections, based on an exit poll made by the German
Applied Social Research Institute and the Romanian Institute for
Public Opinion Survey, indicate that Iliescu is likely to win the
reelection in a runoff to be held on 11 October. A former
high-ranking communist official, Iliescu appears to have enjoyed
massive support from the less educated, conservative electorate in
rural areas and small towns. The Democratic National Salvation
Front (DNSF), the party supporting Iliescu, is also leading with
27.5% in those projections. The contest for the parliament,
however, seems much tighter, with the DC in second place with 23%
and Petre Roman's National Salvation Front on the third, with 11%.
This suggests that a coalition will be needed to form the next
government. Among the DNSF's possible allies are nationalist and
leftist parties. First official preliminary results are expected
at midday 28 September, while the final outcome will probably not
be known before 6 October. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FIGHTING CONTINUES IN BOSNIA. International media reported over
the weekend that all contenders are trying to consolidate their
positions before the harsh Balkan winter arrives in October. The
BBC on 28 September quotes Serbian sources as saying that they now
control all of the far eastern part of Bosnia except Gorazde,
while Bosnian media reported Serbian air attacks on Jajce and
Bosanski Brod. Meanwhile, Serbian heavy artillery continued to
pound parts of Sarajevo. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MORE REPORTS ON "ETHNIC CLEANSING" BY SERBS IN BOSNIA. Reuters on
26 September said that EC mediator Lord Owen and his UN
counterpart Cyrus Vance visited Serbian-controlled Banja Luka in
western Bosnia to investigate reports of atrocities. They
described how 3-4,000 Muslim and Croatian refugees were fired upon
and shelled as they tried to cross over to the Bosnian side during
a round of "ethnic cleansing." On 27 September the Los Angeles
Times quoted State Department officials as confirming another
massacre of 3,000 Muslims near Brcko during the summer. They were
killed in groups of 50 at a time, and the bodies were secretly
disposed of. The State Department suggested that Brcko might not
be an isolated case, and Acting Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger said that Washington wants to move quickly on setting
up a commission to investigate Bosnian war crimes. On 28
September the Washington Post cited Serbian police officials in
Banja Luka as confirming a massacre of Muslim male civilians at
Varjanta. The killers appear to have been Serbian police acting
on their own, and police officials said they will be "brought to
justice." (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SLOVAK PREMIER WANTS NEW TREATY WITH GERMANY. Czechoslovak media
quoted Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar on 25 September as
saying that Slovakia wants to renegotiate the Czechoslovak-German
Treaty signed in February 1992 because it does not take into
account all Slovak demands. Slovakia has criticized the fact that
the treaty's preamble disregards the existence of the 1939-45
Slovak State. Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said on 25
September that he sees no need for renegotiation because a
division of the treaty between the successor states of
Czechoslovakia is simply a technical matter. On 27 September
Slovak Foreign Minister Milan Knazko told CSTK that Slovakia will
conclude a new treaty with Germany after January 1993, when
Czechoslovakia is to split, and that it will do so without a prior
agreement with the Czech Republic. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NO PLANS FOR "TRIANGLE" MILITARY PACT. Speaking at a press
conference after the meeting of defense ministers of the "Visegrad
Triangle," in Tatranske Zruby, Slovakia, Czechoslovak Defense
Minister Imrich Andrejcak said that Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and
Poland do not plan to conclude a military pact or form a defense
union. Andrejcak said that the three defense ministers had agreed
on new areas of cooperation, such as opening garrisons to mutual
inspections and discussed ways of mutual cooperation after the
breakup of Czechoslovakia. Polish Defense Minister Janusz
Onyszkiewicz said he hopes that military cooperation within the
Visegrad Triangle will continue after Czechoslovakia's breakup.
Pledging to resolve conflicts among themselves by political means,
the three said that the common goal of the Visegrad countries is
gaining membership in the European Community and West European
military structures. Hungarian Defense Minister Lajos Fur ruled
out the possibility that tensions on the Slovak-Hungarian border
could rise significantly and a mobilization of the Hungarian armed
forces could be needed. He said that no military actions have
taken place on the Slovak-Hungarian border and none are planned.
(Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIAN SMALLHOLDERS' PARTY HAS NEW CAUCUS LEADER. On 26
September the larger faction of the Independent Smallholders'
Party elected a new caucus leader, lawyer Janos Szabo. The party
split earlier this year into two factions: the smaller supported
the party's chairman Jozsef Torgyan and left the coalition, the
larger remains in the coalition. The former faction leader Gyula
Pasztor resigned, saying he wants to spend more time in his voting
district, but it is possible that he had to leave for political
reasons, since he obstructed the reunification of the two
factions. Szabo wants to start talks with the Torgyan faction and
wants to work toward the reunification of the two factions. The
report was carried by MTI. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ZHELEV NOTES STRAINS WITH GOVERNMENT. Bulgarian President Zhelyu
Zhelev, in an interview on Bulgarian Radio on 27 September,
admitted that he has had differences with the ruling Union of
Democratic Forces government, BTA reports. He denied, however,
that he is "at war" with the cabinet. Rather, Zhelev noted that
there has been conflict between the government and the presidency
over the extent of each's authority, as well as over the extent
and pace of reforms. Zhelev was at pains to avoid criticizing the
government--but neither did he express direct support for it.
(Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
COALITION TALKS CONTINUE IN TALLINN. Coalition talks are
continuing in the wake of last week's parliamentary elections in
Estonia, and RFE/RL correspondent reports. The Pro Patria
(Isamaa) election coalition, along with the Moderates and the
Estonian National Independence Party, has formed a bloc comprising
parliamentary majority. Pro Patria is currently negotiating with
potential defectors from other parties to strengthen this bloc
while conducting closed-door talks on forming a government.
Speculation over the composition of the government continues: Pro
Patria leader Mart Laar currently tops the list for prime minister
candidates, Kiel University professor Hain Rebas (from ENIP) has
been mentioned for the Defense Ministry, and deputy speaker to the
Supreme Council. Marju Lauristin (from the Moderates). may be
tapped as Labor Minister. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FINAL LITHUANIAN PRE-ELECTION POLLS. On 26 September newspapers
published the results of political polls conducted by the
Sociological Research Laboratory of Vilnius University (SLVU) and
the Sociological Research Department of Lithuanian Radio and TV
(SDRTV), BNS reports. Election law does not permit publishing any
more poll results before elections on 25 October. According to
SLVU, 67.4% of the voters say that they will vote, while SDRTV
reported a figure of 58.1%. Five parties (Sajudis coalition, the
Democratic Labor Party, the Center Movement, the Christian
Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Party) would break the
4% barrier needed to gain seats in the proportional voting system,
according to SLVU. The favored candidates for president in both
polls were Vytautas Landsbergis and Algirdas Brazauskas. (Saulius
Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WALESA EXHORTS IN GDANSK. Polish President Lech Walesa continued
his current campaign to rouse public activism with visits to the
Gdansk shipyard on 25 September and St. Brygida's Church on 27
September. Walesa admitted that Poland has "American prices and
Polish wages," but told Gdansk residents that Poles could attain
American living standards in four years' time--provided everyone
gets down to work and stops expecting the government and the
president to solve all the problems. Walesa repeated his threat
to form a presidential party should a "master plan of reform" not
take effect in six months. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH GOVERNMENT DEFINES SOCIAL SECURITY MINIMUM. The government
completed work on the fourth of its five priority programs,
"citizens' social security," on 26 September. The program defines
which social services will be guaranteed by the state and which
are the responsibility of local governments, employers, and
individuals. Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka met with
representatives of the 13 smaller trade unions on 25 September to
open talks on the "pact on state firms." She also discussed the
pact with business organizations. Business owners and managers
criticized the proposed pact for guaranteeing only the rights of
employees, an imbalance they said would slow privatization and
impede foreign investment. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND BARGAINS WITH IMF OVER DEFICIT. Speaking to journalists on
25 September after returning from Washington, Finance Minister
Jerzy Osiatynski reported that a new agreement with the IMF will
be possible only after the 1992 budget is amended to cut spending
and increase revenues. Osiatynski indicated that the IMF is
prepared to accept a raised budget deficit ceiling of 8% of GDP
for 1992 and 6% for 1993, despite having insisted on a 5% limit
earlier this year. The IMF's chief worry, Osiatynski reported, is
not the size of the deficit, but the manner in which it is
financed. He also noted that the 17 countries that funded the $1
billion stabilization fund are to decide by 15 December whether to
allow it to be used to release banks from the bad debts of state
firms. Gazeta Wyborcza ran the report on 25 September under the
headline "They've Taken a Liking to Our Deficit." (Louisa Vinton,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIA, RUSSIA INITIAL AGREEMENTS. In Moscow Lithuania and
Russia initialed three agreements on settling accounts between the
two countries, Radio Lithuania reported on 27 September.
Lithuanian delegation head, Deputy Economics Minister Vytas
Navickas, said that for now firms in both countries can pay each
other in rubles, Lithuanian temporary coupons, or foreign
currency, but no agreement was reached on settling accounts after
Lithuania introduces its currency, the litas. Russia has not
agreed to pay back the money from Lithuania's valuta accounts in
the Vneshekonombank seized last year. The Russian delegation also
did not agree to 31 August 1993 as the final date for the
withdrawal of its troops from Lithuania, suggesting that the
agreements signed on 8 September 1992 may be changed. (Saulius
Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN DEPUTIES IN ESTONIA PAY FAREWELL VISIT. Three outgoing
Estonian Supreme Council deputies paid a visit to the Paldiski
Naval Base west of Tallinn, BNS reported on 25 September. Genik
Israeljan, Vladimir Lebedev and Nikolai Aksinin met with officers,
who said living conditions at the base are difficult for those
charged with maintaining the nuclear reactors there. Officers
reportedly told the deputies that it would take 10-15 years to
dismantle the reactors, the existence of which Estonian
authorities discovered only last year. The three deputies, who
were not eligible to stand for last week's parliamentary elections
because they are not citizens, called their outing "a farewell
visit" to their constituents. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LATVIA INVITES UN TO RUSSIAN TROOP PULLOUT TALKS. Addressing the
UN General Assembly on 25 September, Latvia's head of state
Anatolijs Gorbunovs invited the UN Security Council to send
observers to negotiations on the pullout of Russian troops.
Gorbunovs, challenging Russia to live up to its earlier promises,
explained that Russia has often changed its position on issues
already agreed upon and that Latvia has not been permitted to
monitor Russian troop movements on its territory. Gorbunovs noted
the "dangerous alteration of the demographic situation" (Latvians
now comprise about 52% of the population) in Latvia that resulted
from the Soviet Union's occupation of Latvia in 1940 and "the
Soviet Union's colonial policies." He rejected Russia's accusation
that rights of minorities are being violated in Latvia, adding
that his country wants to integrate into its citizenry those
immigrants who support Latvian independence; those who find an
independent Latvia unacceptable, however, should leave. Western
agencies carried the story. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.28.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Tensions escalate in Croatia as deadline nears for refugee return
Subject: U.S. has solid information on mass executions in Bosnia
Subject: Peace mediators talk with Serbian leaders
Subject: Talks scheduled Wednesday on ongoing peace efforts
Subject: Serbian Parliament organizes referendum for early elections
Subject: U.N. helicopters fired on by anti-aircraft weapons
Subject: Rocket fire targets Sarajevo business district
Subject: U.N., French troops obtain releases of local U.N. workers
Subject: Yugoslav prime minister meets secretly with Congress,secretary of
state
Subject: Pentagon to resume Bosnia relief flights
Subject: U.N. refugee chief urges prompt troop deployment to Bosnia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Tensions escalate in Croatia as deadline nears for refugee return
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:05:22 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- Tensions are escalating in Serb-seized
Croatian territory as Serbs prepare for the return of thousands of
Croatian refugees to their homes on Oct. 2.
Six thousand Croatian refugees from nine villages in Serb-occupied
areas in eastern Croatia, known as sector East, have declared they will
begin returning to their homes despite danger warnings from the U.N.
Protection Force in the area.
``A climate of intimidation and hostility exists in various locations
on both sides,'' Cedric Thornberry, head of U.N. civil affairs, wrote in
a letter to Ivan Milas, vice president of the government of Croatia and
the government's commission for UNPROFOR.
In response to the announced return, ``Serbs are mobilizing again and
arming themselves,'' Thornberry said.
``We are very concerned about the Croatian deadline,'' he added.
The refugees have asked the U.N. peacekeepers in the area for
protection when they return.
But UNPROFOR has said they cannot guarantee their safety.
``We are a peace-keeping force, not a peace-making force,''
Thornberry said.
UNPROFOR has about 2,000 troops currently in sector East. To make the
situation safe ``we would need nearly ten times'' UNPROFOR's current
force, Thornberry said.
But the refugees, impatient with the numerous unfulfilled U.N.
brokered agreements and the Serbs' unwillingness to disarm, have given
the UNPROFOR an ultimatum.
``If (the UNPROFOR) doesn't tell us on Sept. 29 where we can go back
to and ensure our safety...we will go back anyway in the first days of
October,'' said Josip Kompanovic, assistant commissioner for the
Croatian government for the Beli Mastir municipality.
Beli Mastir is one of four municipalities in the Serbian-occupied
region of Croatia.
Before the war there were about 80,000 Croats who lived in sector
East, now there are only about 3,000-4,000, according to estimates by
the Croatian office for refugees.
Since UNPROFOR sent troops into the Serb-occupied area in March as
part of a peace agreement reached in January during the Serbian-Croatian
war, thousands of Croatian refugees who fled their homes have been
anxious to return.
``People call all the time, we've heard the question, 'when can we
return?' thousands and thousands of times,'' said Josip Esteraher,
assistant general secretary for the Croatian government office for
refugees.
But the area is still not secure because the Serbs have stil not
disarmed in accordance with the peace plan, Thornberry said.
Although they have technically withdrawn their army, soldiers have
re-emerged in sector East as so-called ``special police'' and ``border
police.''
These police are heavily armed with mortars, armored personnel
carriers, anti aircraft weapons, rockets, automatic machine guns and
personal side arms, Thornberry said.
The UNPROFOR stationed about 14,000 troops in four Serb-held areas of
Croatia over a four-month period under the peace plan.
Refugees from other four sectors want to return as well but sector
East was singled out as the first place to start the return since the
UNPROFOR entered it in March.
The announcement by the refugees has provoked panic by the Serbs in
sector East, who fear that the refugees will be backed by the Croatian
Army, Thornberry said.
UNPROFOR representatives said the refugees's ultimatum has not done
much more than irritate the situation and ``set back efforts to create
an appropriate climate for their return,'' Thornberry said.
``There are a lot of extreme minded people in the area...The Serbs
have now started a general mobilization and the security situation has
worsened,'' Thornberry said.
``The Serbs are so scared that they have started to move out old
people and children'' to brace themselves for an attack, Thornberry
said.
Three hundred Croats had been expelled as of Sunday from sector East
in response to the refugees' announcement, said Marko Kvesic,
commissioner for the Croatian government for the Beli Mastir
municipality.
But the Croatian government has said that they will not allow the
refugees to go back armed despite their willingness to do so. ``It's
better to have unhappy people than dead people, if they go in and try to
arm themselves we will go in and try to stop them,'' Zvonko Nogolica,
chairman of the Croatian government's office for the the UNPROFOR said.
``The government won't allow the refugees to go off on any crazy
adventures though we think the refugees are right from a moral point of
view,'' Nogolica said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.S. has solid information on mass executions in Bosnia
Date: 28 Sep 92 19:44:37 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Credible witnesses have told U.S. officials they
saw Serbian troops slaughter more than 3,000 men, women, and children
last spring at detention camps in the Bosnian town of Brcko, the State
Department said Monday.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials recently received
reports from two survivors of the Serbian brutality who estimated 3,000
Bosnian Muslims were executed at Brcko during May and June.
Although the administration was told previously of the mass
executions, he said the fresh reports are the first from witnesses.
``These are the first eyewitness reports we've received of these
killings in the Brcko area,'' Boucher said. ``The previous information
that we had was either second-hand or some of the information that we
had raised questions about its credibility.''
He said the information had been turned over to United Nations
authorities that are investigating Serbian atrocities in Bosnia-
Hercegovina, which has been under siege since March by troops from
Belgrade attempting to annex the nascent republic and ``cleanse'' it of
all Muslims and Croats.
The United States has been discussing with its allies at the United
Nations a possible resolution calling for the establishment of a war-
crimes commission to prosecute such abuses of human rights, officials
have said. It would be similar to the one that oversaw the prosecution
of German Nazis at Nuremberg following World War II.
The incident at Brcko would be a candidate for such an investigation.
``We've been discussing a possible resolution with our allies,''
Boucher said. ``The resolution...would establish a war crimes commission
to look into the charges, establish the facts, and prepare for possible
prosecution of individuals who are found guilty.''
Boucher said the administration hopes ``to table such a resolution in
the Security Council soon.''
The two witnesses said the Brcko detention camps in northeast Bosnia-
Hercegovina were operated by Serbian militias and run by a Commander
Arkan and then a Commander Seselj, Boucher said.
The witnesses claimed ``to have witnessed the spontaneous murders of
up to 50 prisoners at a time,'' he said.
One witness told U.S. investigators that he transported bodies of
dead prisoners from a brick factory, which served as a detention camp,
to a local animal rendering plant for cremation, Boucher said.
Both witnesses estimated in separate interviews with U.S. officials
that ``3,000 men, women and children were executed in Brcko in the May-
June period,'' he said.
Information submitted by the administration last week to the United
Nations contains chilling accounts of the reported mayhem at Brcko. It
was given to the United Nations prior to administration interviews with
the two witnesses.
A 38-year-old inmate at a nearby detention camp told investigators
she was taken to Brcko, ``where she saw 10 people being killed every day
with rifle butts and bottles,'' the report said.
The woman said ``two prisoners were required to slap each other. The
one who didn't slap as hard was killed.
``One time I saw them cut off the ears of the weak slapper, then cut
off his nose and then kill him by cutting his throat.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Peace mediators talk with Serbian leaders
Date: 28 Sep 92 21:50:54 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- International mediators Cyrus Vance and
Lord Owen arrived Monday for talks with Serbian leaders on issues that
included the deployment of fresh U.N. peacekeepers in neighboring
Bosnia-Hercegovina and the resumption of a humanitarian relief airlift
to Sarajevo.
U.N. special enovy Vance and European Community mediator Owen flew
into the Serbian capital of Belgrade from Geneva on a one-day visit to
meet leaders of the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro.
Vance and Owen, co-chairmen of the Geneva peace conference on the
disintegrated Yugoslav six-republic federation, drove from Belgrade's
Surcin Airport directly to the Palace of Federation for talks with
Dobrica Cosic, president of the truncated Yugoslavia.
Col. Gen. Zivota Panic, the chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army,
attended the talks in the Federation Palace.
French Gen. Philippe Morillon, deputy commander of the United Nations
Protection Force (UNPROFOR), and Cedric Thornberry, in charge of
UNPROFOR's civilian affairs, also attended the talks, a Yugoslav
official said.
Generals Panic and Morillon were to have separate talks, the official
said.
Vance and Owen, who last week visited the Croatian capital of Zagreb
and the Serb-held town of Banja Luka in northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina,
also were scheduled to meet Serbian hard-line President Slobodan
Milosevic before they fly back to Geneva later in the day, Serbian
officials said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Talks scheduled Wednesday on ongoing peace efforts
Date: 29 Sep 92 12:34:25 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- The presidents of Croatia and the remnant of federal
Yugoslavia will meet with U.N. and European Community mediators here
Wednesday to discuss the ongoing U.N. peace effort in former Yugoslavia,
a spokesman for the U.N. said Tuesday.
President Franjo Tujman of Croatia and Dobrica Cosic will meet with
U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance and Lord (David) Owen, representatives of the
EC. The two conferred Tuesday with Alija Izetbegovic, President of
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The flurry of meetings came as the U.N. High Commission for Refugees
warned that ``the point of no return'' has been reached for humanitarian
aid for many people in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
``It's too late for thousands,'' Sylvana Foa, the UNHCR spokesperson
told a news conference. ``We asked in September for relief aid of $282
million and so far all we have is $176 million.
We want hard cash, cash to buy food today -- not pledges, not
earmarked money but cash.``
She said the UNHCR is still maintaining its estimate of 2 million
persons being at risk from starvation in Bosnia-Hercegovina this winter
and said she had no news of a resumption of the U.N. airlift into
Sarajevo, suspended since Sept. 3 following the shooting down of an
Italian plane while on U.N. service.
But later Bosnian President Izetbegovic told a news conference Vance
had told him ``American'' planes would resume flights into Sarajevo
within the next 24 hours and that he took this to mean the airlift would
resume.
Demilitarization of Sarajevo is the only way of making peace talks
between the three warring factions meaningful, the Bosnian president
said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbian Parliament organizes referendum for early elections
Date: 29 Sep 92 15:02:33 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The communist-controlled Parliament of
Serbia Tuesday decided to stage a public referendum on Oct. 11 to
determine whether to hold general and presidential elections before the
end of the year.
Parliament, controlled by communists loyal to Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic, passed a constitutional amendment on holding early
elections by the end of 1992 for parliamentary deputies and the
president of the republic.
Aleksadar Bakocevic, chairman of Parliament, said that despite the
passing of the amendment, citizens have to confirm it by voting in the
upcoming referendum.
Opposition parties accused Milosevic's hard-line regime of initiating
a referendum to delay elections for as long as possible in order to
retain power.
Vuk Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, said the
ruling Socialist Party of Serbia was doing all in its power to avoid and
delay the elections despite demands by leaders to hold them by the end
of the year.
President of the rump Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro,
Dobrica Cosic, and his Prime Minister Milan Panic, demanded early
elections on all federal and republic levels.
Cosic and Panic, advocating democratic reforms in the newly forged
two-republic Yugoslav union, want early elections to replace current
pro-communist deputies with liberal delegates who would help in speeding
up changes.
Borisav Jovic, president of the Serbian Socialist Party, commented,
``The Socialist Party of Serbia has no intention to play games.''
Jovic discounted opposition allegations that the referendum is the
manipulation of the ruling party to indefinitely delay elections.
``The Socialist Party wants early elections and is not afraid of
election results,'' he told the Serbian-run Tanjug news agency.
Jovic said he hoped that elections could be held in early December.
The condition for holding early elections is the passing of the
referendum with at least 51 percent of the electoral body. But
opposition leaders warned that the referendum could be easily undermined
as a large portion of ethnic Albanians in Serbia's southern Kosovo
province were not expected to vote.
The opposition also claimed that members of the Serbian Socialist
Party will vote against the referendum to help the ruling party stay in
power.
If the Oct. 11 referendum fails it will take at least six months to
restage another one, at which point elections could be postponed for
some eight months.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. helicopters fired on by anti-aircraft weapons
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:13:21 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- Two United Nations helicopters clearly marked
as U.N. craft were fired at Monday near the Croatian capital Zagreb,
according to U.N. officials Tuesday.
``It is of imense gravity when people open fire on you from the
ground when you are flying peace missions...It's not what we expect,''
Cedric Thornberry, head of the U.N. civil affairs said.
The helicopters, flying to Zagreb from Daruvar in north central
Croatia on a regular daily mission, were not hit and there were no
injuries, according to Thornberry.
When asked for confirmation that it was the Croation army that fired
the anti-aircraft weapons, Thornberry replied, ``Well, it occurred 20
miles from Zagreb airport...and nobody suggests that it was little green
men from Mars.''
The Croatian authorites had been given notification of the
helicopters'departure the day before, according to Thornberry.
The helicopters were flying 45 feet apart at an altitude of 330 feet
in Croatian air space when one of the pilots saw some yellow flashes
coming from the ground and then bursts of smoke and fire between the two
crafts, a statement issued today read.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Rocket fire targets Sarajevo business district
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:23:11 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Heavy rocket fire killed at
least three people and wounded 26 others in the war-ravaged downtown
business district Tuesday, and U.N. officials tried to negotiate the
creation of a new corridor for channeling food and other humanitarian
supplies to the Bosnian capital.
The rocket explosions plus sniper fire that wounded three people
Tuesday morning boosted the 24-hour casualty toll that ended at 10 a.m.
to 32 people killed and 212 wounded throughout the republic, including
15 killed and 90 wounded in Sarajevo, officials said.
In neighboring Croatia, U.N. officials said Tuesday that anti-
aircraft gunners opened fire on clearly marked U.N. helicopters. The
incident happened Monday near the capital Zagreb. No one was hit and
there were no injuries, said U.N. civil affairs chief Cedric Thornberry.
Thornberry said the helicopters were flying 45 feet apart at an
altitude of 330 feet in Croatian air space when one of the pilots saw
yellow flashes from the ground and bursts of smoke between the two
craft. Asked if it was Croatian army fire, Thornberry would only say:
``Well, it occurred 20 miles from Zagreb airport...and nobody suggests
that it was little green men from Mars.''
French Gen. Phillipe Morilon, deputy commander of the U.N. Protection
Force (UNPROFOR), arrived in Sarajevo Tuesday and traveled to nearby
Pale for further talks with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on
opening a new aid supply corridor to the beseiged Bosnian capital.
The city received its first delivery of humanitarian supplies in four
days -- some 80 metric tons carried in 12 trucks -- but only after a
showdown in which U.N. officials backed by French troops obtained the
release of four Muslim Slav drivers and a local U.N. worker in an eight-
truck convoy detained by Serbian militiamen.
French Col. Patrice Satre, facing the most serious incident to
confront a U.N.-organized aid convoy, rushed to the western Sarajevo
suburb of Ilidza, placed himself and four soldiers in front of the
detainees and refused to allow the Serbs to take them into the Ilidza
police station, said Dag Espeland, the logistics manager for the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees.
``This was the worst we've had,'' Espeland said of the incident,
which he said began when Serbian soldiers found a letter belonging to a
local UNHCR worker containing ``words offensive to the Serbs.''
``We have Serbian, Muslim and Croatian drivers,'' Espeland said.
``The Muslims are usually harassed by the Serbs, but they have never
been detained before. Sometimes individuals just start things up.''
Morillon, who visited Karadzic Sunday at his headquarters in Pale and
then met Serb leaders Monday in Belgrade, was seeking guarantees that
would allow expanded road and air deliveries of aid to Sarajevo,
UNPROFOR spokesman Adnan Razek said.
Morillon, as part of the plan, is seeking Serbian approval of a new
Bosnian UNPROFOR headquarters that likely would be placed in Ilidza,
which has been a primary bottleneck for road convoys.
The air deliveries have been cut off since an Italian aid plane was
shot down Sept. 3 west of Sarajevo, and deliveries by truck have been
greatly reduced by the fighting and bad road conditions, leaving the
city facing the imminent onset of winter with about one-fifth of its
estimated daily food needs.
Rocket and sniper attacks from Serbs in the hills surrounding
Sarajevo continued to kill and maim civilians, who represent about 80
percent of the casualties suffered in the Bosnian conflict.
Several rockets fell around 10 a.m. in and around the gutted downtown
shopping district, hitting homes, shops and offices, killing three
people and wounding at least 26 others, officials said. At least three
other people were reported wounded Tuesday morning by sniper fire,
hospital officials said.
Sevala Hasovic, manager of the Magros clothing store, said she was at
his shop when rockets slammed into a nearby building used by the Bosnian
military and showered the pedestrian shopping mall with shrapnel and
glass.
``Me and a colleague, we were sitting inside and suddenly it
exploded,'' Hasovic said as she and several co-workers swept up glass
and rubble. ``Then we heard people screaming.''
Glass shards framed pools of blood on adjacent sidewalk just a few
feet from the flower pots and hand-lettered sign marking the spot where
a mortar shell fell May 27 and killed 18 people waiting in a bread line.
Hasovic condemned Europe for failing to intervene in the crisis.
``We have lost our hope for help from Europe and the world,'' she
said. ``They (Serbs) have simply been destroying the people and the city
for six months.''
Salem Karovic, chief of the city's water distribution system, said
Serbs controlling the area around the city's main water supply at Bacevo
turned off the feed to Sarajevo Sunday night in apparent violation of an
agreement made one week earlier at the peace talks in Geneva.
Razek said UNPROFOR forces were prevented by the fighting from
reaching the site Monday but he hoped to reach the area to investigate
the matter Tuesday. Sarajevo's encircled population of about 500,000
people has been withoutelectricity for more than a week.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N., French troops obtain releases of local U.N. workers
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:51:17 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Armed French soldiers intervened
Tuesday to prevent Serbian militiamen from detaining five people in U.N.
employ, including four Muslam Slav workers who were driving trucks in a
U.N. humanitarian relief convoy, U.N. officials said.
During the tense, half-hour standoff in a Serb-held Sarajevo suburb,
the French troops led by their commander shielded the five U.N. workers
while Izumi Nakamitsu, the Sarajevo delegate of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, negotiated a successful end to the incident,
the officials said.
The officials said the five workers were pulled off a UNHCR-organized
eight-truck humanitarian aid convoy that was halted and searched by
Serbian soldiers outside the Serb-held Sarajevo suburb of Ilidza.
The soldiers found a letter belonging to a local U.N. worker that
contained ``words offensive to the Serbs'' and ordered that they
accompany them to the Ilidza police station, said one U.N. official. Dag
Espeland, the UNHCR's Sarajevo logistics manager, said the Serbs also
detained for questioning four Muslim Slav drivers in the convoy.
He said U.N. officials with the convoy alerted by radio the U.N.
Protection Force (UNPROFOR) headquarters, which dispatched to Ilidza 10
French troops in four armored personnel carriers led by their commander,
Col. Patrice Satre.
Espeland also rushed to Ilidza with Nakamitsu. The French troops were
waiting at the Ilidza police station when the Serbs arrived with the
local U.N. worker and the four drivers, Espeland said.
Satre immediately placed himself and four of his troops in front of
the detainees and refused to alow the Serbs to take them into the police
station.
``He placed his armed men in front of the drivers and (said) they
would not be allowed to be questioned and they were under his
protection,'' recounted Espeland. ``There were about 20 Serbian soldiers
standing around, but they didn't do anything.''
``Col. Satre just stood there for half an hour while Izumi went
inside the station to negotiate with the commander. In the end, they
were allowed to go. They were put into one of the French APCs (armored
personnel carriers) and driven to the (U.N.-controlled) airport,''
Espeland said.
He said the incident was the most serious to have beset a U.N.-
organized humanitarian aid convoy since UNHCR began relying on trucks to
deliver relief to Sarajevo following the Sept. 3 suspension of the
international airlift following the downing of an Italian cargo plane.
``This was the worst we've had. We have Serbian, Muslim and Croatian
drivers. The Muslims are usually harassed by the Serbs, but they have
never been detailed before,'' he said. ``Sometimes individuals just
start things up.''
Serbian police in Ilidza last week arrested three Muslim Slavs who
were driving buses to evacuate foreign students from Sarajevo. The
drivers had been approved by Serbian political leaders to participate in
the evacuation, but U.N. officials still have not been able to obtain
their release.
Serbian forces have been blockading and bombarding Sarajevo for
almost six months in a bid to divide the city into ethnic districts as
part of a drive to carve a separate Serbian state out of the independent
republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Since the airlift suspension, UNHCR has been forced to rely on truck
convoys from the Croatian port city of Split to provide food and
medicine for the estimated 350,000 residents and 150,000 refugees
trapped in Sarajevo.
However, the convoys have been unable to fill the gap left by the
airlift suspension, and UNHCR officials have expressed grave fears of
serious food shortages in coming weeks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav prime minister meets secretly with Congress,secretary of
state
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:51:17 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic slipped
quietly into Washington Tuesday and is scheduled to meet with Acting
Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger as well as several congressional
officials, his spokesman said.
Spokesman David Calef told United Press International that Panic will
ask Congress to grant a waiver of the stiff sanctions imposed on the
Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the unrecognized successor states to the
former Yugoslavia.
Specifically, Calef said, Panic wants an exemption granted on heating
oil.
He said Panic is concerned about the effect of a heating oil shortage
on ``hospitals and children'' during the brutal Yugoslav winter.
Calef said he will discuss the administration's predisposition to
supporting such a move in the United Nations during his meeting this
afternoon with Eagleburger.
The State Department, which normally includes on its daily schedule
meetings between Eagleburger and heads of state, did not make note of
Tuesday's parley.
Panic travels to New York late in the day to address the Council on
Foreign Relations, Calef said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Pentagon to resume Bosnia relief flights
Date: 29 Sep 92 18:41:04 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Pentagon said Tuesday U.S. Air Force relief
flights to the besieged Bosnian captial of Sarajevo, suspended since an
Italian relief plane was shot down by a missile, will resume soon.
``We are aware of the urgency of resuming relief flights into the
Sarajevo airport,'' Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said. ``We will
resume the relief flights. We just need to work out the details of when
specifically we can get them going again.''
He said Washington would set a date for renewing its relief flights
in consultation with the United Nations and other countries
participating in the airlift. It is expected the flights will resume
within a week.
The U.N. relief airlift into Sarajevo, under attack from Serbian
gunners in the surrounding hills for almost six months, began last July.
Flights were suspended early this month when a surface-to-air missile
knocked an Italian relief plane out of the sky, killing the crew.
Investigators were uncertain which side in the ethnic conflict fired the
missile.
Ground convoys have supplied the beleaguered residents since the
shoot-down, although the United States has not been involved.
``The air flights into Sarajevo have turned out to be a very
efficient way of getting an enormous amount of material in quickly,''
Williams said. ``So, if we can resume them, it's something we would like
to do.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. refugee chief urges prompt troop deployment to Bosnia
Date: 29 Sep 92 19:09:11 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Tuesday urged governments to speed up deployment of peacekeeping troops
to prevent an alarming increase in the ``ethnic cleansing'' campaign in
Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The high commissioner, Sadako Ogata, said in an appeal to governments
to speed up the deployment of about 6,000 troops to ``prevent the
further deterioration of an already terrible situation.''
Ogata said the latest information received by her organization showed
an upsurge in ``ethnic cleansing'' operations, particularly in the Banja
Luka area in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
``Large numbers of people are being forced out of their homes and
villages and pushed across the front lines towards central Bosnia,'' she
said. ``The reports received from survivors are heartbreaking.''
``I feel that the presence of U.N. Protection Force soldiers would
help contain a number of abuses that are presently being witnessed by
the few foreigners who are present there,'' Ogata said.
The U.N. Security Council on Sept. 14 allowed the deployment of up to
6,000 troops, most of them from NATO countries, to provide security for
food convoys being organized by the U.N. refugee agency, which the is
the leading organization engaged in bringing food and medicine to tens
of thousands of inhabitants displaced by the fighting.
Governments that have pledged to contribute the troops to the
operations have yet to present a plan for the deployment to the Security
Council for its approval.
``The delay, coupled with the suspension of the U.N. humanitarian
airlift to the besieged city of Sarajevo, means tens of thousands if
innocent victims of the war could face a very bleak winter,'' the UNHCR
said.
Reports of the increase in ``ethnic cleansing'' operations coincided
with charges made Monday by the United States, quoting witnesses, that
Serbian troops were responsible for the death of more than 3,000 men,
women, and children last spring at detention camps in the Bosnian town
of Brcko.
U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials
recently received reports from two survivors of the Serbian brutality
who estimated 3,000 Bosnian Muslims were executed at Brcko during May
and June.
``These are the first eyewitness reports we've received of these
killings in the Brcko area,'' Boucher said Monda
novine.29.bale.,
NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, Seprember 29, 1992.
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Bosnian Government has sent an urgent
appeal to the U.N. Security Council warning that Sarajevo in in "imminent
danger" of falling to besieging Serbian nationalist troops unless Bosnian
forces are exempted from a U.N. arms embargo. The appeal said that Serbian
military moves, including an increase in tank strength in Grbavica, an area
of the city that is barely a mile away from key Government installations
like the presidency, indicated that Sarajevo was facing "what is likely to
be the final assault."
"If our fears are realized, we are unlikely to survive this latest
onslaught on the city." The Government letter said.
The appeal dated on Saturday, came in a letter addressed to the
Security Council by Ejup Ganic, a Vice President who is in charge of the
Government in the absence of Alije Izetbegovic. Mr. Izetbegovic is on a
foreign tour intended to foster support for his beleagured Government, which
has been hanging onto its control of Sarajevo under a six-month siege by the
Serbian forces.
The Bosnian position has been that the arms embargo penalizes only
the Sarajevo Government, since the Serbian forces are fighting with the
backing of the well equipped Yugoslav army.
novine.30.bale.,
(From the Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1992; for fair use only:)
"Rebel Serbs Mock U.N. Mission in Croatia Zones"
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
* Balkans: Guerrilla bands keep peacekeeping troops from restoring civilian
control to four `protected areas.'
Karlovac, Croatia -- Just a few miles south of the official crossing into
U.N. Sector North, three unshaven guerrillas present a rival welcome
committee.
Decked out in blue camouflage in an unconvincing attempt to look like
policemen, the Serbian rebels guarding the entrance to what they consider
the Republic of Serbian Krajina have dragged lawn chairs and wooden
sawhorses onto the roadway to create their own checkpoint.
They greet all comers with the muzzles of their machine guns.
"No entrance today," barked one guerrilla, spewing a cloud of brandy breath
and dismissingly waving away a U.N. press pass. Sector North, on this
particular day, is closed "for technical reasons."
Although the Krajina vigilantes are stingy with their explanations, radio
reports of Serbian air attacks on Muslim villages across the nearby Bosnian
border are likely the technicalities prompting them to peremptorily seal
off access to what is supposed to be a demilitarized buffer zone under U.N.
control.
U.N. troops have been patrolling four designated "protected areas" in
Croatia for nearly five months, yet their authority appears to extend only
as far as the nearest Serbian barricade. On occasion, the roving guerrilla
bands even block U.N. troops from moving about, mocking the international
mandate to restore civilian control and the prewar order.
"It's like Wyoming in the 1880s," complained Cedric Thornberry, chief of
civilian affairs for what is now the largest peacekeeping mission in U.N.
history. "The situation is so bad in Sector East that we believe civil
authority has basically disintegrated. Courts do not sit. Police do not
investigate. Sectors South and East are descending steadily into
conditions of anarchy."
While Thornberry singles out the regions closest to Serbia and the coveted
Dalmatian coastline for criticism, conditions in the other two zones are
also woefully short of the objectives set out by U.N. special envoy Cyrus
R. Vance in the deployment plan he drafted with Serbian and Croatian
officials nearly a year ago. Menacing of motorists, looting, armed assault
and the practice known as ethnic cleansing are the pattern of daily life
here, too.
* * *
The lack of U.N. progress in disarming paramilitary forces has prompted
anger and impatience among non-Serbs driven from the region who have been
pinning their hopes on the peacekeepers to make it safe enough to go home.
Croatian officials, who accuse U.N. personnel of protecting Serbian
warlords who rule over one-third of the republic, are threatening to
shepherd masses of refugees back into the volatile area.
Marko Kvesic, deposed mayor of Beli Manastir in the Baranja region of
Sector East, has given the peacekeepers until the end of the month to
fulfill their pledge to help refugees return to their homes.
Noting the need to begin the school year and prepare neglected farmland for
winter, Kvesic plans to lead a mass return to Beli Manastir on Wednesday,
whether the United Nations assists him or not. The Croatian government has
promised support.
"We have asked them [U.N. forces] to show in at least one village their
good will to assist the refugees in returning to their homes. If they are
not able to do this, then you can draw your own conclusions about how we
will respond," said Damir Zoric, deputy chief of the Office for Refugees
and Displaced Persons in Zagreb, the Croatian capital.
Asked how he would bring refugees back to Baranja over U.N. objections,
Zoric replied: "We will march."
Thornberry says he has no intention of bowing to the ultimatum.
* * *
"It is the height of irresponsibility of Croatian government officials,
knowing full well what the situation is in Baranja, to incite the hopes of
desperate people and lead them into a situation that, unless they are very
fortunate, will be one of violent confrontation," Thornberry warned.
But the threatened showdown has put the United Nations in the awkward
position of having to forcibly drive away the very people whose return they
were charged with arranging.
"We will seek to prevent their re-entry. We've warned that conditions are
not secure and that we will put our troops there on the border ... to
protect them from the lunatics inside Baranja who are wanting to shoot
themselves a few Croats," Thornberry said.
U.N. troops are doing what they can to disarm the guerrilla bands
throughout the Krajina, he said, "but there is no answer except the
unexciting one of gradually trying to restore tranquility."
While none of the 600,000 people forced to leave their homes in the
Croatian war zones have been able to move back as a result of the U.N.
deployment, U.N. spokeswoman Shannon Boyd claims that the mission has
achieved some successes.
Fighting that killed 10,000 people last year has dropped off dramatically,
although Croats tend to attribute the fall in casualties to the fact that
Serbs now enjoy almost exclusive control of the regions after having driven
out the Croats, leaving no enemy to fight.
U.N. forces took over control of the Peruca Dam in Sector South in mid-
September, opening one of the floodgates to avert an impending disaster.
Serbian radicals who had been holding the dam for more than a year had been
amassing water to a dangerous level with the intent of rupturing the
structure and flooding the predominantly Croatian lowlands around the city
of Sinj.
Boyd also claimed that U.N. mediators had achieved a breakthrough in
clearing mines and roadblocks from the Belgrade-Zagreb highway and that a
limited reopening of the 250-mile route was imminent.
Only humanitarian aid convoys and the few foreign travelers venturing into
the region would be allowed to use the road that skirts some of the worst
battlegrounds of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, but Boyd described it as
"a first step." Currently, all traffic between the respective Serbian and
Croatian capitals has to detour through Hungary, tripling what would
normally be a four-hour drive.
The small advances toward restoring public services and a sense of normalcy
to the U.N. zones have been overshadowed by what U.N. officials concede is
a stalemate in disarming and dispersing the guerrilla bands.
Conditions have actually worsened in recent weeks, the U.N. officials
report, with Serbian guerrillas becoming more "assertive."
novine.31.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav Prime Minister sees Eagleburger, Congressmen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav Prime Minister sees Eagleburger, Congressmen
Date: 29 Sep 92 19:58:01 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic met privately
Tuesday in separate sessions with Acting Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger and congressional officials to appeal for an easing of U.N.
sanctions before winter strikes.
David Calef, Panic's spokesman, and congressional aides told United
Press International that the prime minister sought the sanctions relief
in a closed meeting with Rep. Dante Fascell, D-Fla., chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, and other congressional leaders, and
with Eagleburger.
It was the second meeting in a week between Panic, the self-made
American millionaire of Serbian extraction, and Eagleburger and with
leaders of the House committee. He also met last week with members of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The State Department, which normally includes on its daily schedule
meetings between Eagleburger and heads of state, did not make note of
Tuesday's parley.
A senior State Department official was unsure why the meeting was
omitted from Eagleburger's daily schedule.
The official would not discuss details of the meeting but said the
administration had ``not ruled out'' easing the embargo to allow heating
oil shipments to Serbia and Montenegro, the unrecognized successor
states to Yugoslavia.
``It's something we will have to take a look at,'' the official said.
Congressional aides said Panic is orchestrating a lobbying campaign
with U.S. officials in hopes that for ``humanitarian reasons'' they will
ease sanctions imposed on Belgrade for its attempts to annex Bosnia-
Hercegovina and ``cleanse'' it of all non-Serbs.
Calef said Panic is concerned about the effect of a heating oil
shortage on hospitals and children during the brutal Yugoslav winter.
``The main pitch was to try to make an argument with senior members
of Congress on the need to lift U.N. sanctions for humanitarian reasons
so they can import fuel oil,'' a congressional aide who attended the
meetings told UPI under conditions of anonymity.
The aide said Panic ``made a convincing argument'' that he is not
involved in any of the Belgrade-inspired mayhem in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Panic said he is doing everything he can to stop ethnic cleansing in
which it is estimated thousands of civilians have been slaughtered,
close detention camps and silence the weapons, the aide said.
Panic said he and Belgrade ``have limited influence'' over the
actions of Serbian guerillas in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the aide said, and
is ``saying all the right things.''
``One is left with the nagging doubt as to how much power Panic
really has in Belgrade and to what extent he is being manipulated by
those really in control to plea for sanctions exemptions. The skeptics
among us, or perhaps the realists, wonder how long he will last if he is
successful.''
novine.32.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 187, 29 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
RUSSIA SENDS REINFORCEMENTS TO TAJIKISTAN AS FIGHTING CONTINUES.
The head of Kurgan-Tyube's city council, Nurali Kurbanov, told a
press conference that hundreds of people, including the city's
chief law enforcement official, were killed on 27 September in an
attack on the city by Tajik forces loyal to deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, Interfax, as quoted by Western agencies, reported
on 28 September. Kurbanov also claimed that Russian troops
stationed in Tajikistan were helping the pro-Nabiev forces from
Kulyab Oblast. Tajik Radio was quoted as having said that acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov had sent a protest to Russia over
the use of Russian tanks by Kulyab forces. The tanks were
supposedly stolen by Kulyab fighters from a Russian unit.
ITAR-TASS reported that additional Russian troops were being sent
to Tajikistan to help those already there defend themselves. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
YELTSIN-SHEVARDNADZE MEETING ON ABKHAZIA. Following Georgian
State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze's protest on 27
September against the Russian parliament's statements on the
conflict in Abkhazia, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with
Shevardnadze for talks at the latter's request on 28 September in
Moscow. According to Vyacheslav Kostikov, the Russian president's
press secretary, the two leaders discussed ways to implement the
Russo-Georgian agreement of 3 September on settling the Abkhazian
conflict. Yeltsin and Shevardnadze also agreed to hold regular
talks and scheduled a meeting for 13 October. Shevardnadze said
he was satisfied with the talks. Speaking at a news conference
after the meeting, Shevardnadze said Yeltsin is determined to
follow through on democratic reforms in Russia, ITAR-TASS
reported. (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL Inc.)
FIRST NORTH CAUCASIAN VOLUNTEERS LEAVE ABKHAZIA. The first group
of fighters sent to Abkhazia by the Confederation of Mountain
Peoples of the North Caucasus left Abkhazia for Groznyi on 28
September, ITAR-TASS reported. About one hundred were flown out in
a Russian plane. The Abkhaz had stated earlier that their
departure had been suspended. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES LAW REDUCING YELTSIN'S POWER. The
draft law "On the Council of Ministers and the Government of
Russia" is currently being examined by the presidium of the
Russian parliament, Interfax reported on 28 September. The draft
law gives President Yeltsin the right to appoint the prime
minister and other leading cabinet members only with the approval
of the parliament. If the parliament does not approve the
president's candidate, the president will have the right to
appoint an acting prime minister for three months. If the law is
adopted, Yeltsin will loose his present powers to appoint
ministers without the parliament's approval. The presidium of the
parliament also proposed two alternative dates, 15 December and 12
January, for convening the Seventh Congress of People's Deputies.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
CIVIC UNION INCREASES PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT. The three
principal leaders of the Civic Union have increased their pressure
on the government. Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi told
a youth gathering that some ministers should resign because "their
radicalism gives nothing to society," ITAR-TASS reported on 28
September. Arkadii Volsky, the president of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, urged the government to make way
for a team of industrial managers who understood how to run the
country. Nikolai Travkin, the leader of the Democratic Party,
said that it was necessary to remove from the government State
Secretary Gennadii Burbulis, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev,
Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii Chubais, and Economic Minister
Andrei Nechaev. All three Civic Union leaders emphasized, however,
that Prime Minister Egor Gaidar should stay. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL Inc.)
VOLSKY PLAYS DOWN DIFFERENCES WITH GAIDAR. Despite his increasing
criticism of specific Gaidar economic policies, Arkadii Volsky,
president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs, seems reluctant to be branded as an anti-reformer.
At a press conference in St. Petersburg, Volsky said that his
group's recently released 13-point "anti-crisis" program is not an
"alternative to the present economic course" of the Gaidar
government, "Vesti" reported on 27 September. "We never set
ourselves the task of creating an alternative program . .
[T]here can be no alternative to a transition to the market,"
Volsky emphasized. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL Inc.)
NECHAEV ON FALL IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION. Russian Minister of the
Economy, Andrei Nechaev, told a conference of young business and
political leaders on 28 September that the nation's industrial
production is expected to fall by 20% this year, ITAR-TASS
reported. According to official statistics, last year's drop was
2.2%. Nechaev also disclosed that state orders from the defense
industry this year were cut by 68%. In a subsequent interview with
an ITAR-TASS correspondent, Nechaev said that the government
intended to limit the decline in 1993 to 8%. In a related story,
Nechaev announced that the government had reached a compromise
with the Central Bank on a limit of new credit creation to
increase enterprise liquidity, according to "Novosti" on 27
September. There were few details. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN DEFENSE BUDGET FOR 1993. Russian Economics Minister Andrei
Nechaev on 28 September provided details about the 1993 defense
budget. According to Interfax, defense expenditures will total
between 1.55 and 1.65 trillion rubles in July 1992 prices,
compared to 632 billion rubles in 1992. (Comparing real outlays
is complicated by rapid inflation and the arbitrary pricing
structure of Russian arms.) Most of the increase is due to
personnel and housing construction costs. Procurement spending
has been set at 170 billion rubles, a rejection of the Industry
Ministry's call to increase it by 60%. Weapons production levels
would reportedly remain at the same level as in 1992. (John
Lepingwell)
RUSSIA NEGOTIATING WITH DEBTORS. Russia is making some progress in
settling debts with less-developed countries. According to
Interfax on 28 September, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations,
Petr Aven, announced that India is soon to begin payments on its
$15 billion debt to Russia. Negotiations are also progressing
with Tanzania and Poland. Last week Aven said that less-developed
nations, many of them former Soviet client states, owed Russia
some $142 billion. Aven said he does not expect much of this to
be repaid. Cuba, for example, has officially informed Russia that
it will not pay back its $28 billion debt. Others owing sums of
$10 billion or less, such as Iraq, Angola and Zaire, are in such
bad economic condition that repayment is similarly unlikely. (Erik
Whitlock)
GORBACHEV REFUSES TO TESTIFY AT THE CPSU HEARING. Russian TV
newscasts on 28 September cited a press release made by the
Constitutional Court, which quotes a letter sent to the Court by
former Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, Mikhail
Gorbachev. Asked to testify in the current trial of the party,
which was banned by President Yeltsin after the failed coup of
August 1991, Gorbachev expressed in the letter his "profound
respect" for the court as an important democratic institution, but
added that he will not take part in the hearing, because the two
opposing sides, i.e., those supporting Yeltsin's ban of the party
and those defending the CPSU, are eager to exploit it for their
own political purposes. (On Friday, 25 September, "Novosti"
reported that one of the judges on the Constitutional Court had
declared Gorbachev's refusal to appear contempt of court.
According to the press release, other former Party leaders have
agreed to testify. (Julia Wishnevsky)
..AND PROBABLY WITH GOOD REASON. A 25 September article in the
emigre weekly Russkaya mysl', written by its Moscow correspondent,
quotes Yeltsin's supporters at the CPSU hearing as saying that no
matter what he might say, Gorbachev's testimony may enable his
democratic opponents to diminish the former General Secretary's
popularity in the West by putting him in the dock for the "party's
crimes." Meanwhile, writing in Gudok on 1 September, a
representative of the communist side, Anatolii Salutsky, predicted
that an "unlimited" opportunity for hardliners to question
Gorbachev and Aleksandr Yakovlev in court could bring about
"dramatic political consequences . . . on a world scale." (Julia
Wishnevsky)
CHINA WELCOMES RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL FROM MONGOLIA. A spokesman for
the Chinese Foreign Ministry on 28 September welcomed the
announcement that all Russian troops have been withdrawn from
Mongolia. ITAR-TASS said that the announcement of the final
withdrawal was made on the previous day. The last troops left in
September. Then Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had
announced a partial Soviet troop withdrawal from Mongolia in
January 1989, and talks on a complete pullout began in February
1990. At one time there were as many as 70,000 Soviet troops in
Mongolia. (Doug Clarke)
PLUTONIUM REACTOR SHUT DOWN. On 29 September, ITAR-TASS reported
that the second plutonium production reactor near Krasnoyarsk has
been shut down, ending plutonium production for nuclear weapons in
Russia. The Krasnoyarsk site housed two reactors deep underground,
which for 30 years produced the weapons material that allowed the
rapid buildup of Soviet nuclear stockpiles. Specialists at the
site are proposing that it be used to build a prototype small
nuclear reactor that could provide power to remote locations in
Siberia and the north. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
INTELLIGENCE SPOKESWOMAN EXPLAINS PRIMAKOV'S PROPOSALS. The
moratorium on foreign espionage offered by the director of the
Russian foreign intelligence service, Evgennii Primakov,(see
RFE/RL Daily Report 28 September) can be realized only if there
are "collective guarantees" by the NATO countries, said the agency
spokeswoman, Tatyana Samolis, ITAR-TASS reported on 28 September.
Even if Great Britain, for example, agrees to cease intelligence
activities in Russia, it will still be able to obtain intelligence
information about Russia from its NATO allies. Therefore, Russia
must receive a collective guarantee from all NATO countries which
have "an integrated military and intelligence structure," she
added. In light of this statement, it is noteworthy that the
Primakov initiative may have the practical effect of dividing
Western military and intelligence services at the time when
European integration is experiencing a crisis over currency and
other issues. (Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL Inc.)
FOKIN TO DETAIL ECONOMIC REFORMS. Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold
Fokin is scheduled to address the Ukrainian parliament on 29
September, Interfax reported. The parliament is expected to hear
details of the government's new economic program, developed by
First Deputy Prime Minister Valentyn Symonenko. Both Fokin and
President Leonid Kravchuk are also expected to propose changes in
the composition of the government. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
UKRAINIAN STUDENTS DEMAND CHANGES. The Third Congress of the
Ukrainian Students Union (USS) opened in Donetsk on 25 September,
Ukrainian TV reported. The USS is taking part in the campaign for
new parliamentary elections and supports radical economic reforms.
Together with the All-Ukrainian Association of Solidarity with
Toilers (VOST), the USS issued a statement calling for new
elections and the formation of a government worthy of the public's
trust. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
STATE OF EMERGENCY REVOKED IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA. The state of
emergency proclaimed in Kabardino-Balkaria on 27 September was
revoked on 28 September, Radio Mayak reported, and Musa Shanibov,
the president of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples of the
Caucasus, was released, an RFE/RL correspondent in Moscow was told
by a local official. The state of emergency had been proclaimed
after supporters of the Congress of the Kabardian People staged
violent protests in Nalchik to protest Shanibov's detention on 23
September for his role in the despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia.
Shanibov is to address an extraordinary congress of the
confederation in Groznyi on 2 October. The events in
Kabardino-Balkaria are reminiscent of last year's events in
Chechnya when the Russian authorities also found it necessary to
back down in the face of local resistance. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL
Inc.)
RUSSIAN CEASEFIRE OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN BAKU. A first batch of
Russian observers who will monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh
arrived in Baku on 28 September, Azerinform-TASS reported.
Additional observers from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are
expected soon. Meanwhile, both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides
accused each other of violating the ceasefire. On 28 September
Armenpress-TASS quoted a report from Stepanakert stating that
Azerbaijani forces had fired on the road connecting
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, but traffic did not stop moving.
Interfax reported the same day that Azerbaijan's minister of
internal affairs had rejected the idea of inviting in CIS troops
for peacekeeping duties in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
UZBEK OPPOSITION LEADER ON CRACKDOWN. Uzbek writer Muhammed Salih,
chairman of the tiny opposition Erk (Will) Party, was quoted by
Reuter on 28 September as warning that he will call for street
demonstrations if the Uzbek government crackdown on the opposition
does not stop. Uzbek President Islam Karimov fears that unrest
will spread from neighboring Tajikistan and has taken various
measures to silence and intimidate the opposition in Uzbekistan.
Erk, the only genuine opposition party to be registered, has had
its newspaper closed and its bank account confiscated, according
to Salih. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
PARTIAL RESULTS IN ROMANIAN ELECTIONS. Latest figures released by
the National Statistics Board on 29 September (as of 3:00 a.m.)
confirm forecasts from exit polls made by a German and a Romanian
survey institute two days before. The partial results, based on
complete counts from roughly 65% of all stations, show the
incumbent Ion Iliescu leading in the presidential race with 47.3%.
He is followed by Emil Constantinescu from the centrist Democratic
Convention (DC) with 31.2%; Gheorghe Funar from the nationalist
Party of Romanian National Unity (PRNU) with 11%; Caius Traian
Dragomir from the National Salvation Front (NSF) with 4.7%; Ion
Manzatu from the Republican Party with 3.1%; and Mircea Druc, an
independent, with 2.8%. Though a runoff between Iliescu and
Constantinescu on 11 October seems inevitable, the former's
reelection appears almost certain. The results also show the
Democratic National Salvation Front (DNSF), the party backing
Iliescu, as leading the vote for the 143-seat Senate with 28.6%
and for the 328-seat Chamber of Deputies with 27.6%. It is
followed by the DC with 18.6% and 18.7%, respectively; the NSF
(10.2% for both); the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (9.1%
and 8.9%); the PRNU (8.2% and 7.8%); the Greater Romania Party
(3.7% and 3.8%); the Democratic Agrarian Party (3.3% and 3%); and
the Socialist Labor Party, the reborn communist party (3.2% and
3%). Most analysts see a coalition government looming, and
believe that the DNSF might form a alliance with nationalist and
leftist parties. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
NEW WAVE OF "ETHNIC CLEANSING" IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA? The 29
September Washington Post quotes international relief officials as
saying that Serbian forces have begun a systematic drive to expel
the remaining 200,000 Muslims from northwestern Bosnia centering
on Banja Luka. The account describes "bombings, burning, torture,
and murder," with one relief worker saying: "there's more of this,
and worse than anyone can imagine." At least four Muslim villages
were destroyed by masked Serbs going "from house to house lobbing
grenades, shooting--killing dozens . . ." during the week that
peace envoys Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen visited the region.
Desperate Muslims are paying Serbs large sums of money to be
allowed to make the dangerous trip to the Bosnian-held enclave of
Travnik, their one chance of escape. Meanwhile, the 29 September
New York Times says that the Bosnian government has again appealed
to the UN Security Council to allow it to buy arms to prevent what
the Bosnians claim is the Serbs' "final assault" on Sarajevo.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)
CROATIANS DEMAND TO RETURN HOME. Reuter on 28 September and the
Los Angeles Times the following day report that up to 10,000 male
Croats have threatened to march on their former homes in the
Baranja region bordering Hungary. UN peacekeepers are trying to
pressure the Croatian authorities, who may be encouraging the
refugees, to stop what the UN fears could be a massacre if unarmed
civilians walk into areas that have been held by Serbian militias
since the summer of 1991. The Croats are impatient at the UN's
failure to disarm the Serbs and enable the refugees to go home,
and this has become a major issue in the Croatian media and in
politics. The UN has succeeded in opening some formerly Serb-held
areas in the Dalmatian hinterland, but the Croatian authorities
and press warned civilians not to go home until the area has been
cleared of mines. Some 600,000 people have been displaced in
Croatia since local Serbs with the backing of the former Yugoslav
army began taking control of Croatian territory in early 1991.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)
KOSOVO DEVELOPMENTS. According to Radio Serbia, 19 Kosovo
Albanians went on trial in Pec on 28 September. The defendants,
members of the National Front of Albanians, have been charged by
Serbian authorities with the intention to stage an armed rebellion
to sever the Serbian province of Kosovo from Serbia and set up an
independent state or annex it to Albania. The defendants are
accused of buying foreign-made arms and ammunition and smuggling
them into Kosovo. Other charges include unlawful entry into a
local textile plant and the manufacture of military uniforms
marked with Albanian military insignia. Belgrade Radio reports
that one defendant has confessed that he discussed "the defense of
Kosovo" with Albanian officers during a visit to Albania. He also
admitted smuggling a significant amount of weapons from
Switzerland. Before the trial began, the court denied the defense
attorneys' request to turn the case over to an international
organization. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
TALKS ON THE DIVISION OF CZECHOSLOVAK ARMY. The State Defense
Council, the body supervising Czechoslovakia's defense policies,
met in Prague on 28 September to discuss the division of the
Czechoslovak army. Speaking to reporters after the meeting,
Federal Prime Minister and Defense Council Chairman Jan Strasky
said that the council asked the chairmen of the republican defense
councils to work out details of the army's split. Defense Minister
Imrich Andrejcak was asked to prepare draft agreements on
cooperation between the two new armies after the split. Andrejcak
told CSTK that the federal command of the army will cease to exist
on the day of Czechoslovakia's split. Slovak Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar walked out of the council's meeting in protest
against what he saw as unacceptable demands by the Czech side that
each republic keep those installations and assets now situated on
its territory. Speaking on Slovak television, Ivan Gasparovic,
chairman of the Slovak parliament, argued that Slovakia could lose
as much as 80 billion koruny if the territorial principle were
applied to the division of the army's assets. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL
Inc.)
BULGARIAN ECONOMIC NEWS. European Community Finance Ministers,
meeting in Brussels on 28 September, discussed awarding additional
funds to Bulgaria and Romania. Last week talks between Bulgaria
and the EC moved Bulgaria closer to associate status and trade
terms have been agreed upon, according an RFE/RL correspondent.
Further talks will be held on 15 and 16 October. The Sofia
government hopes for an agreement by year's end while EC leaders
are more reserved, awaiting results of the forthcoming
discussions. Also on 28 September Bulgaria, together with
Australia, Greece, and Luxembourg, signed an agreement to prohibit
money laundering by organized crime. The pact, already signed by
20 other countries but ratified only by Great Britain so far, will
make police detection of illegal money flowing into subscribing
countries easier. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL Inc.)
PROCEEDINGS STARTED IN 1956 HUNGARIAN KILLINGS. Hungarian TV
reported on 27 September that the Christian Democratic People's
Party (CDPP) has initiated proceedings against those who ordered
soldiers to fire into a crowd at Mosonmagyarovar during the 1956
Revolution. Some 100 died and 200 were injured. A 25-page brief
has been filed at the Gyor-Sopron County chief prosecutor's office
by two lawyers for the CDPP, against the former officials, who not
only have not been punished but currently receive substantial
state pensions. The chief prosecutor turned the case over to the
military court in Gyor. This is the first attempt by a political
party to press legal charges for a crime under the communist
regime but that has not yet been prosecuted. A law allowing
prosecution of such crimes was ruled unconstitutional by the
Constitutional Court earlier this year. The CDPP argues that 1956
offenses constitute war crimes and as such do not fall under the
statute of limitation. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)
MEDIA WAR AT HUNGARIAN TV CONTINUES. According to Hungarian media
reports on 28 September, the president of Hungarian TV, Elemer
Hankiss, has fired Palfy G. Istvan, the progovernment chief
editor of two influential news programs. The decision is expected
to increase the tensions between the government and Hankiss, who
was dismissed earlier this year by Prime Minister Jozsef Antall.
President Arpad Goncz has repeatedly refused to sign Hankiss's
dismissal. Hankiss claims that Palfy's programs were not
objective and failed to live up to "European standards." Only one
progovernment chief editor remains at the state-owned TV. (Judith
Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)
LITHUANIAN PRIME MINISTER IN WARSAW. Aleksandras Abisala met with
President Lech Walesa and Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka during a
one-day visit to Warsaw on 28 September. It was Abisala's first
foreign visit as prime minister. Agreements were signed on
investment protection, the fight against organized crime, and
border controls. Although both sides presented the visit as a
step forward, the tensions that have slowed work on a bilateral
treaty were also very much in evidence. Polish officials pressed
for more equitable treatment of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
Abisala insisted that Lithuania's policy meets European standards.
For his part, he criticized the position of Poland's Lithuanian
minority and pressed for a reckoning with the past, especially the
Polish occupation of Vilnius in 1920. Lithuania's defense
minister, Audrius Butkevicius, begins a three-day visit to Poland
on 29 September. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
LANDSBERGIS AT UNGA. On 28 September Lithuanian Supreme Council
Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis addressed the UN General Assembly.
The speech, broadcast live by Radio Lithuania, focused on the need
for the Russian military to leave the Baltic States. Landsbergis
noted that Russian conservatives were dividing foreign countries
into "inner" and "outer" spheres, with Russia marking out its
"special interests" in the former--states that could be taken over
much as was done in 1939. Landsbergis held talks with UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that day and on 29
September will meet former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd before returning to
Lithuania in the evening. He cancelled a planned trip to Chicago
on 30 September. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)
GROMOV ON TROOP PULLOUT FROM THE BALTICS. Russia's Deputy Defense
Minister Boris Gromov told Krasnaya zvezda of 25 September the
pullout of Russian troops by 1 September 1993 from Lithuania is
"by no means synonymous with a readiness to flee." He noted that
specific accords on the withdrawal remain to be ratified. (On 23
September Gromov told Interfax that Russian troops in Estonia and
Latvia are to be pulled out in 1994, though the final date must
still be negotiated.) He pointed out that Russia intends to keep
the presence of its Baltic Fleet in the region. Gromov said that
there are still about 35,000 Russian officers and enlisted men in
Lithuania, over 15,000 in Latvia, and about 24,000 in Estonia.
These figures differ from those recently given by other Russian
officials. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)
TROOPS CLASH OVER BUILDING IN KAUNAS. On 28 September, as a group
of unarmed Lithuanian soldiers began to take inventory of a
building in Kaunas that had been used by the Russian army, ten
armed Russian soldiers burst into the building, threw the
Lithuanian soldiers out, and barricaded themselves on the second
floor. The Russians later left the building, Radio Lithuania
reports, but three unarmed officers remained on the second floor.
The first floor is controlled by Lithuanian troops. (Saulius
Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)
RIGA AVIATION SCHOOL MAY LOSE ITS FOREIGN STUDENTS. BNS reports
that as of 1 October the Riga Aviation University may lose nearly
500 of its foreign students because the Latvian government will
not take over the costs of their stipends--$2-3,000 per student
annually--from Moscow, which sent them for study in Latvia. What
is more, Russia has not paid off its debt of 36 million rubles for
the education of its students over the last academic year nor made
any payments for the first semester of this year. (Dzintra Bungs,
RFE/RL Inc.)
IS RUSSIA PREPARING ESTONIA SANCTIONS? The Russian government
plans to adopt a political resolution regarding relations with
Estonia in the next few days, BNS reports on 28 September, quoting
Interfax. The resolution may well direct the government to
introduce "political and economic sanctions" against Estonia for
its alleged discriminatory treatment of ethnic Russians,
especially with regard to Estonia's parliamentary elections last
week. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
CONGRESS OF ESTONIA HOLDS FINAL SESSION. The Congress of Estonia
movement held its tenth and final session on 28 September, local
media report. The meeting adopted a resolution stating that
Estonia has restored the constitutional state structure according
to the will of the republic's citizens--this had been the goal of
the alternative parliament ever since it was established in March
1990. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
POLAND'S COL. KUKLINSKI: HERO OR TRAITOR? The Washington Post of
27 September carried a lengthy report on Col. Ryszard Kuklinski,
the highly-placed Polish officer who spied for the US for 11 years
and revealed the plans for martial law to the CIA before escaping
from Poland in 1981. According to sources quoted in the report,
Kuklinski, who now lives in the US under a false identity,
provided the CIA with 35,000 pages of documents that one
specialist said "virtually defined our knowledge" of Soviet
military plans and equipment. The account has evoked discussion
in Poland because of Kuklinski's foiled attempts to have his 1984
death sentence for treason (later reduced to 25 years
imprisonment) overturned. Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz
called the case a "moral dilemma" because of the implications
Kuklinski's exoneration could have for the Polish army. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
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RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 188, 30 September 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
TENSE SITUATION IN TAJIKISTAN. Tajikistan's deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev told an RFE/RL correspondent on 29 September that
he had not been beaten up and hospitalized, as had been reported
by the Nega news agency the previous day. The same day, Moscow and
Dushanbe news agencies reported that pro-Nabiev forces from Kulyab
Oblast were still in control of the town of Kurgan-Tyube, an
opposition stronghold, and that the town had sustained major
damage in the fighting. The government in Dushanbe has devised a
plan to disarm the population by buying their illegal weapons, but
local authorities will have to put up the money. An article in
the 30 September issue of Nezavisimaya gazeta draws attention to
the rising crime rate in Tajikistan and reports that leaders of
the opposing sides in the civil war say they have no control over
some 20% of their forces. The same source says that anti-Nabiev
forces in Kurgan-Tyube are being led by radical members of the
Islamic Renaissance Party. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STATUS OF BESIEGED RUSSIAN TROOPS IN TAJIKISTAN UNCLEAR. Russian
news agencies reported on 29 September that the Russian military
unit that was besieged near Kurgan-Tyube by fighters from Kulyab
has still not been able to drive off the Tajik fighters trying to
capture Russian arms and equipment. Meanwhile, Western news
agencies reported on 29 September a statement by the Russian
Defense Ministry that a "limited military contingent" of Russian
reinforcements had arrived in Tajikistan to protect Russian troops
already deployed there, their families, and military facilities.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FOREIGN HELP FOR TAJIKISTAN? In a speech to the UN General
Assembly on 29 September, Tajik Foreign Minister Khudoberdi
Kholiknazarov played down the scope of the fighting in his
country, saying that it is presently limited to the center of
Kurgan-Tyube Oblast, an RFE/RL correspondent reported. He appealed
for international help in ensuring that democracy prevails. The
same day Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati told Tajik
Minister of Culture Zakirdzhan Vazirov, on a visit to Tehran, that
Iran is ready to help in working out a peaceful settlement of the
civil war in Tajikistan, Western news agencies reported, quoting
the official IRNA news agency. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SHANIBOV'S ESCAPE AND SITUATION IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA. Musa
Shanibov, president of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples
of the Caucasus, was not released from custody, as earlier
reported, but escaped, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on 30
September. Shanibov, who had been detained for his part in the
confederation's despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia, returned in
triumph to Nalchik, where he told a meeting of 30,000, reinforced
by delegations from North Ossetia, Checheno-Ingushetia, and
Karachaevo-Cherkesia, that he would continue the struggle for the
independence of the North Caucasus. The meeting called for the
removal of Russian troops from Kabardino-Balkaria and the
punishment of local officials. The article in Nezavisimaya gazeta
gives the impression that the Kabardino-Balkarian authorities are
no longer in charge of the situation. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINE REQUESTS SECURITY GUARANTEES, FOREIGN AID. Speaking at
the United Nations on 29 September, Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Anatoly Zlenko said that his country expected "strict
international guarantees" of its national security against any
threat or use of force from nuclear-armed states. In reports of
his remarks carried by Western agencies, Zlenko also urged a
complete ban on nuclear weapons testing. He said that Ukraine
intended to accede to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons "in the nearest future," but at a subsequent press
conference he claimed Ukraine needed hundreds of millions of
dollars in foreign aid to dismantle its missiles. (Doug
Clarke/John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SHAPOSHNIKOV WARNS WEST AGAINST INTERFERENCE IN CIS TALKS. At a
conference in Paris on 29 September, CIS Commander in Chief
Evgenii Shaposhnikov warned European countries against interfering
in talks between CIS states over nuclear weapons control.
According to Reuters, Shaposhnikov stated that "when parents have
to make delicate decisions, the advice of third parties . . . can
cause harm." Shaposhnikov argued that Russia should control all
former Soviet nuclear weapons immediately, regardless of their
location. Belarus and Kazakhstan have reportedly partly agreed to
Russian control, while Ukraine wants to exercise administrative
control over nuclear weapons on its territory. (John Lepingwell,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
BRITAIN OFFERS CREDITS TO RUSSIA. UK State Secretary Michael
Heseltine and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Shokhin have
signed an agreement to provide $480 million worth of British
credits for modernizing Russian industrial and transport
facilities, Western news agencies reported on 29 September. The
agreement follows last week's reports of British reluctance to
extend more loans to Russia before coming to an arrangement on
existing overdue payments to British creditors. In a related
story, an IMF official, Ernesto Cata, suggested in Moscow that
current lax fiscal and monetary policies in Russia may endanger
the approval of a $3 billion IMF credit hoped for by the end of
this year. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA SETTING UP MORE CUSTOMS POSTS. Russia will soon increase
the number of customs points on its borders, Interfax reported on
29 September. The sixty-four such posts, up from twenty-four in
mid-June, will be functioning by 1 October along Russia's borders
with the Baltic states, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Interfax
cites "experts" claiming that these posts will be "enough to halt"
the illegal export of oil and raw materials. Some Russian
officials have reckoned the value of illegal export of oil and oil
products at over $100 million in the first half of this year
alone. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBACHEV TO FACE TRIAL FOR FAILURE TO TESTIFY? On 29 September,
the Russian Constitutional Court devoted its entire afternoon
session to a discussion of former Soviet General Secretary Mikhail
Gorbachev's refusal to testify at the CPSU hearing (see RFE/RL
Daily Report, 29 September). According to Russian TV, Chairman
Valerii Zorkin viewed the publication of Gorbachev's letter as an
"insult." The judges voted in favor of sending yet another summons
to Gorbachev with a warning of possible "legal consequences" if he
failed to appear. If necessary, the justices would then request
that the Russian General Prosecutor bring criminal charges against
Gorbachev. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBACHEV HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE. At a press conference held at
the Gorbachev Foundation on 29 September, Mikhail Gorbachev
reaffirmed his earlier decision to ignore the summons to testify
at the CPSU hearing, Russian TV reported. Gorbachev termed the
hearing "a political trial" of seventy-five years of the Soviet
history. He quoted rumors to the effect that the decision to
summon him and his Politburo colleagues to testify at court had
been motivated by a desire to sensationalize a trial that
otherwise would continue to draw little public interest. While
addressing other issues, Gorbachev criticized the government's
privatization program. He also said that if the right moment
comes along, he might form a new political party and become its
leader. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY DEFENDS SUBMARINE SALE. On 29 September
the Russian Foreign Ministry defended its sale of submarines to
Iran as a "purely bilateral matter," according to Western news
agencies. Despite the Russian government's apparent cancellation
of the sale on 25 September, one submarine is reportedly still en
route to Iran. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SWEDEN'S "PERISCOPE SYNDROME" CRITICIZED. The Russian Foreign
Ministry on 29 September criticized Swedish allegations that a
Russian submarine had intruded into Swedish territorial waters.
Interfax and Reuters reported that the statement called Swedish
Prime Minister Bildt's comments "openly unfriendly towards Russia"
and dismissed Sweden's "periscope syndrome," claiming that Sweden
had no firm evidence that the submarine was Russian. (John
Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIANS AND AMERICANS COOPERATE ON SPACE PROJECTS. The American
firm McDonnell Douglas and the Russian Academy of Science's
Mechanical Engineering Research Institute announced on 28
September that they would cooperate on a series of space
technology research projects. According to a McDonnell Douglas
press release, the agreement was part of a company initiative to
examine and perhaps utilize Russian expertise in materials,
advanced mathematics, space systems, and extended manned space
flight. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MISSILE DEFENSE TALKS TO RESUME IN OCTOBER. According to Western
agencies on 29 September, US and Russian negotiators will meet
again in Washington in October to continue negotiations over
cooperation in the field of joint early warning and ballistic
missile defense. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HALF OF FORMER SOVIET TROOPS OUT OF GERMANY. Half of the former
Soviet armed forces that were in Germany have left and the
withdrawal remains on schedule for their complete departure by the
end of 1994, the DPA news agency reported on 29 September. Two
hundred and fifty soldiers and civilians have applied for
political asylum in Germany. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DROP IN RUSSIAN ARMS SALES. The daily Nezavisimaya gazeta on 29
September reported that Russia exported $1.55 billion worth of
arms in 1991, resulting in what the paper described as a
thirteen-fold drop in profits when compared with the average level
of Soviet arms exports in the 1980s. The report said that 69% of
the arms sold in 1991 went to the Near and Middle East. The paper
quoted officials as saying that this sharp drop in profits from
arms sales "was an extremely heavy blow" which, when coupled with
shrinking oil exports, led to the bankruptcy of the Bank for
Foreign Economic Relations. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT TO DEBATE ECONOMY. The Ukrainian parliament,
which postponed its debate of the economy because of the visit of
Canada's governor-general to Kiev, will discuss economic reforms
on 30 September, Western news agencies reported. President Leonid
Kravchuk will address the lawmakers, and it is expected that the
embattled prime minister, Vitold Fokin, will also make a
presentation. The opposition is determined to force the
resignation of the present government headed by Fokin. Izvestiya
reported on 29 September that parliamentary speaker Ivan Plyushch
conceded that the government must go. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
CIS DEFENSE MINISTERS TO MEET BEFORE BISHKEK SUMMIT. Lieutenant
General Leonid Ivashov stated on 28 September that at a meeting of
Defense Ministers in Bishkek on 7 October, the question of forming
a joint concept of military security will be discussed. ITAR-TASS
reported that the ministers will also reexamine the functioning of
the CIS joint command in light of recent developments, possibly
turning it into a multinational command structure. Ivashov
acknowledged that there remained differences between Ukraine and
the CIS joint command, but noted that there was "positive
movement" in their relations. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STALEMATE IN RUSSIA'S TALKS WITH TATARSTAN. A session of the
collegium of the Russian government on 29 September noted that
Russia's talks with Tatarstan have not been crowned with success,
ITAR-TASS reported. The head of the Russian government's press
center, Gennadii Shipitko, said that Russia was insisting that
Tatarstan was part of Russia, while Tatarstan wanted to be
considered completely independent in the legal sense and to be
treated by Russia according to the norms of international law.
Tatarstan also wanted to decide its own military policy, Shipitko
added, and was opposed to its citizens having Russian as well as
Tatarstan citizenship. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN REPUBLICS SUPPORT KHASBULATOV. On 28 September a statement
signed by the leaders of most of the republics of the Russian
Federation, in which they expressed their support for the Russian
parliament and its chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov, was made public,
Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on 29 September. The newspaper's
correspondent suggests that the republics have an interest in
preserving an equal balance of power between the Russian
president, parliament, and government, but it also sees the
republics emerging more and more as a fourth force, which could
upset the other three if it is not taken into account. (Ann
Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MOLDOVAN PRIME MINISTER ON HIS WESTERN VISITS. Back in Chisinau
from visits to Bonn and Washington, D.C. Moldovan Prime Minister
Andrei Sangheli told the Moldovan media on 27 September that
Germany and Moldova have agreed to open embassies in each other's
capitals and that a German delegation is due in Moldova shortly to
negotiate an intergovernmental political and economic agreement.
In Washington, Sangheli obtained the consent of the International
Monetary Fund for a stand-by agreement with Moldova effective 1
January and for a credit to enable Moldova to purchase feed grain
to offset crop losses caused by drought. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
MOLDOVAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS ON NEED TO BUTTRESS INDEPENDENT
STATEHOOD. At a consultative meeting with President Mircea Snegur
on 29 September, the leaders of Moldova's Social- Democrat Party
said that the opposition Popular Front's campaign for unification
with Romania risks causing a civil war in Moldova, Moldovapres and
ITAR-TASS reported. The Social-Democrats agreed with Snegur on
the need to "buttress Moldovan independence" and develop Moldova
as "a state with the full attributes of sovereignty now and in the
future." The Social-Democrats also reserved the right to criticize
the Snegur administration for any policy errors. (Vladimir Socor,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
EXPERTS PREDICT MASSIVE DEATHS IN BOSNIA THIS WINTER. The New
York Times on 30 September says that American analysts foresee at
least 150,000 deaths from hunger and exposure in the embattled
republic unless massive relief operations come into effect, while
UN sources predict up to 400,000 deaths in a worst-case scenario.
Winter usually arrives in October and is harsh in what even in
peacetime was one of the former Yugoslavia's poorer regions. The
BBC's "Europe Today" program said that relief flights to Sarajevo
are likely to resume this week as a result of special envoys Cyrus
Vance and Lord Owen having "moved heaven and earth" to persuade
Washington in particular of the urgent necessity to do so.
Finally, it appears that UN representatives have convinced
Croatian officials to work to prevent a planned march by Croatian
refugees to return to their homes in Serb-controlled areas near
the Hungarian border. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BOSNIAN SERBS REJECT MASSACRE ALLEGATIONS. Radio Serbia reports
on 29 September that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has
rejected US State Department allegations that Serb forces
massacred 3,000 Bosnian Muslims in a detention camp near the town
of Brcko. Karadzic said the US had been "duped by unsubstantiated
Muslim propaganda" and challenged US President George Bush to
produce the evidence. Karadzic added that if Bush can prove the
massacre took place, he will help arrest the perpetrators and hand
them over for trial. Serb officials in Brcko also denied the US
claims and invited representatives of any international commission
to visit the town as soon as possible. Serb officials added that
in the Brcko area some 1,500 Serbs are being held captive by
Muslims. France has officially requested the UN and EC
immediately to open an investigation. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
ALBANIA BLAMES SERBS FOR YUGOSLAV CONFLICT. Addressing the UN
General Assembly in New York, Albanian Prime Minister Alexander
Meksi singled out "malicious Serbian nationalism" as responsible
for the failure to resolve the conflict in the former Yugoslavia,
RTR and Western agencies report. Albania is particularly concerned
that the fighting could spill over into the Serbian province of
Kosovo, which is 90% ethnic Albanian, and is similarly concerned
about the fate of the large number of ethnic Albanians in the now
independent ex-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. (Charles Trumbull,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
CZECHOSLOVAK PARLIAMENT DEBATES SPLIT. On 29 September 1992, the
Federal Assembly began debating a draft law on possible modes of
division of the Czechoslovak federation. The law, based on
political agreements between Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus and
Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, provides for four different
ways of dissolving the federation: a referendum, a Federal
Assembly declaration, an agreement of republican parliaments, and
a secession by one republic. CSTK reports that virtually all
opposition deputies speaking on 29 September criticized the law
and called for a referendum on the split. The debate was
adjourned and will continue on the 30th. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES MINORITIES LAW. According to MTI,
Parliament began discussion of the long awaited law on minorities
on 29 September. The text was prepared in close cooperation with
minority leaders, and its codification took much longer than
expected. The intention of the law is to stop assimilation of
minorities by assuring them collective minority rights and
parliamentary representation. In the draft law under debate in
Budapest, members of minority groups would also retain a number of
individual rights. Collective rights did not figure in the
post-World War II treaties, but Hungary has brought the idea up on
a number of occasions since. Under this concept, an official
representative body would be given legal status to pursue the
interests of an ethic or national group. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
HUNGARIAN-SLOVAK CONTACTS. Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall
received a delegation of the ethnic Hungarian parties represented
in the Slovak parliament, led by Coexistence Chairman Miklos
Duray, MTI reported on 29 September. The two sides agreed on the
need for good relations between Hungary and an independent
Slovakia and for a mutually acceptable solution to the
disagreements over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric project
and the sections of the Slovak constitution concerning national
minorities. The same day a delegation of the opposition Alliance
of Young Democrats (FIDESZ) left Budapest for Bratislava for talks
with Slovak Foreign Minister Milan Knazko and other officials and
with representatives of Slovakia's Hungarian minority. The FIDESZ
delegation continues on to Prague for talks with Czech officials.
(Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL, Inc.)
TURKEY RESTRICTS VISITORS FROM BULGARIA. Bulgarian-Turkish
relations received a potential setback on 29 September when Turkey
unilaterally imposed restrictions on Bulgarian citizens seeking to
enter Turkey. The move is intended to reduce the number of
Bulgarian Turks leaving Bulgaria in search of better job
prospects. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry indicated that no
advanced warning was given and is seeking clarification. Effective
immediately, Bulgarian citizens wishing to enter Turkey must
demonstrate that they have at least $70 for each day of their
stay, or $30 if they are part of an organized tourist group. Those
visiting relatives must pledge to return to Bulgaria. Some
300-350,000 Bulgarian Turks fled to Turkey in 1989 as a result of
a Bulgarian assimilation policy. While perhaps as many as half
later returned, those remaining in Turkey burdening an economy
beset by inflation and high unemployment. In a new wave an
estimated 40,000 have entered Turkey using tourist visas and have
failed to return to Bulgaria. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CONSTANTINESCU TO FIGHT ON. Emil Constantinescu, the presidential
candidate of the centrist Democratic Convention, vowed to continue
his fight for the Romanian presidency despite his clear
second-place position. Constantinescu urged all democratic forces
to block Ion Iliescu's reelection in the 11 October runoff. He
also warned that the parties supporting Iliescu might join into a
dominant political force powerful enough to block moves toward
free market reforms. Meanwhile, the vote counting is moving
forward quickly, and final results are expected much earlier than
originally planned. The latest partial results from 29 September
(9:00 p.m.) are based on complete counts from 92% of all stations.
They show Iliescu leading with 47.6%, followed by Constantinescu
with 30.6% of the votes. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ILIESCU AIDE CALLS FOR GRAND COALITION. On 29 September Adrian
Nastase, Romanian foreign minister and top Iliescu aide, called
for a broad-based government coalition to include reformists from
the rival National Salvation Front and the Democratic Convention.
Nastase, who is widely tipped as Iliescu's choice to lead the
future cabinet, told journalists that the Democratic National
Salvation Front (DNSF) wants "national reconciliation." Latest
figures released by Romania's National Statistics Board show the
DNSF leading in the legislative elections with 28.6% for the
Senate and 27.7% for the Chamber of Deputies. Nastase was quoted
as saying that "we shall be looking for a government formula that
will not handicap Romania." He was reacting to opposition fears
that a possible coalition of the DNSF, the revived communists, and
the nationalists would polarize the country and harm Romania's
image in the West. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HOUSE VOTES ON ROMANIA'S MFN STATUS. The US House of
Representatives is expected to vote on 30 September on whether to
restore Romania's most-favored nation trade status, an RFE/RL
correspondent in Washington says. Restoration had been postponed
because members of the Congress wanted to see the results of the
Romanian elections. On 29 September Assistant Secretary of State
Thomas Niles said that the elections appeared to have been
conducted freely and fairly. Romania's opposition fears that
restoration of MFN status now might send the wrong signal, and
influence both the presidential runoff and the building of a
coalition government. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH ECONOMIC PLANS. The government met a legal deadline by
submitting its draft economic program for 1993 to the parliament
on 30 September. The program's central aim is to open a period of
sustained economic growth. Priorities are promoting the private
sector, defending fiscal stability, and reducing interest rates.
Half of any increase in GDP is earmarked for investment spending.
According to Polish TV, the final draft of the economic program
rejected earlier proposals to tax interest income and accelerate
the zloty's devaluation. Meeting in closed session, the cabinet
also agreed to ask the parliament to increase the 1992 budget
deficit ceiling from just over 65 to 80-82 trillion zloty. Deputy
Prime Minister Henryk Goryszewski said that across-the-board
spending cuts are necessary, but none of them will be drastic.
(Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND'S COALITION PARTNERS BICKER. Any final decision on the
shape of the revised 1992 budget was put off pending a "political
meeting" of the government coalition parties on 30 September. The
coalition partners failed on 29 September to agree on a common
assessment of Jan Krzysztof Bielecki's 1991 government, the
subject of an upcoming Sejm vote. This is a sensitive topic, as
Bielecki and some of his ministers serve in the current cabinet.
Rivalry over ministerial posts is also fraying tempers, as
ideological conflicts emerge between the two main coalition
partners, the liberal UD and the conservative ZChN. Deputy Prime
Minister Henryk Goryszewski (ZChN) recently demanded the removal
of a "proabortion" deputy health minister (UD), while several ZChN
deputies called for the ouster of the Civil Rights Spokesman (UD)
because of his legal challenges to religious education in schools.
Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka admitted to Radio Z on 29 September
that she had also faced pressure over appointments from her own
party, the UD, but that the coalition was functioning adequately.
(Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DUTCH PRIME MINISTER LAUDS POLISH REFORMS. Dutch Prime Minister
Ruud Lubbers praised the Polish government's commitment to
economic reform at the start of a two-day visit to Poland. Lubbers
held talks with Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka on 29 September and
is to meet with President Lech Walesa on 30 September. Lubbers
pledged to encourage increased Dutch investment in Poland.
According to PAP, he added that "it is better to export Dutch
capital to Poland than to import Polish labor to Holland." He
predicted that the Dutch parliament will ratify Poland's
association agreement with the EC by year's end. The EC's internal
problems will not mean "closing the community" to new members, he
said, but full integration will have to wait until EC members
settle differences over the pace of unification. (Louisa Vinton,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA WARNS BALTS AGAINST "ETHNIC CLEANSING." Russia's delegation
to the UN General Assembly on 29 September warned Estonia and
Latvia against pursuing a policy of "ethnic cleansing," BNS
reports. Upon returning to Moscow from New York, Russian Foreign
Ministry press spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters that
his government is concerned about policies toward non-Balts in
Estonia and Latvia that could lead those two states "to slide down
the slope to the practice of ethnic cleansing." Last spring and
summer, the Russian Foreign Ministry used the term "apartheid" to
describe the Baltic stance toward nonlocal ethnics. The same day
Russian Prime Minister Egor Gaidar told Interfax that the question
of sanctions against the Baltic States is to be resolved "either
tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." He added that Russian policy
toward these states will be conducted in light of their success in
finding solutions to their "human rights problems." (Riina Kionka
& Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LITHUANIAN-POLISH MILITARY TALKS. On 29 September Lithuanian
National Defense Minister Audrius Butkevicius began an official
three-day visit to Poland at the invitation of his Polish
counterpart Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Radio Lithuania reports. The two
discussed the formation of joint work groups to deal with military
problems and creating greater mutual cooperation. Butkevicius also
held talks with National Security Bureau head Jerzy Milewski and
placed a wreath at the monument in Gruenwald, commemorating the
1410 Lithuanian-Polish victory over the Teutonic knights. On 30
September he will visit Cracow. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WORK OF LATVIAN GOVERNMENT TO BE REASSESSED. Diena reported on 29
September that the work of the government will probably be
reassessed by the Supreme Council the week of 5 October. The
legislature has asked each minister to submit for evaluation a
detailed report of his performance. Minister of State Janis
Dinevics said that he does not rule out the possibility that the
legislators might ask for the resignation of some members of the
government. The day before Diena reported that Supreme Council
Deputy Janis Kinna of the Farmers Union also supports the notion
of reevaluation of the government's performance, but neither his
party, nor three others--the Latvian Social Democratic Workers
Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the People's Party--are
calling for a resignation of the government at this time.
(Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.34.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbs carry out 'ethnic cleansing' operation in Bosnian capital
Subject: Croatians trying to cross into Serb territory are held back
Subject: Fischer loses game 12, rematch chess score at 5-3, 2 draws
Subject: Weapons shortage spurs home-grown arms industry in Sarajevo
Subject: 6 face federal charges for sending weapons to Yugoslavia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbs carry out 'ethnic cleansing' operation in Bosnian capital
Date: 30 Sep 92 19:54:44 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serb forces evicted up to 200
non-Serbs from their houses in a resumption of ``ethnic cleansing''
operations in the Bosnian capital Wednesday, ordering them on short
notice to vacate their homes and cross into Bosnian-controlled
territory, U.N. and Bosnian officials said.
A U.N. source said the Red Cross estimated 150 people were forced
from their homes in Grbavica in the southern part of Sarajevo, while a
Bosnian police source estimated 200 people were involved, making it the
largest such expulsion in the 6-month-old seige of the Bosnian capital.
Some of the family members, taken to a police station after crossing
by foot from the northern side of the Miljacka River, said they were
given 10-minute warnings to pack their belongings and leave.
``It's happened a couple of times'' previously but on a smaller
scale, said Sonata Kreso of the Bosnian International Press Center, who
said most of those expelled in the incident of ``urban ethnic cleansing''
were women and the elderly.
Bosnian officials said they knew no reason for the incident, but they
speculated it might indicate that Serbian militiamen are preparing for
the start of the harsh Balkan winter.
Those expelled from the area along the Serbian front lines were
mostly Muslim Slavs, who made up about half of the city's pre-war
population of 500,000 people, police said.
The expulsions came amid sporadic shelling and sniper attacks in the
Bosnian capital. At least 24 people were killed and 165 wounded in
Bosnia-Hercegovina in the 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m.
Wednesday, including seven killed and 54 wounded in Sarajevo, republic
health officials said.
The city's hospital ran out of the diesel fuel needed for its
electrical generator about 1 p.m. and doctors were forced to perform
surgery for a while under the light of a bulb connected to an automobile
battery.
``We were hurried by the people running the generator to finish
operations because we would soon be in complete darkness,'' said Dr. Edo
Jaganjac, a doctor on duty at the hospital, shortly before the fuel ran
out.
A spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force in Sarajevo, Adnan Razek,
said UNPROFOR later supplied the hospital with 4 to 5 tons of diesel
fuel.
UNPROFOR's Sarajevo commander, Egyptian Brig. Gen. Hussein Abdel
Razek, also met Bosnian Serb leaders for several hours Wednesday at
their military headquarters in Lukavica, just south of the Bosnian
capital, to continue seeking agreements allowing the restoration of
electricity and water and protection for utility workers.
``It still needs a political push, but we agreed to start a meeting
of experts on both sides, hopefully beginning tomorrow,'' Adnan Razek
said afterward.
The city's electricity supplies were cut a week-and-a-half ago, and
the water supply to most of the city has been out since Sunday night.
The developments in Bosnia came as President Franjo Tudjman of
Croatia and President Dobrica Cosic of the new two-republic Yugoslavia
opened a round of talks in Geneva with international peace mediators.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was the U.N. mediator and
Britain's Lord David Owen represented the European Community. Security
was tight at the site.
``All I can tell you is that the talks were constructive and were
going on through lunch and the afternoon,'' said Fred Eckhard, a
spokesman for the United Nations. Vance and Owen also met earlier with
Radovan Karadzic, the leader of Serbian forces fighting for a separate
state in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Prime Minister Milan Panic, the Belgrade-born U.S. citizen and
millionaire drug manufacturer who became the leader of the new Yugoslav
federation, returned home from a visit to the United States Wednesday
and tried to portray his trip as an overwhelming success.
Panic, speaking to a news conference, claimed he had gained support
of the United States to partially lift the U.N. sanctions so Serbia and
Montenegro could import oil needed for the harsh winter. He also claimed
his nation was still a member of the United Nations because of his
efforts during a meeting of the General Assembly.
``The most important thing we came back to tell you is that we are
still a member of the United Nations,'' Panic said. Later he added that
another important result was that ``the United States first showed open
support for the new Yugoslav government.''
``There is a new position of the United States toward Yugoslavia, of
course positive, which was determinantly negative before,'' said Panic.
Despite his claims, Panic failed to convince the United Nations to
name his Serbia-Montenegro federation as the legitimate successor of the
former Yugoslavia. The U.N. General Assembly refused to seat Panic's
federation and ordered it to apply for membership if it wanted to belong
to the world body.
Officials of the U.S. administration neither supported nor rejected
Panic's request to lift sanctions so oil could be shipped to Belgrade.
U.S. officials said the proposal was an idea to study, reiterated their
support for the U.N. sanctions and said any change in the sanctions
would have to be approved by the U.N. Sanctions Committee.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Croatians trying to cross into Serb territory are held back
Date: 30 Sep 92 22:47:19 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- About 1,000 Croatians attempted to cross into
Serbian-occupied areas in the municipality of Osikek in eastern Croatia
Wednesday, but were blocked by United Nations and Croatian civil
authorities.
The Croatians, many of whom have been homeless since last October,
had been putting pressure on the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the
area for weeks to allow them to return to their homes.
But because the Serbian side has not disarmed in the so-called U.N.-
sector East, in compliance with U.N. brokered peace agreements, UNPROFOR
said it was far from safe.
``It's heavily mined there, everything is destroyed, there is no
electricity, there is no water, how can you live there?'' a Russian
UNPROFOR commander said Tuesday in Osijek to the unarmed Croatians in an
emotional plea for them to turn back at the border of the territory.
``Wait a little bit, we will find an agreement, we are reasonable
people, we've done our part so far, please be patient,'' Branimir
Glavas, president of the municipality of Osijek said to the refugees.
The refugees apparently ignored an agreement reached Tuesday between
the Croatian government, UNPROFOR and representatives of the U.N. High
Commission for Refugees.
Under the agreement the representatives of the refugees agreed to
withdraw a previous ultimatum given to UNPROFOR.
Beli Manastir and Osijek are two of the four Croatian municipalities
in sector East, which are partly or wholly Serbian occupied.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fischer loses game 12, rematch chess score at 5-3, 2 draws
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:59:01 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Former world chess champion Bobby
Fischer lost the 12th game of his controversial rematch with former
Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky Wednesday.
Fischer, who was playing with black figures and used a kingside
Indian defense, surrendered after 54 moves of the game that lasted
almost six hours.
Experts say that Fischer made a fatal mistake in his eigth move, and
then lost too much time trying to improve his position. The result is
now 5-3 for Fischer, with four draws.
The first player to achieve 10 victories will win a $3.35 million
prize, while the loser will have to be content with $1.65 milllion.
The first half of the rematch began Sept. 2, at the southern Adriatic
resort of Sveti Stefan in the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and
Montenegro. After Fischer's fifth victory, the set was transferred to
Belgrade.
On Fischer's request, the players were separated from the audience by
a large glass wall. Therefore, no statements could be obtained from
either player.
Fischer, 49, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up
to $250,000 for ``knowingly and willingly'' defying a U.S. Treasury
Department order not to play in the truncated Yugoslav federation.
The order endorsed the U.N. sanctions that ban all financial and
economic transactions with the Serbia-dominated union for its
involvement in the war in neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Fischer publicly spat on the Treasury's order at a news conference on
the eve of the first game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Weapons shortage spurs home-grown arms industry in Sarajevo
Date: 1 Oct 92 02:08:07 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- In a dark, back-alley workshop
thick with the cloying aroma of gun oil, Becir Skrijel remains true to
the centuries-old artisan traditions of Sarajevo.
But Skrijel does not produce the intricate filigree jewelry, fine
woolen carpets or bright copperwork for which the Bosnian capital gained
reknown throughout the Balkans.
He makes bombs.
The bespectacled metalsmith is part of a network of craftsmen
scattered throughout the city who have turned their skills to inventing
and producing homemade munitions for the outgunned defenders of
Sarajevo.
The weapons reportedly work well. But, they come nowhere close to
compensating for the massive stockpiles of modern military hardware
supplied to encircling Serbian forces by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav
army and communist-ruled Serbia.
Still, with Bosnia-Hercegovina included under a U.N.-ordered
international ban on weapons sales to the republics of former
Yugoslavia, local arms makers believe theirs is an important
contribution to the war effort.
Their main sources of explosives are the Serbian artillery, tank and
mortar shells that fail to detonate as they bounce down Sarajevo's
streets or thud into parks and buildings.
``We are happy when the aggressor sends us a shell that doesn't
explode,'' said Skrijel, 58. ``There is a unit of experts that collects
them and brings them here.''
But because Sarajevo's desperate circumstances mandated innovation,
Skrijel has not limited his labors to the conventional.
His inventions have included Coca-Cola bottle gasoline bombs that
burst on impact after being launched from mortar-like contraptions
powered by automobile suspension springs compressed by foot-operated
levers.
Skrijel also produces anti-personnel mines loaded with shrapnel the
Serbs themselves blasted into the city.
And, his longtime hobby of collecting World War II small arms has
served him well in the repair and improvement of vintage arms that
Sarajevo's defenders have been forced to utilize.
``I like weapons, but not for killing. I like the mechanisms that
make them work,'' explained Skrijel, who ran a metal-forging and foreign
car repair shop before the war.
His statement was underscored by the assortment of rifles, machine
guns and pistols lying in various stages of disassembly on a table in
his cluttered workshop in Sarajevo's Muslim Slav-dominated old Turkish
quarter.
Some weapons date to the end of the last century. Even so, said
Skrijel, all would be cannibalized for spare parts or repaired with
homemade replicas and sent up to the front lines.
``Out of 20 old ones, we can make 12 to 15 new ones,'' he said,
holding a German-made Mauser pistol manufactured in 1898. ``This one is
going to be fixed.''
Among the scattered metal flotsam was most of a 7.9 mm Mauser machine
gun, the bolt embossed with the tiny eagle clutching a swastika in its
talons -- the symbol of Nazi Germany.
``This is the best machine gun ever made,'' said Skrijel. ``They are
still using this design for the NATO pact.''
Also awaiting his ministrations were World War II-era Russian machine
guns, British-produced Stens and Lee Enfields, and a 1935 Italian-made
Beretta machine gun that required a new spring to stop it from firing
when jolted.
``Time had its effects and a spring wore out. The owner was running
and he fell. The gun fired by itself and the man in front received three
bullets in his backside. But, he lived,'' recounted Skrijel with a grin.
Bombs, however, are the main business of Skrijel, his son, and three
assistants.
Working at top speed, the five each day can produce about 50 of the
rocket-propelled grenades that Skrijel considers the best of the
homemade weapons he has designed.
``Our fighters can throw a bomb up to 30 meters. But, the problem is
that the aggressor has tanks and armored cars, and with this method, you
cannot do much harm,'' he explained.
``So, we came back here to think about how we could make something
that could go 200 to 300 meters. What we did was weld a small rocket
onto the bottom of an empty grenade before we fill it with TNT.''
The TNT is obtained from dud shells, which he and his team open by
using a lathe to shave down their steel walls to paper thinness.
They then tap the shells gently on a block of wood in much the same
way that a cook cracks open an egg.
The yellow resin-like explosive is pried out in chunks, which the
workmen grind into a powder by rolling it between a pipe and a steel
surface. The powder is then poured into the grenade bodies.
The final step is inserting a detonator, the fuse of which remains
outside the bomb. The fuse must be lit with matches or a lighter just
before the device is launched from the muzzle of a rifle using a blank
cartridge to ignite the rocket.
Skrijel said he first learned of the weapons' effectiveness from a
Serbian television broadcast.
``They were interviewing a wounded Serbian fighter who said the
Bosnian army was using some secret, but very dangerous equipment,'' he
recounted. ``The fighter said, 'We don't hear it, but it explodes over
our heads. We don't even have time to blink. Probably they are using
something forbidden and imported from the West.'''
Despite his obvious enthusiasm for his work, Skrijel said he was
anxious to stop producing instruments of death and return to his old
trade.
``I was forced to learn this,'' he said sadly. ``Nobody believed that
this could happen to us.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 6 face federal charges for sending weapons to Yugoslavia
Date: 1 Oct 92 06:04:21 GMT
CHICAGO (UPI) -- The Justice Department Wednesday charged six people
with conspiring to ship firearms and ammunition to the former
Yugoslavia, reportedly for Serbian nationals who had been fighting the
communist regime even before the current Bosnia-Hercegovina war.
U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman announced indictments in the case,
alleging the suspects conspired between April 1991 and October 1991 to
violate the Arms Export Control Act and various federal firearms laws.
The charges stemmed from the seizure of more than 300 firearms and
thousands of rounds of ammunition in 1991 at O'Hare International
Airport. Authorities found the weapons and ammunition hidden in an air-
freight shipment being sent from O'Hare.
Suspects indicted Wednesday included licensed arms-dealer Richard
Tylkowski, 65, as well as his son, Timothy; Bajro and Avdo Hukic; Jovica
Jovanovic and Alexander Nikolic.
Foreman said authorities charged the Tylkowskis with receiving and
possessing five unregistered, Mac-11 9mm fully automatic machine guns.
The Justice Department also indicted the elder Tylkowski for
allegedly filing false reports of firearms sales, as well as making
false statements to federal agents in an attempt to conceal the alleged
conspiracy.
Authorities indicted the other four suspects on violation of the Arms
Export Control Act, as well as on conspiracy counts.
novine.35.bale.,
Noted U.S. Pediatrician Disturbed by Visit With Yugoslavian Children
By PAUL RAEBURN
AP Science Editor
NEW YORK (AP) - A 5-year-old boy who swats at imaginary flies
after having watched his older brother's mutilated body decay is a
tragic example of the Balkan civil war's effect on children, a
UNICEF emissary said Wednesday.
Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, who recently returned from a four-day
trip to the war-shattered republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and
neighboring Croatia, said the children are so deeply scarred they
could erupt with a repetition of the violence and torture they've
witnessed.
``No treatment will help until this terrible war has been
brought to an end,'' Brazelton said in an account of the trip,
sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund.
Brazelton is a pediatrician at Harvard Medical School and is
widely known for his books and television programs of advice to
parents.
The violence and torture has no justification, so ``there's no
way the children can make sense of it,'' he said in an interview.
``That calls up primitive feelings in children, feelings it's their
fault, that if I were a good kid this wouldn't be happening to
me.''
Brazelton was asked by UNICEF to help devise a program of
emergency care for the children of the civil war in what was once
Yugoslavia.
With Brazelton's help, UNICEF's director James Grant said he was
able to get the warring parties to agree to a ``week of
tranquillity'' in November to allow blankets, clothes and food to
be shipped to the children.
Previous efforts at a truce have stalled, but Grant said UNICEF
has arranged brief truces in places like El Salvador, Sri Lanka,
Uganda and Iraq.
``It's worth a try, and both the regular leaders and the leader
of the Bosnian Serbs and his principal assistants have agreed,''
Grant said. ``I talked to them all on this mission, and we'll
see.''
Brazleton said that when the Serbs invaded, the 5-year-old boy's
family was lined up and his older brother's hands were cut off in
front of them. The brother was shot and left in the street in front
of the family's home.
The brother's pregnant wife was then brought before the family.
``Her belly was opened by a long cut, which allowed her fetus to
fall out and hang by its cord,'' Brazelton wrote. She was hanged.
Flies swarmed over her, her fetus and the boy's brother, who
were left to lie in front of the family. For days the boy remained
glued to the window, before the family escaped to a refugee camp,
where Brazelton met them.
``Ever since they escaped,'' Brazelton wrote, ``this child has
been screaming about flies at night, brushing them away all day
long.''
AP-NY-10-01-92 1403EDT
_____________________________________________________________________________
Red Cross Mounts Operation to Evacuate Prisoners from Bosnian Camp
GENEVA (AP) - The Red Cross today mounted an operation to
evacuate more than 1,500 people released from a Bosnian detention
camp.
A convoy of 35 buses and ambulances picked up 1,560 former
prisoners outside the Serb-run camp in Trnopolje and were expected
to reach the Croatian town of Karlovac later today, said a
spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees operates a refugee camp
in Karlovac.
The warring factions in Bosnia-Herzegovina agreed at a London
peace conference in August to close down detention camps.
Pictures of starving inmates in some of the most notorious camps
shocked the world and brought back images of Nazi-style
concentration camps.
The Red Cross has visited about 12,000 prisoners. The agency
tried to enforce the Geneva conventions, which include standards
for treatment of detainees during armed conflicts.
More than 10,000 people have been killed since fighting broke
out in Bosnia after Muslims and Croats voted on Feb. 29 to secede
from Serbia-led Yugoslavia, sparking a rebellion by Serbs.
Serbs have been blamed for waging the most severe ``ethnic
cleansing'' campaigns to drive out other groups from captured
areas.
novine.36.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 189, 1 October 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS. Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold
Fokin offered his resignation on 30 September, Ukrinform-TASS and
Western news agencies reported. The announcement was made by
President Leonid Kravchuk in his address to the parliament.
Kravchuk asked Fokin to stay on until a new head of government is
appointed. Fokin was quoted as saying that his decision to resign
was dictated by his desire to ensure peace and consensus in the
country, and added that his economic program would continue in his
absence. Fokin also blamed constant attacks by the media for his
decision to resign; as he told Reuters: "This has been brewing for
a long time and I see no sign of it ending." Meanwhile, Vyacheslav
Chornovil, the leader of the opposition Rukh movement, declared
that Fokin's departure was "a victory for reform and democracy in
Ukraine." (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT SEEKING WAY OUT OF CRISIS. Heated debate,
broadcast live by Radio Ukraine, continued in the Ukrainian
parliament on 1 October following the resignation of Prime
Minister Vitold Fokin. It confirmed not only the deep economic
crisis in which Ukraine finds itself, but also the crisis in
government and the division of political powers. Amid calls for
the creation of a government of national conciliation, numerous
deputies argued that the entire Cabinet of Ministers should resign
along with Fokin, leaving the new prime minister freedom to create
a new government capable of accelerating reforms. Rukh's leader
Vyacheslav Chornovil on 30 September called on President Kravchuk
to assume control of the government until the end of the year.
(Bohdan Nahaylo, RFE/RL Inc.)
SHAPOSHNIKOV CALLS FOR RUSSIAN "STATEHOOD" FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS. In
a 30 September Krasnaya zvezda article, CIS Marshal Shaposhnikov
suggested that the existence of nuclear weapons on the territory
of four former Soviet republics would complicate the
implementation of the START treaty. He proposed giving nuclear
weapons their own "statehood," which would be Russian. This move
would presumably entail greater Russian operational and
administrative control over the weapons. Shaposhnikov noted that
Belarus and Russia are close to agreement on this point, while
Kazakhstan is drawing nearer. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
UKRAINE REJECTS INCREASED RUSSIAN CONTROL OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk rejected CIS Marshal
Shaposhnikov's call for increased Russian control over nuclear
weapons in a speech to the Ukrainian parliament on 30 September,
as reported by Interfax and Western news agencies. Kravchuk
stated that Ukraine "does not want to keep its fingers on the
nuclear button, but it should give the world community guarantees
that the nuclear weapons stationed on its territory will not be
used by a third state." While reiterating Ukraine's determination
to become a non-nuclear state, his remarks reaffirmed Ukraine's
commitment to maintaining substantial control over the weapons and
their elimination. Kravchuk also rejected the idea of Ukraine
joining any CIS defense alliance. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
SHAPOSHNIKOV RENEWS CALL FOR JOINT CIS MILITARY. In an article in
Krasnaya zvezda on 30 September, CIS Marshal Evgenii Shaposhnikov
urged closer CIS military cooperation. Criticizing US attempts to
create a "unipolar world," Shaposhnikov warned of a possible new
North-South confrontation and called for the CIS to act as a
"stabilizing counterweight" between the North and South. To
strengthen the military role of the CIS, Shaposhnikov called for a
joint military structure, possibly including mixed troop
formations made up of units from the CIS states. He also called
for the CIS states to coordinate policies on military personnel to
prevent rising disparities between the national armies and
subsequent unrest within the military. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL
Inc.)
MUSLIM LEADERS REACT TO SHAPOSHNIKOV'S REMARKS. The Co-Chairman
of the Caucasus Supreme Religious Council, Sheikh Muhammad
Karachai, said on 30 September that many Russian leaders were
infected with an anti-Islamic virus, an RFE/RL correspondent
reported from Moscow. Karachai was reacting to a statement by CIS
commander Evgeniy Shaposhnikov to Krasnaya zvezda, in which
Shaposhnikov said a system of collective security for the CIS
could counter growing Islamic influence. Karachai, who was
attending an international Islamic conference in Moscow, said
Russian leaders would have to face the reality that Muslims seek
ways of unification. However, Salman Musaev, a Muslim official
from the Caucasus, and the Kazakh mufti Aslanbek Abdurakhman Ali,
who were also attending the conference, rejected the idea of a
political union between the Central Asian states and other Islamic
nations. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE IN TAJIKISTAN. Reinforcements for
the Russian troops stationed in Tajikistan have arrived in
Dushanbe and taken control of the city's airport; Tajik fighters
who had been besieging Russian troops in the southern part of the
country have ended their blockade, Western and Moscow agencies
reported on 30 September. A Tajik security official said that
roads into Dushanbe have been put under strict control to prevent
arms being brought into the city. Acting President Akbar
Iskandarov appealed to both CIS leaders and the UN to help stop
the fighting, because Tajikistan's government cannot do so. The 30
September issue of Megapolis-Ekspress speculates that the
commander of the CIS troops in Tajikistan, Major-General
Mukhriddin Ashurov, might be named to the vacant post of Minister
of Defense. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
MORE REFUGEES IN DUSHANBE. Refugees from the fighting in southern
Tajikistan are flooding into Dushanbe, Western and Moscow agencies
reported on 30 September, and hundreds of refugees from
Kurgan-Tyube, the opposition stronghold, are picketing the Russian
ambassador's residence demanding an end to Russian interference in
Tajikistan. They are presumably reacting to rumors that the
Russian forces have given weaponry and equipment to supporters of
deposed President Rakhmon Nabiev. Russian military sources insist
that pro-Nabiev fighters from Kulyab Oblast forcibly seized
equipment from the Russian troops to use in their battles in
Kurgan-Tyube. According to the 30 September issue of
Megapolis-Ekspress, law enforcement officials of the ministry of
internal affairs and National Security Committee who are supposed
to stay neutral in the interregional fighting are getting involved
on the side of their region of origin. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
KULYAB PEACE DEMANDS. The 30 September issue of
Megapolis-Ekspress lists demands made of the government in
Dushanbe by pro-Nabiev forces in Kulyab Oblast that would have to
be met before the Kulyab fighters would agree to lay down their
arms. One of these demands, the appointment of Communist economist
Abdumalik Abdullodzhanov as prime minister, has already been met.
Other demands include the removal of prominent opposition figures
from the government: Deputy Prime Minister Davlat Usmon of the
Islamic Renaissance Party, Tajik Radio and TV Chairman Mirbobo
Mirrakhimov of Rastokhez, and deputy National Security Committee
Chairman Davlat Aminov. The Kulyab forces would also like to see
Akbar Turadzhonzoda removed from his post as the highest-ranking
Muslim clergyman in Tajikistan. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
VOUCHER PRIVATIZATION BEGINS TODAY AMID UNCERTAINTY. The Russian
government will launch its mass privatization program today by
beginning to issue vouchers to each Russian citizen. The
distribution process is scheduled to last three months. The
vouchers represent claims on state assets which will be auctioned
off beginning some time next year. Western news agencies on 30
September catalogued the problems confronting the program. The
major obstacles include: delays in printing and delivering the
vouchers; delays in state enterprises transforming themselves into
public share companies; outstanding questions about which state
assets the vouchers can be traded for; and confusion among the
Russian people over how the voucher program works. (Erik Whitlock,
RFE/RL Inc.)
CONTROVERSY OVER VALUE OF RUSSIAN VOUCHERS. Issued with a face
value of 10,000 rubles, the real value of the vouchers to its
holder has been a focus of heated political debate. The real
value of any given voucher will be decided by the "market" in
which a holder chooses to trade. The holder may participate
directly in auctions for state assets, in which case the value
will depend on the bidding process for the assets. Holders may
trade their vouchers for shares in an investment fund, in which
case the value to holders depends on the quality of investment
decisions the fund makes. Finally, if holders sell their vouchers
for cash, the value will depend on supply and demand on this
"secondary" market. In the uncertain economic conditions in
Russia, it is very hard to predict the outcome of any of these
choices. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL Inc.)
SHEINIS DEFENDS ABKHAZIA STATEMENTS. Russian parliamentarian
Viktor Sheinis told a press conference on 30 September that the
documents adopted by the parliament the previous week (on 25
September) were fully in accord with international norms.
According to international law, Sheinis said, "the protection of
human rights is not an internal affair and Russia, like any other
state, can raise the question of human rights, wherever they are
violated." On the question of arms controlled by forces in
Russia's Transcaucasian Military District, Sheinis said that under
no circumstances should Russia transfer these weapons to Georgian
authorities, ITAR-TASS reported. (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL Inc.)
CRIMEAN SEPARATISTS "REORGANIZE." The Republican Movement of the
Crimea (RDK), which has spearheaded the drive for Crimean
independence, has reconstituted itself as the Russian Movement of
the Crimea (RDK), Radio Ukraine reported on 29 September. The name
change was announced in a statement saying that the old RDK had
been rendered "illegal" by the recent changes to the Crimean
Constitution, that is, by the Crimean parliament's compliance with
Kiev's demand that the peninsula bring its constitution and laws
in line with the Ukrainian Constitution. The new RDK maintained
that the Crimea's future lies in its union with the CIS, even if
the latter is restricted to Russia. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT STILL DEMANDS TESTIMONY OF GORBACHEV, FALIN.
In response to summons from the Russian Constitutional Court,
Valentin Falin, the former chief of the International Department
of the CPSU Central Committee, who is now receiving medical
treatment in Germany, listed seven conditions which the court
would have to meet before he would agree to testify, "Novosti"
reported on 30 September. These included full reimbursement for
round-trip airfare and other expenses related to his trip to
Moscow. Moreover, according to Western agencies on 30 September,
Falin said that he would testify only if former CPSU Secretary
General Mikhail Gorbachev did the same. ITAR-TASS reported on 30
September that the court was willing to pay for Falin's airfare,
but that it rejected Falin's linking his testimony to that of
Gorbachev. Also on 30 September, Reuters reported a statement by
the court chairman, Valery Zorin, that he might have to order
"executive authorities" to ensure Gorbachev's appearance. On
October 1, the court will receive testimony from former USSR Prime
Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, who has criticized Gorbachev for the
latter's refusal to testify. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL Inc.)
SITUATION IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA NORMALIZING. ITAR-TASS reported
on the morning of 30 September that the situation in
Kabardino-Balkaria was normalizing. The agency said that the
Executive Committee of the Congress of the Kabardinian people had
disassociated itself from the movement's fighters who were
demonstrating, and that labor collectives were supporting the
president and government. Roadblocks had been removed from all
roads and the airport. However, supporters of the Confederation of
the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus and the fighters were
preparing to hold a new meeting demanding the resignation of the
president of the republic. Krasnaya zvezda of 30 September
expressed concern that those meeting included more and more
volunteers returning from Abkhazia. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)
GAIDAR VISITS AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA. A Russian government
delegation headed by Prime Minister Egor Gaidar travelled to Baku
on 30 September. Gaidar met with Azerbaijani President Abulfaz
Elchibey and signed a number of bilateral economic agreements,
ITAR-TASS reported. In a letter addressed to Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, Elchibey expressed the hope that the visit marked
the beginning of a new chapter in Azerbaijani-Russian relations.
Gaidar then travelled to Erevan for talks with President Levon
Ter-Petrossyan and Prime Minister Khosrow Arutyunyan. According to
Interfax, Armenian officials requested that Russia create an air
defence system on Armenian territory. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN BORDER TROOPS TO LEAVE GEORGIA BY MAY 1994. The head of
Georgia's Central Border Protection Administration, Colonel Otar
Gumberidze, told Interfax that an agreement has been reached
whereby Russian border troops will be withdrawn from Georgia
beginning in 1993; the withdrawal will be completed by 7 May 1994.
Gumberidze conceded that at present Georgia is "physically unable"
to protect its border with Turkey and has proposed that Russia and
Georgia jointly finance protection of that section of the frontier
for the time being. (A similar arrangement has been concluded
between Russia and Azerbaijan over protection of the frontier
between Iran and Azerbaijan). (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)
MORE FIGHTING IN WESTERN GEORGIA. Clashes are continuing in
western Georgia between Georgian National Guard contingents and
supporters of ousted president Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Georgian
forces retook the town of Khobi last week and on 30 September
repulsed an attempt by Gamsakhurdia's supporters to occupy the
police station in Senaki; four of the attackers were killed in an
ensuing gunfight, according to ITAR-TASS. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL
Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
COSIC, TUDJMAN SIGN ACCORD. Radios Croatia and Serbia report on 30
September that Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman and Dobrica
Cosic, president of the rump Yugoslavia, signed a joint 8-point
declaration in Geneva. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of
the federal Yugoslav army from Croatian Prevlaka Peninsula,
strategically located on the Croatian-Montenegrin border. The
federal forces are to leave by 20 October, thus removing the
threat of renewed attacks on Dubrovnik and formally achieving the
withdrawal of the federal army from Croatia. Prevlaka would be
demilitarized and placed under UN supervision. The leaders also
renewed pledges to use their influence to end fighting in Bosnia,
condemned "ethnic cleansing," reiterated existing commitments that
borders can not be changed by force, and agreed to consider the
normalization of relations between the Republic of Croatia and
Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro). (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
SERB REACTIONS. On 29 September, before the accord was signed,
Col. Miodrag Miladinovic, the federal commander at Prevlaka,
reportedly warned that his troops would defend the peninsula,
which protects the key naval base in the Bay of Kotor, with force
"if the politicians lose it." Upon hearing of the signing of the
Tudjman-Cosic accord, Bozidar Vucurevic, the Serb leader from
eastern Herzegovina, was said to have called it "harmful to
Herzegovina's Serbs," because Croatian forces are now in a better
position to penetrate Serb-controlled areas. Ultranationalist
Serb leaders like Vojislav Seselj have allegedly described plans
to withdraw the federal forces from Prevlaka as "shameful and
treasonous." Radio Serbia carried the reports. (Milan Andrejevich,
RFE/RL Inc.)
ETHNIC CLEANSING COMES TO SARAJEVO. The BBC on 1 October quoted
Muslim refugees as saying that armed Serbs had systematically
forced them to flee their homes in two Sarajevo suburbs the
previous day. They were given as little as 15 minutes to prepare,
and one woman told the BBC that she was raped before she could
reach Muslim lines. The Serbs have been trying to split Sarajevo
into two for some time. In Washington, the Senate voted to
approve up to $50 million in military aid to the Bosnian
government, whose forces are greatly outgunned by the Serbs, but
the measure is unlikely to be approved by the House or the White
House, the Los Angeles Times says on 1 October. Meanwhile in
Geneva, international mediators Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen
announced on 30 September that leaders of the two sides have
agreed to start talks on demilitarizing the Bosnian capital under
the good offices of UNPROFOR. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)
CZECHOSLOVAKS HOLD FINAL DEBATE ON SPLIT. The Czechoslovak
parliament held its final debate on 30 September on a draft law on
the division of Czechoslovakia, with most opposition deputies
rejecting the law and calling for a referendum on the issue. The
parliament is to vote on the law on 1 October. Commenting on the
prospective split of the country, former Czechoslovak President
Vaclav Havel told CSTK that a referendum on whether Czechoslovakia
should split does not make sense any longer. He said he could not
imagine a referendum in Slovakia which would decide anything.
Havel, however, suggested that a referendum could be held to
ratify the split. In the evening of 30 September, Havel met for
dinner with Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus. Speaking to
reporters afterwards, Klaus rejected the idea of a ratification
referendum. He said that "the referendum issue is a game the
opposition parties are playing" and that it is useless to "waste
energy on referendum arguments." (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.)
SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER ON ARMY, FOREIGN RELATIONS. Vladimir Meciar
told the Slovak Press Agency on 30 September that Slovakia will
establish its own ministry of defense. Meciar also said that,
with the exception of Hungary, Slovakia's relations with other
countries are good. He argued that the relations with Hungary
could improve but that, like Slovakia, Hungary must take steps in
that direction. The Slovak premier further said that he was
unhappy about a letter which he received on 30 September from
Hungarian Prime Minister Antall in which, in Meciar's words,
"Antall accused Slovakia of violating Hungary's borders and
threatening Hungary's sovereignty." Meciar also defended the
performance of his government during the first 100 days in office
against sharp criticism from opposition parties. (Jiri Pehe,
RFE/RL Inc.)
HUNGARIAN DEMOCRATIC FORUM POSTPONES CONVENTION. According to
MTI, the ruling party will hold its fourth national meeting at the
end of January and not at the end of November as planned. The
presidium of the party denied that the meeting was postponed for
political reasons--i.e., because of the controversy surrounding
the pamphlet written by one of the forum's vice presidents, Istvan
Csurka. Rather, they say, more time is needed to concentrate on
parliamentary work. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)
RECOUNT IS CALLED IN ROMANIAN VOTE. Romania's electoral bureau
said on 30 September that some 3.6 million votes had to be
declared void because people failed to understand the complicated
ballot papers. Rompres quoted a Romanian official as saying that
13.6% of votes cast for the Chamber of Deputies were annulled,
along with 12.9% for the Senate, and 4.8% for the presidency. In a
communiqui broadcast by Radio Bucharest on 30 September, Romania's
Central Electoral Bureau called for a recount within 24 hours. The
Democratic Convention, an alliance of the main opposition forces,
pointing to the unusually high number of invalid ballots,
expressed serious doubts about the accuracy of counting
procedures. The counting will now probably take several more
days. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
ILIESCU CALLS FOR COALITION. On 30 September President Ion Iliescu
called for a government of national unity to cope with Romania's
"grave problems." Speaking at a press conference, Iliescu
expressed hopes that his Democratic National Salvation Front and
the centrist Democratic Convention could find "a platform of
minimal understanding." He suggested that a wide-based coalition
might include all political groups in the new parliament. Another
alternative mentioned by Iliescu was that of a cabinet of
technocrats accepted by all parties in parliament. Iliescu also
described fears of a slowdown in economic reforms after his
party's victory as unfounded, but added that reforms should be
made "tolerable." (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
HOUSE REJECTS MFN TRADE STATUS FOR ROMANIA. The US House of
Representatives rejected on 30 September by a 283 to 88 vote the
restoration of most-favored-nation trade status to Romania. There
was no debate before the vote, which had been delayed because some
members of the Congress wanted to see the results of the
elections. Romania is currently the only East European country
which does not enjoy the MFN status, which grants low tariffs to
exports to the United States. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
ANOTHER SETBACK FOR POLISH MASS PRIVATIZATION. The Sejm voted on
30 September to postpone any decision on whether to send the
government's mass privatization program to committee, pending an
official reckoning of the costs of the program. Privatization
Minister Janusz Lewandowski said the program would be
self-financing, thanks to World Bank and EC assistance and fees
paid by participants. But objections as to costs missed the
point, he added, as mass privatization aims to improve the
performance of 600 selected firms and rapidly broaden private
ownership. Indeed, finances do not seem to have been the real
concern of the program's opponents; their zeal for healthy state
budgets is sporadic. Although the Sejm may still approve further
work on the plan, the vote for postponement--172 to 147 (20
abstentions)--showed the parliamentary weakness of the government
coalition and the potential strength of the state industry lobby.
Mass privatization has been in the planning stage in Poland for
two years. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
SEJM DEBATES DEFENSE INDUSTRIES. Sejm deputies also urged the
government to save Poland's defense industries, which lost
virtually their entire market with the dissolution of the Warsaw
Pact. Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz reported on 30
September that 3 trillion of Poland's 26.5 trillion zloty defense
budget is earmarked for equipment purchases in 1992. Domestic
purchases will amount to 2 trillion zloty. The defense budget has
been cut by nearly 60% since 1986, Onyszkiewicz noted, severely
limiting state support for defense industries. Industry Minister
Waclaw Niewiarowski said that planned restructuring would reduce
military production to 19% of the 1988 level and eliminate 27,000
jobs. Of the 80 existing defense plants, only 28 would remain.
Many deputies urged the government to expand international arms
sales and exact payment for deliveries made to the former Soviet
Union. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
HUNGARIAN BUDGET SENT TO PARLIAMENT. On 30 September, Finance
Minister Mihaly Kupa presented next year's budget to the
parliament. A deficit of 180-185 billion forint is anticipated.
Kupa said two items are expected to spark debate: the introduction
of a double-level value-added tax system and a change in the
distribution of tax revenues between national and the local
governments. Until now, this income was divided equally, but now
local governments are to receive only 30% . Kupa said the new tax
law is also ready to be sent to parliament. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL
Inc.)
BANKING REFORM IN BULGARIA. On 30 September, as part of the
government's economic reconstruction program, 22 of Bulgaria's
commercial banks were merged. The resulting corporation, the
United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), will commence operations in January
1993. UBB assets are estimated at 18 billion leva ($788 million)
according to Western sources. The move is the first step in the
direction of privatizing Bulgarian banking, a process expected to
take up to three years. The next banking merger is expected to be
between Bulgaria's two largest financial institutions, the
Economic Bank and Mineral Bank, which between them are expected to
control over one third of the country's banking business. (Duncan
Perry, RFE/RL Inc.)
BULGARIA MAY FACE ENERGY CRISIS. The consequences of an incident
at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant last week, when short circuits
caused a brief fire, could lead to severe power rationing
Bulgarian officials warned on 30 September. Plant spokesman Yordan
Yordanov first told Western agencies that a single 440-megawatt
reactor would be operating during the next two months, though he
later said experts are investigating a temporary solution that
would allow a 1000-megawatt unit to be connected to the power grid
within two weeks. In the meantime the Bulgarian National Electric
Company has signed contracts for emergency electricity supplies
from Ukraine and Moldova. (Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL Inc.)
LITHUANIA, RUSSIA SIGN MUTUAL ACCOUNTING AGREEMENT. On 30
September in Moscow Lithuanian Deputy Prime Minister Bronislavas
Lubys and his Russian counterpart Aleksandr Shokhin signed an
agreement on settling accounts between the two states after 1
October, when Lithuania leaves the ruble zone and introduces its
temporary coupons, Radio Lithuania reports. A similar agreement
was also signed for the time when Lithuania introduces its
currency, the litas. A further protocol provides for the settling
within a month of all bills for goods and services made prior to 1
October 1992. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)
ESTONIA'S FIRST BANKRUPTCY. A regional court in Estonia declared
a merchandising company bankrupt on 30 September, marking the
first bankruptcy in Estonia in the postwar period. The case
against Norten, Ltd. is the first in what is expected to be a
series of suits the government will bring in compliance with new
bankruptcy regulations, which took force on 1 September. As of
that day, Estonian companies owed the state some 235 million
kroon, BNS reports. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
MAYOROV PROTESTS TREATMENT OF MILITARY. Diena reported on 28
September about letter of protest addressed to the Latvian
government by Col. Gen. Leonid Mayorov, commander of the
Northwestern Group of Forces, demanding a halt to what he terms as
provocative behavior of Latvian authorities against the Russian
military. Mayorov also threatened that the army would use all
means at its disposal to protect its own interests. The letter was
prompted by Latvian efforts to monitor the movements of Russian
military around several buildings in Riga and Jurmala that have
been turned over to the Latvian authorities--but not yet
vacated--by the military. One incident specifically mentioned in a
report by Latvijas Jaunatne on 25 September involved attempts of
the Latvian Home Guard to verify the documents of Mayorov's second
in command, R-Adm. Shestakov. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIA STEPS UP VERBAL ATTACKS ON BALTS. On 30 September Russian
Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi urged Belgium to help defend the
rights of Russians in the Baltic States. According to Interfax,
Rutskoi made the statement to visiting Belgian Foreign Minister
Willy Claes, who responded that Russia should remove its troops
from the Baltic States. Rutskoi, in turn, said Russia wants to
remove the troops, but has no place to house them. Meanwhile,
Lithuanian Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis was
quoted by Interfax as saying that Moscow is carrying out a new
"Cold War" against the Baltic States. Landsbergis told reporters
in Vilnius that Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev is leading
a campaign against the Balts in talks in various international
forums. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
novine.37.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No 190, 2 October 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES OF THE USSR
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT VOTES OUT CABINET. The Ukrainian parliament on
1 October overwhelmingly approved a motion of no confidence in the
cabinet of ministers, Western agencies reported. The decision
followed Prime Minister Vitold Fokin's request to step down as head
of government the day before. Ukrainian lawmakers gave President
Leonid Kravchuk ten days to appoint a new prime minister, who then
will work together with the President to form a new cabinet. The
fall of Fokin and his cabinet was the result of constant charges by
the opposition that the government was failing to implement
economic reforms in the country. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
KRAVCHUK VS CENTRALIZED CIS. Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk
told parliament on 30 September that Ukraine will never allow
itself to be subordinated to any kind of centralized CIS
structures, Ukrinform-TASS reported. Kravchuk said that these kinds
of ideas are currently being propagated, and that they are oblique
references to recent proposals for tighter CIS integration made by
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev. At the same time,
Kravchuk emphasized that as in the past, the closest possible ties
will be maintained with Russia. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)
ADMIRAL KASATONOV REASSIGNED FROM BLACK SEA FLEET. Interfax on 1
October reported that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral
Igor Kasatonov, has been reassigned to the position of first deputy
commander of the Russian Navy. The report indicated that a
Russian-Ukrainian group of officers would assume command of the
fleet in accord with a Russian-Ukrainian agreement to place the
fleet under joint command until the end of 1995. The removal of
Kasatonov had long been demanded by the Ukrainian government, which
recently accused him of illegally selling off fleet assets to
private concerns. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY AFFIRMS KURIL WITHDRAWAL PLANS. Japan's
Kyodo news service reported on 30 September that the Russian
government has reaffirmed its commitment to withdraw all Russian
troops from the disputed Kuril islands. In a written reply to a
query from Kyodo, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the
withdrawal, announced by President Yeltsin in May, will start after
"politicians' decisions." No timetable was given for the
withdrawal, although earlier Russian-Japanese talks had specified a
one to two year time period. The Russian Defense Ministry has in
the past opposed any such withdrawal. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL
Inc.)
RUSSIAN SUBMARINE SALE TO IRAN STILL ON? A Russian submarine is
still sailing to Iran, the Washington Post reported on 2 October,
despite Russian indications that the submarine sale was cancelled.
The Post article indicated that the submarine was nearing the
English Channel en route to the Persian Gulf. In response to the
Russian sale, the US Senate on 1 October attached an amendment to a
foreign aid bill that would cut assistance to Russia if it sells
arms to Iran, Western news agencies reported. While the final bill
must still be coordinated with the House of Representatives, the
amendment was a sign of the seriousness with which the arms sale
was being viewed. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
CONTINUED STRIFE IN TAJIKISTAN. Fighting continued in southern
Tajikistan on 1 October, ITAR-TASS reported, and the Russian
division stationed there was taking additional measures to protect
its equipment, some of which supporters of deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev have already stolen or otherwise acquired. Troops of
the Tajik Ministry of Internal Affairs and prison administrators
issued an ultimatum to the government and party leaders that they
will release the inmates of correctional institutions if attacks on
them are not stopped; armed groups have been raiding prisons in
order to obtain arms from the guards. Meanwhile, Russian border
guards reported more battles with persons seeking to cross the
Tajik-Afghan border illegally. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)
ABKHAZ FORCES LAUNCH NEW OFFENSIVE, TAKE STRATEGIC TOWN. A
spokeswoman for the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet told an RL/RFE
correspondent in Moscow on 1 October that the withdrawal from
Abkhazia of volunteers from the North Caucasus had been suspended
because Georgian troops were attempting to advance on Gudauta,
where the Abkhaz leadership is currently based. Abkhaz and North
Caucasian troops subsequently launched an attack on the coastal
town of Kolkhida, ten kilometers south of Gagra, using tanks and
rocket launchers, and took the town, inflicting heavy casualties on
Georgian troops; they then advanced towards Gagra. The Georgian
State Council convened an emergency session to discuss the
situation. Whether State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze
attended the session is unclear; all scheduled sessions had been
cancelled on 29 September because Shevardnadze was sick, according
to ITAR-TASS. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUBLE PLUNGES ON CURRENCY EXCHANGE. The ruble lost nearly 22% of
its value against the dollar in narrow trading on the Moscow
Interbank Currency Exchange on 1 October, Interfax reported. The
dollar rose from 254 rubles to 309 rubles. The fall in the value
of the ruble was generally attributed to fears of very high
inflation (an annual rate of over 2,000% is expected in 1992) or
hyperinflation. Acting Russian Central Bank Chairman Viktor
Gerashchenko blamed the pending increase on the price of
energy-carriers. Government adviser Aleksei Ulyukayev promised
that the government would take unspecified joint measures with the
Russian Central Bank to stabilize the exchange rate of the ruble,
ITAR-TASS reported. And writing in Trud, Deputy Prime Minister
Vladimir Shumeiko called on the West to expedite the $6 billion
stabilization fund to "correct" the ruble exchange rate. (Keith
Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIAN RUBLE TO BE INTRODUCED? The Acting Chairman of the Russian
Central Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko, told Interfax on 1 October that
while his bank favored the retention of the ruble zone, Russia may
have to introduce its own monetary and currency unit if other CIS
governments insist on pursuing different economic policies and fail
to agree upon and to coordinate policies. He called for clear
government agreements on the size of credit emission in the ruble
zone and on regulating credits provided to importers of Russian
goods. Many observers believe that the ruble zone exists only on
paper and that "Russian rubles" are already distinct from "Moldovan
rubles" or "Kazakh rubles." (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
OTHER CURRENCY DEVELOPMENTS. Belarus replaced the ruble on 1
October with a special coupon system in areas near the Lithuanian
and Ukrainian borders, ITAR-TASS reported. A Belarusian National
Bank official explained that the move was made because the
introduction of non-ruble currencies in Lithuania and Ukraine could
prompt an unwanted influx of rubles into Belarus. Lithuania
replaced the ruble on 1 October with temporary coupons that will be
used until the new Lithuanian currency, the litas, is introduced,
Reuters reported. And Moldovan Economics Minister Sergiu Certan was
quoted by Interfax on 1 October as saying that it would be a
mistake to introduce a national currency now when Moldova is in an
economic crisis. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
GORBACHEV ATTACKS YELTSIN. Former CPSU Secretary General Mikhail
Gorbachev told journalists that he is thinking about creating his
own political party as part of a political comeback, but he added
that the time for this was not yet right, Nezavisimaya gazeta
reported on 30 September. He called President Boris Yeltsin "a
loss," arguing that terrible mistakes had been committed in foreign
and economic policies. He said Yeltsin's privatization plan was a
"deception." He also criticized Yeltsin for not responding to
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev's proposal for tighter
integration of CIS member states. Gorbachev recommended that
President Yeltsin and other Russian leaders welcome Gorbachev
advisors like Aleksandr Yakovlev into the inner circle of
government decision-makers. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
FILATOV SUPPORTS YELTSIN. First deputy parliamentary speaker
Sergei Filatov has joined forces with the democrats and called for
an expansion of President Boris Yeltsin's executive powers. In an
interview with Stolitsa (no. 38) he warned that parliamentary
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov is violating the constitution and
seeking to create an administrative-command system in parliament,
thereby restricting the rights of the deputies. He argued that the
president should be given the right to dissolve at least part of
the legislature, since parliament has the right to impeach the
president. He noted that at the moment, the balance of power in
Russia is distorted to the disadvantage of the executive branch.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)
RYZHKOV TESTIFIES AT THE CPSU TRIAL. Speaking at the CPSU hearing
in the Constitutional Court on 1 October, former USSR Prime
Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov denied receiving instructions from the
Communist Party leadership, Russian TV reported. Since the
abrogation of the provision in the Soviet Constitution on the
leading role of the Communist Party, Ryzhkov said that he answered
only to the USSR President and his Presidential Council. However,
Ryzhkov said that Gorbachev, who had combined the post of the CPSU
General Secretary with that of the President, had often mixed up
these two roles. Ryzhkov denied that the CPSU was the sole cause
of the country's crisis. He said that immediately following the
election of Boris Yeltsin to be Speaker of the Russian parliament
in 1990, the CPSU in fact ceased to be the governing party, since
its largest component, the Russian communists, became an opposition
movement and could not act in the party's traditional manner.
Ryzhkov also denied any wrongdoings by his government during the
Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL
Inc.)
TWO CHERNOBYL REACTORS TO BE RESTARTED? The director of the
Chernobyl nuclear energy station told Reuters on 1 October that two
of the station's four reactors will be restarted soon. The No. 3
reactor will be restarted in October and the No. 1 in November to
meet increased demands for electric power in winter. Official
pronouncements on whether the Chernobyl reactors will be
recommissioned have been inconsistent and contradictory. The
current intention appears to be that all power generation at the
Chernobyl station shall be halted at the end of 1993 (see The
Guardian, of 10 September). (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)
KGB EXTERNAL SURVEILLANCE CODE MADE PUBLIC. The voice of the right
nationalist opposition, Den, (Numbers 37-39) has published the
complete instructions of secret surveillance methods employed by
the former KGB. The document describes the techniques and equipment
used by the KGB in overt and covert monitoring of its victims and
opponents. The weekly obtained the instructions from former KGB
officers, which left the agency because of "chaos and uncertainty
prevailing in the present state security organs." Giving its own
reason for the publication, Den wrote that the instructions can be
used in support of the so-called "patriotic resistance" and
underground activities in case pro-Western forces attempt to impose
a direct dictatorship". (Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL Inc.)
SENATE RATIFIES START TREATY. On 1 October the US Senate ratified
the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which calls for Russian
strategic to be reduced to approximately 6000 nuclear warheads,
Western news agencies reported. The agreement must still be
ratified by Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Kazakhstan has ratified
the Lisbon protocol, which commits the former Soviet republics to
observe the treaty. A second US-Russian agreement to reduce
Russian warhead levels to approximately 3,000 by the year 2003 has
not yet been formalized as a treaty. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
UKRAINE PLANS TO RATIFY START TREATY. In Washington on 1 October,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko said he hoped that
Ukraine would ratify the START treaty but noted that there were
many opponents of ratification. Zlenko also met with U.S. Secretary
of Defense Richard Cheney to seek US assistance in dismantling
ex-Soviet nuclear weapons in Ukraine, according to RFE/RL
correspondents' reports. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL Inc.)
MILLENNIUM OF CHRISTIANITY IN BELARUS. The Belarusian Orthodox
church,the largest in the republic,is concluding celebrations of
its thousand year anniversary in Belarus, Radio Minsk reported on
29 September. In addition to special church services, an
international conference in the Academy of Sciences was held, as
well as a festive gathering in Minsk attended by state leaders.
Speaking to journalists, Belarusian Metropolitan Filaret rejected
accusations that the church is an instrument of Russian
imperialism, arguing that priests are now encouraged to use the
Belarusian language in sermons. However, the Belarusian eparchy is
still a part of the Moscow Patriarchate.(Alexander Lukashuk, RFE/RL
Inc.)
ROMANIAN, MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTS ON MOLDOVAN STATEHOOD. Challenged by
an interviewer to speak out for the unification of Romania and
Moldova, Romanian President Ion Iliescu told ECO Magazin (see the
September-October 1992 issue , RFE/RL Inc.) that pro-unification
propaganda in Romania "has backfired in Moldova, and not just among
the Russian-speakers but among the Romanian Moldovans themselves.
During the last two years one has witnessed there a movement away
from unification...The [Moldovan] people's reservations on the
issue of unification have grown." Moldovan President Mircea Snegur
in turn told visiting Hungarian journalists on 30 September, as
cited by Moldovapres, that "Moldova's independence is the choice of
its people and no one has the right to conduct a policy opposing
that choice...The existence of a Moldovan independent state is in
the interest of all its neighbors, including Romania. (Vladimir
Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
CZECHOSLOVAK PARLIAMENT REJECTS LAW ON MODES OF SPLIT . . . On 1
October the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly failed to pass a law on
the modes of dividing the country. CSTK reports that in each
chamber of the parliament the measure fell just short of the
required three-fifths majority. The law would have allowed the
federation to be dissolved without a referendum, which would
represent only one four possible courses; the others would be a
Federal Assembly declaration, an agreement by the republican
parliaments, or unilateral declaration by one of the republics.
Currently, secession by one republic based on the results of
referendum held in that republic is the only "constitutional" way
of dissolving the country. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.)
. . AND ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON UNION. The Federal Assembly
approved a resolution calling for legislation to create a
"Czech-Slovak Union," which would replace the current federation.
The resolution proposes a union consisting of a president,
legislature, and governing council. The resolution was approved
when deputies representing Vladimir Meciar's Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia banded together with opposition parties in
voting for the resolution. Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus
opposes the idea of the union. CSTK reports him as saying that the
union "is not in the interest of the citizens of the Czech
Republic, and we will not create it by any means." Klaus also
sharply criticized the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia for
supporting the resolution. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.)
ETHNIC CLEANSING CONTINUES APACE IN BOSNIA. The 2 October New York
Times reports at length on the ethnic cleansing of some Muslim
neighborhoods in central Sarajevo by Serb militants under the
paramilitary leader known as Arkan. Their actions are in violation
of pledges made by Serbian leaders at the London Conference in late
August to halt the practice. The Washington Post adds that
detention camps continue to operate despite similar promises by the
Serbs to close them, although 1,500 Muslims were taken by 35 buses
from the Trnopolje camp to Croatia on 1 October, the first such
evacuation of inmates. Some of these refugees told reporters about
massacres at the camp, including one of 125 Muslim men between 14
and 40 from the village of Hambarina near Prijedor in northwest
Bosnia. Trnopolje has since been turned into "a kind of gruesome
sanitized tourist attraction" for foreign visitors, but experts
know of at least 21 other camps and suspect that many more exist
unknown to the outside world. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)
SITUATION TENSE IN EASTERN CROATIA. A Russian colonel serving with
UNPROFOR in Sector East near Osijek, Croatia, persuaded some 1,000
refugees not to continue a march to reclaim their homes in what is
now Serb-held territory. Croatian politicians and the media have
widely accused UNPROFOR, which they expected to return Serb-held
areas to Croatian control, of helping to consolidate the Serbs'
hold there instead. Osijek's outspoken mayor Branimir Glavas told
Reuters that "patience is at an end." Meanwhile, international
media said on 30 September that UN Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali warned in a report that ghting could resume in Sector
East, given the determination of the Croats and the presence of
lawless armed bands of Serb militias, estimated at 16,000 men. One
UN official called the situation "profoundly insecure." (Patrick
Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)
PANIC RETURNS TO BELGRADE AFTER US VISIT. Milan Panic, Prime
Minister of the rump Yugoslavia, told reporters in Belgrade on 30
September that his trip to the US was "incredibly successful." He
said the US was supportive of his peace efforts and that his
request for oil imports for humanitarian purposes would be met on
time, i.e. before the winter. Panic described the Tudjman-Cosic
talks in Geneva, as positive and expressed hope that their
agreement will ease the way to a final peace agreement with
Croatia. Regarding Kosovo, Panic said Pristina University must be
opened to the Albanians and that a solution must be found to
reinstate "the several hundred professors" who were dismissed by
Serbian authorities. Panic also reiterated his call for democratic
elections and a free press. He proposed the "division" of Serbian
TV, with its first channel presenting the views of the federal
government and the second channel those of the Serbian government.
Over the past three years, Serbian opposition parties have waged an
intense struggle against the Socialist domination of TV editorial
policies. Radio Serbia reported Panic's remarks. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIA'S OPPOSITION CHARGES ELECTORAL FRAUD. The Democratic
Convention , an alliance of 18 centrist parties and organizations,
stated on 1 October that it had "irrefutable proof" of manipulation
of election results in at least one county--Dolj. The DC said it
would ask prosecutors to annul the election and order a new vote
there. Rompres quoted other instances of possible fraud from the
Prahova and Dimbovita counties, where electoral officers had
reportedly campaigned in the polling stations and spoiled ballots
vanished before they could be verified. Meanwhile, the DC launched
a drive to win the rural vote for Emil Constantinescu, its
candidate in the 11 October presidential runoff. (Dan Ionescu,
RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIA REACTS TO MFN VOTE. President Ion Iliescu expressed
bitterness over the vote in the US House of Representatives against
restoration of most-favored-nation trade status for Romania. Radio
Bucharest quoted him as saying that the decision "protracts the
discrimination to which Romania is unfairly subjected." Iliescu
accused Hungarian-born US Congressman Tom Lantos of having
"misinformed" the House on the situation in Romania. In a separate
statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the House vote
demonstrates both "a lack of understanding" for the changes in
Romania and the "virulence of the anti-Romanian lobby in the US."
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)
PRESSURE INCREASING ON BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT. Osman Oktay,
Secretary of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF, RFE/RL
Inc.), said in an interview with RFE/RL on 1 October that his party
is considering lodging a vote of no confidence against the UDF
minority government next week. According to Oktay, the UDF should
initiate a "joint analysis" of the present political situation with
the MRF or risk standing alone in parliament. He also warned that
the MRF has lost confidence in Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov.
Meanwhile, President Zhelyu Zhelev told RFE/RL that the UDF cabinet
under Dimitrov has gradually been isolating itself in Bulgarian
politics. (Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL Inc.)
OECD RECOMMENDS DEBT REDUCTION FOR BULGARIA. In a report released
in Paris on 2 October, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development suggests that Bulgaria be offered a "substantial
cut" in both its principal foreign debt and interest burden,
Western agencies report. Without debt reduction, the report
argues, Bulgaria can neither expect a significant inflow of foreign
capital, nor will it be able to consolidate its economic
achievements and speed up structural reforms. After a vote passed
by the National Assembly last Friday, Bulgaria will be paying some
25% of the interest due for the last six months of 1992. (Kjell
Engelbrekt, RFE/RL Inc.)
HUNGARIAN PROSECUTOR REFUSES TO INVESTIGATE 1956 KILLINGS. The
head of the Military Prosecutor's Office in Gyor, Gyula Varadi,
says that the killings did not constitute war crimes and after 15
years, in 1971, fell under the statute of limitations. Members of
the Christian Democratic People's Party initiated proceedings
against those who ordered soldiers to fire into a crowd at
Mosonmagyarovar during the 1956 revolution. Some 100 died and 200
were injured. A CDPP representative says that he will appeal the
decision. Defense Minister Lajos Fur commented that the killings
should be considered war crimes and called it "unacceptable to
close a case involving mass murder even if it took place 36 years
ago," MTI reported on 1 October. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL Inc.)
WALESA VISITS FSM PLANT. Polish President Lech Walesa visited the
headquarters of the plant in Bielsko-Biala on 1 October. Walesa
said he is fulfilling an election campaign pledge to help solve
economic problems. He urged workers to take responsibility for
their own fate. Citing unofficial sources, Polish TV reported that
the president made Fiat's initiation of its formal takeover of the
plant a condition of his visit. The final agreement between Poland
and Fiat is now prepared, the TV report said, and will be signed in
a few days, to take effect on 1 October. PAP reports that the
plant's enormous debts were the sticking point in talks with Fiat,
and that the state treasury has stepped in to guarantee nearly 2.5
trillion zloty ($180 million, RFE/RL Inc.) in debts. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
SEJM GRUDGINGLY APPROVES BIELECKI'S PERFORMANCE. By a margin of
181 to 167 (25 abstentions, RFE/RL Inc.), the Polish Sejm voted on
2 October to accept the performance of Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof
Bielecki's government, which left office nearly a year ago. The
vote had no legal implications, but offered an occasion for a test
of strength between the opposition and the current government.
Bielecki and two of his ministers now sit on the cabinet. The Sejm
budget commission had recommended a disapproval vote, charging that
Bielecki had caused a "collapse of public finances." Bielecki
argued that no one could accuse him of shirking decisions and that
a budget deficit of under 4% of GDP was hardly a catastrophe. The
Center Alliance, which has been balancing between government and
opposition, supported Bielecki, a move that may signal readiness to
join the ruling coalition. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)
ABISALA ON POLISH-LITHUANIAN RELATIONS. At a press conference on 1
October Lithuanian Prime Minister Aleksandras Abisala said that
results of his recent trip to Poland were better than he expected,
BNS reports. The talks were "correct, open, and friendly," and for
the first time the problems of Lithuanians in Poland were discussed
at a high level raising hopes that more attention will be paid to
them. Polish Internal Affairs Minister Andrzej Milczanowski will
visit Lithuania on 2 October. He noted that the ministries of
justice should speed up the preparation of an agreement on legal
assistance and that a planned visit by Polish businessmen should
improve economic and trade cooperation. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL
Inc.)
COUNCIL OF EUROPE CRITICIZES ESTONIA. Members of the Council of
Europe's Parliamentary Assembly have criticized Estonia for not
having allowed noncitizens to vote in the national elections.
According to Estonian delegation member and former deputy speaker
of the Estonian Supreme Council Marju Lauristin, quoted by BNS on 1
October, even the conservatives "attacked us very sharply. The
psychological attack against Estonia has proved fruitful." The
Council of Europe delegation that monitored last week's election
has not yet filed its official report. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
RUSSIA DENIES ANTI-BALT CAMPAIGN. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sergei
Yastrzhembsky told BNS on 1 October that reports of an aggressive
anti-Baltic Russian diplomatic campaign in the spirit of the Cold
War are unfounded. "Such a campaign is just out of the question,"
Yastrzhembsky said, adding that the Baltic response to Russia's
concern over the plight of Russians living in the Baltic "reminds
me of the former Soviet Union's reaction to criticism for its
violations of human rights." Earlier this week, Yastrzhembsky said
that the way Estonia and Latvia are currently treating non-Balts
could lead to a policy of "ethnic cleansing" along Serbian lines.
(Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)
LATVIAN REPLY TO MAYOROV. In response to the protest note of Col.
Gen. Leonid Mayorov, commander of the Northwestern Group of Forces,
concerning Latvia's efforts to monitor the movements of Russian
military personnel in Riga and Jurmala, the Foreign Ministry
expressed regret about the inconvenience caused to R-Adm.
Shestakov when he was briefly detained and asked to show his
documents. The ministry pointed out that the guardsmen were acting
on valid instructions and said that monitoring would continue. The
incident occurred during the latest round of Latvian-Russian talks
on troop withdrawal in which Shestakov participated, local media
reported on 30 September. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)
NATO NAVAL DELEGATION IN LATVIA. On 1 October eight ships from five
NATO member states arrived in Riga for a five-day visit. During
their stay, members of the NATO delegation are to get acquainted
with Latvia's defense and security situation, including the
problems resulting from the continued presence of Russian naval
forces. The arrival coincided with a conference on Latvia's defense
policies, plans, training facilities, and future plans for foreign
diplomats and specialists held by Latvia's Ministry of Defense.
(Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)
FUTURE OF "NORTHERN TOWN" IN VILNIUS. The city government is
engaged in discussions on the future of Vilnius's so-called
Northern Town, 60 hectares of land now housing the 107th Motorized
Rifle Division of the Russian army, BNS reported on 1 October.
According to the 8 September agreement on troop withdrawal, the
Russian troops should depart from the territory by 30 November.
All fences, barracks, garages, and other worthless structures will
be demolished and replaced by a modern social and commercial center
with offices, conference halls, hotels, and restaurants. Since
Lithuanian firms will be unable to build everything on such a huge
territory, foreign investment is being sought. Depending on the
pace of foreign investment, the project should begin in 1993.
(Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)
novine.38.bale.,
=====================================================================
F E R A L T R I B U N E
_____________________________________________________________________
U broj! U broj! 392 El Splitt, 19. ruJNA 1992.
_____________________________________________________________________
U Grudama potpisan povijesni dokument:
HRVATSKA PRIMLJENA U BOSNU I HERCEGOVINU
GRUDE, 23. IX (Od naseg posebnog sagolja) - Pobjedonosni mars hrvatske
diplomacije svjetskom poyornicom i njena puna afirmacija na medjuna-
rodnom planu nastavljeni su danas u Grudama, gdje je dr. Franjo Tudjman
medjusobno potpisao dokument kojim je Republika Hrvatska - nakon
uclanjenja u sve vaznije svjetske organizacije, od Ujedinjenih naroda do
"atomskog lobija" -- primljena i u sastav Bosne i Hercegovine.
Ovom povijesnom trenutku bio je nazocan i sam predsjednik Republike
Hrvatske koji je potpisavsi dokument, srdacno pruzio sebi lijevu ruku --
kako je rekao - "od srca", nakon cega je, po strogom protokolu prijema u
ovu medjunarodnu organizaciju, predsjednik HZ Herceg-Bosne Mate Boban
uklonio perut sa Predsjednikova sakoa i glasno zajecao od srece. Doktor
Franjo Tudjman je potom obavio smotru Bruna StoJica, a specijalni vod
Hrvatskog vijeca obrane i drustvene samozastite u obliznjem je kaficu
"Kod Dzeme" ispalio sesnaest pocasnih plotuna iz raznog pjesackog
naoruzanja.
Upitan za znacenje prijema Hrvatske u sastav BiH, dr. Tudjman je
novinaru "Tomislava" odgovorio da prijem Hrvatske u BiH znaci da je ona
primljena u sastav Bosne i Hercegovine i da on govori hrvatski a ne
kineski dok je na pitanje novinara Hrvatskog radija, postaje Split,
odgovorio da "hvala Bogu, dobro, samo malo aritmija srca, ali to nije
nista novo", dodavsi na potpitanje istog novinara da "u redu, puna je
obaveza, ali ona to bolje podnosi".
Ovim cinom, zavrsio je dr. Tudjman, Republika Hrvatska postaje
punopravna clanica Bosne i Hercegovine sa svojim pravima i nuznostima.
Formalno verificiranje ove odluke ocekuje se na prvom sljedecem
zasjedAnju Hrvatskog vijeca sigurnosti, kada ce se raspravljati i o
prijedlogu nekih zemalja clanica o izbacivanju Bosne iz sastava
Bosne i Hercegovine.
novine.39.bale.,
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Subject: Another draw for Fischer and Spassky
Subject: Eagleburger: Yugoslav no-fly- zone decision imminent
Subject: Serbian economy suffers effects of war, U.N. sanctions
Subject: Serbian forces hammer Bosnian towns with artillery, mortar fire
Subject: UN hopes to resume aid flights Saturday
Subject: Bosnia-Hercegovina prisoners freed in Croatia
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Subject: Another draw for Fischer and Spassky
Date: 1 Oct 92 21:42:42 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The 13th game of the controversial
Fischer and Spassky Yugoslav re-match ended in a draw Thursday after
more than five hours of play.
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, playing with white pieces,
offered to draw after 45 moves. His longtime rival, former Soviet
grandmaster Boris Spassky, accepted almost immediately.
The game was Sicilian defense. Fischer is still leading by 5-3, and
needs another five wins to get the $3.35 million prize.
This was the fifth draw, and the 13th game of the match that started
on Sept. 2, in Przno, near the plush Montenegrin resort of Sveti Stefan
in the southern Adriatic. After the 11th game, the set was moved to Sava
Congress Center in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
Fischer, who withdrew from public competition after he won the world
championship title from Spassky in Rejkyevik in 1972 lost the first
Belgrade game Wednsday.
His comeback was marred by a possible $250,000 fine and a maximum of
10 years in jail for ``knowingly and willingly'' defying the U.S.
Treasury Department's order not to play in the rump Yugoslav union of
Serbia and Montenegro.
The order endorsed U.N. sanctions against the truncated federation
because of Serbia's role in the war in neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina.
But Fischer publicly spat on the U.S. Treasury document at the news
conference on the eve of the match.
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Subject: Eagleburger: Yugoslav no-fly- zone decision imminent
Date: 1 Oct 92 23:08:28 GMT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
said Thursday the administration must decide within days whether to
support a ban on Serbian military flights over Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Eagleburger told reporters a sense of urgency results from the
circulation among the U.N. Security Council of a draft ``no-fly''
resolution.
U.S. officials say the draft resolution calls on nations
participating in the possible ban to ``interdict'' any Serbian military
flights over Bosnia-Hercegovina, which Belgrade is seeking to annex and
``cleanse'' of all Muslims and Croats.
Eagleburger said there are different views in the government on the
subject because ``it implies certain military commitments.''
``We have to be very careful about...where they may lead,'' he said.
``We will clearly have to make up our minds in the course of the next
few days.''
Eagleburger and top members of the national security team met with
President Bush to review the issue. Others meeting with the president
were James Baker, the former secretary of State and now White House
chief of staff;, CIA Director Robert Gates; Secretary of Defense Dick
Cheney; national security adviser Brent Scowcroft; and Gen. Colin
Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
``We have nothing to announce,'' spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
The United States and its allies agreed in principle at a conference
on the crisis in Yugoslavia last month to establish a no-fly zone, but
there have been no firm results.
The administration several months ago offered its air and naval
assets to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Sarajevo. But Gen.
Colin Powell,chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other
administration officials have expressed reservations about sending U.S.
troops into an open-ended military conflict with no set objective.
Humanitarian flights have been suspended since a shoulder-fired,
surface-to-air missile downed an Italian cargo plane last month.
Investigators have been unable to detemine which of the many warring
factions fired the missile.
It is believed that jet fighter patrols would discourage military
action -- from the ground or from the air -- against relief flights.
The risk to U.S. fliers, however, has never been underestimated, a
Pentagon official said Thursday.
``I don't believe we've ever felt since the operation started in July
that the safety of these missions could be guaranteed,'' Pentagon
spokesman Pete Williams said.
He said the United States is now ready to resume flights, and that
planes would be equipped with ``defensive measures'' to guard against
attack.
Eagleburger said Belgrade has given general assurances that the
flights could proceed unhindered. He said, however, that Belgrade's
``assurances are not necessarily always to be relied upon.''
There is a critical need to stockpile supplies as another brutal
Yugoslav winter approaches.
The CIA estimated this week that 150,000 people in the former
Yugoslavia could die this winter unless urgent action is taken.
As a result of winter's onset, and despite the risk, Eagleburger said
``we've simply got to provide humanitarian assistance or we're going to
have a lot of people starving to death.''
The Serbians as well, who are beginning to feel the pinch of sweeping
U.N. sanctions, fear that winter will exact a heavy toll.
Prime Minister Milan Panic asked Eagleburger and congressional
leaders this week to ease the embargo to allow for the purchase of
heating oil.
Eagleburger said he promised Panic he would consider the request.
The secretary of state said the administration would support
Belgrade'srequest to the U.N. sanctions committee if children, schools
and hospitals suffer the effect of heating-oil shortages, if Serbia has
no domestic production capacity, and if it is not diverted for other
uses.
Then, he said, ``we ought to let it come in.''
Serbian Foreign Minister Ilija Djukic said Thursday in New York that
he had ``submitted a formal request to the sanctions panel for the
importation of heating oil.''
Based in part on Eagleburger's assurances, Djukic expressed
confidence that the exemption would be granted.
``Nobody will let something terrible to happen in the winter to
innocent people,'' he said.
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Subject: Serbian economy suffers effects of war, U.N. sanctions
Date: 2 Oct 92 02:08:10 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- What used to be a prosperous, booming
Yugoslavia, has turned into a gloomy Serbia with soup kitchens,
hospitals lacking supplies to treat patients and lengthy lines of
motorists waiting for gasoline, unavailable for days at a time.
Yugoslavia's economy slipped deep into crisis two years ago when the
communist leadership of Serbia, the dominant state of the six-republic
federation, prevented economic reforms that should have led the now
defunct multi-ethnic country to a free-market economy.
With harsh economic sanctions imposed earlier this year by the United
Nations on Serbia for its involvement in the ongoing war in the former
Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina, citizens of Serbia are feeling
the pain of economic and political isolation.
Serbia's economic woes are best measured by the 5-mile-long gasoline
lines, the reopening of soup kitchens for the first time since World War
II and the hopeless situation in local hospitals, which are on the verge
of turning out patients for the lack essential medical supplies.
The U.N. sanctions, imposed May 30, bar all trade, financial
transactions and oil imports.
``I've been trying to buy gas for the past two weeks,'' said Srdja
Adamovic, a 28-year-old taxi driver. ``Even though I have managed to buy
gas coupons on the black market, there is no gas at the pumps to buy.
``The only way to get gas these days is to buy it directly on the
black market at five German marks a liter and even then one risks buying
some type of mixture which may damage the engine.''
For the most part, citizens of Belgrade are resigned to parking their
cars and using public transportation. But the lack of gasoline has
caused a 40 percent cut in bus schedules, leaving people stranded and
frequently late for work.
Although sanctions imposed on the truncated Yugoslavia are not
supposed to affect the import of medical supplies, the overall situation
has contributed to a major crisis in public health care.
``The situation is really terrible in the hospitals,'' said Jasminka
Maksimovic, a nurse at Bezanijska Kosa Hospital in Belgrade.
``If not in critical condition, patients who have an appointment for
an operation have to provide all essential medical supplies needed,
including anaesthesia, infusion, surgical stitching thread, dressing
material, etc.,'' Maksimovic said.
``The total cost of simple appendix operation stands about 5,000
dinars (dlrs 110) while an average paycheck of a nurse is only 28,000
dinars (dlrs 75),'' she said.
Because of hyperinflation, which now runs about 3 percent a day,
hospitals have been financially unable to provide a balanced diet for
their patients.
``We have not been able to provide meat for our patients for the past
three months,'' said Maksimovic, adding that patients mostly are served
vegetable soup, potatoes and milk.
Soup kitchens have been reopened in Belgrade but can feed only 650
people a day while up to 10,000 are in need of warm meals. With
insufficient funds from the government, the Red Cross of Serbia says
that it is taking donations from private organizations.
Red Cross officials estimated there were more than 500,000 refugees
in Serbia, of which only 150,000 are registered.
``About 95 percent of the refugees have found shelter with friends
and family,'' said Belgrade Mayor Slobodanka Gruden, president of the
Red Cross of Serbia.
``But because of the increasingly difficult economic situation in the
nation and the inability of families to withstand the financial burden,
we expect the registration of 'new' refugees to jump drastically,'' said
Gruden.
Despite the efforts of international and domestic humanitarian
organizations to distribute aid and provide housing for refugees in
Serbia, it is apparent that many will be left without adequate help this
winter.
A recent housing agreement between the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees and the Serbian and Yugoslav Red Cross organizations will
provide shelter for only 8,000 refugees in the coming months.
The UNHCR has provided $5.19 million from various donor countries as
part of a first-phase housing project for refugees in Serbia.
``To be very honest, this is a drop in the ocean of needs as we have
in Serbia half a million refugees,'' said Belgrade based UNHCR
representative Judith Cumin.
Meanwhile, Serbia's factories are idle and its industry is rapidly
disintegrating, with 70 percent of the workers either on ``forced leave''
or jobless.
``Only a half million people will hold jobs toward the end of the
year,'' said trade union leader, Danilo Popovic, adding that three and
one-half million people will be jobless.
But the end of Bosnia-Hercegovina's bloody ethnic war is nowhere in
sight as leaders of all three ethnic groups are unwilling to compromise,
perpetuating the wrath of the international community and its
stranglehold on Serbia's desperate economy.
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Subject: Serbian forces hammer Bosnian towns with artillery, mortar fire
Date: 2 Oct 92 12:49:51 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Artillery battered this besieged
Bosnian capital Friday as its war-weary residents anxiously awaited
resumption of humanitarian aid flights and restoration of water and
electricity.
U.S. officials said the U.N.-organized flights, suspended a month ago
after an Italian transport plane was shot down, could resume as early as
this weekend.
Acting U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said the main
players in the conflict had given guarantees of safety for such flights.
A U.N. official said two U.S. planes and one British plane were ready
in Zagreb, awaiting orders to depart.
Members of the U.N. Protection Force in Sarajevo agreed to accompany
utility workers to water and electricity plants into Serb-controlled
areas west of the capital to help restore supplies that have been cut
for several days.
But the Bosnian head of the city's water supply said he knew of no
mechanical failure at the pumping plant in nearby Serbian-controlled
Bacevo, and U.N. officials questioned the Serbian commitment to
restoring utilities.
Bosnian Vice President Ejub Ganic again urged the world community in
general and the United States in particular to make a commitment to end
Serbian military aggression.
Ganic said he was encouraged by possible U.S. action on resuming the
aid flights and talk in Congress of providing Bosnian military aid, but
said he remained pessimistic about U.S. policy.
Temperatures dipped Friday morning to 40 degrees in Sarajevo, where
aid supplies were arriving by truck at about one-fifth the minimum level
necessary, as estimated by U.N. officials.
Residents with no oil were chopping down trees in parks and along
roadsides to cook food and to store for winter fuel.
``It looks like we are facing the biggest disaster ever,'' Ganic
said. ``America will be a great nation if they can stop this.''
The artillery attacks from Serbian forces in the hills overlooking
Sarajevo continued Friday. Tank shells, mortar rounds and grenades were
fired on the city from Vogosca, a suburb behind the hills north of the
capital, and from Borija, a neighborhood on a hill to the east of the
city.
Radio reports said Serbian forces attempted an infantry attack across
the bridge at Vrbanja, crossing the Miljacka River running through
central Sarajevo, but were pushed back by Bosnian defenders.
Ground fighting also was reported morning in Bosnian-controlled Stup
on the western fringe of Sarajevo.
Sarajevo's two main hospitals reported Friday that at least five
people were killed and 105 injured during attacks on the city thursday.
Maglaj, a city about 75 miles north of Sarajevo, on Thursday suffered
its worst day of the conflict, with artillery fired repeatedly into
civilian and industrial areas, the radio said.
Jajce, in central Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Gradacac, in the
northeastern part of the republic, also faced aerial and artillery
bombardments, Sarajevo radio said.
Fighting also was reported in the northern bosnian city of Bosanski
Brod.
A total of 1,360 prisoners from a serbian-run camp in Trnopolje in
northwest bosnia-hercegovina were sent Thursday in a convoy of 35 buses
to karlovac in croatia, sarajevo radio reported.
The United States announced Thursday it would resume the airlift and
the other 18 participating countries have previously stated they would
follow suit if the U.S. began.
Serbian forces are fighting to carve a separate homeland out of
territory in the predominantly Muslim Slav republic of Bosnia-
Hercegovina. Some moderate Serbs and Croats have joined the Muslim Slavs
in trying to retain the territorial integrity of the newly independent
republic.
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Subject: UN hopes to resume aid flights Saturday
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:33:08 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- The United Nations hopes to resume its relief airlift
to Sarajevo Saturday provided the various warring factions in Bosnia-
Hercegovina give assurances they will not shoot at the planes, a U.N.
spokesperson said Friday.
Sylvana Foa, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees
said provided there are no hitches and that assurances of cooperation
from Serbs, Muslims and Croats on the ground have been received, the
airlift could start again Saturday.
The U.S. has already said it is prepared to provide planes, she said.
``We have said we are going to start this weekend with U.S. planes,
but we had to give the various factions 24 hours notice and we're doing
that today,'' Foa said Friday.
Initially only U.S. planes will be used, as other countries initially
involved in the airlift are still fitting their planes with devices
designed to deflect anti-aircraft fire or rockets and may not be ready
to start flying this weekend, Foa said.
The airlift has been on hold since Sept. 3 when an Italian plane
flying for the U.N. was shot down by unidentified rocket fire.
The 19 nations have since demanded the U.N. provide them with
guarantees that the warring factions on the ground will not repeat the
incident.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said millions of
persons face starvation in Bosnia-Hercegovina this winter unless the
food situation is drastically improved.
Friday Foa and Michele Mercier, spokeswoman for the International
Committee of the Red Cross said not only food aid is needed, but aid for
refugees liberated from prison camps in Serbian-held areas of Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
The ICRC brought out 1,651 detainees from some of these camps
Thursday Mercier said ``and some of them were in pitiful condition.''
Negotiations are continuing with representatives of the Serbian
faction in Bosnia-Hercegovina to obtain access to other camps in the
area, she said.
Asked whether the ICRC has full access to all camps in the area or is
just being allowed to visit a sampling of them, Mercier said: ``An
honest answer to the question is no, we don't have full access. We are
not confident we are getting full information (on prisoners), we have
never had assurances that we are being allowed full access, nor
notifications of lists of people being held or even where the camps are.
In a word, we are not confident that we have the right access.''
Foa said UNHCR operatives on the ground report the refugee situation
in the Bajna-Luka region is worsening rapidly.
``We have people coming up to U.N. vehicles and pounding on the doors
and pleading with us to get them out,'' she said. ``For the 200,000 non-
Serbs there it's a situation of sheer terror.''
Latest ICRC figures show a total of 1,976,914 persons registered as
being displaced persons inside former Yugoslavia, of whom 681,000 are in
Bosnia-Hercegovina itself.
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Subject: Bosnia-Hercegovina prisoners freed in Croatia
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:40:06 GMT
KARLOVAC, Croatia (UPI) -- Some 1,560 prisoners from a Serb-run
detention camp in northern Bosnia-Hercegovina experienced their first
day of liberty in months Friday after being freed Thursday night.
The prisoners, the largest single group yet to be released, arrived
in a convoy of 35 buses late Thursday night in Karlovac, about 25 miles
southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb.
The convoy had made a 12-hour overland journey from a camp in
Trnopolje, northern Bosnia-Hercegovina, where the prisoners had been
held.
Looking relatively healthy, many carrying small plastic bags of
clothing and other belongings, the mostly Muslim Slav detainees were not
allowed to speak with reporters but were quickly shuffled into a former
Austrian army barracks for registration.
``We are very very happy that these people who have been living under
very bad conditions are now out and alive,'' said Lars Nielsen, field
coordinator for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which organized
the evacuation jointly with the International Committee of the Red
Cross.
The release came two weeks after 68 prisoners were flown to Britain
in what was planned to be the start of the release of all prisoners in
detention camps in the embattled former Yugoslav republic.
The prisoners' release was agreed under the terms of the London peace
talks on Yugoslavia. Under the agreement, all camps were to be closed
``without delay'' and humanitarian aid organizations such as the Red
cross and the UNHCR were to be given ``free and immediate'' access to
the camps.
But representatives of the Bosnia-Hercegovina government claimed
those released Thursday were groomed for their release. Trnopolje is one
of the only camps where journalists have been allowed free access for
the last two months.
``Journalists were allowed to visit because it is a much better
better situation there, the prisoners were actually prepared for visits,
'' said Borogovar Musadik, coordinator of department for the research
and discovery of war crimes for the Bosnian government.
``You see the prisoners are eating and sleeping and that is not the
case in other camps,'' Musadik said.
Following their release, the prisoners were to be supervised by the
UNHCR in the former Austrian barracks. The Croatian government has given
the organization two weeks to find another location for the ex-
prisoners.
The Croatian government says it cannot accept the refugees as it is
already overburdened with about 650,000 refugees who have fled from the
war-torn region. It has closed its borders to all trying to escape the
conflict.
The UNHCR is trying to find another country which will take the
refugees but has no prospects yet.
The UNHCR and the ICRC now have access to 31 camps run by all sides
of the conflict, but say they are not allowed access to several areas in
eastern Bosnia-Hercegovina which are in Serbian controlled territory.
Since the London conference, two other camps, Omarska and Keratin
have been closed but the whereabouts of many of the detainees are
unknown.
novine.40.bale.,
NEWSWEEK, October 5, 1992
-------------------------
HELP FROM THE HOLY WARRIORS
Inside a secret military camp: how mujaheddin fighters are
training Bosnia's Muslims
Until the mujaheddin arrived last June, Alma Halep rarely stepped
inside a mosque. Like most Bosnian's Muslims, the 16-year-old
girl had a lot more in common with her ethnic Serb and Croat
neighbours than her Islamic "brethren" from the Middle East. War
has changed her habits. Now she prays the traditional five times
a day at a mosque in Travnik, the central Bosnian town where she,
her mother and her younger brother fled after Serbs destroyed
their home nearby Turbe. Besides religious instruction, the
visitors from the east are offering military assistance. "They
are very good men," says Alma, tucking a few strands of blond
hair under the blue scarf that covers her head. "In our country,
some of the men don't want to be killed and are afraid to fight."
As for mujaheddin, "They are the only ones who have come here to
help us."
They have come from a host of Islamic countries -Iran, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia, among them - to fight a holy war. As they explained
to a NEWSWEEK reporter who went inside a secret training camp and
spoke with their elusive leader Abu Abdul Aziz, they are
supporting a struggle for survival because no one else will. The
European Community, the United Nations and the United States have
all ignored Bosnian pleas for military intervention. In the
absence of Western help, someone must keep the heavily armed
Serbs from "killing the Muslims like sheep," argues a uniformed
mujaheddin from the Middle East (he won't say what country). "I
am just doing what I can," he says, tugging his thick black beard
while lounging outside the Travnik headquarters of the Muslim
Forces, an offshoot of the Bosnian Army. Like other Islamic
volunteers, he came to train Bosnian Muslims, provide them with
money for small arms and fight side by side with them on the
front line against the Serbs.
The Islamic warriors began to trickle into the Travnik area this
summer, first posing as journalists, then appearing more openly
in locally purchased camouflage jackets and pants. Today there
are said to be 200 or 300 mujaheddin around the town and an
additional 200 or so in the central part of the republic. Their
training camps put Muslims, who were poorly prepared for war,
through two weeks of boot camp plus religious indoctrination. In
the final two days mujaheddin instructors lead groups of 15 to 20
Muslims in exercise near the front. "Nobody can stop the people
who come here from the Middle East or Turkey to help the Bosnian
People," says former Yugoslav Army Col. Emir Redzic, who now
commands the Muslim Forces in Travnik. "You can't keep them from
coming."
Few Bosnians would want to. "They are very good fighters," says
Osman Sekic, a 46-year-old woodworker from Visenjevo. "They have
no fear for their lives." Local soldiers who have fought with the
mujaheddin are impressed with their bravery and their ability to
strike terror in the hearts of Serbian fighters, who cringe at
the sound of war cries to Allah. The Islamic warriors are admired
as martyrs. "They came here to be killed," says Elis Bektas, a
22-year-old platoon leader in the Bosnian Army and former
philosophy student. "For them there is no going back." Small
villages like Mehurici are enormously grateful to Islamic
warriors whose secrecy they jealously protect. "The mujaheddin
don't exist here," insists a local man.
But when mujaheddin commander Aziz drives through Mehurici in his
new black four-wheel-drive Nissan, the town turns out for him.
Children wave, old people turn and smile, and other villagers
approach with invitations to weddings and parties. Aziz, who
arrived in Bosnia three months ago, has little time for
celebration. He heads up the road to a field outside town and
parks his vehicle. As he pulls off his black plastic sandals and
reclines on a couple of vividly colored prayer rugs, two Bosnian
Muslims jump out of the Nissan and take up positions 10 yards to
either side, scanning the terrain with their AK-47s. Now 50, the
red-bearded Aziz claims to be a veteran of holy wars in Africa,
Kashmir, the Philipinnes and Ahghanistan. "I come from Islam," he
says guardedly. People who know him in nearby Travnik say his
home is Saudi Arabia, where his wife and nine children see very
little of him.
The warlord spends part of his time proselytizing. Every day,
with the help of a translator, Aziz teaches the Koran and Islamic
tradition to a class of 15 children, 8 to 13 years old. But his
main purpose isn't pedagogical or humanitarian. "We are not here
to bring supplies like food and medicine," he says, a silver
revolver gleaming from his waistband. "There are a lot of
organisations that can do that. We bring men." How many?
"Enough." They come from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Sudan,
Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, say villagers. Seventeen of his men,
Aziz admits have been killed in the conflict; he expects many
more will die. "It will be a long war if the United Nations and
the United States don't do anything," he suggests. "If the
Muslims in Bosnia are not secure, we will fight until they get
their freedom."
No marriage: While Bosnians want their freedom, they worry about
the price. Some fear the mujaheddin haven't shown their real
extremist side. "If they want to offer people religion, culture
and language, that's good," says 27-year-old Zafir, a Muslim from
Travnik who asked that his last name not be used. "But if they
insist on it, that's not good." Bektas, the platoon leader, is
concerned the mujaheddin really fighting for Islam, not Bosnia.
"It's good for us that they are here," he says. "But after the
war, who knows?" So far, at least, locals have been more eager to
embrace Kalashnikovs than the Koran: men still drink beer
unmolested, and women have resisted the chador - as well as
several proposals of marriage from Arab fighters.
But Croatians aren't taking any chances. The mujaheddin must pass
through their borders to enter Bosnia; Croat dealers control the
arms flow. Zagreb has tolerated the Islamic warriors - except
when it's expedient not to, as in the recent seizure of an
Iranian 747 loaded with guns or the slaying of six Saudi Arabians
by Croats who stole the weapons being brought to local Muslims.
The Croats may be sometimes allies of the Bosnians in the war
against the Serbs. But they may not hesitate to use the threat of
an Islamic state to turn against their Muslim neighbours.
Tom Post with Joel Brand in Travnik
NEWSWEEK, October 5, 1992
_
|-| /-\ |_ |_| |< {"God protect us from ceasefires. It seems that
whenever we have a ceasefire, the level of
fighting goes up." Major Lewis Mackenzie,
UN Commander in Sarajevo}
novine.41.bale.,
NEW YORK TIMES, Sturday, October 3, 1992.
BUSH'S BOSNIA REMARK: HALTING A `CRUEL WAR'
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2. (Reuters) - Followinf are excerpts from a
statement issued today by President Bush on steps to ease the violence in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Elsewhere in the former Yugoslav federation:
All Americans, and people of compassion everywhere, remain deeply
troubled by the cruel war in Bosnia and broader turmoil in what was
Yugoslavia. We took several important initiatives in August, and today I am
announcing further steps to help ease the conflict.
The United States has been working intensively with other concerned
nations to contain the conflict, alleviate the human misery it is causing,
and exact a heavy price for aggression.
This international effort has produced some results. The recent London
Conference set up an international mechanism for addressing all aspects of
the Yugoslav problems and put in motion an active negotiation . The tenuous
truce in Croatia is holding. ... The U.N. trade embargo has idled roughly
half the industry of Serbia, whose leaders bears heavy responsibility for
the aggression in Bosnia.
Our demand that the Red Cross be given access to detention camps has
begun to yield results, and the release of detainees has now begun. The U.N.
resolution we obtained to authorize "all necessary measures" to get relief
supplies into Bosnia has led to the creation of a new U.N force to be
deployed for that purpose.
We will continue to honor our pledge to get humanitarian relief to the
people of Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia. To this end, I have directed the
Secretary of Defense to resume American participation in the Sarajevo airlift
tomorrow morning. I wish I could say that there is no risk of attack these
flights, but I cannot, although we are taking precautions.
Still, the savage violence persists in Bosnia. Despite agreements
reached at the London Conference, Bosnian cities remain under siege, the
movement of humanitarian felief convoys is still hazardous, and innocent
civilians continue to be slaughtered. At London the parties agreed to a ban
on all military flights over Bosnia. Yet the bombing of defenseless
population centers has actually increased. This flagrant disregard for human
life and for clear agreement requires a response from the international
community, and we will take steps to see that the ban is respected.
Now, a new enemy is about to enter the battlefield: winter. Some weeks
ago, I asked for an assesment of the effects that the combination of war and
winter could inflict on the suffering people of Bosnia. The answer was
profoundly disturbing: thousands af innocent people... could perish from
cold, hunger, and disease.
Anticipating this danger, the United States has been working with
other nations and with U.N. to mount a major expansion ao the international
relief effort and to support the tireless negotiations of U.N. and E.C.
envoys Cyrus Vence and David Owen, to get the fighting stopped...
I have decided to take a number of further steps:
First, having authorized a resumption of U.S. felief flights into
Sarajevo, I am prepared to increase the U.S. share ot the airlift.
Second, we will make available air and sea lift to speed the deployment
of the new U.N. force needed immediately in Bosnia to protect relief convoys.
The United States will also provide a hospital and other critical support for
this force.
Third, the U.S. will furnish $12 million in urgently needed cash to
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees for the purpose of accelerating
preparations for the winter. This in addition to the $85 million in financial
and material support we have already commited.
Fourth, we will offer U.N. and the Red Cross help in transporting and
carring for those who are being freed from detention camps. We have already
provided $6 million for this purpose.
Fifth, in cooperation with our friends and allies, we will seek a new
U.N. Securitu Council resolution, with a provision for enforcement, banning
all flights in Bosnian airspace except those authorized by the U.N. If asked
by the U.N., the U.S. will participate in enforcement measures.
novine.42.bale.,
Vjesnik 5.10.
Mate Boban
Tragovi razaranja
MARIO MARUSIC
RAZGOVOR S MATOM BOBANOM, PREDSJEDNIKOM HRVATSKE ZAJEDNICE HERCEG-BOSNA
Muslimani odustaju od unitarne drzave
Ponavljajuci politicku opciju: nezavisna drzava BiH, s jednakim pravom
hrvatskog naroda na nju, Mate Boban ocjenjuje da su se pregovori s
Muslimanima pomakli s mrtve tocke. O zimskom pre (....) pristao bi na
njega samo ako ne ugrozava hrvatski nacionalni interes. Tvrdi da ce
vojni rasplet u Posavini uslijediti vrlo brzo (....)
Razgovarajuci s Matom Bobanom koji nas ljubazno, makar se nismo
najavili, prima u hotelu "Intercontinental" tek sat prije polijetanja za
Split, postaje nam jasno da hrvatska i muslimanska strana u ratom zahva-
cenoj drzavi ipak nisu na samom pocetku, kada je o dogovorima rijec, ali
da jos uvijek nema koraka "od t (....) postici kompromis oko buduceg
ustavnog ustroja Bosne i Hercegovine. Hrvatska strana ostaje dosljedna,
u beskraj ponavljajuci i ne odustajuci od teze da Bosnu i Hercegovinu
mogu ciniti samo tri naroda kao konstitutivni i suvereni dijelovi te
zemlje. Muslimanska strana vise nije onako cvrsto ukopana u stavu o uni-
tarnoj drzavi. Ocito, predstoji jos puno, puno koraka.
U drugoj tocci Dodatka sporazuma o prijateljstvu i suradnji potpisanog u
Americi izmedju Hrvatske i BiH iznova se naglasava potreba jacanja
napora na iznalazenju politickog rjesenja za prestanak rata i provedbu
nacela o ustrojstvu Republike BiH kao ravnopravne i cjelovite zajednice
triju konstitutivnih naroda. Ocito, razgovori Boban - Silajdzic u hotelu
"Intercontinetal" dio su tih napora.
"O cemu ste, gospodine Bobane, razgovarali i s kakvim rezultatom?"
- Da, sastali smo se u Zagrebu, ja predvodeci delegaciju Hrvata, a
Silajdzic na celu muslimanske delegacije. Razgovarali smo o trenutnim
zbivanjima u nasoj zajednickoj domovini, o medjusobnim odnosima i,
naravno, razlikama u vidjenju ustavnog ustroja BiH nakon rata. Razgovor
je posluzio kao priprema za razgovore izmedju predsjednika Hrvatske dr.
Tudjmana i predsjednika Predsjednistva BiH Izetbegovica. Nasa je poli-
ticka opcija jasna: nezavisna drzava BiH, s jednakim pravom hrvatskog
naroda na nju. Unutar takve drzave hrvatski narod mora biti konstitu-
tivan, s najbitnijim elementima suverenosti, sto znaci da hrvatski narod
mora biti tako organiziran da moze osigurati svoju drzavotvornost u BiH
i trajno pravo na oplemenjivanje svih narodnosnih cimbenika hrvatskog
naroda, od gospodarskih i kulturnih, do politickih i upravnopravnih.
"U kantonu?"
- Mi ne upotrebljavamo taj izraz. U hrvatskoj nacionalnoj jedinici,
dakle u odredjenom prostoru.
"Kakva je muslimanska opcija, u cemu se razlikujete?"
- Razlika je u tome sto je muslimanska strana odustala od konstitucije
BiH kao drzave sastavljene od tri konstitutivne jedinice, hrvatske,
muslimanske i srpske, u opravdanoj bojazni da netko od trojice ne bi
nekada pomislio na izdvajanje i razbijanje BiH. Medjutim, pravo naroda
na samoopredjeljenje je trajno, nepotroseno, pa je to iluzoran argument
jer se on moze dogoditi uvijek i u svako vrijeme, i bez obzira kako
drzava bila konstituirana. Ali, hrvatskom narodu ne vjerovati, povijesno
je sljepilo. Hrvatski narod svoje pravo na BiH nikada i nikome ne zeli
pokloniti. BiH je prije svega domovina hrvatskog naroda, prije svih i
svakoga. Danas je drzava tri naroda. To je pitanje od globalnog znacaja
za hrvatski narod, temelj svega.
"Je li vam Haris Silajdzic povjerovao?"
- Morate pitati njega. Ne vjerujem da mi vjeruje.
"Jeste li se usprkos tome dogovorili?"
- Dogovorili smo se da moramo trajno razgovarati kako bismo na kraju
ipak dosli do trajne osnove ustavnog ustroja BiH.
"Do kada cete razgovarati?"
- Do trenutka kada i nama drugi budu priznali narodno hrvatsko pravo na
BiH, kako i mi priznajemo drugima.
"Ipak, netko mora poceti popustati da bi se krenulo s mrtve tocke. Je li
u Zagrebu bio start?"
- Pocelo je. Uvjeren sam da je koncepcija unitarne gradjanske drzave kod
muslimanskog politickog rukovodstva uocena kao nerealna, ma koliko
zeljena bila. To je taj prvi korak.
"Potpuno je odbacena koncepcija unitarne drzave?"
- Moram u to vjerovati. Kako razgovarati ako ne vjerujete? Ja smatram, a
mislim da ce i oni doci do toga, da ne moze postojati nikakva BiH osim
uredjene na nacin jednakih prava sva tri naroda.
"Cak i da se dvojica uspiju dogovoriti, sto je s trecim?"
- Pa vrijednost hrvatsko-muslimanskog dogovora i jest u tome sto ce, kao
racionalan i objektivan, prisiliti trecega na razum i na prestanak
agresije, zlocina i svih zala i namjerama sto ih je tako jasno ekspli-
cirao pred cijelim svijetom. To je put politickog rjesenja krize i rata
u u BiH.
"Kako ste reagirali na prijedlog sto je, navodno, dosao iz "Izetbegovi-
cevih redova" o "zimskom ratnom snu"?"
- Ne znam za taj prijedlog, nas nitko o tome nista nije pitao, niti nam
je sto predlagano, ali u ratu koji je tako jasno definirao namjere
agresora, zlocinca, i namjere hrvatskog naroda kao zrtve koja se brani,
dakle u tom ratu hrvatski narod ne zna za zimu, ljeto, proljece ni
jesen. Mi cemo jednostavno svoje pravo ostvariti, i to prije svega poli-
tickim sredstvima, budemo li mogli, ali ako nam drugi natovare druge
oblike rjesavanja tog pitanja, prihvatit cemo ih.
"Vjerujete da se srpska i muslimanska strana mogu dogovoriti o zimskom
prekidu rata?"
- Ja bih bio sretan da se na bilo koji nacin i na bilo koje vrijeme
zaustavi rat, ali, kazem, nikada pod uvjetima da hrvatski nacionalni
interes bude ugrozen. Mislim da je, kad ste to vec spomenuli, veoma
vazna cinjenica da u BiH Hrvati imaju naspram agresoru liniju fronte
duzu od 300 kilometara.
"U dodatku Sporazuma govori se o zajednickoj obrani od agresije, usklad-
jivanju obrambenih napora izmedju dviju suverenih drzava, Hrvatske i
BiH. Sto to konkretno znaci?"
- BiH je, kao i Hrvatska, napadnuta, a agresija se, i zbog geostrateskog
polozaja, moze djelotvornije suzbiti zajedno. Vi znate da je najveci dio
zlocina protiv Hrvatske pocinjen s prostora BiH, sto potvrdjuje
prethodnu tvrdnju. Zato je taj dodatak Sporazuma izmedju drzava Hrvatske
i BiH oplemenjen novom, rekao bih, institucijom, Odborom za koordi-
niranje obrane. Hrvatska je delegirala svoja tri predstavnika, a BiH ce
ovih dana izabrati svoja tri clana.
"Tko su hrvatski clanovi?"
- Generali Janko Bobetko i Slobodan Praljak, te Vice Vukojevic.
"Vec rade?"
- Ne, jer jos nisu poznata tri bosanskohercegovacka clana. Odbor ce
imati puno posla, a osnovna ce mu zadaca biti sukladnost obrane od
agresora dvije napadnute drzave.
"U dodatku Sporazuma pise da ce dvije drzave zajednicki zatraziti uki-
danje embarga na izvoz oruzja u BiH i Hrvatsku. Hoce li biti sto od
toga?"
- Obje strane to trajno traze. I ja sam osobno uvijek, kao predstavnik
hrvatskog naroda iz BiH, pred predstavnicima UN na konferencijama o BiH
to trazio.
"Odgovor ne stize?"
- To su tek pokusaji informiranja svjetske javnosti o neravnopravnosti
napadaca i napadnutih. Ne vjerujem da ce uvaziti nas zahtjev. Ali treba
ga postavljati.
"Kakav ce biti vojni rasplet u Posavini?"
- Ako se, u skladu s odlukom o zaustavljanju rata u BiH na Londonskoj i
Zenevskoj konferenciji vrlo brzo ne pronadje politicko rjesenje, mi
tocno znamo kako cemo to vojno zavrsiti. U nasu korist.
"Kada?"
- Rekao sam, vrlo brzo.
"Jesu li rijeseni problemi na relaciji HVO - HOS?"
- Ti problemi bili su jednostrani, odnosno, nije HVO imao problema s
HOS-om vec HOS sa HVO. Ali, rijec je o marginalcima koji su se uspro-
tivili svehrvatskom BiH organiziranju protiv agresora kroz postrojbe
HVO. Marginalna je to pojava koja je sama od sebe nestala. U BiH vise ne
postoji HOS. Svi momci, pretezno veoma hrabri hrvatski vojnici, shvatili
su gdje im je mjesto i vratili su se u postrojbe HVO.
"Sto biste izvukli kao najznacajniji dio dogovora s muslimanskom delega-
cijom?"
- Dogovor o zajednickom prijedlogu buduceg ustavnog ustroja BiH. Nas
politicki cilj je konzistentan, konstantan i poznat svakome u svijetu i
ocijenjen je kao realan, moguc, moralan i etican. Mi cekamo, naglasava
Mate Boban.
novine.43.bale.,
Vjesnik 5.10.
Slika zlocina koja je obisla svijet
NEOPISIVA ZVJERSTVA U LOGORIMA KOD PRIJEDORA
Zemlja masovnih grobnica
Prema svjedocenjima slucajno prezivjelih logorasa, poslije 2. kolovoza,
odmah nakon pocetka medijske kampanje protiv logora, zvjerski je ubijeno
vise desetaka tisuca logorasa Omarske, Trnopolja, Keraterma
Price logorasa koji su samo slucajem prezivjeli, medjusobno se podu-
daraju u rekonstrukciji masakra nakon otkrica logora. U tome nam je
posebno pomogao razgovor s Fikretom, cija je slika iza zice logora Kera-
term obisla svijet. Ipak, mozaik stravicnih slika jos ni priblizno nije
kompletan.
Poslije 2. kolovoza, odmah nakon pocetka medijske kampanje protiv
logora, ubijeno je vise desetaka tisuca logorasa. U prvim danima kolo-
voza ubijani su posebno "stari" logorasi u najtezem stanju - da bi se
sklonili od ociju svjetske javnosti. U kamione i autobuse potrpani su i
odvezeni deseci tisuca logorasa. Na stanicama tih konvoja izvlaceni su
iz autobusa i ubijani mladici koji su tretirani kao zdraviji i koji bi
se uskoro mogli oporaviti.
Posljednja saznanja govore da se na podrucju planine Vlasic u sredisnjoj
Bosni i Hercegovini, kod sela Donji Koricani, a na putu od Skender
Vakufa prema Travniku, na mjestu poznatom kao Koricanska stijena, nalazi
masovna grobnica logorasa iz logora oko Prijedora. Svjedoci procjenjuju
da je na toj lokaciji zakopano od 3000 do 5000 ljudi.
Vojni izvidjaci Vojske BiH bili su svjedoci zatrpavanja tijela oko 750
ljudi samo u jednom danu. Tijela su zatrpavana bagerima u fortifika-
cijske objekte i rovove za topove koji su prethodno uklonjeni. Stradali
su uhvaceni civili i mnogi logorasi iz konvoja koji su isli iz podrucja
Prijedora, Banje Luke, Kljuca, Mrkonjica i Skender Vakufa. O kakvom je
karakteru i razmjerima genocida rijec, najvise govore mjesta odakle su
konvoji kretali.
Trnopolje, naselje nedaleko od Prijedora, pretvoreno je u kombinaciju lo
(....) sluzile su kao mucionice, a logorasi su bili na otvorenom i
opkoljeni zicom. Jedan dio stanovnistva, odnosno nesto zena i staraca,
bili su u kucama izvan zice radi poslova potrebnih zlikovcima. Ovaj
logor sluzio je cetnicima posebno za izivljavanje nad zenama i maloljet-
nicama.
Muskarci su uglavnom sluzili za skupljanje leseva svojih susjeda po
okolnim selima i njivama. Jedna grupa je samo u jednom danu skupila i u
masovnu jamu zakopala 700 tijela. Mjesto jame je kraj puta prema Pri-
jedoru, na rubu sume Gaj, pored gostionice koja se zove "Evropa". U
samom Trnopolju nalaze se masovne grobnice gotovo pored svake kuce sa
pet, deset, ili 20 tijela.
Omarska, rudarski kompleks nedaleko od Prijedora, pretvoren je u logor
smrti krajem svibnja, kada je tu dovedeno oko 3000 ljudi da bi se taj
broj povecavao i do 12.000 ljudi. Ljudi su u jednom razdoblju bili
smjesteni u metalne tornjeve za utovar rude po katovima, 300 na svakom
od cetiri kata. Dnevno se gusilo oko 20 ljudi.
Odmah po pristizanju prvog transporta iz Kozarca ubijeno je 60 ljudi.
Tih prvih dana strijeljano je i 20 milicionara iz Prijedora koji nisu
Srbi. Tijela su kamionom odvezena u nepoznatom pravcu.
U toku aktivnog postojanja logora u vremenu od tri mjeseca svakodnevno
je ubijeno deset do dvadeset ljudi, cija tijela su odvozena i dijelom
ili u potpunosti zakopavana na lokacijama rudnika: Otvoreni kop Jezero,
Stari rudnik Tomasica, Novi kop Buvac, jezero kod brane Medjedja.
Keraterm, tvornica kod Prijedora, pretvorena je u logor smrti kada i
Omarska. Tome logoru pristup inozemnih promatraca i novinara nikad nije
omogucen. U cetiri logorske prostorije uvijek je bilo smjesteno oko 3000
ljudi.
Zna se pouzdano da je 27. srpnja ubijeno 190 ljudi tako sto je u pros-
toriju pusten plin. Kada su logorasi posli prema izlazu, cuvari su
otvorili vatru iz protuavionskih mitraljeza i iz neposredne blizine,
tako da su meci bukvalnokomadali ljude. Tada je na mjestu ubijeno oko
145 ljudi a oko 45 ranjenih pusteno da iskrvari. Nakon toga tijela su
potrpana u kamione i odvezena u nepoznatom pravcu.
Kada su ocekivali posjet novinara, 5. kolovoza, cetnici su 120 logorasa
(....) logor Omarsku. Prema tvrdnjama prezivjelih iz te grupe, odmah na
putu je zaklano devet, a dio je ubijen u Omarskoj. Samo deset iz te
grupe dospjelo je do Manjace. Istog dana u "radnu jedinicu" odvedeno je
25 ljudi i nikada se vise nisu vratili niti su se u nekom logoru
pojavili. Takodjer toga dana deset autobusa logorasa odvezeno je za
Trnopolje. Zadnji autobus koji je stigao u sumrak zadrzan je na pisti
logora Trnopolje i mnogi logorasi su maltretirani te ubijani ili kasnije
podlegli ranama.
Obaveza svih medjunarodnih institucija i subjekata je da hitno istraze
sva ta stratista, posebno "Koricanske stijene" i upoznaju svjetsku jav-
nost o tim stravicnim zlocinima.
MUSADIK BOROGOVAC
Autor je clan grupe za istrazivanje genocida pri Uredu za humanitarnu
pomoc i izbjeglice Republike BiH u Zagrebu
novine.44.bale.,
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Subject: Serbian leaders beat the drums of war
Subject: Red Cross, U.N. appeal for end to ethnic violence
Subject: U.S. aid flights reach Sarajevo
Subject: Humaniatarian-aid flights to Sarajevo resume
Subject: W.H.O. cites 'desperate race against time'
Subject: Bombardment of Sarajevo intensifies
Subject: Bosnian Serb leader warns against ``no-fly'' zone proposal
Subject: U.N. readies vote on war-crimes commission for former Yugoslavia
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Subject: Serbian leaders beat the drums of war
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:36:38 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The leader of Serbian forces occupying
parts of Croatia threatened Friday to launch another war if the new
Yugoslav federation recognizes Croatia, and he defended the brutality of
the conflict, saying this ``kind of ethnic war cannot be ended until one
side is utterly exterminated.''
Goran Hadzic, the leader of ethnic Serbs in Croatia, said that Serbs
would ``have no choice but (to) fight for their lives'' if the newly
forged federation of Serbia and Montenegro recognized the neighboring
republic of Croatia, which views Hadzic's forces as aggressors.
``If Croatia is recognized, its authorities would treat us as rebels,
and we will have to fight them,'' Hadzic told reporters in Belgrade.
The statement came in reaction to the first session of negotiations
in Geneva between Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic and Croatian chief of
state Franjo Tudjman.
Pressed by the U.N. sanctions imposed on the two-republic Yugoslavia,
the authorities in Belgrade have recently started talking peace with
neighboring Bosnia-Hercegovina, which is beseiged by Serbian forces, and
Croatia, which is under U.N. protection after an earlier war.
Hadzic, answering questions from reporters, initially denied recent
claims that Serbian militiamen had been killing Croatian and Hungarian
civilians.
``But, let's face it: This kind of ethnic war cannot be ended until
one side is utterly exterminated,'' he said. ``I am sorry, but that is a
fact of life,'' he added.
Hadzic then admitted that ``some members'' of his militia ``were
involved in the war crimes,'' but he said most of the alleged
attrocities were commited by the other side in order to discredit the
Serbs.
In another development, the leader of the Serbs from Hercegovina,
Bozidar Vucurevic, said that his men are ready to attack the Yugoslav
federal army if it tries to pull out its heavy weapons around the region
of the historic Adriatic port of Dubrovnik.
Cosic and Tudjman agreed in Geneva Thursday that the army should
retreat from its positions around and south of Dubrovnik by Oct. 20.
``The federal army is not retreating -- it's running away'', Vucurevic
told the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency from his mountain stronghold
of Trebinje, 20 miles north of Dubrovnik.
``The runaways will be allowed to take their food rations and their
water-bottles with them. If they try to take their weapons, we will
fight them,'' he said.
The self-proclaimed president of ``Serbian Hercegovina'' said that
the Serbs would not be happy if failed to get a piece of the Dalmatian
coast.
Vucurevic accused the leadership of the new Yugoslav federation of
deceiving the Serbs in Hercegovina.
``They started a war, and now they want us to finish it,'' he said
bitterly.
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Subject: Red Cross, U.N. appeal for end to ethnic violence
Date: 3 Oct 92 17:26:21 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- The International Red Cross and the U.N. High
Commission for Refugees appealed jointly Saturday for an end to ethnic
violence in Bosnia-Hercegovina and admitted humanitarian efforts to stop
it have had little effect.
Cornelio Sommaruga, president of the International Committee of the
Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, director-general of the UNHCR, issued the
appeal at a joint news conference.
They said atrocities continue despite repeated appeals to the three
ethnic groups involved in the fighting in Bosnia-Hercegovina and on-the-
ground intervention by the two humanitarian organizations and others.
Sommaruga said, ``The most basic principles of international
humanitarian law continue to be ignored in the field,'' despite repeated
promises by leaders of the Muslim, Serb and Croatian factions in Bosnia-
Hercegovina that human rights would be respected.
Ogata said reports from her own staff showed thousands of prisoners
have been ill-treated and many have disappeared or been summarily
executed in camps as part of Serbian so-called ``ethnic cleansing''
efforts. Sommaruga said this was true even in camps visited by the Red
Cross.
``Acts of vengeance and indiscriminate attacks have been carried out
on a massive scale, and entire regions are inaccesible to humanitarian
organizations for months,'' Sommaruga said.
Both Sommaruga and Ogata said tens of thousands of minority groups
are still at the mercy of ``ethnic cleansing.''
They also said claims by the leaders of the Muslim, Croat and Serbian
groups in Bosnia-Hercegovina that the atrocities are carried out by
undisciplined guerrilla groups simply do not hold water.
They repeated the call made at the London conference on Yugoslavia
for humanitarian organizations to be given unrestricted access to all
civilian victims and for the unconditional release of all prisoners.
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Subject: U.S. aid flights reach Sarajevo
Date: 3 Oct 92 18:47:55 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- A U.S. transport plane made two
deliveries of humanitarian aid to the besieged Bosnian-Hercegovina
capital Saturday, ending a one-month gap that has seen food supplies
dwindle to a fraction of U.N.-established minimums.
Meanwhile in Strasbourg, France, Yugoslav peace negotiator Lord David
Owen compared the Serbian ``ethnic cleansing'' campaign, in which
Muslims have been killed in Bosnia-Hercegovina, to the Holocaust that
killed millions of Jews during World War II. He added Europe could not
talk of unity and at the same time turn its back on former Yugoslavia.
Also Saturday, Serbian jets made bombing runs on the Bosnian towns of
Zenica, Tesanj and Gradacac, and Serbian forces in the hills overlooking
Sarajevo made sporadic artillery attacks on the city, Sarajevo radio
reported.
In Zenica, the biggest steel producing town in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
jets made two bombing runs on steel production facilities, causing heavy
damage to a key part of the plant, the radio said.
In Tesanj, warplanes made seven bombing runs between 9:25 a.m. and
12:45 p.m., using heavy rockets, napalm and air-to-ground rockets,
causing an unknown number of injuries and several fires, it said.
Gradacac was bombarded from the air at 9:25 a.m., it said.
Artillery fights also were reported in Doboj and in southern Bosnia-
Hercegovina in and around Mostar.
Sarajevo suffered sporadic shelling throughout the day, including
anti-aircraft machine-gun and sniper fire. At least five people were
injured by the attacks in Otes, in the southern part of the capital.
A total of 24 people were reported killed and 198 wounded across
Bosnia-Hercegovina, including 10 killed and 80 injured in Sarajevo, in
the 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m. Saturday, republic health
officials said.
Sarajevo radio also claimed Saturday that large numbers of Serbian
fighters were deserting their military units, particularly in
northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina, but the reports could not be
immediately verified.
Serbian forces began fighting last spring to carve a separate
homeland out of territory in the predominantly Muslim Slav republic of
Bosnia-Hercegovina. Some moderate Serbs and Croats have joined the
Muslim Slavs in trying to retain the territorial integrity of the newly
independent republic.
A Serbian siege of Sarajevo prompted U.N. relief efforts, which
resumed Saturday -- one month after the air bridge was suspended because
of the downing of an Italian relief plane over Croatian-controlled
territory west of Sarajevo.
Five U.N.-organized relief flights had been expected Saturday in
Sarajevo, with three U.S. and two French deliveries scheduled to bring
food and electrical equipment, said a spokesman for the U.N. High
Commission for Refugees.
But only one U.S. plane made two deliveries -- once from Frankfurt,
Germany, and a second after reloading in Zagreb -- before bad weather
stopped further flights. The deliveries included several thousand pounds
of ``Meals Ready to Eat,'' pre-prepared meals usually used by U.S.
troops.
``Obviously, because of the tense situation in Bosnia, there is some
risk involved in these flights,'' said Capt. Mike Rein, spokesman for
the U.S. effort at Rhein Mein Air Base in Germany.
``But the U.S. in coordination with the U.N. has decided that this
effort is so important and the need for food is so critical, that even
with the risk, the flights will continue -- unless and until it becomes
too dangerous, at which time they will be suspended again,'' Rein said.
The two planned French flights were canceled for unknown reasons. ``I
wish someone would tell us'' why, said UNHCR spokesman Michael Keats in
Zagreb. ``It is very confusing today.''
Nevertheless, U.N. Protection Force spokesman Adnan Razek in Sarajevo
said the city could now expect as many as 20 flights a day to begin
reaching the capital.
Also Saturday, the first relief ground convoy in three days -- a nine-
truck convoy from Split -- reached Sarajevo, the UNHCR said.
Razek also said utility workers trying to restore the city's water
and electricity supplies under U.N. protection made progress and could
possibly have water running again in the city within hours.
Both water and electricity have been out in most of the city for
between one and two weeks.
Salem Karovic, chief of the city's supply system, said Saturday he
also was facing a new problem with a lacked the diesel fuel necessary to
bring water tanker trucks into the city.
Meanwhile in France, Owen -- the EC peace negotiator for the former
Yugoslavia -- told the European Parliament that the European Community
could not ignore the violence in Bosnia-Hercegovina and continue
blithely toward unification.
``Those that believe that it is morally acceptable that Europe turn
its back on what is happening in the former Yugoslavia, with the
argument that they should work things out without us, should abandon the
idea of European construction,'' Owen said.
Owen also compared ``ethnic cleansing'' in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
especially the systematic killing of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs, to the
Holocaust that killed millions of Jews during World War II.
``This time the victims are Muslim, and we should be aware of the
fact that Muslims live in the four corners of the earth, and they will
keep in their memories what we let their brothers be submitted to,''
Owen said.
Owen, who spoke at the opening debate of the 27-country parliament of
the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, also said Europe should
back the principle of no acquisition of land by force and of ensuring
minority rights.
The Council issued a statement condemning the ``ethnic cleansing'' in
the republics of the former Yugoslavia, and refusing to recognize the
breakup of territory based on ethnic criteria.
In a new conference later, Owen said his most urgent mission with U.
N. counterpart Cyrus Vance was to succeed in efforts to demilitarize
Sarajevo and its surroundings.
Evoking the approaching winter, often harsh in the former Yugoslav
republics, Owen said ``We need to find the the conditions, even if it
takes time, to re-establish a co-existence,'' between ethnic groups.
The Council called for all member countries to bring the aid
necessary to the former Yugoslav populations, without which ``hundreds
of thousands of people would die.'' In addition, the council called for
a ban on all flights except for those carrying humanitarian aid over
Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The European body also supported Owen's idea to create a board for
the protection of the human rights for European countries not members of
the Council.
Owen also said one of his next tasks with Vance was to persuade the
Belgrade government of Serbia and Montenegro to recognize another ex-
Yugoslav republic, Croatia, and respect its borders. He said that would
be ``a real message addressed to the Serbs in Croatia and elsewhere.''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Humaniatarian-aid flights to Sarajevo resume
Date: 4 Oct 92 01:03:50 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- Humanitarian-aid flights to Sarajevo resumed
Saturday after weeks of interruption caused by fierce fighting in the
besieged Bosnia-Hercegovina capital.
Two U.S. planes arrived without incident at Sarajevo's U.N.-
controlled main airport, bringing radar equipment and 10 tons of relief
supplies from Frankfurt, Germany.
However, Peter Kessler, spokesman for the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees, said officials scrubbed a planned third flight
by one of the planes because of bad weather.
Two French planes had also been scheduled to fly into Sarajevo
Saturday from the Croatian city of Split, but cancelled at the last
minute.
UNHCR did not give a reason for the delay.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Sarajevo have been trapped
without adequate food and medicine for months by fighting between
Serbian guerrillas and Bosnia-Hercegovina's predominently Muslim Slav
army.
The Serbian fighters oppose independence from communist Yugoslav,
while the Muslim Slavs favor it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: W.H.O. cites 'desperate race against time'
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:22:48 GMT
GENEVA (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of lives are at stake in a
``desperate race'' against the coming winter in ex-Yugoslavia, the World
Health Organization (WHO) warned Monday.
Sir Donald Acheson, WHO delegate in Zagreb, said the U.N. health
agency alone will need $40 million in the next seven months for
medicines and medical equipment.
Besides such regular medicines as antibiotics and insulin, drugs are
urgently required for mental disorders caused by the trauma of
hostilities, he said.
``The lives of tens of thousands of people in the former Yugoslavia
re at stake in a desparate race against time: winter is coming,'' Sir
Donald told a news conference.
Ex-Yugoslavia, he noted, has one of the most severe winter climates
in all of Europe and that the ``health crisis will cost many more lives
than the conflict itself.''
There are 300,000 people without shelter, support or health services
in Bosnia and Hervzogovina, the WHO official said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bombardment of Sarajevo intensifies
Date: 5 Oct 92 12:47:57 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina -- Serbian forces in the hills
overlooking Sarajevo unleased one of the heaviest assaults in their six-
month seige of the Bosnian capital Monday, firing scores of artillery
rounds that heavily damaged or set fire to apartment buildings, an
electrical utility and a television transmitter.
The attacks began with sporadic overnight grenading throughout the
city, particularly in the southwestern area of Dobrinja, and escalated
into a heavy downtown attack, using grenades, mortars and tank fire.
Between 50 and 100 injured people were brought during the morning to
the city's main Hosevo hospital complex, mostly from the center of the
old town section and Pero Kosoric Square, a front-line area just south
of the Miljacka River, a hospital official said.
The city's state hospital, which said it handled only nine patients
during a relatively quiet day Sunday, said at 11 a.m. Monday it already
had 20 patients and more were arriving.
Thick black smoke poured from a downtown business office of
Elektroprivreda, BVsnia-Hercegovina's main electricity supplier,
blotting out the early morning sun while loud explosions continued to
thunder around it.
``The damage is so big that the building probably wont be there
anymore,'' said Slobodan Primorac, deputy to the general manager at
Elektroprivreda. ``After the fire was started, we counted 12 phosphorus
grenades (designed to start fires), and supposed that altogether about
20 of them hit the building.''
Monday morning's barrage on the capital came from Serbian-controlled
areas of Vraca, a hilly area in the southern part of the city, and
nearby Ozrenska Street, Sarajevo radio reported.
The mortars, grenades and tank shells repeatedly hit Pero Kosoric
Square, killing and injuring an unknown number of people, the radio
said.
The bombardment also hit numerous apartment buildings along
Darovalaca Krvi Street, setting them on fire, it said.
Sporadic sniper firing into the city also began around 7 a.m., the
radio said.
The downtown Holiday Inn, which houses many foreign journalists, also
was hit around 8:15 a.m. on the fifth floor, facing south toward
Grbavica, and set on fire.
Two journalists working for the French television network TF-1 were
slightly injured by flying glass on the ground floor, said Amra Abadzic,
a translator for the Reuters news agency.
Rockets hit and set fire to the the downtown offices of the Post
Telegraph and Telephone building and a nearby tobacco factory, Sarajevo
radio said.
The attack on the telephone exchange building caused unknown damage
but no reported injuries, said Enes Arnautovic, general director of PTT
in Ssarajevo.
Bosnian Vice President Ejub Ganic said Sunday that Serbian forces
apparently were embarking on a new campaign to wipe out major economic
targets that could be left in areas they fail to control.
Houses around the offices hit Monday morning in Sarajevo also were
badly damaged and burning, Sarajevo radio said.
The television transmitter on Hum Hill, to the north of the city,
also took a direct hit, it said.
Around 9 a.m. a water truck that brought water daily to Pofalici, in
the north-central part of the city, was directly hit while driving along
a road, it said.
Vogosca, a northern suburb of Sarajevo also suffered a heavy grenada
attack during the morning, Sarajevo radio said.
Commercial gas supplies to the city went out around 9 p.m. Sunday
evening. A gas company worker said officials traced the outage to a
break in a substation and planned to investigate the cause monday.
Electricity and water supplies to Sarajevo, which have been out for
between several days and several weeks across the city, remained out
despite continued efforts by U.N. protection force troops to accompany
repair crews to damaged facilities.
Sarajevo radio said electricity had been restored to the citys main
wellfield and pumping station in the Serbian-controlled western suburb
of Bacevo, allowing service to be resumed in the adjacent serbian-
controlled city of Ilidza, but it said the lines serving Sarajevo
remained badly damaged.
Telephone service inside the city, which was partially disconnected
Saturday because of a lack of fuel for electricity generators, was
restored Monday. But Arnautovic said the telephone company only had
enough diesel fuel to run the system for another two days.
Dr. Bakir Nakas, director of the state hospital, said Monday morning
that his facility had enough diesel fuel for run its generators for
another four hours and the Kosevo complex had enough for another seven
hours.
Elsewhere in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the small town of Olovo, just north
of Sarajevo, was hit by some 850 rounds of artillery fire over a 24-hour
period ending Monday morning, Sarajevo radio reported.
And the village of Mionica in Gradacac, in northeastern Bosnia-
Hercegovina, was hit by an estimated 2,000 grenades in a two-hour period
beginning at 4 a.m. monday, the radio said. The area had been suffering
almost daily aerial bombing.
Maglaj, northwest of the capital, also came under another round of
heavy attacks, the radio said.
The heavy attacks followed a rainy and relatively quiet weekend and
came one day before the head of the newly formed UNPROFOR operation for
Bosnia-Hercegovina, was due to visit Sarajevo and meet again with
Bosnian Serb leaders.
French Gen. Phillipe Morillon planned a Tuesday visit the Bosnian
Serb headquarters in nearby Pale and travel wednesday to the Serbian
capital Belgrade.
Topics for the meeting were expected to include the new headquarters
for the republic's UNPROFOR command. UNPROFOR officials were hoping to
place it in Ilidza, which would help break a main bottleneck for
humanitarian aid convoys reaching Sarajevo by land.
A 10-truck convoy orgnanized by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees
brought another 100 tons of food aid to SWrajevo on Monday, but workers
were prevented by the heavy shelling from unloading, said Marc Vachon,
the UNHCR's chief of logistics at the Sarajevo airport.
Three U.N.-organized aid flights also reached the city Monday morning
and another four flights were expected, but French crews canceled four
scheduled flights because of the weather, Vachon said.
The three flights that arrived in the morning -- two American and one
Canadian -- brought two loads of food aid and more equipment for the
radar system being installed at the airport, he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Bosnian Serb leader warns against ``no-fly'' zone proposal
Date: 5 Oct 92 21:59:19 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic
warned Monday that he would pull out of internationally brokered peace
talks if the United Nations approves a proposal to close the airspace
over war-torn Bosnia-Hercegovina to all but humanitarian aid flights.
The Tanjug news agency in a dispatch from Geneva said Karadzic's
warning was in a letter he sent to the U.N. Security Council, which was
expected to consider the ``no-fly'' zone proposal late Monday in New
York.
The 12-nation European Community and the United States agreed in
principle at an international conference on the Yugoslav crisis held in
London in August to support a U.N. resolution banning all flights over
Bosnia-Hercegovina except those delivering humanitarian aid.
In a statement last week President Bush said that the United States
will seek a new U.N. resolution of a ``no-fly'' zone , ``banning all
flights in Bosnian airspace except those authorized by the U.N,'' adding
that the United States would participate in the enforcement of measures
if asked by the U.N.
The proposal would require warplanes of the nations participating in
the U.N.-sponsored humanitarian airlift to Sarajevo to interdict flights
by military planes supplied to Karadzic's forces by the Serb-dominated
Yugoslav army.
Serbian aircraft have been used extensively in the Serbian drive to
rip a self-declared state out of the former Yugoslav republic of Muslim
Slavs, Serbs and Croats, reportedly making daily bombing runs in support
of Serbian ground forces.
Tanjug quoted Karadzic's letter as saying that if the ``no-fly'' zone
was instituted, the Serbian leader would withdraw from peace
negotiations being brokered in Geneva by the United Nations and the EC
between the warring factions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. readies vote on war-crimes commission for former Yugoslavia
Date: 6 Oct 92 00:03:22 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The Security Council is prearing to vote
Tuesday on resolutions to establish a war-crimes commission and to
declare the Prevlaka peninsula in the former Yugoslavia a demilitarized
zone.
The 15-nation panel also is considering a third resolution over
establishing a ``flight interdiction (zone) for military aircraft'' in
Bosnia-Hercegovina in an effort to ground the Serbian air force.
The so-called ``no-fly zone'' in Bosnia-Hercegovina, supported mostly
by the United States, has not met unanimous support from other Western
nations because it would be difficult to implement. Those nations said
Serbian forces would retaliate against U.N. peacekeeping troops if the
zone is set up.
Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic warned in a letter on Monday to
Secretary-General Boutros Ghali that if the council voted in favor of
the ``no-fly zone,'' he would pull out of the London conference on the
former Yugoslavia.
``In the event that the Security Council decides to override the
negotiated agreement several days ago, I must regretfully inform you
that we will immediately withdraw from the London conference and close
our mission in Geneva,'' Karadzic said.
Karadzic said the exclusion zone for air traffic would be
``unacceptable'' because it would give strategic advantage to Bosnian
Muslims, ``which will be in breach of another London conference decision
on the delivery of humanitarian aid.''
Western diplomats said the air exclusion zone would be difficult to
implement and they have been trying to reach a compromise whereby the
zone would be implemented in two stages, with the imposition of the zone
first and military enforcement if Serbian forces did not comply with it.
In a private meeting Monday, the Security Council agreed on a text
for setting up the war-crimes commission. It first will call on Ghali to
collect within 30 days all information related to human rights
violations and ``grave violations'' of the 1949 Geneva Convention on the
protection of civilians during war time in the former Yugoslavia.
The council would call on Ghali to set up an impartial commission of
experts to ``examine and analyze'' all information received. The experts
are asked to obtain information themselves or by other means and to
present to the secretary-general the evidence of those violations.
British U.N. Ambassador David Hannay said he expected the council to
adopt the war-crimes commission resolution unanimously. He said the
council's 15 members would also support the second resolution declaring
Prevlaka peninsula a demilitarized zone and demanding the withdrawal of
heavy weapons from the neighboring regions in Croatia and Montenegro.
Several members of the council said the establishment of the war-
crimes commission would be the first step toward bringing to trial those
responsible for the reported execution of Muslim Slavs in Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
The next step would be setting up a tribunal.
novine.45.bale.,
Los Angeles Times
Oct 5, 1992
... The United Nations Protection Force said it expressed consternation to
the Croatian government after two U.N. helicopters came under fire while
approaching Zagreb on a medical evacuation mission Friday.
It said its director of civil affairs, Cedric Thornberry, had written to
Croatian Vice President Ivan Milas asking what steps the government was
taking to prevent any further such occurrences.
Both helicopters landed safely and without damage at Zagreb airport. A similar
attack last Monday was later blamed by Croatia on a soldier opening fire
without orders. ...
novine.47.bale.,
New Yorker, Oct. 5/1992
NEWS FROM HELL
by Anna Husarska
SARAJEVO
FIRST, the flak jackets. They come in many sizes, colors, and weights.
The ones for ladies are shorter than the gents'. The latter have an
additional flap in the front, a "quick-draw groin protector," or
"tongue," which can be pulled down or unfolded for extra protection.
The really good jackets (the genuinely bulletproof ones) are made of a
material called Kevlar and come fitted out with a pair of H.V.P.s, or
high-velocity panels. These are concave ceramic plates for the chest
and back which weigh a lot but give real protection against sniper
bullets. Lying down in any sort of H.V.P.-equipped gear is a bad idea;
you may end up like a beetle on its back. Almost all the jackets close
with Velcro straps, so at the start of any press conference in some
relatively safe building here there is a terrible rasping noise as
up to forty journalists tear their straps open. The main trick is to
close them around the waist tightly so that the jacket sits on the
hips (great for elimination of love handles) instead of hanging
heavily on the shoulders (a real back killer). Some models have high-
standing collars; others have smaller ones, a la Mao; and still others
are cut like old-fashioned men's underwear vests, and these are
particularly appreciated by cameramen, because the Kevlar shoulder
pads of the standard ones are too bulky and unstable to provide a good
"platform" for a camera. A label on the H.V.P. lists all the different
impacts (single and multiple) that the panel will stop.
-- Picture: A page found in the burned-out National Library in
Sarajevo. --
ny.zipnovine.48.bale.,
The following is the text of the joint declaration signed by
Dr. Franjo Tudjman and Mr. Dobrica Cosic, and witnessed by Mr.
Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen in Geneva on September 30, 1992.
JOINT DECLARATION
Meeting under the auspices of the Co-Chairman of the International
Conference on the Former Yugoslavia in Geneva, the undersigned
Presidents wish to announce the following:
1. The two Presidents reaffirmed the commitments of the
International Conference in London on the inviolability of existing
borders, other than through changes reached by peaceful agreement,
and agreed to intensify work towards the normalization of relations
between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia,
on the basis of mutual recognition. All questions concerning
succession of the former SFRY will be resolved within the framework
of the International Conference or, as appropriate, bilaterally.
2. Authorities of the Republic of Croatia and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, in close collaboration with the United Nations
Protection Force, will undertake urgent, joint measures to ensure the
peaceful return to their homes in the United Nations Protected Areas
of all persons displaced therefrom who so wish. To that end they
propose the prompt establishment of a quadripartite mechanism -
consisting of authorities of the Government of Croatia, local Serb
representatives, representatives of UNPROFOR and the UNHCR - to assure
that this process moves forward. Equally, Serb and Croat people
formerly residing on the territory of the Republic of Croatia and the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should have the right to return in peace
to their former homes. Agreement was reached with regard to more
resolute action concerning the return of displaced persons to their
homes, and to allowing for a voluntary and humane resettlement of those
persons wishing to do so between the two States.
3. The two Presidents agree that the Yugoslav Army will leave
Prevlaka by October 20, 1992 in accordance with the Vance Plan.
Security in the area will be resolved by demilitarization and the
deployment of the UN Monitors. The overall security of Boka Kotorska
and Dubrovnik will be resolved through subsequent negotiations.
4. The two Presidents agree to establish a Joint Interstate
Committee for the consideration of all open issues and for the
normalization of relations between the sovereign Republic of Croatia
and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In order that a durable peace may
be established as soon as possible, particular attention will be
given to normalizing traffic and economic links.
5. The two Presidents confirm their conviction that all
problems between their two States must be settled peacefully. They
pledge their best efforts to this end. In that connection, they will
exert all their influence towards a just, peaceful solution of the
current crisis enveloping Bosnia and Herzegovina.
6. The two Presidents declare their total condemnation of
all practices related to "ethnic cleansing," and commit themselves to
helping reverse that which has already happened. They also declare
that all statements or commitments made under duress, particularly
those relating to land and property, are wholly null and void. They
urge all concerned parties to cooperate fully, promptly and
unconditionally with current efforts, in particular by the ICRC and
the UNHCR, to free all detainees, close all detention centers, and
assure safe passage of former detainees to secure and safe areas.
They further urge all parties to facilitate the safe delivery of all
humanitarian assistance.
7. The two Presidents welcome the early stationing of
international observers on airfields in their respective countries as
a confidence-building measure.
8. The two Presidents agree to meet again on October 20 with
the Co-Chairman. They express their gratitude to the Co-Chairman for
convening today's meeting.
novine.49.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbian attack leaves Sarajevo in flames
Subject: Yugoslav Army announces retreat from Prevlaka
Subject: Serbian President Milosevic meets Bobby Fischer
Subject: U.N. troops allow Bosnian refugees into Croatia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbian attack leaves Sarajevo in flames
Date: 6 Oct 92 14:33:25 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- Serbian forces bombarded
Sarajevo with artillery, tank and machine-gun fire Tuesday, a day after
one of the most vicious assaults in their six-month seige destroyed
offices and apartment buildings, leaving dozens of civilians dead and
thousands homeless.
Streams of the screaming and crying homeless were forced after a day
of relentless bombing to flee their flaming homes with only handfulls of
possessions.
They fled overnight through the rain of artillery to cross the
Miljacka River from front-line apartments in southern Sarajevo.
The apartments, blasted head-on by tanks and artillery only a few
hundred feet away, included five 20-floor buildings along Pero Kosoric
Square whose multi-story infernos lit up the skies across the bosnian
capital throughout the evening.
The city's three main hospitals said at least 19 people died and they
treated 175 injured people, many of them burned.
At least eight residential buildings and four office buildings were
set on fire or destroyed during the day-long attack Monday by Serbian
forces in the hills ringing the strangled Bosnian capital.
The republic's health officials, in their daily casualty count, said
at least 34 people were killed and 241 injured across Bosnia-Hercegovina
in the 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m. Tuesday, including 25 killed
and 133 injured in Sarajevo.
Some 2,800 to 3,000 people were estimated to have been left homeless
from the assault on Pero Kosoric Square, said Bejadin Abdulovski,
commanding officer of Bosnian defense forces for the neighborhood.
``Everybody was down in the basement screaming,'' said Jasmina
Jusubasic, who had lived on the top floor of one of the gutted 20-story
buildings with her mother and 5-year-old daughter.
The two women, who arrived Tuesday with three handbags seeking help
at a small hotel a few streets back from the river, sat trembling and
weeping while nursing some food and coffee and trying to telephone a
friend.
The grandmother, her hair tied under a shawl, shook and wrung her
hands each time another boom of artillery fire rang out in the
background. Her granddaughter, Ira, sat between the women playing
quietly with some candy bars given to her by a hotel worker.
Jusubasic said many of the 500 people who lived in her apartment were
hiding in the basement when the smoke from the fires above started
seeping in through the vents.
In panic, the people began smashing tiny windows about 3-feet-by-2-
feet wide and tried pushing themselves through. Some could not make it
and remained inside, Jusubasic said.
The grandmother, Semsa Solaja, said she believed at least six people
in the building died, including ``one person everyone could hear inside
screaming but nobody could do anything about.''
Jusubasic said the explosions were intensified when flames began
falling onto a Bosnian military headquarters stationed between two of
the apartment buildings, as well as when the fire caught ammunition
apparently kept inside private residences.
People trying to fight the fires in the square, named after a Serbian
World War II military hero, carried buckets of water from the river in a
futile bid to compensate for the city's lost water supply.
At least two fires were still burning inside apartment buildings
Tuesday morning and workers were unable to provide exact figures on
casualties and homeless. But Abdulovski said only about 50 of the 900
apartments in the five 20-story buildings on Pero Kosoric square were
still usable.
Those treated at the city's hospitals monday included a 10-year-old
girl whose arm was amputated and a 17-year-old boy who lost both legs,
doctors said.
The city's two main hospitals said they were operating Tuesday in the
dark because they lacked diesel fuel to run generators. Both said they
had run out of all but a handful of sterile instruments being saved for
absolute emergency cases.
The larger of the two facilities, the Kosevo complex, despite
problems, reported nine births overnight, five girls and four boys,
Sarajevo radio reported.
Sarajevo residents have been without water and electricity for
between several days and several weeks, despite continued efforts by U.
N. troops to guarantee the safety of utility workers trying to make
repairs.
City electricians have received commitments from Serbian forces to
visit only one of 16 locations they believe need repair work, Sarajevo
radio said Tuesday.
An official with Sarajevo's commercial gas utility said workers
believe a line break that has cut off supplies to the city for the past
two days is located in Serbian-controlled territory and the utility was
seeking a U.N. escort to investigate.
Elsewhere Tuesday, the city of Jajce, in the central part of Bosnia-
Hercegovina, came under fire around 7 a.m. from 120mm mortars, 155mm
artillery and tanks, Sarajevo radio reported. The shooting was aimed
throughout the town and hit a mosque, a Catholic church and civilian
structures, causing an unknown number of casualties, the radio said.
Tesanj, in the central part of the republic, suffered an artillery
barrage and an infantry attack Tuesday that was beaten back by Bosnian
defenders, Sarajevo radio said.
Defenders in Bihac, in the far northwestern part of the republic near
the border with Croatia, also fought off a Serbian infantry attack, the
radio said.
Infantry battles and artillery attacks also were reported in various
areas of the Zenica region, in the central part of the republic, causing
an unknown number of casualties, the radio said.
An uneasy calm came Tuesday to Bugojno, west of Sarajevo, after
several days of heavy fighting and aerial bombardments that destroyed a
major industrial complex, the radio said.
The U.N. Security Council also was planning to vote Tuesday on three
matters concerning the yugoslav conflicting, including a U.S. proposal
for banning military flights over bosnia-hercegovina. the other two
resolutions would establish a war crimes commission and declare the
Prevlaka peninsula in the former Yugoslavia a demilitarized zone.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic threatened Monday to pull out of
the ongoing peace talks in Geneva if the United Nations accepts the
flight ban, although he reportedly later said he would accept such a
restriction if Bosnian attacks on his forces are halted.
French Gen. Phillipe Morillon, commander of the U.N. protection
forces new Bosnian operations, flew Tuesday into Sarajevo to begin a
two-day visit to the area. He planned to meet bosnian government leaders
in downtown Sarajevo and visit the bosnian serb headquarters in nearby
Pale before traveling Wednesday to the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Another 12 U.N. High Commission for Refugees relief flights were due
to arrive Tuesday in Sarajevo, although Izumi Nakamitsu, head of the
operation, said the day's steady rain might force many cancellations. No
truck convoys were due in the city tuesday, she said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Yugoslav Army announces retreat from Prevlaka
Date: 6 Oct 92 14:40:19 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The army of rump Yugoslavia Tuesday
reaffirmed its intention to withdraw from Croatia's disputed Adriatic
peninsula of Prevlaka within the next two weeks.
The announcement, carried by the official Tanjug news agency, came
just hours before the U.N. Security Council was scheduled to vote on a
resolution declaring Prevlaka a demilitarized zone and placing it under
U.N. observation.
The army of the union forged by Serbia and Montenegro said that its
units and equipment would be ``transferred'' by Oct. 20 from the
peninsula and the surrounding region as required by a Sept. 29 pact
reached in Geneva between Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic and his
Croatian counterpart, Franjo Tudjman.
But the army warned that should Croatia violate the agreement to
create a demilitarize zone on the peninsula, it would ``use all of its
potential to defend'' the main Yugoslav navy base at adjacent Boka
Kotorska Bay.
Prevlaka is a 1.5 mile-long stony finger of Adriatic coast that
controls the entrance to Boka Kotorska Bay, where most of the Yugoslav
fleet is located.
It has been the subject of a bitter dispute because it is located
just inside the border of Croatia, whose secession from former
Yugoslavia last year ignited a civil war.
The Yugoslav army used the peninsula's strategic importance as a
major justification for its year-long siege of Croatia's port city of
Dubrovnik and occupation of a 100-mile-long swath of coastline
stretching south from the famed Adriatic resort to Prevlaka.
During talks in Geneva with Tudjman, Cosic agreed to order the
Yugoslav army's withdrawl from Prevlaka on condition that it was
declared a demilitarized zone and placed under U.N. observation.
The agreement was met by a wave of protests by Serbian extremists,
who claimed that the surrender of Prevlaka would jeopardize Yugoslavia's
strategic interests, and they accused Cosic of treason.
There had also been speculation that the army would refuse to leave a
50-year-old military base on Prevlaka.
Political analysts saw the army's announcement as a clear sign that
senior generals support ongoing efforts by Cosic and Yugoslav Prime
Minister Milan Panic to restore peace to former Yugoslavia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbian President Milosevic meets Bobby Fischer
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:12:52 GMT
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Communist President Slobodan Milosevic
of Serbia met Tuesday with former world chess champion Bobby Fischer as
the grand master took a two-day break from his historic rematch with his
Russian arch-rival, Boris Spassky.
The authoritarian Serbian leader used the meeting to launch a new
attack on U.N. economic sanctions slapped on his republic for
underwriting the Serbian territorial conquests in neighboring Bosnia-
Hercegovina.
``I am glad that our country is in the position to be the host of
such a significant chess match between Fischer and Spassky...especially
at a time when our nation is under an unjust blockade,'' Milosevic was
quoted by the official Tanjug news agency as telling the American chess
wizard.
The Fischer-Spassky match has been extensively publicized by
Milosevic's regime in a bid to counter the international isolation and
economic devastation wrought to Serbia by the U.N. sanctions.
The May 30 blockade included an oil, air and trade embargo and banned
financial transactions with Serbia and its tiny protege, Montenegro.
Despite the prohibition, Fischer and Spassky agreed to play a $5
million rematch of their 1972 world champiomship at the invitation of a
private Belgrade banker, Jezdimir Vasiljevic.
The U.S. Treasury Department ordered Fischer not to play, but he
publicly spat on the document at a news conference on the eve of the
opening game at the posh Adriatic resort of St. Stefan in Montenegro.
The pair have played 15 games -- beginning in St. Stefan and then
moving to Belgrade -- of which Fischer has won five and Spassky three.
They were to resume the match on Wednesday after a two-day break.
By the time Fischer was 14, he was U.S. chess champion. A year later
he became the youngest grandmaster in chess history.
He captured the world's attention by defeating Spassky and becoming
the first American ever to hold the title of world champion on Sept. 1,
1972.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: U.N. troops allow Bosnian refugees into Croatia
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:40:55 GMT
ZAGREB, Croatia (UPI) -- Soldiers from the U.N. Protection Force have
set up a tent city for about 400 Muslims who fled from war-torn Bosnia-
Hercegovina over the weekend into the Serbian-occupied area of Croatia
that is now under U.N. protection.
The action was taken by the Danish battalion of the U.N. force even
though the Croatian government has closed its border to refugees because
of a lack of resources to cope with the flood of people. The refugees
came across the border on foot Friday night during the first heavy rains
of winter.
``It's not something we normally do but their lives were threatened,''
said a U.N. official who refused to be identified. ``Croatia certainly
was not going to take them in. The Danish battalion felt compelled to
act in a humanitarian way...Of course we weren't going to turn them
back.''
The military unit established a tent camp for the 400 refugees in the
town of Vojnic, which is located in the Serbian-occupied area of Croatia
that is currently under the supervision of the Danish battalion of the
U.N. force.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has asked the Croatian
government to house the refugees temporarily but has not received a
reply.
``We are beholden to the mercy of the Croatian government,'' said
Michael Keats, spokesman for the UNHCR in the Croatian capitol, Zagreb.
Croatia is already home to about 650,000 refugees, who make up about
10 percent of the republic's current population. In mid-September the
Croatian government changed it's policy toward refugees.
Previously the republic allowed refugees if they had a letter of
guarantee from people in Croatia that they would house and feed them.
But the policy was abused Croatian government officials said.
``People would give out guarantee letters freely, then after a few
days the refugees would show up at shelters saying: 'Please take us. We
need a bed and food. The people can't take care of us anymore,''' said
Josip Esteraher, a spokesman for the Croatian government's office for
refugees.
Now the refugees can only come into Croatia if they are en route to
other countries.
``We can't afford it any more. Other countries have to help,''
Esteraher said.
Housing and feeding the people takes up about 20 percent of the state
budget, Esteraher said.
This latest incident is indicative of a larger problem that the UNHCR
will be facing soon, Keats said. The UNHCR estimates there are
approximately 250,000 people who want to leave Bosnia-Hercegovina but
they are caught in a ``Catch-22'' situation because there is nowhere for
them to go, Keats said.
They are often forced to become refugees in their own republic, Keats
said.
At the end of September, Serbian forces transported about 2,500
people, mostly Muslims from northwest Bosnia-Hercegovina, to Travnik in
central Bosnia-Hercegovina.
There they were forced to run across the front lines to Muslim-held
territory while the Serbs fired shots at them. Four people were killed.
``In northern Bosnia there is a whole stretch of people who just want
to get out, but the question is what are you going to do with them,''
Keats said.
novine.50.bale.,
HU.N. SAYS SARAJEVO CHILDREN ON BRINK OF STARVATION
By Philippe Naughton
GENEVA, Oct 5, Reuter - A United Nations health expert
warned on Monday that large numbers of Sarajevo children
would begin dying of starvation by the end of this month
unless an international airlift to the city was beefed up
immediately.
Two days after the airlift's hesitant resumption, U.N.
advisor Sir Donald Acheson said the Bosnian capital's needs
were greater than ever before as winter approached.
``The fuse is beginning to burn and unless 240 tonnes
of food get into Sarajevo every day...you will see children
dying of starvation by the end of October,'' Acheson,
Britain's former public health chief, told a news
conference.
``We have a situation which requires action today. We
have no time for delays.''
The U.N.-run airlift was suspended on September 3 after
an Italian cargo plane was downed in a missile attack.
Despite security guarantees from the warring factions, only
three of the 19 countries originally involved have agreed to
resume flights.
Acheson, who himself travelled with the ill-fated
Italian crew two days before they were killed, said the
airlift during the summer averaged between 190 and 220
tonnes of food a day.
With the mountain city already hit by fog and winter
snows expected soon to hamper flights further, he said
Sarajevo needed 480 tonnes a day for the next month to build
up reserves for the worst of the winter.
Instead, its 380,000 besieged residents had been
getting only around 40 tonnes of food a day for the past
month, all of it via difficult road convoys.
Citing a report by British nutritionist Philip James,
who compared the siege of Sarajevo with the siege of
Leningrad in World War Two, he added: ``At this rate of food
supply children and adults will enter a state of profound
semi-starvation with children dying within three to four
weeks.
``Adult men and women will lose five to eight kilos per
week and become severely deficient within eight weeks.
Previous siege experience suggests an escalating mortality
within two weeks of the clear signs of starvation, e.g. leg
swelling.
``If food stocks run out in ten days time and road
supplies continue at the current rate then the population
will enter a critical state by mid-November,'' he added.
Acheson, the official public health advisor to the
UNHCR office in Zagreb, said there were various ways round
the shortfall, including the use of large Russian Ilyushin
cargo planes capable of carrying 40 tonnes at a time.
He also renewed an appeal for trucks to expand road
convoys into Sarajevo. The UNHCR, which currently has 80
trucks on the road in the former Yugoslavia, says it needs
at least 200 just for food convoys and as many as 500 to
implement a full ``winterization'' programme.
According to the UNHCR, as many as 400,000 people could
perish because of the cold in former Yugoslavia this winter.
Acheson's warning was echoed by Lord Owen, the co-
chairman of the month-old Yugoslav peace conference in
Geneva. Owen told reporters on Monday it was a ``great
sadness'' that plans to provide winter shelter for refugees
and displaced persons was so far behind.
Owen, who is trying to persuade the three warring
factions to agree to the demilitarisation of Sarajevo, said
large-scale starvation could only now be avoided if
hostilities were ended.
``People will die of cold this winter in substantial
numbers, letting alone from lack of food. The crucial
question is the military one,'' Owen said.
novine.51.bale.,
CHARITY LEADER CONDEMNS ``COWARDICE'' OVER YUGOSLAVIA
STRASBOURG, France, Oct 5, Reuter - The head of a
leading French medical charity blasted Western policy on the
former Yugoslavia on Tuesday, accusing political leaders of
effectively condoning atrocities through ``cowardice and
resignation.''
``The lesson for any budding dictator...is: massacre,
deport, purify, build concentration camps -- do what you
want as long as you let a few humanitarian convoys in,''
said Rony Brauman, head of Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF).
``Humanitarianism in these conditions is no more than a
mask for political inaction, the modern name for cowardice
and resignation,'' Brauman said in an outspoken speech to
accept the Council of Europe's Human Rights prize.
MSF has been among leading non-governmental agencies
bringing relief to Bosnia-Herzegovina since the beginning of
the republic's inter-ethnic war in April. It has sent in 20
tonnes of medical equipment alone.
Brauman did not say what he though the West should do
to stop the bloodletting between Serbs, Moslems and Croats.
Western leaders have resisted calls for full-scale
military intervention to halt what they see as Serb
aggression, saying the goals of such an operation were too
unclear and very difficult to achieve.
Brauman's predecessor at MSF was Bernard Kouchner, now
French Humanitarian Aid Minister and one of the architects
of the West's humanitarian airlift to Bosnia. They have long
been critics of each other's methods.
novine.52.bale.,
Lawrence Eagleburger - MacNeil-Lehrer Tuesday 6. October
Newsmaker interview:
M-L: I have just received raport from the Security Council just adopted resolu-
tion establishing the first ever war crimes committee to investigate the all-
eged attrocities in the former Yugoslavia. Is that an important step?
Eagleburger: Oh yes, I think it is. It is the proposal we introduced in the
Security Council. And it has two purposes: one is to establish the facts on
what is going on in the past in terms of war crimes, and it is also I hope,
a warning to those in Yugoslavia who have been commiting these acts that they
better watch out from now on, because it will be people watching them. So
hopefully it will have a deterent effect as well.
M-L: How close is the United nations now to improving the no-fly zone over
Bosnia.
Eagleburger: Well ther is still a debate gonig on, we have proposed a
resolution
which would call for a no-fly zone and at a same time said if it is violated
the force may be used to police it. There was a good bit of a debate in the
Security Council with the number of the other permanent members of the
SC not particularly enthusiastic about moving to the enforcment stage , at
least at first. So we are still in the informal debate with the number of the
SC members, we will be looking at this again tomorow, but it is clasic case of
that everybody needs to remember. This is multilateral institution and we have
to be in a aggrement with all the parties and we are not quite there yet.
M-L: tell me exactly the purpose of this no-fly zone.
E: there are I think several purposes. the fact of the matter is that the
Bosnian Serbs have been flying attack flights for some time now, they have
benn in efect threatening the air zone where the humanitarian flights were
coming in. It is more than a nuisance, it is very serious problem, and at
the London conference about a month ago supposedly, everybody agreed that
there will be no more such flights, but as is often the case and in this
particular situation, the Bosnian Serbs are not carrying out their commitments
so we think it is now time for the SC to mandate that and to make it clear
in the same time that if the SC demand is not met, that there will be force
to make sure that it is. There is still debate on that second part of it.
M-L: Bosnian Serbs said today through their foreign minister mr Buha, that
they will imediately stop military flights, and that is been interpreted
as effort to head off this no-fly zone move in the UN. Do you believe
them this time?
E: I believe that it is an attempt to head off the resolution, they also
qualify it by saying if the Bosnian Moslems or Croats took advantage of
this to attack, then they would return again it's so fuzzy that you can't
be particularly certain of how serious they are, but they are wery clearly
worried by ehat is going on in the SC. I think they want to try to head off
the SC resolution on the basis of to much past history. I wouldn't put too
much creedence in their words.
M-L: Now there is a difference, isn't there, in intention this time and that is
actualy to protect some of the Muslim people in Bosnia from Serbian attack.
Whereas previous US policy was to protect (use force if neccesaru) to protect
relief supplies.
E: well certanly that would be part of the consequence yes. You have to put
it in two pieces. First of all there is the question of flying and what it
does to threaten humanitarian flights, in addition there is no quetion,
that if you impose a no-fly zone, it means that the Bosnian Serbs can't use
their aircraft to attack the Bosnian Muslims. That is correct.
M-L[ I gather from the reports today, that the British and the French would
rather that there were two stages : you declare a no-fly zone and then
observers on the ground see whether that is being observed before you move
to the stage which you want US wants, of immediately having patroling flights
to monitor and observe. Is that fair?
E: yes, that is fair representation of their view against ours, and I dont
know if we are having any argument of puting observers on the ground in this
airfields, and so forth. They can I suppose watch the planes take off and land
and hopefully that would have some deterent effect. But we feel very strongly
that it is important for the SC to make it clear that its resolutions are to be
obeyed. As I said earlier this is the multilateral institution. We will have to
debate with the our collegues in the SC, and probably will have to come to some
compromise.
M-L: They are apparently worried that the French , who have troups on the
ground
and the British who will, might have those troups retaliated against by the
Serbians, whereas the US has no troups on the ground to be retaliated against.
E: Look. There is no question that the decision that the president finaly
made to go to no-fly zone with some theeths in it, is in fact the tough
decision. And there is no argument that we had debate within the US government
we are now having debate with some of our allies. there is no question at all
that moving to this step has some consequences with it as well and they are
a lot of heavy chested ....newspaper editors who dont seem to recognize that
it is a comlicated problem, and there are consequences to our alies. The
president decided I think rightly that the situation in and around Sarajevo
is disatruous now ,that we need to move hard and fast to prevent it becoming
worse , but I can understand the argument of the French and the British
or anyone else saying : look there are consequences with this that we need
to pin through.
M-L: Some reports are suggesting Mr. Bush have changed his policy because
he was being pressured by the governor Clinton who was urging more US
involvment. Is that the reason the President changed his policy.
E: No no, ......
M-L: It is also being suggested that the administration was sensitive
to apparent inconsistency with policy in Iraq, where a no-fly zone was
.... in, Us planes together with the British and French and some other
planes have been enforcing that. Why you were willing to do it in the Iraq,
where there is not obvious .... danger to civilians , why not do it in
Yugoslavia? Were you sensitive to that argument?
E: There is no question. We are very sensitive to the Muslim world view,
that the west is permiting the killing of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina
while acting differently in Iraq. The situation is totaly different. So I
mean it is very clear you can impose a no-fly zone in Iraq for totaly different
reasons, but the point nevertheless ... is that the Moslem world looks on the
gas more and more as the Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina are killed, and
that there is no question at all that this waights heavily on the president
and on of all of us who tried to think through this problem. Again the situa-
tion is totaly different but the fact of the matter is Moslems are being killed
in Bosnia Herzegovina. And this government is trying to demonstrate to the
Moslim world we care about it, and want to do something about it.
M-L: So president is now prepared to put American war planes into the sjy
ower Bosnia if the UN asks for it.
E: Again I dont want to commit the president, but It seems to me that
is fairly obvious that if in fact the no-fly zone were passed with the
teeth in it that we want, the president would be prepared to contribute
to the enforcemtn od the no-fly zone, Yes.
M-L: And if the Serbian planes interfiered would they be shot down?
E: Again I dont want to speculate other than to say that you can assume
the US would be prepared to make sure that the no-fly zone was carried out
and I suppose if that requires the use of force, we would be prepared to do
that.
M-L: Moving to the other piece of the situation which has so many people
so concerned with, particularly with winter advancing . What is the US
doing to increase the quantity or proportion of relief suplies actually
reaching?
E: It is a tough problem. And again, as winter comes about it is going
to be much tougher to get the food in by plane becouse the airport is
fogged over most of the time. One, we are trying to get as much by air
as we can all being virtualy US is almost alone in flying aircraft in it
at this point, and if not alone we are contributing the major part.
Trying roads ... doignour best...
M-L: And the US will be prepared to use force to in some way in conjuction
with other countries to protect those road convoys?
E: Again you are asking me to make commitment for the president. The fact
of the matter is we have already SC resolution which says all necessary
means to assure that humanitarian aids reach there. It is a decision
for the Secretary General of the UN and the UNPROFOR as to what that
force might be, obviously we will be ready to support whatever the decision
is.
M-L: Briefly mr Secretary, does US government believe these very alarming
estimates of how many people men, women and children, would starve
this winter if some solution isnt found
E: Believe is probably the wrong word. We are prepared to accept as potentialy
possible that a very substantial deaths this winter through starvation if
food and medicine does not get to these people. It could be a herendous
problem and we are doing everything we can to make sure it doesnt happen
M-L: Secretary Eagleburger, thank you for joining us.
novine.53.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 191, 5 October 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
HEAVY FIGHTING IN ABKHAZIA. On 2 October some 3,000-4,000 Abkhaz
National Guardsmen and volunteers from the North Caucasus captured
the town of Gagra after heavy fighting with the 200 Georgian
troops there; some 100 people were killed, Western agencies
reported. The Georgian State Council announced plans to mobilize
40,000 reservists. State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze flew
to the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, where he told journalists that
while Georgia had complied with the 3 September ceasefire
agreement, Abkhaz forces had consistently violated it with the
support of the Russian parliament. He vowed that Georgia would
retake Gagra. Meeting in Tbilisi on 3 October in Shevardnadze's
absence, the Georgian State Council voted to seize all former
Soviet military equipment on Georgian territory. Also on 3
October, Shevardnadze's helicopter was fired upon as he travelled
to Sochi for talks with Russian military officials. Gagra was
reported calm on 4 October, but a representative of the State
Council told AFP that the Abkhaz were committing "atrocities"
against the civilian population. Georgian reinforcements were
dispatched to the towns of Gantiadi and Leselidze, between Gagra
and the Russian frontier. The State Council appealed to NATO
Secretary-General Manfred Woerner and to the CSCE to help calm the
situation, according to AFP. Addressing a rally in Sukhumi,
Shevardnadze called on the Georgian population of Abkhazia to
participate in the 11 October parliamentary elections which he
termed the key to stabilizing the situation in the republic. (Liz
Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GRACHEV WARNS GEORGIA ABOUT ARMS SEIZURES. Russian Defense
Minister General Pavel Grachev on 4 October warned Georgia that
any attempts to take control of Russian military equipment in the
republic could lead to armed clashes between Russian and Georgian
forces. Grachev was responding to the recent Georgian State
Council's decision to seize all Russian arms stationed in Georgia.
ITAR-TASS quoted Grachev as saying that this decision was "a
flagrant breach of earlier agreements" and that he had given
orders to all Russian troops to prevent any forcible seizure of
military facilities. Russian and Georgian authorities had
previously worked out arrangements for the transfer of some
Russian military equipment to the republic. In August, the
Russians announced that the 10th Motorized Rifle division in
Akhaltsikhe, stationed along the Turkish border, would be
disbanded and its equipment handed over to Georgia. However, on 17
September the Russian Defense Ministry charged that Georgian units
were attacking Russian troops and civilians, and warned that its
forces reserved the right to fight back. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
WESTERN CORRESPONDENTS VISIT TAJIKISTAN WAR ZONE. Reports on 2,3
and 4 October from Western correspondents visiting Kurgan-Tyube
and other locations in southern Tajikistan provide some
confirmation of charges made earlier by opponents of deposed
President Rakhmon Nabiev that Russian forces stationed in the
country are helping pro-Nabiev fighters. The pro-Nabiev forces
from Kulyab Oblast have severely damaged the town of Kurgan-Tyube,
and thousands of refugees from there were reported to be making
their way to Dushanbe. In an interview on Tajik Radio on 4
October, Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Davlat Usmon, a leader of the
Islamic Renaissance Party, compared the role of Russian troops in
Tajikistan with that of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and accused
the Russians of siding with forces opposed to the present Tajik
government. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EXPERIMENTAL LAND SALES IN RUSSIA. President Yeltsin has signed a
decree "On Carrying Out an Experiment in Moscow Oblast in 1992 in
Auctioning Off Plots of Land for Housing Construction," ITAR-TASS
reported on 2 October. Officials in the Ramenskoye raion will be
authorized to auction plots of land to residents of Moscow and the
Moscow oblast for housing construction. They will be asked to
submit reports within one month on the results of the experiment.
The State Committee for Land Reform is expected to use the results
to help determine land values in any future widespread land
privatization. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OF HARD- CURRENCY EARNINGS. Russian
First Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Sergei Glazyev told Parliament
on 2 October that the government would soon require state
enterprises to sell all of their hard-currency earnings to the
state, Interfax and Radio Rossii reported. At present, state
enterprises must sell half of their hard-currency earnings to the
state at the going market rate. Glazyev did not specify when the
proposed measure would take effect. He told Interfax that firms
had stashed away some $3.5 billion in foreign bank accounts, while
an additional $1.5 billion was "outside government control." It is
thought that anticipation of this move was a factor in last week's
decline in the exchange rate of the ruble. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
KRAVCHUK APPOINTS ACTING PRIME MINISTER. Ukrainian President
Leonid Kravchuk on 2 October appointed Valentyn Symonenko as
acting prime minister, Ukrinform-TASS and Western news agencies
reported. The move follows the resignation of Vitold Fokin and the
parliamentary vote of no confidence in his government. Symonenko,
who was appointed Kravchuk's representative in Odessa earlier this
year, subsequently was named first deputy prime minister. His
appointment came after Volodymyr Lanovyi, the market-oriented
minister of economics and deputy prime minister, was sacked by
Kravchuk. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIA, UKRAINE CONCUR ON FORMER USSR DEBT. Russian Prime
Minister Egor Gaidar and Ukrainian President Kravchuk announced in
Kiev on 3 October that their countries would accept responsibility
for their individual shares of the $70-$80 billion debt of the
former Soviet Union, but no more. The two nations are thereby
rejecting the concept of "joint and several" responsibility for
the debt to which they agreed with Western creditors last
December. The concept of "joint and several" responsibility
basically means that in case of non-payment on the former Soviet
debt by one or more of the republics, the remaining republics must
make up the difference. This decision by Russia and Ukraine may
cause further problems in upcoming negotiations over debt
repayment with Western creditors. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN AGREEMENT ON TRADE ISSUES. Gaidar's visit to
Kiev also produced an agreement between Russia and Ukraine on
resolving their current trade dispute. Few details were provided.
Western news agencies quoted Gaidar as saying simply that the
agreement would contribute to "normalizing uneasy relations
between the two countries." The recent dispute concerns
outstanding payments between Ukrainian and Russian enterprises for
imports. Russian unilateral actions to stem the growth of this
indebtedness has significantly hampered already floundering trade
between the two states. The documents signed by Gaidar and acting
Ukrainian Prime Minister Valentin Symonenko also appear to include
provisions for the introduction of a new Ukrainian national
currency. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
DEMOCRATS AND CIVIC UNION SEARCH FOR CONSENSUS. Representatives of
the "Democratic Russia" movement and the Civic Union have met to
discuss economic reform and decided to set up groups of joint
experts of various political groups to monitor and advice the
government on reform, DR-Press reported on 4 October.
Representatives of the Civic Union suggested that an invitation be
extended to members of a right-wing group opposed to the group of
experts, but the democrats rejected the idea. Members of the Civic
Union said that the Arkadii Volsky's "thirteen point program,"
which had been published in Izvestiya on 13 September, was not the
official economic program of the Civic Union. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBACHEV BARRED FROM FOREIGN TRAVEL. ITAR-TASS quoted on 2
October a press release issued by the Russian Constitutional Court
concerning its request that the Russian Foreign Ministry along
with the Ministry of Security (formerly the KGB) ensure the
appearance in the Court of former CPSU Secretary General Mikhail
Gorbachev. The request was made in response to Gorbachev's
refusal to testify at the communist party hearings "and in the
connection of his scheduled trip abroad." ITAR-TASS quoted the
Constitutional Court as stating that the aforementioned ministries
had taken "appropriate measures" to stop Gorbachev from going
abroad. On 6 October, Gorbachev was supposed to begin a visit to
South Korea; according to The Los Angeles Times of 4 October,
after the authorities withdrew his passport, Gorbachev informed
the Koreans that the trip had to be postponed. Gorbachev
reportedly had plans to visit several Latin American countries; he
also was to visit Berlin to receive that city's honorary
citizenship on 6 November. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN SIGNS DECREE ON GOVERNMENT. President Boris Yeltsin has
signed a decree on the reorganization of the government, ITAR-TASS
reported on 2 October. It abolishes the ministry of architecture,
construction and housing management, the ministry for industry and
twenty-two state committees. Six new state committees, including
one for industrial policy, will be created. Twenty-six other
ministries will be reorganized and a new post of deputy prime
minister for agriculture will be established. The former State
Committee for Procurement (Gossnab) will be transformed into a
share holding company called Roskontrakt. Yeltsin signed the
decree before the parliament concluded its discussions on a new
law on the government, which may cause new friction. In an
apparent effort to minimize anticipated negative political
reaction, Prime Minister Gaidar told an ITAR-TASS correspondent on
24 September that the current governmental structure was hurriedly
thrown together in a moment of crisis as the Soviet Union was
falling apart. The planned restructuring, he said, is simply an
attempt to "instill order, [and] define functions and
competence... [in] the hierarchy of agencies." (Alexander Rahr &
Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CRIMEAN MEJLIS TO HOLD EMERGENCY SESSION. Crimean Tatar leaders
are calling for an emergency session of their parliament, the
Mejlis, Interfax and Western news agencies reported on 4 October.
The action follows a clash between Tatars and Crimean authorities
after the latter ordered the removal of temporary houses built by
the Tartars in the southern town of Alushta. More than 50 people
were reported injured. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLES OF THE CAUCASUS. The
two-day extraordinary congress of the mountain peoples of the
Caucasus held in the Chechen capital Groznyi to discuss the
situation in Abkhazia ended on 4 October, ITAR-TASS reported. Its
final declaration calls on the official leaders of the North
Caucasian republics to denounce the federal treaty that governs
their relations with Russia as not in accord with the interests of
the peoples of the North Caucasus. It also recommends that
political organizations and movements in the republics demand that
the leaderships strive for real independence, recognize the
independence of Chechnya, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, and create
joint forces of regional security. If the republican leaderships
refuse to do this, the confederation threatens to organize mass
protests demanding their resignations. The congress also demanded
the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from the region.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CONFEDERATION OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLES RENAMED. The congress decided
to rename the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples of the
Caucasus the Confederation of the Peoples of the Caucasus in the
hope that the local Cossacks and others would join it. In an
interview with ITAR-TASS on 3 October, the confederation's
president, Musa Shanibov, said that although Chechnya was the
standard-bearer of freedom in the region, he still believed that
the other 15 peoples who are members of the confederation should
for the time being continue to link their fate with Russia to
avoid a conflagration. A session of the confederation's parliament
is due to take place in two weeks' time. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
PRESIDENT OF KABARDINO-BALKARIA CRITICIZES RUSSIA. Valerii Kokov,
president of Kabardino-Balkaria, told Russian journalists on 4
October that Russia's policy towards the North Caucasus was
"inadequate," and lacking in an understanding of the situation,
ITAR-TASS reported. He said that the arrest in Nalchik of Musa
Shanibov, the leader of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples
of the Caucasus, had been illtimed. The arrest sparked off
round-the-clock protests meetings in Nalchik that are still
continuing. Interfax reported on 4 October that protesters were
still awaiting a response from the republican government to their
demands that Russian MVD troops withdraw and that Kokov resign.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLL ON POLITICAL PARTIES IN AZERBAIJAN. On 3 October Interfax
cited the results of a poll conducted by the Baku Center for
Sociological Studies which indicates that the ruling Azerbaijan
Popular Front is the most popular political organization in
Azerbaijan, with a rating of 37.2 per cent among an unspecified
number of respondents in the cities of Baku and Sumgait. The
radical National Independence Party of Azerbaijan, headed by
Etibar Mamedov, was second with 26 per cent. Among the
Azerbaijani leadership, Iskander Gamidov, the pan-Turkist Minister
of Internal Affairs, is supported by 58.7 per cent of those
polled, followed by Defense Minister Ragim Kaziev (50 per cent,)
and Nakhichevan parliament Chairman Geidar Aliev (39.5 per cent).
No rating was listed for President Abulfaz Elchibey. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
OIL INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS. Azerbaijan has signed a preliminary
agreement with Pennzoil, Remco, and Pennzoil Caspial to develop
oil and gas deposits in the Guneshli offshore field in the Caspian
Sea, Turan, RIA, and The Wall Street Journal reported on 2
October. The Western companies are expected to invest $2.5 billion
during the next 10 years. Russia's top corruption investigator was
quoted by Trud on 2 October as saying that corruption in the oil
industry is "alarming" and that only one-quarter of the value of
exported oil is repatriated. And the governor of Tyumen oblast
told Reuters on 2 October that his oil industry will fight to keep
its 20% share of oil revenues. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KYRGYZ VICE PRESIDENT VISITS TAJIKISTAN. Kyrgyzstan's Vice
President Feliks Kulov was the first representative of a CIS state
to visit the war zone in southern Tajikistan, Tajik acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov told Interfax on 2 October. The
following day Kulov told Interfax that the issue of a peacekeeping
force for Tajikistan will be raised at the CIS summit on 9
October, and Tajik leaders will present plans for the deployment
of peacekeepers. The opposing sides in the conflict agreed to
support the deployment of a CIS peacekeeping force, according to
Kulov, but want it to be made up of troops from a neutral state.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
BOSNIAN UPDATE. International relief flights began again to
Sarajevo on 3 October, following a one-month break after an
Italian cargo plane was shot down by a shoulder-launched missile
of undetermined origin. The thick Sarajevo fog forced a delay in
additional relief flights on 3 October, but the BBC said that the
first plane had brought new radar equipment to enable the airport
to stay open throughout the fog season. The New York Times quoted
President George Bush as calling Serbian bombing attacks in Bosnia
a "flagrant disregard for human life" and supporting a ban on all
flights in that republic except those authorized by the UN. In
Strasbourg EC special envoy Lord Owen told an RFE/RL correspondent
that the effects of ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces will
eventually be undone by "persistent application of principle . . .
not over months but over years." Finally, Reuters quoted UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and the chief of the
International Committee of the Red Cross Cornelio Sommaruga as
condemning ethnic cleansing, including what Ogata referred to as
encouraging "rape of women of another ethnic group." (Patrick
Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ALLEGATIONS OF SYSTEMATIC ASSAULTS ON MUSLIM WOMEN. Western news
agencies on 2 October quoted Bosnian Serbian leaders as denying
recent media reports that their fighters are systematically raping
Muslim women, and military liaison officer Momo Starcevic promised
to punish any guilty parties. On 25 September the Zagreb weekly
Globus reported on a particular incident in which 40 Muslim young
women from one village said they had been gang-raped by Serbs over
a period of several days. One of the men told them it was part of
a policy to wipe out the Muslim nation. Globus further reported
that a team of UN gynecologists examined the women, confirmed
their stories, and concluded that such mistreatment appears to be
a "war strategy . . . [ordered] from the top." The story was not
corroborated, however. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ATMOSPHERE IN CZECHOSLOVAK COALITION DETERIORATING. After
deputies of Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) supported a resolution of the leftist
opposition in the federal parliament on the creation of a Czech
and Slovak Union on 1 October, Czech officials charged Meciar with
breaking earlier agreements between the coalition partners. Czech
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus published a statement on 2 October in
which he said that he feels betrayed. He said the HZDS's shift of
position is dangerous "for the future of democracy in our
country." After an emergency session of the Czech government on 3
October, Klaus made it clear that he has no intention of
postponing scheduled meetings with the Slovak government to
discuss further steps of dividing the country, despite Meciar's
urging to do so. Klaus also said that Czechoslovakia will cease to
exist on 1 January 1993, thus indicating that he will not take
into consideration the federal parliament's proposal on creating a
union between the two republics. Former President Vaclav Havel
supported the Czech government's view; he was quoted by CSTK on 3
October as saying that a union would only prolong the agony. (Jan
Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CIVIC MOVEMENT BECOMES A PARTY. Delegates to a special congress of
the Civic Movement, one of the heirs to the Civic Forum, which
toppled the Czechoslovak communist regime in November 1989, voted
on 4 October to transform the movement into a political party.
Delegates abolished the movement's collective, open membership and
replaced it with a fixed structure. Before the elections of June
1992, the Civic Movement was a dominating political actor on the
federal level and in the Czech Republic, but it failed to win
enough support in the elections to be represented in either the
Czech or the federal parliaments. Former Foreign Minister Jiri
Dienstbier was elected the party's chairman. He said the party's
goal is to form a liberal, nonsocialist alternative in today's
political scene. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL, Inc.)
FINAL RESULTS IN ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE. On 4 October the
Constitutional Court released the final results of the 27
September presidential race. Incumbent President Ion Iliescu won
47.34% of the votes, followed by Emil Constantinescu, candidate of
the centrist Democratic Convention, with 31.24%; Gheorghe Funar of
the Party of Romanian National Unity (10.88%); Caius Traian
Dragomir of the National Salvation Front (4.75); Ioan Manzatu from
the fringe Republican Party (3.05%); and Mircea Druc, a former
prime minister of Moldova who ran as an independent (2.75%).
Radio Bucharest quoted the president of the court as saying that
the share of invalid votes (4.65%) was "normal." A runoff between
Iliescu and Constantinescu is scheduled for 11 October. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CONSTANTINESCU CRITICIZES VOTE COUNTING. The same day Radio
Bucharest broadcast a statement by Constantinescu criticizing what
he termed "confusion and lack of transparency" surrounding the
vote counting. Constantinescu spoke of "serious irregularities"
and stressed that roughly one in ten votes for the parliament had
been declared invalid. He appealed to the authorities to show "a
maximum of fairness" in staging the runoff for presidency, and
challenged his rival Ion Iliescu to at least three debates to be
broadcast live by Romanian radio and television. (Dan Ionescu,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
FUNAR BECOMES INTERIM PRESIDENT OF HIS PARTY. The National
Council of the Party of Romanian National Unity (PRNU), the
political arm of the nationalist "Vatra Romaneasca" (Romanian
Hearth) organization, announced on 3 October that Gheorghe Funar
was appointed the party's interim president at a council meeting
in Cluj-Napoca. Funar placed third with almost 11% of the votes
in the presidential race, while his PRNU was also third in the
parliamentarian elections. Before appointing Funar, the council
"suspended" former party president Radu Ciontea and "discharged"
another four leaders. It also appointed a delegation including
Funar to conduct talks in Bucharest on the building of the next
government, Radio Bucharest said. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
IN POLAND, GAIDAR AGREES TO ZERO-SUM DEBT SETTLEMENT. Mutual debt
claims were the focus of talks between Russian Prime Minister Egor
Gaidar and Polish officials in Warsaw on 2 October. Gaidar and
Polish Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka signed agreements on
investment protection and cross-border cooperation. Gaidar
pledged that Poland will be able to buy as much oil from Russia as
it can afford in 1992 and 1993. Russia supports the idea of a
"zero-sum settlement" of mutual debt claims, he said. President
Lech Walesa earlier told Gaidar that Poland insists on a zero-sum
solution. Polish TV reported that Poland owes Moscow $1.5 billion
and 5 billion transfer rubles, while Russia owes Poland $300
million and 7 million transfer rubles. A joint commission was
formed to settle the question. Gen. Leonid Kovalev announced
that the withdrawal of Russian combat troops from Poland will
conclude by the end of October, two weeks ahead of schedule.
Walesa said that Poland wants good relations with Russia, but with
respect for the principles of partnership and democracy. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLISH MASS PRIVATIZATION MOVES FORWARD. Poland's mass
privatization program survived an important test on 2 October,
when the Sejm voted down a motion to throw out the government's
draft legislation. PAP reported that the vote on rejecting the
legislation outright was 146 to 180, with 17 abstentions. The vote
on the mass privatization program, which aims to privatize 600
selected firms and distribute shares in 20 national investment
funds to the general public, had been delayed because the Sejm
demanded an official reckoning of the expected costs.
Privatization Minister Janusz Lewandowski reported that the
program would begin to pay for itself as soon as the first million
citizens paid their minimal participation fees. Some 10-20
million Poles are expected to take part in the mass privatization
program. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
POLAND PLANS DEFENSE ACCORDS WITH NEIGHBORS. Defense Minister
Janusz Onyszkiewicz told a press conference on 2 October that
Poland plans to sign military cooperation agreements with Germany,
Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania in the near future. These
agreements will resemble those Poland has already concluded with
Hungary, France, and Latvia. Onyszkiewicz added that the defense
ministry will not take an official stance on the issue of Col.
Ryszard Kuklinski, the Polish officer who spied for the CIA for
eleven years. There were many "question marks" about Kuklinski's
behavior, Onyszkiewicz said, adding that Kuklinski had access only
to those Warsaw Pact operational plans that involved the
participation of Polish armed forces. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
SLOVENIAN ELECTIONS IN DECEMBER. Slovenia's first multiparty
parliamentary and presidential elections since declaring
independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991 will be held on 6
December. A second round is scheduled on 20 December for
candidates failing to win more than 50% of the vote. There are
currently eight presidential candidates, including the current
president, Milan Kucan. Kucan, a former chairman of the Slovenian
League of Communists, won in a run-off election in April 1990
during Slovenia's first multiparty elections since 1938. Recent
polls show that Kucan is the republic's most popular politician.
Radio Slovenia carried the report on 1 October. (Milan
Andrejevich, RFE/RL, Inc.)
HUNGARY TO RESTORE NAGYMAROS LANDSCAPE. The Hungarian government
approved a plan to restore the landscape at Nagymaros, the
Hungarian section of the joint Hungarian-Czechoslovak
Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric power project, MTI reports. If
parliament votes to accept the plan in the coming weeks, work on
restoring the landscape can begin next spring and is expected to
take two and a half years. The major work involves removing the
dam, filling the Danube river bed, and making the river navigable.
Costs are estimated at over 7 billion forint. State Secretary in
the Ministry of Transportation, Communications, and Water
Conservation Zsolt Rajkai said that normal operations of the
Gabcikovo dam on the Slovak side should not cause problems, but a
peak operation raises the danger of flooding for both sides.
Hungary started construction at Nagymaros in 1977 but pulled out
of the joint project in 1989 because of environmental concerns.
(Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ALBANIAN ECONOMY ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE. A study appearing in
Business Eastern Europe, the weekly of the private consulting
group, Business International, says industrial output in Europe's
poorest country will likely drop by 17% this year to a level only
35% of what it was in 1990, at the time of the fall of the
communist regime. Only one-third of the 300 largest enterprises
are operating, unemployment in industry is at 50% and rising, and
inflation, currently at about 220%, could shoot up as well.
Foreign aid to Albania remains vital, the report says. At the
same time Reuters reports that during a 3 October visit, Prime
Minister Alexander Meksi secured an additional $30 million in
emergency aid from Italy, the main donor nation to Albania, and
established formal bilateral economic relations. (Charles
Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.)
OIL SPILL IN BELARUS APPROACHING LITHUANIA. On 3 October the
Lithuanian Environmental Protection Department reported that
nearly 200 tons of oil, spilled into the Nemunas River when a
deranged person pried open oil containers at a furniture factory
70 kilometers from Grodno, are approaching Lithuania, BNS reports.
Only a small portion of the Nemunas bank has been contaminated and
workers at Druskininkai, Alytus, and Prienai have built barriers
of hay to prevent the further spread of the contamination.
(Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SKINHEADS ATTACK GERMANS IN CRACOW. Three German truck drivers
were attacked by skinheads in Nowa Huta, near Cracow, on the night
of 1 October. One of the Germans died as a result of injuries
suffered in the attack. Cracow police apprehended a group of 10
teenage suspects and placed four under arrest. About 100 skinheads
waged a battle with police in the center of Cracow on the night of
2 October. One policeman was seriously injured. Prime Minister
Hanna Suchocka expressed "deep sorrow and regret" at the incident,
according to PAP. Hundreds of horrified Cracow residents placed
flowers and lit candles at the site of the attack. (Louisa Vinton,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.54.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 192, 6 October, 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
GEORGIAN MILITIA CHIEF ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO RUSSIAN TROOPS.
Georgian State Council deputy chairman Dzhaba Ioseliani, the
commander of the Mkhedrioni militia, issued an ultimatum to Russian
troops and volunteers from the North Caucasus fighting in Abkhazia
to leave by 15 October or be driven out by force, Western agencies
reported. Meanwhile a Georgian counter-offensive aimed at retaking
Gagra was repulsed by the Abkhaz. A Georgian military helicopter
was shot down near Gagra. The Georgian State Council press office
claimed that it was shot down by two Russian jets, while the
Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement and suggested that
it was brought down by a ground-to-air missile launched by Abkhaz
separatists. Following a meeting with the leadership of the
Transcaucasus Military District, Georgian State Council chairman
Eduard Shevardnadze claimed in a radio address that Russian troops
in Abkhazia have formed a military government there and are no
longer obeying commands. Shevardnadze further charged that
"reactionary forces" in Russia are supporting Abkhaz separatism,
but warned that Georgia should not break off relations with Moscow
given the presence of "healthy democratic forces" there. (Liz
Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WHILE FOREIGN MINISTER TRIES CONCILIATORY APPROACH. Addressing a
news conference in Moscow on 5 October, Georgian Foreign Minister
Aleksandre Chikvaidze said that his top policy priority was saving
Georgian-Russian relations, which date back centuries and must not
be allowed suddenly to collapse, ITAR-TASS reported. Chikvaidze
also stated that nothing can prevent the holding of the
parliamentary elections scheduled for 11 October, "even if they
take place against a background of artillery fire." (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
SITUATION IN TAJIKISTAN. More than 1,000 refugees from southern
Tajikistan gathered in front of the parliament building in Dushanbe
to demand the removal of Russian troops from the region, Interfax
reported on 5 October. Acting president Akbarsho Iskandarov told
the refugees that the status of the troops will be determined when
agreements are signed with the Russian Federation; the same day he
told Interfax that the Tajik government is not strong enough to
disarm the armed bands that have been fighting each other in the
southern part of the country, and Deputy Chairman of Tajikistan's
National Security Committee Jurabek Aminov commented that the
government is getting weaker while the armed groups are getting
stronger. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN TROOPS IN TAJIKISTAN CONFINED TO BASES. All Russian forces
in Tajikistan were confined to their bases as of 5 October,
Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, Chief of Staff of the Russian troops in
Tajikistan, told Interfax the same day. Nabzdorov said that an
agreement to this effect had been reached with the various Tajik
factions the previous day. The only exception is the Russian
troops guarding the Nurek dam and hydroelectric station. National
Security Deputy Chairman Aminov told a Reuter correspondent on 5
October that Leninabad Oblast in the north, which has stayed out of
the fighting so far, has created its own defense force, as has the
self-proclaimed Autonomous Republic of Gorno-Badakhshan in the
Pamirs. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MOLDOVAN FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR UNITED NATIONS ACTION ON
MOLDOVA. Addressing the UN General Assembly on 1 October, Moldovan
Foreign Minister Nicolae Tiu urged the dispatch of UN ceasefire
monitors and human rights rapporteurs to the Dniester, where, he
claimed, "pro-communist imperial forces, the military-industrial
complex, and the upper ranks of the ex-Soviet army have launched a
veritable war...seeking to tear off Moldova's eastern area."
Characterizing Russia's 14th Army in eastern Moldova as "an army of
occupation . . . and a permanent source of tension and conflict,"
Tiu noted that Russia is obstructing the negotiations on its
withdrawal. Endorsing a proposed resolution on the withdrawal of
Russian troops from the Baltic States, Tiu urged the General
Assembly to add the issue of Russian troops in Moldova to that
debate. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
"DNIESTER" INSURGENTS BUILD UP MILITARY STRENGTH. "Dniester
Republic President" Igor Smirnov has appointed Colonel Stanislav
Khazheev as "minister of defense" of the would-be republic,
DR-Press reported from Tiraspol on 2 October. On the same date,
the age limit for officers serving with the "Dniester" forces was
raised from 50 to 60 years of age to enable more Russian veterans
to join the insurgent forces with full salaries and benefits.
Interviewed by Western correspondents on 29 September, as cited by
Moldovapres, Smirnov disclosed that the "Dniester" forces currently
comprise 35,000 men and that arms procurement would continue
despite the ceasefire agreement. Komsomolskaya Pravda had reported
from Tiraspol on 24 September that Russian Cossacks are being
enrolled in the "Dniester republic"'s newly formed "army" and
"border guards." (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MOLDOVA NEGOTIATES WITH GAGAUZ ON TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY. Moldovan
President Mircea Snegur and a Gagauz delegation headed by "Gagauz
republic Supreme Soviet Chairman" Mikhail Kendigelyan conferred in
Chisinau on 1 October, Moldovapres reported. It was Snegur's
second meeting with Gagauz leaders in the space of less than two
weeks to discuss a draft law on Gagauz territorial autonomy,
prepared by a joint commission of the Moldovan parliament and
government. In an apparent attempt to facilitate a deal, the Gagauz
leaders on 28 September dismissed their most intransigent
colleague, Ivan Burgudji, from his posts of "director of internal
affairs" and commander of the "Gagauz defense forces." The
dismissal followed a riot in Comrat against Burgudji and his guards
who have long made themselves unpopular among ordinary Gagauz.
(Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)
LIGACHEV ADDRESSES CONSTITUTIONAL COURT. Addressing the Russian
Constitutional Court hearings on the CPSU on 5 October, former CPSU
CC Politburo member Egor Ligachev, condemned Yeltsin's ban on the
Party as unconstitutional. ITAR-TASS reported that the main part
of Ligachev's speech was devoted to criticism of the current
situation in Russia. The country's current problems were the result
of the disbandment of the CPSU, Ligachev maintained. The former
Communist Party leading hard-liner accused Mikhail Gorbachev of
destroying the Party and said the policies of the former Soviet
president opened doors to "anti-communism and national separatism."
ITAR-TASS reported the same day that the Constitutional Court again
summoned Gorbachev to attend the hearings and fined him for 100
rubles for ignoring earlier summons. (Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.)
GORBACHEV FOUNDATION CRITICIZES TRAVEL BAN. The Gorbachev
Foundation issued a statement on 3 October criticizing the order
barring Mikhail Gorbachev from leaving Russian territory, The order
was issued by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in response
to Gorbachev's refusal to attend the Constitutional Court
Hearings,Russian television and Western news agencies reported.
"Novosti," said the foundation found the involvement of the Minstry
of Security in the affair particularly worrisome. Its statement
noted that such a ban "contradicts the Russian Constitution and
international law," and suggested that the incident might mark the
rebirth of the old Soviet technique of denying civil rights to
political dissenters. According to The Los Angeles Times of 4
October, Gorbachev had asked in vain to be kept informed of all
"concrete measures" taken against him, and for information about
the laws permitting such measures. (Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
PROVISIONAL AGENDA FOR CIS SUMMIT AGREED. A meeting of the foreign
ministers of CIS states in Moscow on 5 October agreed on a
provisional agenda of 20 items for the CIS heads of state and of 24
items for the CIS heads of government for their joint summit
meeting in Bishkek on 9 October, Interfax reported. The first item
will be the draft CIS charter. The draft agenda also includes a
number of economic and defense issues as well as regional
conflicts. Among these are harmonizing economic legislation,
progress in forming an economic arbitration council, and creating a
consultative and coordinatory economic council. Most of the items
have been on the agenda of earlier summits, and only limited
progress can be expected this time as well. Russia's acting
premier Egor Gaidar, for instance, said that Russia will not be
rushed into creating the economic council, advocated by Kazakhstan
president Nursultan Nazarbaev, for fear of accusations of imperial
ambitions. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YELTSIN SIGNS LAW ON DEFENSE. Russian President Boris Yeltsin
signed the Law on Defense on 5 October, the Interfax news agency
reported. The law sets out the basic structure and principles of
organization of the Russian Armed Forces. Yeltsin and the Supreme
Soviet had clashed over the right of the President to appoint
senior military commanders without consulting the Supreme Soviet
(see the Daily Report 25 September 1992), but a compromise was
reached allowing the President the exclusive right of appointment
after a new Russian constitution is ratified. (John Lepingwell,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
NAZARBAEV PROPOSES ASIAN SECURITY CONFERENCE. Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbaev took his proposal for an Asian
counterpart to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
to the United Nations General Assembly on 5 October, an RFE/RL
correspondent reported. Nazarbaev has been raising the idea of an
Asian security organization since 1991; on 2 October his press
secretary announced that the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran will meet in
Alma-Ata at the end of October or beginning of November to begin
the process of creating an Asian security system patterned on the
CSCE. Nazarbaev said that talks with China and Russia about
membership are already underway. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN ARMY FACES PERSONNEL, EQUIPMENT PROBLEMS. The Deputy
Commander of the Russian Ground Forces for Armaments, General
Colonel Sergei Maev, reported that the Russian army faces serious
equipment and repair problems. In an interview in Krasnaya zvezda
on 3 October, Maev complained of a 30% personnel shortfall and
stated that 70-75% of Russian equipment was outdated. He attributed
this to Russia's inheritance of the second-echelon military
districts, which held older equipment than the districts in Ukraine
and Belarus. Additional difficulties are caused by the fact that
40%, in the case of armor 80%, of repair facilities are located
outside Russia. Maev warned that it would require a "serious state
program" to correct these deficiencies. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
RUSSIAN SHIPS JOIN GULF PATROL. On 5 October two Russian naval
vessels arrived in the Persian Gulf to join the international
peace-keeping forces in that region. ITAR-TASS identified the
ships as the "Admiral Vinogradov"--a "Udaloy"-class anti-submarine
guided-missile destroyer--and the tanker "Boris Butoma." The report
said that the commander of the Russian force would meet with a US
naval officer on 6 October to be briefed on naval operations in the
Gulf, but stressed that the Russian ships would be responsible only
to Admiral Felix Gromov, the Russian Navy's commander-in-chief. The
news account also emphasized that the Russian ships had no nuclear
weapons onboard. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN DEFENSE DELEGATION VISITS SOUTH KOREA. Russian First
Deputy of Defense Andrei Kokoshin led a delegation of military
officers, academicians, and defense industrialists to South Korea
on 4 October in what ITAR-TASS described as the first such visit in
history. Kokoshin was quoted as telling the agency that the visit
testified to "Russian's serious intentions to activate its policy
in the Asia-Pacific region." During their five-day visit the
Russians planned to meet with officials of the South Korean defense
department and leading businessmen. Kokoshin noted that "favorable
opportunities exist for the development of industrial cooperation
between Moscow and Seoul, including the fulfillment of the Russian
defense industry's conversion program." (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
RUSSIAN-AMERICAN SPACE COOPERATION. A Russian cosmonaut will fly
in the American space shuttle and an American astronaut will be
lifted to the Russian Mir space station by a Soyuz rocket according
to plans announced on 4 October by the directors of the US and
Russian space agencies. According to UPI, the agreements for these
joint efforts were signed that day in Moscow. Two Russian
cosmonauts will travel to Houston latter this month to start
training for a November 1993 space shuttle mission. Two American
astronauts will train in Russia for a 1995 flight to the Mir space
station. In each case, only one person will eventually make the
space trip. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SUBMARINE SALE DOES NOT HALT AID PACKAGE. The US House of
Representatives passed the $417 million aid package for the
republics of the former Soviet Union and sent it to President Bush
for his signature despite concerns over the recent Russian sale of
diesel submarines to Iran. Western agencies on 2 October reported
that the US State Department announced that day that it had been
officially informed that Russia intended to go ahead with the sale.
The House approved the aid bill 232 to 164. Opposition to the
measure was based chiefly on the submarine sale and even several of
the bill's supporters admitted that they were troubled by the deal.
(Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)
WHAT IS A KARBOVANETS? The karbovanets, as described by Interfax,
would be similar to the existing Ukrainian coupons that have
circulated since the beginning of this year. The difference
between the coupons and the karbovanets appears be twofold: 1) the
former is used only for cash settlements while the latter may be
also as a unit of account in non-cash settlements; and 2) the
karbovanets, as they are exchanged for rubles, are intended
gradually to "cycle" the ruble out of circulation. (Erik Whitlock,
RFE/RL, Inc.)
UKRAINE TO HAVE NEW PARALLEL CURRENCY THIS MONTH? According to a
representative of the Russian State Committee on Cooperation with
CIS Nations, Sergei Dubinin, Ukraine will introduce a new currency
this month, Interfax reported on 5 October. The "karbovanets" will
temporarily circulate together with the ruble at a fixed 1:1
exchange rate. The measure represents an attempt to avoid the
economic shock associated with a sudden shift to a new exclusive
currency that would likely flood Russia with Ukrainian rubles. The
introduction of the "hrivnya," which will presumably replace the
ruble, karbovanets and Ukraine's other quasi-money, coupons, as
Ukraine's exclusive currency, is scheduled for the end of this
year. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)
NALCHIK RALLY ENDS. The protest meeting that had been going on for
more than a week in the center of Nalchik, the capital of
Kabardino-Balkaria ended late on 4 October after the government
agreed to meet some of the protesters' demands, Interfax and
ITAR-TASS reported on 5 October. Interfax quoted Zantemira
Gubochikova, deputy chairwoman of the opposition Congress of the
Kabardinian People as saying that the government had agreed to most
of her movement's demands. She said the government agreed to remove
special militia units from government buildings, give the congress
airtime on local TV on a weekly basis, and halt trials of those who
volunteered to fight Georgian forces in Abkhazia. The government
also agreed to remove a military unit from the capital within in
one month but rejected the demand for the resignation of the
republic's president. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CRIMEAN TATARS DEMONSTRATE. Crimean Tatars blocked roads leading to
Simferopol, the capital, and demonstrated in front of the offices
of the procurator general on October 5, a spokeswoman reported to
RFE/RL. The main demand of the protestors is the release of
Crimean Tatars taken into custody after a clash with the
authorities several days ago. About 50 people were hurt in the
incident when authorities tried to remove homes built by the
Crimean Tatars on the property of state farms. A special session
of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar parliament, is scheduled to meet
on 6 October to discuss the situation. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
CIVIC CONGRESS OF UKRAINE OPENS IN DONETSK. The Civic Congress of
Ukraine convened in Donetsk on 3 October, ITAR-TASS and DR-Press
reported. Delegations from 18 oblasts and the Crimea are taking
part. The group favors a federal structure for Ukraine and official
status for the Russian and Ukrainian languages in the Donbass
region. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
EC REBUFF FOR "TRIANGLE" COUNTRIES. European Community foreign
ministers met for the first time with their counterparts from the
Visegrad triangle of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia on 5
October in Luxembourg, Western agencies report. The current EC
president, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, told the three
countries that no timetable can be set for full membership in the
EC. Hurd told a news conference that the EC "sympathizes with the
wish of our friends here to become full members," but that economic
uncertainties stood in the way. The triangle countries had
requested in September that the EC agree to open negotiations on
full membership in 1996, with a view to their joining the community
by the end of the century. A formal reply to this request is due at
an EC summit in December. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
KLAUS AND MECIAR TO MEET TODAY. Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus
and his Slovak counterpart Vladimir Meciar agreed to hold a meeting
of their respective parties, the Civic Democratic Party and the
Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, today in Moravia, after Meciar
unilaterally cancelled talks between the Czech and Slovak
governments that were scheduled for today. The Slovak Prime
Minister argued that after the rejection of a constitutional
amendment by the federal parliament that would have set the modes
for the division of the country, senior officials of the two
coalition partners should return to the drawing board. Indicating
that the main topic of the talks will be budgetary matters, Klaus
said on 5 October that it will not be possible to force the
parliaments to adopt a federal budget similar to those of the past
three years, CSTK reported. He added that because of that, the
basis for a common state will automatically cease to exist on 1
January 1993. Klaus also said that he has a "document necessary for
the declaration of the independence of the Czech Republic" ready.
He did not say if and when he would use it. (Jan Obrman, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
RUNOFF CAMPAIGN OPENS IN ROMANIA. Campaigning for the 11 October
runoff for presidency started on 5 October with messages broadcast
by the two candidates. The contest is between Romania's incumbent
president Ion Iliescu, a former high-ranking communist official,
and Bucharest University rector Emil Constantinescu, candidate of
the centrist Democratic Convention. Iliescu rejected public doubts
about the fairness of the 27 September first-round voting as well
as charges that he is opposing reforms. He directed a particularly
vehement attack at Nicolae Manolescu, the president of the Party of
Civic Alliance, whom he accused of "flunkyism towards circles
hostile to Romania" and of obeying "overseas patrons." In his
address, Constantinescu reiterated that if elected he would respect
the constitution and the will of the nation. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
WEST SHOULD LEARN "LESSON" FROM ROMANIAN VOTE. Foreign Minister
Adrian Nastase, who had recently been appointed vice president of
Ion Iliescu's Democratic National Salvation Front, said at a press
conference on 5 October that the West should view the Romanian
election results as "a lesson" and that it needs "a new strategy
toward Romania." Nastase claimed that the withholding of aid by the
West helped communists and radical nationalists in the 27 September
elections. He added that last week's rejection by the US House of
Representatives of most-favored-nation trade status for Romania
will only boost support for Iliescu. Nastase, who has been
widely-tipped as Romania's next prime minister, suggested that an
independent would make a better choice for that position. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)
YUGOSLAV AREA UPDATE. The BBC said on 5 October that Sarajevo has
been subjected to renewed, particularly intense shelling from
Serbian positions. Over the weekend, the Serbs began consolidating
their hold on several Sarajevo districts following the expulsion of
many of their Muslim inhabitants the previous week. Elsewhere,
Western news agencies report that the three warring sides in Bosnia
have agreed to release all civilian and military prisoners by the
end of the month as part of an agreement brokered by the Red Cross.
Finally, AFP quotes Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as saying
that he and President of Serbia-Montenegro, Dobrica Cosic, have
agreed to "voluntary and civilized transfers" of populations of
unspecified size and duration. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)
JARUZELSKI, KISZCZAK TESTIFY IN 1981 SHOOTINGS. Former Polish
party chief Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski was interrogated by the
Katowice prosecutor on 5 October in an investigation into the
martial law killings of nine miners in the Wujek mine. Special ZOMO
troops opened fire on striking miners there on 16 December 1981.
Questioned as a witness, Jaruzelski accepted "moral responsibility"
but no blame for the shootings. Former Internal Affairs Minister
Czeslaw Kiszczak was questioned as a suspect in the case on 1
October. The prosecutor charges that Kiszczak's coded message to
local officials authorizing the use of force, including firearms,
to clear the mine jeopardized the miners' lives. Kiszczak contends
the shots were fired in the heat of battle. In a different case,
the Warsaw prosecutor told PAP on 5 October that Adam Humer, chief
investigator for the dreaded security ministry from 1945 to 1956,
had admitted to murdering "suspects" during interrogation and
secretly burying their corpses in the woods. Zycie Warszawy
reports that Humer is the first former security official to face
charges under a new law that lifts the statute of limitations on
Stalinist crimes. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SOVIET COMBAT HELICOPTER VIOLATES POLISH AIRSPACE. A police
spokesman in Krosno reported on 5 October that a MI-8 combat
helicopter of Soviet origin had violated Polish airspace over
Ustrzyki Dolne and Ustjanowa, towns near Poland's border with
Ukraine, on 3 October. The helicopter, adorned with a red star,
made two low passes over buildings in Ustrzyki before departing in
the direction of the border. The Polish border guard in Przemysl
confirmed the report, adding that investigations are continuing.
Ukrainian military officials denied that any air force operations
had taken place in the area. (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.)
CANADIAN GOVERNOR GENERAL IN HUNGARY. Ramon John Hnatyshyn held
talks in Budapest on 5 October with President Arpad Goncz and Prime
Minister Jozsef Antall. The goal of the official visit is to expand
bilateral ties between the two countries. The talks focused on
economic ties, Canada's participation in the 1996 Budapest World
Fair, and the situation in the former Yugoslavia. Antall urged
that Western countries adopt a comprehensive strategy aimed at
strengthening East Central Europe's new democracies. Goncz
expressed concern about a possible spread of the Yugoslav crisis
and said that future peace treaties should guarantee the exercise
of minority rights. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
SATELLITE TV FOR HUNGARIANS ABROAD. Spokeswoman Judit Juhasz says
the Hungarian government has set up the Hungaria Television
Foundation to finance a satellite station to convey Hungarian
cultural values, provide an objective view of Hungary, cultivate
relations between peoples, and help minorities in other countries
preserve their Hungarian identity. Hungaria TV is to start
transmission three hours a day on 1 November. Programs will deal
with politics, culture, entertainment, and religion, with special
emphasis on education. The station will be overseen by a 13-member
board of trustees consisting of prominent Hungarian cultural
figures, including the writer Sandor Csoori. State subsidies will
amount to 300 million forint this year and 2 billion next year, but
the station is expected to be self-financing by 1997. MTI and
Radio Budapest carried the story. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
MORE POLICEMEN IN HUNGARY. Minister of the Interior Peter Boross
told a press conference that this year 2500 new police posts have
been filled and 500 additional policemen are to be hired next year.
Pointing out that public security is becoming a number one
political issue in Hungary, Boross said that the increase in police
personnel has the population's support. Boross stressed the
importance of keeping the police force free of any political
influence. As in all East European countries, the number of crimes
in Hungary has sharply increased in the freer atmosphere brought
about by democratization. (Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.)
ZHELEV-DIMITROV RIFT DEEPENS. In an interview on Bulgarian radio on
5 October, Bulgarian Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov accused
President Zhelyu Zhelev of knowingly telling lies about him and his
UDF government. Dimitrov, who did not go into detail, was
apparently referring to Zhelev's account of the background to their
differences in yesterday's issue of 24 chasa. Dimitrov said the
timing of such statements make him believe Zhelev has joined what
he termed a "purposeful and premeditated" campaign aimed at
destabilizing the government. The UDF cabinet has been at odds
with Zhelev since he launched sharp criticism of some aspects of
government policies in late August. (Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL,
Inc.)
BULGARIA, UKRAINE SIGN ACCORDS. During a seven-hour visit by the
Ukrainian president to Sofia, Leonid Kravchuk and Bulgarian
President Zhelyu Zhelev signed a treaty of friendship and
cooperation as well as bilateral agreements on trade, cultural
exchange and defense matters, BTA and ITAR-TASS report. The
friendship treaty confirms the territorial integrity of the two
states and calls for peaceful settlement of disputes and respect
for human rights. Zhelev told a press conference that he is pleased
with Ukrainian authorities' attitude toward resolving the problems
of the some 240,000 ethnic Bulgarians in their country, saying
there was no need for a special minority clause in the agreements.
Kravchuk noted that Ukraine will soon open an embassy in Sofia.
(Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL, Inc.)
BULGARIAN SCHOOL STRIKE. On 5 October Bulgarian teachers went on
strike to demand higher pay. BTA reports that some 70% of all
teachers participated on the first day of the strike, forcing some
3,500 of the country's 4,500 schools to close. The teachers' unions
are dissatisfied with the general 26% salary increase offered in
the second half of 1992 and demand an agreement in principle that
will put their salaries at 10% above the average. They are also
seeking more public resources to improve schools. (Kjell
Engelbrekt, RFE/RL, Inc.)
STIPENDS FOR LATVIAN STUDENTS INCREASED. On 30 September the
Latvian Supreme Council adopted a resolution raising the amount of
financial aid available to students at institutions of higher
learning, BNS reports. The monthly state scholarship of 1140
rubles had been less than the official minimum wage of 1500 rubles.
Students may now apply for interest-free loans in an amount up to
1.5 times the state stipend in addition to the free scholarship
itself. The loans, to be repaid eight years after graduation, are
available to full-time students in the last two years of their
studies who are Latvian citizens. Other loans are available for
needy and disabled students. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.)
novine.55zandric,
> The authoritarian Serbian leader used the meeting to
> launch a new attack on U.N. economic sanctions slapped on
> his republic for underwriting the Serbian territorial
> conquests in neighboring Bosnia- Hercegovina.
"PUSKINOVO NJET"
Boris Spaski se nije odazvao pozivu da prisustvuje
jucerasnjem prijemu kod predsednika republike Srbije.
Sahovski Puskin, uprkos insistiranjima novinara, nije
zeleo da obrazlozi svoju odluku. Nezvanicno se saznaje
da Spaski jednostavno nije zeleo da tako provede
slobodan dan.
Borba,7. oktobar
:>>>>>>>>>>!!!!!
novine.56.bale.,
Eagleburger Says U.S. Pressing `No-Fly' Zone in Bosnia
By GENE KRAMER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is concerned about the
killing of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and is pressing allies to
enforce a ban on military flights there, says acting Secretary of
State Lawrence Eagleburger.
``We are very sensitive to the Muslim world's view that the West
is permitting killing of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina while acting
differently in Iraq,'' where ``no-fly'' zones have been declared,
Eagleburger said in a television interview Tuesday.
A no-fly zone would halt Serbian or Bosnian Serbian air attacks
against U.N. humanitarian flights in the war-torn former Yugoslav
republic. Bosnia has no combat planes. Eagleburger said it would
also mean the Serbians can't use their aircraft to attack Bosnian
Muslims in their policy of ``ethnic cleansing.''
More than 14,000 people have been killed in Bosnia since Bosnian
Serbs rebelled against a vote in February by majority Muslims and
Croats to secede from Yugoslavia. Serbs, initially backed by the
Yugoslav army, have seized about two-thirds of Bosnian territory.
Informal closed debates on the flight ban are under way with
Britain, France and other U.N. Security Council members,
Eagleburger said, predicting the result could be a compromise
involving first trying measures short of using force to enforce the
ban.
``We had a debate in the U.S. government about it and are having
a debate with some of our allies,'' he said on public television's
``MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour'' program.
The situations are ``totally different,'' Eagleburger said, but
the United States nevertheless recognizes that ``the Muslim world
looks on aghast as more and more Muslims are killed. There is no
question that this weighed heavily on (President Bush) and all of
us ... and this government tried to demonstrate to the Muslim world
that we care about that and want to do something about that.
``The president has decided, and I think rightly so, that the
situation in and around Sarajevo and Bosnia is so disastrous now we
need to move hard and fast to prevent it from becoming worse,''
Eagleburger added. ``But I can understand the French, British or
anyone else'' with ground troops in the area wanting to think
through the consequences.
Eagleburger disputed a suggestion that the decision resulted
from pressure from Bill Clinton, Bush's Democratic campaign rival,
for stronger U.S. intervention. ``We have been debating this and
... with all respect to the governor, he had nothing to do with
it,'' he said.
novine.57.bale.,
Women, Children Speak of Terrors of Ethnic Cleansing
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI
Associated Press Writer
TRAVNIK, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) _ Hasnija Halilovic
said the Serb fighters came in the night, wearing black
masks.
They lined up about 200 Muslim women and children at
gunpoint in three rows between a Muslim home and piled the
house's contents nearby, she recalled.
Then both the furniture and the house were set ablaze.
For four hours, with fires in front of them and behind,
the women and children stood helpless, screaming and
pleading for their lives. They cried. They choked on the
smoke. Their captors taunted them, threatening to shoot.
Finally, they were let go.
``No one was killed, but they were beating us,'' said
Mrs. Halilovic, 60, her blue eyes ablaze with anger.
The scene occurred two weeks ago in Kljuc, a northern
Bosnian town where thousands of Muslims from surrounding
areas have been herded into a ghetto since last spring.
Now, in another example of the process known as ``ethnic
cleansing,'' the last Muslims are being expelled by Serb
occupiers from their land and sent to Travnik, one of the
few remaining Muslim-held cities in Bosnia.
A key part of ethnic cleansing is to instill terror, and
the Serbs in Kljuc succeeded.
Mrs. Halilovic's daughter-in-law, Zijada, said the shock
sent her into labor. The infant at her breast, Rashid, was
born the next day.
Dressed in a green scarf and five layers of shirts,
sweaters and skirts, Mrs. Halilovic stood Sunday with about
1,000 other bedraggled figures outside a decaying secondary
school, now their temporary home in Travnik.
On this bleak, rainy day, they waited for their daily
meal: rice.
This front-line Muslim city, squeezed into a narrow
mountain valley adorned with a dozen minarets, has become a
main refuge for people forced from their homes in Serb-
controlled areas of Bosnia.
The city is patrolled by Croatian and Muslim troops,
including units of the ``Muslim Forces'' who affect the
bravado of Middle Eastern guerrillas by wrapping their heads
in traditional headdresses.
An occasional rifle-toting volunteer from the Middle
East or North Africa also can be seen in the streets,
lending credence to Serb claims that ``mujahedeen'' from
Islamic countries are fighting on the Muslim side. But such
foreigners resolutely refused to talk to journalists.
There are now about 25,000 refugees in Travnik, normally
a city of 35,000, said Meris Zulic of the humanitarian
organization Merhamet. If the Serbs complete the ethnic
cleansing around Banja Luka, capital of the self-proclaimed
Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 80,000 more Muslims
and 40,000 Croats could join them, he said.
There already are shortages of food, shelter, toilets
and clean water. With winter fast approaching, officials
worry about bitter cold and disease.
Travnik has not been shelled recently, but nearby areas
have been bombed, said Zeir Krnjic, a Muslim forces
commander.
Mrs. Halilovic and other veterans of ethnic cleansing
described their exodus from Serb-held areas as brutal.
After their night between the flames, the women and
children holed up for another week in the crowded Muslim
quarter of Kljuc.
Then, on a Thursday, about 3,000 Muslims from Kljuc and
surrounding villages were put into 10 buses and eight
trucks.
As they were put aboard, they were beaten by about 150
soldiers who demanded money or stole from their meager
belongings, Mrs. Halilovic said.
``Then they were shooting at the trucks,'' she said.
``One truck didn't arrive at all and we don't know what
happened to those people.''
At the frontier of Serb-controlled territory, she said,
the refugees were ordered to abandon their remaining
belongings and told to start walking over mountainous
terrain toward Travnik, about 12 miles away.
After five hours on a treacherous track with steep
cliffs, they reached a unit of Croatian soldiers.
Details of such journeys are impossible to verify, but
they mesh with accounts from numerous other refugees and
Western journalists who have traveled with them.
Zulic said large groups of such people have been
arriving every two or three days since May, despite promises
of Bosnia's Serbs to curb ethnic cleansing.
Croats and Muslims also have been accused of purging
areas of other ethnic groups, but the Serbs have been
condemned internationally most often.
He said he knows that at least 10 people traveling in
Mrs. Halilovic's group died because the Serb side later
offered to trade their bodies for a group of Serbs in
Travnik.
NO-FLY ZONE RESOLUTION AT A GLANCE
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7, Reuter - Following are the key
elements in a draft Security Council resolution banning
military aircraft over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The document,
obtained by Reuters, was approved by the United States,
Britain and France on Wednesday.
The document
-- Establishes a ban on military flights, excluding any
aircraft relating to U.N. operations or supporting them.
-- Requests U.N. forces to monitor compliance,
including placing observers on airfields, wherever
necessary.
-- Requests U.N. forces to set up an inspection
mechanism to make sure all flights to and from Bosnia do not
violate Security Council resolutions.
-- Calls on all states to take measures to help U.N.
forces, including technical monitoring and ``other
capabilities.''
-- In case of violations, the council would pledge to
``consider urgently'' further measures to enforce the ban.
REUTER EL BRO BN
Reut18:34 10-07
Serbs Shell Other Towns After Capturing Key City in
Northern Bosnia
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI
Associated Press Writer
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) _ Serb fighters were
reported cleaning out the last pockets of resistance in a
northern strategic city on Wednesday, and they widened their
offensive with intensified shelling throughout the region.
The lightning capture of Bosanski Brod on the Croatian
border was a major victory for the Serbs, who are seeking to
set up their own republic within Bosnia possibly as a
prelude to linking up with Serbia.
The Serbian advances mean they have taken control of 70
percent of Bosnia in the 7-month-old civil war, and their
offensive sought to gain further territory before winter.
More than 14,000 people have been killed in Bosnia since
Bosnian Serbs rebelled against a vote in February by
majority Muslims and Croats to secede from Serbian-dominated
Yugoslavia.
The fall of Bosanski Brod, the last major government-
held town in northern Bosnia, apparently was part of a
Serbian offensive aimed at occupying more Bosnian territory
before winter sets in.
There was major shelling in Sarajevo in what the city's
radio called a ``hellish'' morning.
But there was major fighting in the north, according to
Croatian radio reports:
_Heavy Serb artillery blasted the region around Zupanja,
35 miles east of Slavonski Brod.
_The city of Gradacac was hit by hundreds of missiles
and cluster bombs.
_Serb forces 12 miles north of Gradacac were caught in a
Muslim-Croat pincer, forcing them to retreat and leave 10
artillery pieces behind.
Elsewhere, Serb missiles targeted Bihac, a Bosnian
border town just 40 miles south of Zagreb, Croatia's
capital. Maglaj, 60 miles north of Sarajevo, was bombed by
Serb warplanes. Mostar, 100 miles southwest of the Bosnian
capital, was rocked by artillery barrages.
The Serbs had significantly improved their position with
the capture on Tuesday of Bosanski Brod, widening the
corridor between the territories they control in eastern and
western Bosnia.
Officials in Slavonski Brod, a Croatian city across the
Sava River, speaking on condition of anonymity, said small-
arms fire and the boom of artillery continued to sound from
the neighboring Bosnian town late Wednesday.
They said Serb troops apparently were moving from house
to house, firing machine gun bursts inside and throwing in
hand grenades to clean up last pockets of suspected
resistance.
AP photographer Zoran Bozicevic said dozens of houses
set on fire by the Serb invaders blazed in Bosanski Brod. A
high-rise apartment building still burned Wednesday morning.
The bridge across the Sava River was blown up before
dawn Wednesday, destroying what for months had been a path
to relative safety for tens of thousands of refugees.
Just hours before its destruction, at least 5,000
refugees and Muslim-Croat forces used the bridge to flee the
Serb advance.
The Serb offensive appeared aimed at eliminating the
entire Bosnian enclave along the river border. The enclave
threatened the supply routes running from Serbia proper to
areas held by Serb rebels in western Bosnia and central
Croatia.
A Croatian army spokesman in Zagreb told The Associated
Press on Wednesday that Croat-Muslim defenders, under
constant air and artillery attack for six days, were
withdrawn to save lives.
Slavonski Brod on the Croatian side teemed with Bosnian
troops Wednesday. Some soldiers were withdrawn Tuesday night
by a small ferry from a village just west of Bosanski Brod.
In Sarajevo, shells landed near the presidency building
and in the city's new section. One landed about 100 yards
outside a stadium where a funeral was under way.
Sarajevo radio called it ``one of the most hellish
mornings since the beginning of the war.''
In Geneva, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said
three U.S. and two French relief flights landed at Sarajevo
airport. But they supplied only a fraction of the 200 tons
of food needed daily by the besieged city's 500,000
residents.
Without more food, children are expected to start dying
from starvation next month, U.N. officials say.
The situation of tens of thousands of Sarajevans
preparing for winter worsened Tuesday, when natural gas
supplies used by many to heat homes were cut. Running water
and electricity already have been unavailable for weeks in
many sections.
BOSNIAN SERBS MOP UP AFTER BIG MILITARY VICTORY
By Paul Holmes
SLAVONSKI BROD, Croatia, Oct 7, Reuter - The Bosnian
Serb army mopped up on Wednesday after seizing the key
northern town of Bosanski Brod in their biggest military
victory in three months.
Thousands of people retreated in panic across the Sava
river to the neighbouring town of Slavonski Brod inside
Croatia before the Bosnian Serbs captured Bosanski Brod late
on Tuesday and a bridge linking the two centres was blown
up.
A senior source close to Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman said Croatia feared Serb forces would now turn their
attention to central Bosnian targets such as Tuzla and
Zenica.
Each side accused the other of destroying the road and
rail bridge, which was Croatia's last fixed link under its
control across the Sava into northern Bosnia.
The Serbs' victory consolidates their hold on a
strategic corridor across northern Bosnia linking Serbia
proper in the east with the Krajina area of Croatia taken by
Serb fighters in their war with Croatia last year.
The Bosnian Serbs have been fighting for six months
against a shaky coalition of Bosnian Moslems and Croats
whose supporters voted for independence at a referendum,
leading to international recognition for an independent
state whose capital is the besieged city of Sarajevo.
Fierce fighting erupted again in Sarajevo on Wednesday.
Tanjug reported heavy infantry duels in Novo Sarajevo, with
the most intense combat in the Moslem-held Hrasno area.
Heavy artillery and mortar fire broke out in the old town,
Dobrinja and the centre of Sarajevo.
At Slavonski Brod, some Croatian national guardsmen
manning an anti-tank cannon cursed Tudjman as they withdrew
from a position near the shattered bridge.
``Damn Tudjman. I voted for him. Look what he's done
for this town, and the Croats over there (in Bosnia),'' one
soldier said.
The Bosnian Serb army said in a statement hundreds of
Croat and Moslem soldiers had been killed in the Serbs'
final assault on the city, their bodies littering lawns and
city squares.
Slavko Bilandzija, the Croatian military police chief
for Slavonski Brod, said 250 people, including civilians as
well as Croat and Moslem soldiers, had been killed in the
last few days in air attacks and artillery bombardments to
soften up resistance before the final assault.
The Croatian Defence Council for northern Bosnia (HVO)
said 8,000 Bosnian Serb troops had been killed in the drive
to take the town, and 60 enemy tanks had been destroyed and
21 planes shot down.
Bilandzija said his men watched Serb fighters blow up
the steel bridge early on Wednesday morning, whereas the
Bosnian Serb army said it was destroyed by retreating
Croatian forces.
Virtually every window in three 11-storey apartment
blocks near the bridge was blown out by the force of the
blast.
Bilandzija said 10,000 people, mostly civilians had
fled to Slavonski Brod on Tuesday, crossing the bridge or
grabbing boats or barges.
``There was complete chaos,'' he said, adding that said
some elderly Moslems and Croats who had been unwilling to
flee remained on the Bosnian side of the river.
He said Serb forces on Wednesday had used loudhailers
to shout messages across the Sava to Croatian forces that
they would not attack Slavonski Brod.
Witnesses said the Serbs shouted: ``Don't shoot at us.
We're not shooting back. We got what we wanted.''
Bilandzija said: ``There are no guarantees that they'll
stick to that. They might use this (time) to do their
looting, then they'll start shooting again.''
There was no official Croatian government comment on
the fall of Bosanski Brod. The senior source close to
Tudjman said he was deeply worried but was determined not to
get Croatia openly involved in the war in Bosnia.
novine.58.bale.,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Serbs to ground jetfighters in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Subject: U.N. sets up war-crimes commission for former Yugoslavia
Subject: Sarajevo doctors say psychological wounds hardest to treat
Subject: Bridge blown up after Serbs capture key town
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Subject: Serbs to ground jetfighters in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Date: 6 Oct 92 20:54:30 GMT
BELGRADE (UPI) -- Bosnian Serb leaders said Tuesday Serbian forces
would ``immediately'' ground their air force in Bosnia-Hercegovina but
warned they would resume combat flights if predominantly Muslim Slav
forces tried to take advantage of the decision, the Serb-run Tanjug news
agency reported.
The ``foreign minister'' of the self-declared Serbian state in
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Aleksandar Buha, said that leaders of the Bosnian
Serbs, in Geneva for peace talks on former Yugoslavia, agreed Tuesday
evening to ``stop military flights.''
``This decision goes into effect immediately,'' Buha told Tanjug in a
telephone conversation and added that ``it will remain in effect as long
as the other side does not use it to gain a military advantage.''
Buha said Serbian forces would ``resume flights if the enemy misuses
our agreement.''
Radovan Karadzic, self-styled president of the Bosnian Serb state,
Monday warned his delegation would quit the internationally-sponsored
peace talks in Geneva if the U.N. Security Council approved a proposal
to create a ``no-fly'' zone for combat aircraft over the newly
independent republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Serbian forces have been using Soviet-made MiG jetfighters and other
aircraft supplied to them by the Serb-led Yugoslav army in missions
supporting their ground forces fighting against Bosnia-Hercegovina
government forces.
Bosnian government forces are comprised of mostly Muslim Slavs but
also include some Croats and moderate Serbs.
Karadzic has declared a Serbian state on about 70 percent of the
republic's territory. The 1.4 million Serbs in Bosnia-Hercegovina make
up about 31 percent of the population.
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Subject: U.N. sets up war-crimes commission for former Yugoslavia
Date: 6 Oct 92 23:49:21 GMT
UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council decided unanimously
Tuesday to establish a war-crimes commission to study charges of severe
human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia and to prosecute those
who may be charged in an international court.
The council said the commission, to be composed of ``impartial
experts,'' will ``examine and analyze'' all information obtained by them
or through investigation or efforts by organizations other than the
United Nations to uncover executions or human rights abuses in the
Balkans.
The council adopted the resolution forming the war-crimes commission
with a 15-0 vote after calling on governments and international
organizations to provide within 30 days ``substantiated information'' on
alleged human rights violations in the territory of the former
Yugoslavia.
The commission was charged to provide concluding proofs that
``violations of Geneva Conventions and of other international
conventions on human rights had been committed in the territory of the
former Yugoslavia.''
The council asked Secretary-General Boutros Ghali to name the experts
on the commission and to make a report on the panel's findings. It did
not specify the next step to be taken, but diplomats said they have been
considering calling for a trial of those responsible for human rights
violations.
``It doesn't make any sense if the commission would not lead to a
trial,'' Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Diego Arria said.
U.N. officials said legal steps would be taken to establish a
tribunal similar to the Nuremberg trials, the records of which were
deposited to the care of the United Nations.
In Geneva, a special investigator for the U.N. Commission for Human
Rights, former Polish Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki, said he will make a
second visit to Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and other parts of
the former Yugoslavia to continue his investigation.
Mazowiecki will begin his 10-day visit in Sarajevo on Oct. 12.
Mazowiecki's first trip to Bosnia-Hercegovina in August resulted in a
harsh report condemning all warring factions for violating human rights.
Serbian forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina have been accused of carrying
out ``ethnic cleansing'' to gain territories occupied by Muslim Slavs or
Croats, thus driving hundreds of thousands of people out of their
destroyed homes.
The Serbs also were alleged to have tortured and killed Muslims in
detention centers and prisons, but Serbian leaders denied the charges.
The United States last month said it has evidence that at least 3,000
Muslim men, women and children were executed in May and June in Serb-run
detention centers near the Bosnian town of Brcko.
By another vote of 15-0 the council decided also to demilitarize the
Prevlaka peninsula in the Adriatic Sea which had been used by Belgrade's
Yugoslav army to attack Croatia's port city of Dubrovnik and control
navigation on a 100-mile-long coastline.
In the resolution on the Prevlaka peninsula, the council asked that
Croatia and Montenegro withdraw their heavy weapons and to cooperate
with monitors from the European Community.
In Belgrade Tuesday the official Tanjug news agency announced that
the army of rump Yugoslavia reiterated its intention to withdraw from
the disputed peninsula within the next two weeks.
The army of the Serbia-Montenegro federation said that its units and
equipment would be ``transferred'' by Oct. 20 from the peninsula and the
surrounding region as required by a Sept. 29 pact reached in Geneva
between Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic and his Croatian counterpart,
Franjo Tudjman.
But, the army warned that should Croatia violate the agreement to
create a demilitarize zone on the peninsula, it would ``use all of its
potential to defend'' the main Yugoslav navy base at adjacent Boka
Kotorska Bay.
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Subject: Sarajevo doctors say psychological wounds hardest to treat
Date: 7 Oct 92 02:08:07 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- On any given day at the bombed-
out state hospital, doctors may face several dozen shrapnel injuries,
close a half-dozen bullet wounds and perhaps amputate three or four
limbs.
But for each torn-open leg or blown-away arm bleeding onto the cots
of the ground-floor emergency unit, Dr. Mirza Cisic, a
neuropsychiatrist, says he and his staff, squeezed into a tiny third-
floor office, handle more than twice as many injuries to the mind.
``The surgeons are doing the physical work, and we have to save the
brain and the soul,'' said his colleague, Dr. Momir Smitran, sitting
with Cisic and wearing a white lab coat. ``And that is a lot more work.''
The dozen or so people sitting quietly in the dark, bomb-scarred
hallway outside their office are but a small part of the problem.
For outside the office, where residents of Sarajevo still survive the
daily rain of artillery shells and random sniper attacks, doctors feel
the number of such victims is at least 10 times as great.
``Generally speaking, we must say there is no family in Sarajevo that
has not been damaged or destroyed psychologically,'' Cisic said.
The doctors offer both individual and group therapy, but they lack
normal diagnostic and basic rehabilatative tools, such as videotapes of
prosthesis patients designed to give hope to those who just lost limbs.
But thousands of those needing treatment, including those with pre-
existing mental problems, simply never find help.
``They feel the situation is hopeless, with not much chance that it
will be improved,'' Cisic said. ``They do not come and report here
because this place is always under grenade and sniper fire.''
Cisic, who is old enough to recall World War II, sees little
comparison even to wartime London or Dresden because those cities were
not cut off from the outside world and the aerial blitzes at least came
with some warning.
``This is six months of daily shelling,'' he said.
``Here you just walk down the street and suddenly a shell is falling
on you,'' Smitran said. ``When there is an air alert, it does not get
any attention -- people just keep walking on the street.''
``Now (the city) is one big concentration camp,'' Cisic said. ``The
inhabitants are in a hopeless situation, not only for their vital living
functions, but because their existence remains in doubt.
``I personally don't know what to bring my family, how to feed them.''
Perhaps ironically, one release from the tension could be found in
the impish grin and beaming brown eyes of 40-year-old Nermin Tulic,
sitting on a cot tucked away in the darkness of an elevator waiting area
a couple floors below the psychiatrists' office. Tulic, a well-known
Shakespearean actor in the city, was standing outside his home June 10
when a mortar grenade fell from the sky and exploded between his legs.
He said his doctors tried everything to save at least one of the
legs, but could not.
``I thought of suicide -- they took the knives and forks away from me
-- I was trying to die,'' Tulic said, playfully wiggling his scarred
stumps beneath an unbuttoned pink shirt.
``But then when I put in perspective what is behind me and what is in
front of me,'' he said, recalling the sudden change of heart he had
about two months ago. ``I thought that I have a girl 14 months old, that
my wife is pregnant -- she had another girl just 40 days ago -- and that
with good rehabilitation -- I can expect to resume about 80 percent of my
activities.''
Tulic said the turning point came when, after days of struggling, he
finally learned the trick of sitting up straight without his legs.
``At that point a micro-switch flipped in my brain, and I did in one
night what some people take two weeks to do,'' he said.
Tulic rejected any thought of bearing hatred for the rest of his life
``because I will never meet the man, the animal, the beast who shot
this grenade.''
Cisic and Smitran, perhaps better than anyone else in the city,
understand the psychological as well as military warfare being waged by
Serbian forces against the civilian population, but are no better able
to comprehend why.
``They are the most sadistic, psychopathic type of violations,''
Cisic said, doubting he could even give a professional recommendation
that those shooting the guns from the hills above Sarajevo could be held
legally responsible.
``It would be an understatement to say these are people with
diminished capacity. And in a normal process, they couldn't even be
prosecuted,'' he said. ``They would be put in an asylum.''
Early in the Bosnian phase of the Yugoslav conflict the Serbs opened
the doors of a Sarajevo asylum for non-criminal patients, Cisic said.
More than 100 residents were evicted, some wearing only their pajamas.
Some of the patients have been returned to hospitals for treatment,
he said. Others are believed among those still walking the streets.
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Subject: Bridge blown up after Serbs capture key town
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:41:04 GMT
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Hercegovina (UPI) -- The military defeat of Muslim
Slav and Croat forces after the fall of the key border town of Bosanski
Brod was compounded Wednesday when Serbian forces blew up a strategic
bridge near the town, Sarajevo radio reported.
The Serbian attack on the bridge effectively cut the only road link
connecting northern Bosnia-Hercegovina with Croatia, further isolating
Bosnian forces.
According to the report, a coalition of Croatian and Muslim Slav
defenders fled the town north across a bridge into the Croatian town of
Slavonski Brod and Serbian forces following behind them blew up the
bridge.
The explosion was so heavy it blew out the remaining windows and door
frames on nearby multiple-story apartment buildings, Croatian radio
said.
Occupying Serbian forces began robbing those properties still
standing and fires broke out in numerous buildings including the post
office, oil refinery and apartment buildings, it said.
The fall of Bosanski Brod, the only major town on Bosnia-
Hercegovina's northern frontier with Croatia not to have been captured
by the Serbs, consolidates Serbian control of a strategic corridor
running from the border of Serbia, in the east, across the top of
Bosnia-Hercegovina, to the Serb-held stronghold of Banja Luka and
surrounding Serb-controlled areas of the republic's northwest.
Aside from being territory claimed for the self-declared Serbian
state in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the corridor is essential for the delivery
of military, food and fuel supplies from communist-ruled Serbia to
Serbian forces throughout the region and headquartered in Banja Luka.
From Banja Luka, such supplies are also fowarded across the nearby
Croatian border to sustain Serbian forces based in Knin, the
headquarters town of the self-declared ``Republic of Serbian Krajina''
proclaimed in areas of Croatia captured by Serbs during the civil war
last year.
Control of Bosanski Brod will allow Serbian artillery to hit towns in
central Croatia, across the Sava River, including Slavonski Brod, a
major industrial center. Bosanski Brod had been linked to Slavonski Brod
by the bridge that was blown up.
The fall of now devastated Bosanski Brod came seven months after
Serbian forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina opened their war in the town for
control of territory in the breakaway Yugoslav republic.
Serbs since then have captured more than 70 percent of the former
Yugoslav republics' territory despite representing only 31 percent of
its pre-war population.
Bosanski Brod before the war had about 34,000 residents, 41 percent
of whom identified themselves in a 1991 census as Croats, 34 percent
Serbs and 12 percent Muslim Slavs.
Serbian fighting in recent months was concentrated on cutting the
land route through the Muslim Slav-dominated northeast into the large
Serbian-controlled northwest as part of an overall plan to create an
``ethnically purified'' greater Serbia.
In Sarajevo Wednesday Serbian forces in the hills overlooking the
city unleashed a series of artillery assaults on the capital, hitting
numerous apartment buildings and other civilian targets and killing at
least three people and wounding 25 others.
Sporadic shooting throughout the night in Sarajevo was broken open
around 5 a.m. Wednesday when Serbian forces opened fire throughout the
city, using 120mm mortars, 155mm artillery guns and tanks, Sarajevo
radio said.
The new part of the city came under the heaviest fire, from Serbian
tank positions in the southern area of Vraca, it said.
Three apartment buildings were burning on Ivana Krndelja Street south
of the Miljacka River, and a tobacco factory was burning on the north
side, the radio said.
Apartments in the Cengic Vila complex in the center of the new part
of the city also were hit early Wednesday, killing at least one person,
Sarajevo radio said.
Another civilian apartment complex further west, Alipasino Poljine,
just across the street from the city's United Nations Protection Forces
(UNPRFOR) headquarters, also was hit, the radio said.
Serbian infantry forces, moving under the cover of grenade fire from
the western suburb of Ilidza, attempted an advance into Stup but were
pushed back by Bosnian defenders, the radio said.
Serbian forces based in Poljine also shot artillery and tank fire
Wednesday morning into the northern suburb of Vogosca and onto the road
connecting it with Sarajevo, it said.
In Split, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic met Bosnian Croat
leader Mate Boban to discuss improved military cooperation and visited
Bosnian refugee camps around the Croatian port city, Sarajevo radio
reported.
Heavy fighting also was reported Wednesday throughout Bosnia-
Hercegovina, particularly in the Muslim Slav-dominated areas of the
republic's northeast.
Sarajevo radio reported heavy fighting Wednesday across central
Bosnia- Hercegovina, including artillery fire and infantry attacks on
the towns of Gradacac, Doboj, Tesanj and Gracanica.
Heavy artillery and infantry attacks also were reported Tuesday and
Wednesday closer to Sarajevo, in the towns of Breza, Olovo and Ilijas,
Sarajevo radio said.
Srebrenica, on the eastern border with Serbia, and Jajce, in the
central part of the republic, also saw more fighting and artillery
attacks, the radio said. One woman was killed and six were injured since
tuesday in Jajce, it said.
Artillery attacks were reported against civilian regions of Mostar,
southwest of Sarajevo, although the heavy fighting of previous days
appeared to have eased, Sarajevo radio said.
Also Wednesday, French Gen. Phillipe Morillon, commander of the
UNPROFOR new Bosnian operations, was due to meet Bosnian Serb leaders at
their headquarters in Pale, just outside Sarajevo, before traveling
later to the Serbian capital Belgrade.
U.N. troops have been trying for several days to escort utility
workers into Serbian-controlled areas to restore sarajevos water and
electricity supplies, but Morillon and Ganic conceded after their
meeting little progress was likely while the fighting continued.
Morillon said UNPROFOR troops would continue trying to help utility
workers reach the areas where repairs are necessary but Ganic,
frustrated by week- long outages of water and electricity, asked
UNPROFOR to say clearly what it can and cannot do.
Serbian forces on the eve of Morillon's arrival launched one of the
most devastating assaults in their six-month seige of Sarajevo,
destroying rows of offices and apartment buildings, and leaving dozens
of civilians dead and thousands homeless.
Earlier Tuesday, Serbian forces bombarded Sarajevo with artillery,
tank and machine-gun fire, a day after one of the most vicious assaults
in their six-month seige destroyed offices and apartment buildings,
leaving dozens of civilians dead and thousands homeless.
Streams of the screaming and crying homeless were forced after a day
of relentless bombing to flee their flaming homes with only handfuls of
possessions.
novine.59.bale.,
RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 193, 6 October, 1992
SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR
YELTSIN: RUSSIAN FORCES TO DEFEND THEMSELVES, RAILROADS, IN
ABKHAZIA. Abkhaz forces continued to advance north from Gagra and
took the villages of Leselidze and Gantiadi early on 6 October,
and they now control a 65 kilometer stretch of coastline