=======================================================

TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS      Ref: C1WM0716
Date: 01/27/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader)                     
          Time: 06:11pm \/To: ALL                               
                 (Read 11 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE



MAJ GEN Rupert Smith, British Army, arrived in Sarajevo
yesterday to become the new Commander of U.N. Protection Forces
in Bosnia. Smith, 51, is expected to keep a lower profile than
his predecessor, LT GEN Sir Michael Rose. Smith is known as a
soldier's soldier, and flew to Sarajevo aboard an Ilyushin
transport aircraft rather than a chartered U.N. business jet.
Smith was Commander of the 1st Armored Division in the Persian
Gulf War, and was most recently Assistant Chief of the Defense
Staff. He enlisted as a private in the Duke of Edinburgh
Regiment, and commanded a rifle company in 1978 in Northern
Ireland. There, he and a junior officer were wounded in a
carbomb attack. He was awarded a Queen's gallantry medal for
pulling the other officer free. (Roger Cohen/N.Y.T.)





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                    B o s N e w s  - Jan. 28-29, 1995 

===========================================



FRONTLINES, Bosnia and Herzegovina



        UN spokesman Paul Risley told reporters in Zagreb,
Croatia that tanks controlled by Serbs from Croatia had
re-entered the Bihac pocket in recent days, highlighting
mounting tension in the region.        UN spokesman Alexander
Ivanko said 66 artillery shell impacts had been reported in the
past 24 hours in the Bihac enclave around the town of Velika
Kladusa.        In Sarajevo, three explosions were reported at
about midnight Saturday in the city center which the UN said
might have been rifle-propelled grenades. The source of fire was
under investigation.        In the eastern enclave of
Srebrenica, Bosnian army troops were blocking 75 Dutch UN
peacekeepers from returning to their base, Ivanko said.        A
Croatian newspaper, Vecernji List, reported that government
troops backed by Bosnian Croats captured the village of Bugar,
nine miles northwest of the town of Bihac, on Thursday.

The rest of Bosnia has been generally quiet, but persistent
fighting in the Bihac region has undermined efforts to forge a
lasting peace.



Mediators Suspend Bosnia Peace Mission SARAJEVO, Bosnia and
Herzegovina



        International mediators Friday suspended their efforts
to reach a peace agreement in Bosnia.        The USA State
Department said the envoys made the decision to leave Bosnia
after the separatist Serbs refused to accept a peace plan put
forward by the five-nation "contact group." State Department
spokeswoman Christine Shelly said in Washington that 'contact
group' members "decided it was not productive for them to remain
in Bosnia and therefore took the decision to return to their
capitals."        Diplomatic sources in Sarajevo said USA envoy
Charles Thomas left Sarajevo Friday, while group members from
France and Britain would depart Saturday. Envoys from Russia and
Germany have already left.        A senior Western official
close to the contact group said that "a major problem was that
the separatist Serbs did not face a credible threat of military
force from NATO to make them compromise in the interests of
peace. They just don't have a real incentive to move now. The
problem is that there is no force in the equation. And I don't
see any political will among the major powers for the use of
force."        "As a matter of fact the problem seems to be more
of a linguistic one than anything else," Radovan Karadzic told
on Friday. "We are asked to say we accept the plan but after the
referendum we cannot do that," he said.        "The Contact
Group can't speak our language," Karadzic said. "The Muslims are
dictating the position of the Contact Group, and I don't think
the Contact Group has any future if that continues."        "The
army is involved in this whole thing," said George Grbic,
Karadzic's translator. "Politicians come and go, but the army
stays. We're willing to work loosely within the Contact Group
plan, but we can't consent to it, because of public opinion," he
added. "Everybody old enough to pick up a rifle is in the Serb
army."        A Serb official said the main reason for the
deadlock was the contact group's refusal to modify the peace
plan.



Christopher challenges Congress over Bosnia WASHINGTON USA



        Secretary of State Warren Christopher Thursday
challenged Congress to tell Bosnia's leadership directly how it
would follow up, with USA military support, any resolution to
lift the arms embargo on Bosnia.        At a House of
Representatives committee hearing, Christopher, who strongly
opposes a Republican bill to lift the UN embargo unilaterally,
invited representatives to explain their plans to Bosnian Prime
Minister Haris Silajdzic who plans meetings with members of
Congress during a visit to Washington next Monday through
Wednesday.         "What I ask all of you to do when you talk to
him, when he comes here, is to be frank with him, to be honest
with him as to what the Congress is likely to do," Christopher
told the International Relations Committee.         "If the arms
embargo is unilaterally lifted, and the Bosnians get in trouble,
will you send US troops to help him?  Will you send US aircraft
to pull them out of the situation?" the secretary of state
asked.        The scenario painted by the administration is that
UN peacekeeping troops in Bosnia would be withdrawn; the
separatist Serbs would overrun the Bosnian government; and the
United States would then be forced to aid the Bosnians first
with air power and then with ground forces.        Christopher
reiterated that the United States still wanted the United
Nations to lift the embargo, but noted that the other four
veto-holding members of the Security Council -- Russia, China,
France and Britain -- all opposed this.



UN -- War crimes tribunal prosecutors THE HAGUE, Belgium



        The UN Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal on Friday named
three senior lawyers who will present the prosecution's case at
trials. Chief prosecutor Richard Goldstone had appointed Eric
Ostberg of Sweden, Minna Schrag of the United States and Grant
Niemann of Australia as trial prosecutors. Ostberg, Schrag and
Niemann will present evidence and argue legal points before the
judges of the tribunal.        Before joining the tribunal,
Ostberg was chief public prosecutor for special cases and
financial cases in Stockholm. Schrag has previously served as an
assistant USA attorney and is a partner in New York law firm
Proskauer Rose Goatz Mendelssohn. Niemann was formerly deputy
director of public prosecutions for South Australia in Adelaide.
       Richard Goldstone and his stuff investigated 14 cases but
so far details of only two of them -- both involving atrocities
by separtist Bosnian Serbs -- have been made public.        The
cases to be heard by the tribunal will be the first
international war crimes trials since the trials of Nazi leaders
at Nuremberg 50 years ago. Trials are expected to start in the
first half of this year.



UN mounts "last" Sarajevo medical evacuation SARAJEVO, Bosnia
and Herzegovina



        The UN on Thursday mounted what it feared may be its
last medical evacuation from Sarajevo, saying the programme had
been crippled because donor nations had stopped giving funds.
Fifteen patients accompanied by 21 escorts boarded UN armoured
vehicles at the city's main hospital for the trip to the
airport, from where they were flown out for treatment in
Denmark, the only country currently providing beds.        A UN
doctor, Fausto Mariani, said that initial media interest in the
war had faded and this was reflected in a reduction of funds for
the medical evacuation programme from countries around the
world.        In August 1993, the programme received a boost
when the conscience of the world was pricked by the story of a
five-year-old girl, Irma Hadjimuratovic, who had been
languishing in a Sarajevo hospital with no water or electricity
after being injured in a mortar attack.        The then head of
the UN medical evacuation committee, Dr Patrick Peillod, summed
up the bitterness felt by many aid workers when he said: "I
don't think Sarajevo is a supermarket where governments can come
and pick the cases they want."        A UN official said the
amount of cash needed to keep the evacuation programme running
for the next six months amounted to no more than "a couple of
hundred thousand dollars."        Nine of the patients who left
on Thursday were children, seven of whom are in need of open
heart surgery. Four-year-old Fatima Durakovic was brought out of
the eastern enclave of Srebrenica three months ago with severe
heart problems. Two of the patients evacuated on Thursday were
girls from the separatist Serb stronghold of Pale just outside
Sarajevo.



UN Pullout; Krajina Peace Plan; Relations with Serbia ZAGREB,
Croatia



        Croatia's parliament on Friday endorsed president Franjo
Tudjman's decision to cancel the UN peacekeeping mandate in
Croatia after the end of March. The parliament expressed support
for the decision adding that it "must not be seen as the
acceptance of the war option, but is aimed at speeding up the
peace process in the interest of all nations involved."

        A plan for a political settlement between the Croatian
government and its rebel Serb minority, drafted by international
mediators (a group called the "Zagreb four" -- USA, Russian, UN
and European Union envoys,) is to be presented on Monday. A
Western diplomat in Zagreb said that the plan is a "starting
point for negotiations."        The plan is the final stage of a
three-phase process of normalising relations between Croats and
Serbs that started last March with a truce and was followed by
an economic agreement which is still being implemented.       
Details of the plan have not been disclosed, but it envisaged
the return of Serb-held Krajina areas to Croatian control while
giving the Serbs considerable cultural and political autonomy
and guaranteeing their human rights.        Initial Croatian
reaction was reserved. Foreign Minister Mate Granic said that
parts of the plan concerning the degree of Serb autonomy were
unacceptable. Krajina Serbs were also likely to reject the
proposal putting them under Zagreb's rule -- something they have
fought against for four years.        Work to finalise the plan
was hastened by Croatia's decision to eject 12,000 UNPROFOR
troops on March 31.        Diplomatic sources in Zagreb said the
USA ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, sugested that a
reduced number of troops -- 6,000 to 7,000 -- should be
stationed on front lines. A source close to Tudjman said such a
proposal was unacceptable to Croatia, which wanted all foreign
forces to leave the country and was prepared to accept only
international observers monitoring the ceasefire and human
rights.

        Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said on Saturday his
country and Serbia might establish formal relations this year
and thereby greatly improve prospects for peace in former
Yugoslavia.        "I am convinced this year can bring about
optimal solutions, in terms of normalisation of Croat-Serb
relations," Tudjman was quoted as saying by Croatia's HINA news
agency. Last week Tudjman announced that his foreign minister,
Mate Granic, would soon travel to Belgrade for normalisation
talks.



Serbs refuse access to jailed Bosnian journalist SARAJEVO,
Bosnia and Herzegovina



        Bosnian Serb forces have refused to let UN officers
visit a Bosnian journalist, Namik Becirbegovic, they are holding
prisoner after whisking him away from a UN vehicle in Sarajevo
on Thursday, a UN spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said on Friday.  
     Beceribegovic was taken from a UN Protection Force armoured
personnel carrier by separatist Serb soldiers at Kasindolska
checkpoint between the airport and the city on Thursday.       
Ivanko said Russian UN soldiers in the vehicle had violated UN
procedure on transporting journalists to and from Sarajevo
airport, by opening the door of the transporter to allow
soldiers to check identification and baggage.        "They
should have not opened the APC door which they did. The
passengers were asked for a baggage check. The officers present
in the APC should have refused any baggage check which they
didn't."        The Russians were not threatened before opening
the APC door. "I think we will see some disciplinary action come
from this incident," he added.        "At first we will try to
get the journalist freed. As a possible follow-up we will raise
the issue of having free access to the airport without any
checking of passengers on UNPROFOR (UN Protection Force)
shuttles," Ivanko said.



Yugoslavia: Seselj released; Can Croatia win over Krajina?
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia



        Hundreds of cheering supporters greeted hardline Serbian
nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj when he was released from
jail on Saturday after serving four months for criminal
offences.        "Slobodan Milosevic is a communist bandit, the
greatest criminal and the greatest traitor to the Serbian
people," Seselj, leader of the Serbian Radical Party, told a
news conference hours after his release from jail.        "There
will be neither freedom nor democracy until his neo-communist
regime falls," said Seselj, who also accused government
officials of plotting to have him "liquidated."       
Surrounded by bearded members of the Serbian Chetnik movement
waving a black skull-and-crossbones flag bearing the motto
"freedom or death," Seselj roared defiance of Milosevic.       
The West suspects Seselj of war crimes as a leader of
paramilitary units said by human rights groups to have killed
and expelled Moslems and Croats from lands taken by Serb forces
in Bosnia in 1992-93.

        Senior military analysts in Belgrade, retired army
general Radovan Radinovic, said he believes that despite its new
and sophisticated weaponry the Croatian army could not beat the
Krajina Serbs into submission.

In an interview published on Friday in the Belgrade weekly NIN
he said Croatia's limiting factor was having an unfavourable
base for marshalling a big force to assume the main thrust of an
attack on the Krajina Serbs' mountain headquarters at Knin.     
  According to the London-based International Institute for
Strategic Studies, Croatia has at its disposal an army of
110,000 troops, with 170 tanks, 900 artillery pieces and 20
aircraft, including helicopters.        The IISS also says
Krajina has 50,000 troops but 240 tanks, 500 artillery pieces,
12 combat aircraft and six helicopters.        "The balance of
manpower would have to be three and even five to one in favour
of Croatia and it would have to include elite forces to capture
and hold ground. Croatia does not have them in sufficient
numbers," Radinovic said.        He said the third factor is
Krajina's capability to strike out with artillery and missile
systems on all major Croatian towns except for the port of
Rijeka.        Authorative sources in Belgrade, speaking on
condition of anonimity, said that, in the event of an assault on
Krajina, the Bosnian Serb army would step to help its ethnic
kin.        "The Bosnian Serbs have been praying for years for
the war to expand and involve Serbia which has the single
decisive factor they lack-- the manpower. They hope that in the
event of such a war Milosevic would succumb to the pressure by
the Serbian nationalists and join the fray which, given Serbia's
superiority in manpower and equipment, could decisively shift
the balance of power also in Bosnia and Herzegovina."



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                    B o s N e w s  - Jan. 29, 1995 

==========================================

CHICAGO TRIBUNE Copyright Chicago Tribune 1995

DATE: Saturday, January 28, 1995 SECTION: NEWS SOURCE: From
Tribune Wires DATELINE: PALE, Bosnia and Herzegovina



                `NO MOVEMENT' IN BID TO RESTART BOSNIA TALKS



   Efforts to persuade Bosnia's warring factions to resume peace
talks came to a screeching halt Friday when Bosnian Serbs
refused to budge.   Mediators from the USA and four other
countries at the forefront of peace efforts had been conducting
feverish negotiations with Bosnian Serbs and their rival, the
Muslim-led government, for more than a week. But planned talks
with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic were canceled, and USA
representative Charles Thomas left Sarajevo on Friday after
remarking, "There's no movement here."   No movement toward
peace-but many steps, however, away from a four-month truce that
began Jan. 1.   Government and Serb forces were locked in fierce
machine-gun exchanges around the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo for
three hours Friday morning, the worst cease-fire violation there
this year.   Heavy fighting also continued in the northwestern
area around Bihac, where the two sides resumed combat in recent
days. UN officials reported 580 detonations in 24 hours around
nearby Velika Kladusa.   Thomas, the USA envoy, and
representatives of Russia, France, Britain and Germany-the
so-called Contact Group-had been trying to find the right words
that would allow Bosnian government and Serbs to resume
negotiations.   "The Contact Group can't speak our language,"
Karadzic said. "The Muslims are dictating the position of the
Contact Group, and I don't think the Contact Group has any
future if that continues."   The Contact Group has been peddling
a peace plan that would give a Muslim-Croat federation 51
percent of Bosnia and leave Serbs, who now control about 70
percent of Bosnian territory, with 49 percent.   The federation
accepted the plan last summer. Serbs originally rejected it,
then said they would use it as a basis for negotiation after the
Contact Group said changes were possible if both sides agreed.  
But the Bosnian government wants Serbs first to sign the peace
plan as is before negotiating any changes.   State Department
spokeswoman Christine Shelly said in Washington it was "way too
early to conclude that the Contact Group is finished" but there
would be "a pause now" in the efforts of the group. 



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                    B o s N e w s  - Jan. 30, 1995 

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	It would be naive to expect a very different performance from

	Rose's British successor, Gen. Rupert Smith. Similarly, it

	would be naive to expect better guidance from the UN.



1/30:EDITORIAL: ROSE AND HIS ORDERS

c.1995 N.Y. Times News Service



Gen. Sir Michael Rose, whose one-year tenure as U.N. commander
in Bosnia ended last week, had a thankless assignment. He was
supposed to protect civilians in Bosnia's besieged cities, but
had neither the mandate nor the means to repulse their Serbian
besiegers. In theory, the United Nations is neutral between
aggressors and victims in Bosnia's dirty war.



Even allowing for the toughness of the job, Rose damaged the
United Nations' credibility. His efforts to avoid confrontation
and protect his troops went beyond the narrow dictates of
neutrality.



He began well enough last January, cooperating with NATO efforts
to get the Serbs to pull back artillery from the hills
surrounding Sarajevo. But when the Serbs shifted their attention
to Gorazde, Rose impeded effective NATO air strikes. Later, he
seemed to encourage Serbian military operations around
Sarajevo's airport. Most recently, at Bihac, he seemed to ignore
the Security Council's instructions to protect civilians.



By tilting toward the aggressor and failing to protect Muslim
civilians, the United Nations has damaged its reputation with
Muslims and Americans.



Rose, who built a reputation for aggressiveness in the Falklands
and Northern Ireland and battling terrorists in London, did not
turn passive in Bosnia on his own.



The United Nations never provided him with the troops he needed
to face down the Serbs. Nor did his masters in the Security
Council ever really want him to get tough.



As a British general in U.N. employ, Rose faithfully followed
London's indulgent policies toward the Serbs - policies that no
permanent member of the Security Council, including the United
States, contested.



France, like Britain, has troops at risk. The United States is
rightly determined not to send troops of its own. Russia openly
sympathizes with the Serbian cause. China opposes aggressive
U.N. peacekeeping on principle.



So it would be naive to expect a very different performance from
Rose's British successor, Gen. Rupert Smith. Similarly, it would
be naive to expect better guidance from the United Nations.



The Clinton administration, though it has sometimes criticized
Rose, is not interested in reshaping the present Security
Council consensus.



It is fair to find fault with Rose. But it would be unfair to
forget that he did not act alone. 



=================================================

TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS      Ref: C1YP2882
Date: 01/29/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader)                     
          Time: 08:48pm \/To: ALL                               
                 (Read 13 times) Subj: 2 MARINES SHOT IN ALBANIA



Two members of the U.S. Marine Corps were shot in a restaurant
Friday in Durres, Albania. An operation on one of them, a 20
year old, lasted seven hours, and he is in critical condition.
He may be flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. The
other was shot in the arm, and was in good condition aboard the
U.S. Navy Austin-class Amphibious Transport Dock U.S.S. Ponce
(LPD 15), docked in Durres. Both were from the 22nd M.E.U., Camp
Lejeune, NC. Local police say the two were hit after gunmen
"shot up a building and then took off in a car." Whether they
were the target is not known.

The 22nd and other units are in Albanin for Exercise Sarex 95
with Albanian military units. The exercise was delayed by the
shooting but was to begin later Friday near Golem. Thousands
were expected to tour the Ponce today. (Merita Dhimgjoka/A.P.)





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                    B o s N e w s  - Jan. 30, 1995 

==========================================



FRONTLINES, Bosnia and Herzegovina



        UN spokesman Lt.Col.Gary Coward said fighting had picked
up again near Velika Kladusa in the north of the Bihac enclave
Sunday. Some 400 detonations were reported between Sunday
morning and noon southeast of Kladusa, four times the daily
average.

Although movement for peacekeepers in the area was severely
restricted, the UN believed rebel Muslim forces backed up by
Krajina Serb big guns were attacking the Bosnian government's
5th Corps. UN spokesman Maj. Koos Sol said Croatian Serbs and
rebel Muslims pushed the government's Fifth Corps up to three
miles farther southeast from Velika Kladusa.        Farther
south, UN spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Coward said government forces
apparently pushed Croatian Serb fighters back across the border
into Croatia.        To the south around Bihac town, more than
20 detonations were reported in the suburbs of Klokot, Vedro
Polje and Vegar.        In the Bosnian eastern enclave of
Srebrenica, Bosnian army troops were blocking 75 Dutch UN
peacekeepers from returning to their base, UN spokesman
Alexander Ivanko said. The Dutch had been investigating a recent
encroachment by the separatist Serbs in the eastern edge of the
enclave. Ivanko said it was possible the Bosnian army was trying
to exert pressure on the UN to push the Serbs back after the
Bosnian Serbs moved their lines 150 yards forward.        There
was also increasing tension between nominally allied Bosnian
Goverment Forces and Croats around the city of Mostar, where a
Dutch United Nations military resupply convoy turned back after
Bosnian Croat troops fired into the air.        Near Sarajevo,
French peacekeepers shot four government soldiers for attempting
to evade inspection, the United Nations said Monday. The
soldiers, shot in the legs Saturday, received medical treatment
from the French.



Bosnia tensions rise as peace efforts stall SARAJEVO, Bosnia and
Herzegovina



        The five-nation "contact group" which ended its mission
to Bosnia over the weekend has no firm idea of how to overcome
its biggest stumbling block -- the Bosnian Serbs' refusal to
accept the latest peace plan.        The political vacuum left
by the deadlock in the peace process has brought a rise in
tension across Bosnia, with no let-up in fighting in the
northwestern Bihac enclave. There have also been cease-fire
violations in Sarajevo.        Tensions between Bosnian
government and allied Croat forces appear to be rising in
northern Bosnia, a UN official said Saturday.        Tensions
were especially high around the northern town of Tesanj. On
Friday, the Tesanj police chief ordered the arrest of several
local Croat officials after Croats had arrested some government
officials earlier in the week.        Bosnia's vice-president,
Ejup Ganic, and Kresimir Zubak, leader of the Bosnian Croats,
agreed that federation leaders should visit the Tesanj area.
U.N. and diplomatic sources said Croat-Muslim relation were also
extremely strained in the Maglaj area farther north. Both sides
have arrested police officers along with local political
leaders. One Western source said there were reports that Bosnian
Croat soldiers had committed acts of "thuggery" and had even
rounded up some Muslims for forced labor.         Bosnian
President Alija Izetbegovic sought to play down the differences
and called for tolerance between Croats and Muslims, the
Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje reported Sunday. Izetbegovic was
conciliatory. "There will be no new confrontations with Croats
... There were some problems in Mostar, but we overcame them."



Another setback to restore confidence SARAJEVO, Bosnia and
Herzegovina



        Marking another setback to UN hopes to restore
confidence in the tenuous cease-fire, plans to evacuate nearly
200 people Monday from Gorazde, an eastern Bosnian enclave, may
be halted.        Lt. Col. Gary Coward, a UN spokesman in
Sarajevo, said on Sunday that the separatist Serbs and Bosnian
government had agreed on evacuation of 194 people -- 128 Muslims
and 66 Serbs -- from Gorazde in northeastern Bosnia on Monday.
He said the agreement, reached in direct contacts between the
two sides, was part of an accord that on Wednesday should lead
to the opening of routes in and around Sarajevo.        Coward
said if it works, "it would send a very positive signal."       
The chief of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' office in
Sarajevo, Karen Abuzayd, said on Monday there was no clearance
yet from Bosnian Serbs to evacuate. Gorazde has been surrounded
by Serbs for nearly the entire war.        SRNA, the Bosnian
Serb news agency, said it was postponed until Tuesday,
apparently because Bosnian Serb military leaders wanted more
Serbs taken out than listed on evacuation rolls.



France to send extra units to ex-Yugoslavia PARIS, France



        French Defense Minister Francois Leotard said Sunday
that France was about to send an extra 300 men to reinforce its
contingent of UN peacekeepers in ex-Yugoslavia.        "France
has decided to send 300 extra men to Bosnia, a unit of engineers
plus helicopters to mantain the cease-fire which is now more or
less respected in Sarajevo though not in Bihac," he told TF1
television.

He said talks were under way, presumably with belligerents, to
open new supply roads.



Oppression of Kosovo Albanians PRISTINA, Yugoslavia



        While Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has been
cultivating an image as peacemaker in the Balkans, police
repression in the province of Kosovo has been rising, human
rights workers say.        In the southern province of Kosovo
(ethnic Albanians 90% of the population,) 200 former Albanian
policemen have been arrested in the past two months on suspicion
of forming a "parallel" interior ministry, allegedly aimed at
seceding from rump Yugoslavia.        Human rights workers and
Albanian lawyers say the detainees were tortured, beaten and
interrogated without their lawyers present. The arrests fit a
pattern of repression in Kosovo, where a Serbian minority rules
the restive Albanian majority through a massive police presence,
said the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
based in Vienna.        The treatment of the detainees was yet
another example of a "massive violation of human rights" in
Kosovo, said Sanja Biserko, a Helsinki representative in
Belgrade.        The mass arrests, carried out in November and
December, followed a petition issued by Serb nationalists in
Kosovo accusing Belgrade of failing to fulfil promises to check
the Albanian political movement and resettle Serbs in the
province.        "The latest arrests were made out of political
necessity," Biserko said.        Serbian authorities deny that
the detainees have been questioned without their lawyers present
and accuse them of plotting the overthrow of the government in
Belgrade.        Citing photographs and detailed testimony from
witnesses as evidence, the Council for the Defense of Human
Rights in Kosovo, an Albanian organization, reports that 17
people died last year in Kosovo as a result of police brutality.
The victims included an 80-year-old man.        Asked if the
latest detainees had been mistreated, Kosovo's chief public
prosecutor, Miodrag Brkljac, conceded doctors examining them
found Serb police had caused some injuries.        The detained
Albanians, all former police officers from when Kosovo was still
an autonomous province, say they had formed their own trade
union but had not organized an underground interior ministry,
Kelmendi said.



==================================================

TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS      Ref: C1^P3513
Date: 01/31/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader)                     
          Time: 08:58pm \/To: ALL                               
                 (Read 11 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE



A peace proposal was presented yesterday to the Croatian
President, Franjo Tudjman, and to Croatian Serbs. Tudjman has
not yet responded, but Croatian Serbs in Knin refused to even
look at the proposal. The proposal was prepared by European
nations, Russia, and the U.S., and was offered as a basis for
negotiations. The proposal gave some autonomy in local areas to
Croatian Serbs where they were in the majority before the war,
but they would have to recognize the borders of Croatia and
surrender areas where Croats were in the majority before the
war. In the areas they would retain, Croatian Serbs could elect
a legislature and local president, establish their own currency
and tax system, and create a police force and lower courts.



Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic was in Washington, D.C.,
yesterday, urging an end to the arms embargo. Vice President Al
Gore and Secretary of State Warren Christopher said they would
not unilaterally break the embargo without the assent of the
U.N. Security Council. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and
Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Strom Thurmond
said they would seek to have the embargo lifted. Dole has
introduced legislation that would allow the U.S. to send weapons
to the Bosnians at the request of the Bosnian Government or at
the end of the four month cease-fire on May 1. The bill would
prohibit U.S. personnel from delivering the weapons or training
Bosnians in their use. Silajdzic is in Washington for three
days, and was to meet today with a bipartisan commission that
monitors human rights. (Elaine Sciolino/N.Y.T.)



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                     B o s N e w s  - Jan 31, 1995 

=========================================



Politicians criticise Islamic influence on army   95-01-30



``We are not responsible for the introduction of ideology and
manipulation of belief in some units of the Bosnian army... That
process is being carried out without us,'' five of the seven
members of Bosnia's collective presidency said in a statement,
quoted by Sarajevo radio. ``We still remain committed to the
attitude that the army which defends Bosnia-Herzegovina and
which will in the future preserve Bosnia-Herzegovina must be
secular and multi-national, without the influence and competing
interests of political parties.'' It was signed by Nijaz
Durakovic, a Muslim; Croat leaders Stjepan Kljuic and Ivo
Komsic; and two Serbs, Tatjana Ljujic-Mijatovic and Mirko
Pejanovic.

None of the five presidency members belong to the ruling Party
of Democratic Action (SDA). The statement reflected divisions
within the political leadership in Bosnia, and it coincided with
a visit by a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, to
Sarajevo on Monday. Jannati is member of Iran's Council of
Guardians, top religious body.



B&H's PM Silajdzic visits DC



``There must be a deadline set, a real firm deadline, because
this is a good plan, but the plan is not a plan without a time
schedule... If the deadline is not met, we demand the
multilateral lifting of the arms embargo -- if not multilateral
then unilateral -- and arming of Bosnia. There is no other
way,'' Silajdzic said before meeting US Secretary of State
Christopher.

On Monday, Silajdzic also met with Vice President Al Gore. ``The
Vice  President and the Prime Minister deplored the Bosnian
Serbs' intransigence with regard to recent initiatives by the
contact group,'' a statement issued by White House. ``Vice
President Gore assured the Prime Minister that the United States
continues to support efforts to obtain a negotiated settlement
of the conflict in Bosnia on the basis of the contact group
plan,'' it said.

Gore had reiterated the Clinton administration's support ``for
Bosnia's territorial integrity and adherence to the contact
group plan.''



Bosnian Leader Meets With U.S. Officials



``We're serious about lifting the arms embargo,'' Sen. Bob Dole,
R-KS told reporters. ``We certainly haven't lost our resolve...
They're not asking for American troops. They have a right to
self-defense,'' Dole added. Dole has introduced legislation that
would force the Clinton administration to lift the embargo
unilaterally if the Serbs have not accepted the peace plan by
May 1.



Owen urges new peace effort on Bosnia



Lord David Owen, co-chairman of the international conference on
ex-Yugoslavia, told reporters after meeting French Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe: ``We have an opportunity to relaunch the
peace process in the six to eight weeks to come... France, as
president of the EU, will play a key role and we will do all we
can to help the French presidency.''



Bosnian-Croat tensions rise



A U.N. convoy headed to the U.N.-administered southern city of
Mostar was forced to halt due to gunfire across the road at a
Croat checkpoint south of the town at Blagaj on Saturday, U.N.
spokesman Major Koos Sol told Reuters.

Presidents Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Alija Izetbegovic of
Bosnia decided to form a mixed commission to settle disputes.
Western diplomats said they thought this was nothing more than a
token gesture.

Diplomats in Belgrade said they also suspected that the Serbs
were stalling in order to see how the growing Bosnian-Croat rift
developed. ``They would be certainly glad to see the federation
break up and totally destroy the contact group plan,'' one
diplomat said.

``I am convinced this year can bring about optimal solutions, in
terms of normalisation of Croat-Serb relations,'' Croatia's HINA
news agency quoted President Tudjman as saying on Saturday.
``This would create conditions to solve the issue of Croatia's
occupied areas and establish a new international order in all of
former Yugoslavia.'



NATO only please



In London, NATO's commander-in-chief for southern Europe, U.S.
Adm. Leighton W. Smith Jr., said Monday that NATO should command
any evacuation of U.N. peacekeepers from Bosnia, rather than
risk confusion by sharing that responsibility with the United
Nations. An estimated 30,000 to 45,000 NATO troops would be
needed for the operation. According to Smith it could be
completed in less than six months.



Sen. Dole to Slow Down



Sen. Dole said Monday he told Secretary of State Warren
Christopher he is right about not seeking a lifting of the
embargo now. ``We're not going to push it for the next couple of
months because there might be some chance to get an agreement,''
the senator said during a visit to Capitol Hill of Bosnian Prime
Minister Haris Silajdzic.

``There is a fear this war will be Americanized if the embargo
is lifted,'' Silajdzic said. ``Now the war is Serbianized''
because the B osnian government doesn't have arms to protect
itself.

Sen. Dole, R-KS, said that despite his willingness to hold off
on legislation to force President Clinton's hand, ``I haven't
seen any slippage on either side -- Democrat or Republican -- on
lifting the embargo. We are serious about it, and the
administration should know we are serious about it.'



UN Fires at Bosnian Army on Mt. Igman



U.N. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Coward told
reporters French U.N. soldiers fired warning shots on Saturday
evening at 40 Bosnian soldiers trying to enter a demilitarised
zone on Mount Igman, near Sarajevo. Four government soldiers
were slightly wounded by the French fire. 95-01-30 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----

                     B o s N e w s  - Feb. 1, 1995 

=========================================



Silajdzic compares Bosnia's war to Holocaust



Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, who had been visiting
Washington to step up pressure on rebel Serbs, said 200,000
people of which 17,000 children  -- had been killed in the
three-year aggression. He also said the international community
should either intervene or let Bosnians defend themselves.

To those opposed to lifting the arms embargo, who say such a
move will only lead to more deaths, he replied on Tuesday on
CNN's ``Larry King Live'':

``This is the same argument used back in 1940, 1941, when some
people wanted to bomb the rails leading to Ausschwitz.'' He
noted that at the time, many had argued against such a move
fearing even greater Nazi violence. ``So, they did not bomb the
rails, so the Nazis killed only six million people... This is
the same argument and the same result.''

PM Silajdzic Monday urged the United States to give nationalist
Serbs a three-month deadline to accept an international peace
plan. Otherwise the international arms embargo on Bosnia should
be lifted.

``It is absurd to tie the hands of a victim country... We are
trying to preserve not only Bosnia, but democracy, and that
democracy is attacked by fascism.... We need this embargo
lifted. Self-defense is our right.''

The Serb aggression against Bosnian Muslims was not the first
instance of ``ethnic cleansing'', but, Silajdzic said it was
``certainly the first time in history that the international
community watches this public execution televised while tying
the hands of the victims.''

Reuter 95-02-01



New Bosnia peace appeal



Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic expressed little enthusiasm
for the suggestion by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe to
start a new round of negotiations. He said the contact group
must persuade Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to accept its
peace plan before calling another conference.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said after talks with
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic that it was time for the
nationalist Bosnian Serbs to accept the peace plan drawn up by
the "Contact group".

``Karadzic is the only one who so far who has refused to accept
the peace plan and I appeal to him accept the peace plan,'' he
told a news conference.

Reuter



Krajina Serbs Fight In Bosnia



The United Nations reported more heavy fighting in Bihac. In the
last 24 hours 635 artillery and mortar shells were logged. U.N.
spokesman Paul Risley said Krajina Serb forces, which have
previously provided artillery support, were now also involved in
ground fighting on Bosnian territory in the enclave.

He said there was ``a clear presence of RSK (Krajina Serb)
troops on the ground, with tanks, artillery and APCs (armoured
personnel carriers), well within Bosnia.''

Risley also expressed concern at an outbreak of fighting between
nationalist Serb forces and units of the Bosnian Army in the
government-held enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.

Reuter 95-02-01



Rump-Yugoslavia to shut Tito memorial



Rump-Yugoslavia said on Monday it wants to close down the Josip
Broz Tito memorial centre. The Centre was set up 13 years ago to
honour the late president -- a once-revered, communist
father-figure, now out of favour. A bill for the closure of the
Museum of the Revolution of the Yugoslav Peoples as well as the
memorial centre, which contains Tito's grave was put forward.

The government would take over all property, money, archives and
objects of historical, cultural and artistic interest belonging
to the memorial centre and the museum.

Tito was a Croat, a reason many Serbs reject him and want to
remove his tomb from their capital Belgrade.

Reuter 95-01-31



-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----

                     B o s N e w s  - Feb. 02, 1995 

=========================================



Yugo War Crimes Judges concerned



``Before adjourning the Judges wished to express their concern
about the urgency with which appropriate indictments should be
issued... The judges are anxious that a program of indictments
should effectively meet the expectations of the Security Council
and the world community at large,'' Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal
judges said in a press statement on Wednesday expressing
``concern'' over the lack of indictments coming out of the
U.N.-established court's prosecution office.

The only person indicted so far was Bosnian Serb Dragan Nikolic,
who allegedly commanded a Serb-run concentration camp. He's
believed to be somewhere in Serb-held Bosnia and Tribunal
officials concede he's unlikely to be handed over for trial.

Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier said: ``This is one
tribunal with one concern... Bringing to trial major war
criminals at the highest level possible as soon as possible as
efficiently as possible...

The stage has been set, we are now putting in the background and
the curtain will soon be rising.'' At the same time, builders
worked by his side to complete construction of the Tribunal's
courtroom.

Investigators are working on 14 separate cases, Chartier said,

Richard Goldstone, the court's Chief Prosecutor, is expected to
announce in coming weeks the indictment of Dusan Tadic and
likely a number of co-defendants. Since the Tribunal's
inception, the U.N. has consistently dragged its heels in
allocating it funds and it recently put off granting the
Tribunal's full-year budget request. Tribunal got $7 million for
three months.



US Seeks Bosnia Confederation



Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke will have talks
in Munich with Bosnian and Croat leaders. He will be joined by
diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and Russia, U.S.
officials disclosed Wednesday.

The effect of Holbrooke's talks with Bosnian leadership could be
to isolate the Serbs diplomatically. ``We're trying to send them
a political signal,'' said a senior U.S. official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.

Clinton administration officials said they were cool to the idea
expressed by France to organize a new conference.

Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic said while in Washington:
``This only buys time for our enemies... We don't need any more
public relations conferences.''

Silajdzic, concluding his three-day visit, appeared exasperated
that the administration declines to lift the U.N. Security
Council arms embargo in Bosnia. He said a majority in Congress
supported providing arms to government forces.

``The international community owes us because they let other
people kill us and tied our hands... The arms embargo has been
there long enough to prove that it only helps kill innocent
people.''

PM Silajdzic goes next to Moscow where he will press for
imposition of a May 1 deadline for the Serbs to accept the
proposed peace plan.



Nationalist Bosnian Serbs do not reopen roads



A refusal by Bosnian Serb forces to reopen roads across
Sarajevo's airport to civilian traffic on Wednesday threatens to
derail the New Year's agreement, B&H gov't officials said.

``Implementation of the cessation of hostilities agreement is
now in crisis,'' Bosnian government negotiator Hasan Muratovic
told reporters after the two sides met on Tuesday at the
U.N.-controlled airport.

``This is a complete collapse (of the ceasefire process),''
Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic told Reuters.

The nationalist Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA quoted Serb chief
delegate Momcilo Krajisnik as saying: ``Certain things have
still to be clarified.''

A convoy of 18 Norwegian and Canadian U.N. ambulances arrived in
Sarajevo on Tuesday night with 180 sick or wounded people
evacuated from th.e town of Gorazde, also besieged by
nationalist Bosnian Serb forces. The U.N. peacekeepers evacuated
66 Serb patients out of Gorazde to the nearby Serb-held town of
Kopaci as part of an agreement between the combatants, U.N.
spokesman Major Koos Sol said.

The Bosnian Serb "news agency" gave different figures for the
number of patients moved. They claim only 12 Serbs and 94
Moslems had been evacuated on Tuesday with 34 Moslems due to be
taken out on Wednesday. No explanation for the discrepancy was
given.

Reuter 95-02-01



Bosnian Army may attact Krajina Serbs in Croatia



In a letter to Yasushi Akashi, head of the U.N. Protection
Force, the president of B&H Alija Izetbegovic said: ``In the
case of a continuation of this offensive, our army is demanding
to get approval from me to respond on some other fronts to
alleviate the Bihac front,'' as quoted by Sarajevo radio.

Nationalist Krajina Serb forces based in Croatia have crossed
the international border and have been fighting Bosnian Army in
Bihac since November, the United Nations determined.

Izetbeogvic warned Akashi that such a cross-border action would
mean ``the end of the ceasefire and the opening of a new round
of war,'' unless the U.N. mission halted their intervention.

Reuter 95-02-01





-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----

                     B o s N e w s  - Feb. 03, 1995 

=========================================



Bosnian PM visits Moscow



Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic held talks in Moscow on
Thursday with Russian premier Viktor Chernomyrdin on resolving
the conflict in B&H. Silajdzic did not speak to reporters after
the meeting ended. He is due to meet Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev and lower house of parliament chairman Ivan Rybkin on
Friday before returning to Sarajevo.

Source Reuter 95-02-02



Bosnian Muslims, Croats to meet in Munich



Bosnian and Croat leaders will meet next weekend at a security
conference in Munich according to the Secretary of State Warren
Christopher on Thursday. The United States originally sponsored
the federation in a bid to isolate the nationalist Bosnian Serbs.

``As you know the federation documents were initially signed
here in Washington. We're very anxious that that process move
forward,'' Christopher said. ``It is, I think, significant and
can be very valuable for the parties to meet in Munich to
redouble their efforts toward a federation and making a
federation work.'' The federation should move ``beyond being a
concept to have the largest amount of substantive content'', and
US with its allies needed ``to put their shoulder to the wheel
and help the parties with the consolidation of the federation
concept,'' Christopher said.

``The situation is very close to the kind of disintegration that
could set off a very dangerous chain reaction,'' Holbrooke was
quoted as saying. The Washington Post said Defense Secretary W.
Perry and Holbrooke would urge the Bosnians Moslems and Croats
to integrate their societies instead of creating separate
schools and police forces and maintaining separate armies.

Source Reuter 95-02-02



Role of religion in Bosnian Army



``Practising religion is a matter of free will and it does not
mean religion is being used as an instrument of the army,'' said
the statement by Bosnian army commander General Rasim Delic and
other senior officers, amidst growing public debate about the
role of religion and politics in the Bosnian military.

Five members of the country's seven-member collective presidency
warned that the government's cause was jeopardised by hardline
elements in the ruling SDA (Party of Democratic Action) party.
The SDA was alleged of ``manipulating religion in some Bosnian
army units,'' and asserting power over some media.

``This process is being carried out despite our warnings,'' they
said in criticism clearly aimed at Bosnian President Alija
Izetbegovic and Vice-President Ejup Ganic who described the
accusations as ``unfounded.''

``All army units that we visit say that their aim is a unified
Bosnia and that is by definition a democratic and free
country... Anyway, their cry that only God is great is a source
of courage and strength as they face all the struggles ahead of
them. We do not know why would such messages be in someone's way
if their fighting aims are clear,'' President Izetbegovic and
Vice-President Ganic maintained.

``If ideological one-mindedness is imposed on the Bosnian army
and it becomes one-national, it would be a fatal step towards
self-destruction,'' the Oslobodjenje - Sarajevo's daily newpaper
wrote.

``The whole Bosnian army command is made up of members of the
SDA,'' said one local journalist. ``The situation right now at
times resembles what we had a few years ago in this country,
when we had one party and one ideology.''

Source Reuter 95-02-03





========================================

   APn  03-Feb-95 15:58     

Croatia-US Military      

By MAUD S. BEELMAN   Associated Press Writer     



	BRAC ISLAND, Croatia (AP) -- Shrouded in secrecy, a U.S.
military team has set up operations on this rocky outcrop in the
Adriatic Sea to gather intelligence on neighboring
Bosnia-Herzegovina.     The Americans, who are reportedly
launching reconnaissance aircraft, are part of the growing U.S.
military involvement in the Balkans. While refraining from open
armed support of the Bosnian government, Washington is getting
closer to the edges of Europe's worst bloodshed since World War
II.     The approximately 20 Americans, all in civilian clothes,
have virtually taken over a tourist hotel in the village of Bol,
this idyllic island's top resort. Accompanied by plainclothes
Croatian guardsmen, they mainly keep to themselves, departing
each morning by bus to an undisclosed location.     The Croatian
government has not publicly acknowledged their presence, though
the hotel would normally close in winter and the nearby small
airport is blockaded by Croatian military police. Armed guards
turn back the curious.     But the European headquarters of the
U.S. military, upon questioning, confirmed that U.S. soldiers
and Defense Department contractors are on Brac on a mission
named "Lofty View."     It's "an operation to map and survey
primary and secondary lines of communication in
Bosnia-Herzegovina," Cmdr. Ron Morse, a spokesman for the U.S.
European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, told The Associated
Press by telephone.     Morse said the operation was in support
of the U.S.-led "Provide Promise" effort, which includes the
Sarajevo airlift and aid airdrops over Bosnia that were
suspended in May. He would not say how the information from the
surveillance might be used.     Local residents, who refused to
give their names for fear of government reprisal, say the
Americans arrived in December and work from the airport, perched
on the island's highest point.     A local Croatian journalist,
who insisted on anonymity, said Croatia's Defense Ministry had
warned local reporters against mentioning the U.S. military
presence.     But on Jan. 2, the independent, mostly satirical
weekly Feral Tribune reported on its search for "the American
soldiers" on Brac (pronounced BRATCH).     A week later, the
U.S. trade journal Aviation Week & Space Technology reported the
Central Intelligence Agency was launching manned and unmanned
reconnaissance aircraft from Brac.     It cited similar
operations elsewhere in Croatia and last year in Albania. U.S.
and Albanian sources told The AP last May the CIA had used
Gjader air base to fly unmanned spy missions over Serbia and
Bosnia.     Morse refused to say whether Brac was a CIA
operation.     Pentagon involvement in the Balkans has increased
significantly in the past year.     A U.S. law that took effect
in November stopped U.S. monitoring of the arms embargo on
Bosnia and the sharing of intelligence on violations. It also
mandated planning for how the United States and "military forces
of friendly states" would train Bosnian government troops.    
The United States and Croatia signed a military accord on Nov.
29, just days before islanders first noted Americans on Brac.   
 British media alleged in November that the United States was
providing intelligence to Bosnian forces. The Pentagon refused
to comment at the time.     In January, U.S. Under-Secretary of
Defense for Policy, Walter Slocombe, and Rear Adm. David Morris,
deputy commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, paid separate
visits to Croatia. Morris toured shipyards contracted to repair
U.S. ships.     A private U.S. consultant, Military Professional
Resources Inc., has contracted to help train Croatia's army,
State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said in October.
"No active-duty U.S. military officer is participating in this
venture," she said.     Although there are no U.S. ground forces
in Bosnia, retired U.S. Gen. Frederick Franks is the military
adviser to the Bosnian Muslim-Croat federation created under
U.S. auspices.     About 500 U.S. soldiers serve as U.N.
peacekeepers in Macedonia. U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry
announced last summer plans for closer military cooperation and
plans to educate Macedonia military officers in the United
States and Europe.     Perry visited Macedonia, Albania,
Bulgaria and Romania last summer, promising closer military
cooperation and supplies to each.     Although Croatia has said
nothing about the Americans on Brac, a weekly newspaper closely
tied to the government attempted last week to calm islanders'
fears that they will lose tourism just rebounding after
Croatia's 1991 war.     Writing in Nedjeljna Dalmacija, military
columnist Emil Vidusic said there was no need to worry that "the
tourism jewel of central Dalmatia will become foreign military
bases guarded by wire ... (or) a camp for training special
police under the guidance of foreign instructors."     Brac, he
said, would merely be a NATO staging point for any evacuation of
U.N. peacekeepers from Bosnia. But NATO spokesman Capt. Jim
Mitchell, in Naples, Italy, denied NATO was involved.     "NATO
is not doing anything on Brac island," Mitchell said. "It's not
NATO."     



================================================

OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 25, Part II, 3 February 1995



WHAT'S GOING ON AMONG THE BOSNIAN SERBS? Several publications
from rump Yugoslavia on 3 February take up the question of
divisions among the Bosnian Serb leadership. According to the
independent Nasa Borba and Montenegro's Monitor, tensions
between the civilian and military leaderships came to a head
last weekend with the resignation of the second man in the
army's command structure, General Manojlo Milovanovic. The
general reportedly suffered a heart attack soon after resigning.
There are also accounts of long-standing frictions between
Milovanovic's boss--General Ratko Mladic--and civilian chief
Radovan Karadzic. The military blames the civilians for the poor
physical state of the army and its equipment and for setting too
ambitious goals for such an army. One example is the current
offensive around Bihac, which has failed to capture the town and
left the Bosnian government forces still holding key strategic
positions. Nasa Borba and NIN also discuss tensions between
Karadzic and the Banja Luka Serb leadership, which recently sent
a delegation to Belgrade to ask Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic to end his formal blockade of the Bosnian Serbs. --
Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.



SERB-CROAT RELATIONS DEADLOCKED OR JUST BEFORE A "PLEASANT
SURPRISE"? Nasa Borba on 3 February writes that at the beginning
of 1995, there was much speculation that Belgrade and Zagreb may
set up full diplomatic relations soon. But Croatia's subsequent
refusal to extend UNPROFOR's mandate and the resulting growth of
tensions between Zagreb, on the one hand, and Belgrade and Knin,
on the other, have left matters up in the air. Rump Yugoslav
Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic says his Croatian
counterpart, Mate Granic, may still visit Belgrade this month,
although Granic notes that any such trip will have to be
connected with Serbia's full recognition of Croatia in its
official frontiers. Both Serbia and Croatia continue to avoid
taking a clear stand on the latest international plan to solve
the Krajina question, but NIN says the Croatian opposition
mistrusts President Franjo Tudjman's handling of the issue and
is apprehensive about any "pleasant surprise" that the
government may unveil to improve relations with Belgrade. --
Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.



LORD OWEN SAYS MILOSEVIC WILL NOT ALLOW WAR TO BE EXPORTED TO
SERBIA. Serbian and Croatian dailies on 3 February report on the
visit the previous day by EU mediator David Owen and his UN
counterpart, Thorvald Stoltenberg, to Belgrade and Zagreb. Nasa
Borba says Owen sees nothing wrong with a new international
conference on Bosnia, as the French have proposed, but he argues
that it must be well prepared. He also says that the time is not
right for such a gathering until "some details" are solved
through lower-level talks, including the question of Bosnia's
future constitutional order and the borders on the map
partitioning that embattled republic. He stresses the importance
of UNPROFOR's presence for peace in Croatia and adds that
Milosevic will not allow its departure to lead to an expansion
of the war to Serbia and Montenegro. The Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung adds, however, that Owen feels Tudjman will reconsider
his decision and renew UNPROFOR's mandate. -- Patrick Moore,
OMRI, Inc.



SERBIAN INFORMATION MINISTER ON JOURNALIST ETHICS. Ratomir Vico,
in an interview with the state-controlled daily Borba on 3
February, said the Serbian government is "not looking for
anything but objective reporting" from foreign and domestic
journalists. His remark comes amid the authorities' ongoing
crackdown on the independent media, notably the once-independent
Borba, now known as Nasa Borba. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc.



=============================================

 OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 26, Part I and II, 6 February 1995



SERBIAN HELICOPTERS FLY OVER BOSNIA. The BBC on 5 February and
Nasa Borba the following day report yet another story suggesting
that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's break with the
Bosnian Serbs is not as complete as he would have people
believe. The accounts quote Dutch UNPROFOR sources as saying
that as many as 20 helicopters flew from Serbia to Bosnian Serb
lines around the besieged Muslim enclave and "safe area" of
Srebrenica on 3 February. Elsewhere, the BBC reported on 6
February that the Bosnian Serbs agreed to a limited reopening of
the Sarajevo airport route. The new rules for use of the road
benefit the Serbs and exclude the commercial traffic that the
Bosnian government had wanted. Relief agencies will benefit most
from the new system. -Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc.



CROATS AND MUSLIMS AGREE TO BINDING ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES. The
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Nasa Borba on 6 February
report that U.S. mediators have succeeded in convincing
top-level Croatian, Bosnian Croat, and Muslim delegations to
accept binding arbitration of disputes. The two sides will have
two months to list the problems that have hamstrung setting up
the Croat-Muslim federation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
nine-point plan for arbitration was adopted in conjunction with
a major international gathering of security experts in Munich
and a meeting of the Contact Group. The Croats and Muslims
agreed to a federation in Washington almost a year ago, but it
has proven difficult to put this arrangement into practice.
EU-appointed chief administrator of Mostar Hans Koschnik sounded
the alarm last month by making it clear that the Herzegovinian
Croats, in particular, will have to become more cooperative or
he will be forced to give up his mandate.-- Patrick Moore, OMRI,
Inc.



BOSNIA AND RUSSIA AGREE TO CLOSER TIES. Nasa Borba reports on 6
February that Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic and Russian
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev held a joint press conference
the previous day in Moscow. The two countries agreed to exchange
diplomatic representatives and to take further steps toward
establishing full relations. Kozyrev said that Russia, which is
a member of the Contact Group, supports the territorial
integrity of all former Yugoslav republics and urges the Bosnian
Serbs to accept the Contact Group's peace plan. -- Patrick
Moore, OMRI, Inc.



CONTINUED LOGJAM IN CROATIAN-SERBIAN RELATIONS? Croatian and
Serbian dailies on 4 February discussed extensively relations
between the two peoples. Attention centered on the international
Z-4 group's plan for the Serb-occupied territories of Croatia.
The project would make the Knin and Glina areas part of Croatia
in name but largely self-governing in practice. Western Slavonia
would revert to Croatian government control, but occupied Srem
would be placed under temporary international administration.
The plan sounds too much like the partition or federalization of
Croatia to be acceptable to Zagreb, while for most Serbs it does
not go far enough toward ensuring their independence. -Patrick
Moore, OMRI, Inc.



EMBARGO ON RUMP YUGOSLAVIA VIOLATED BY BULGARIAN "PHANTOM"
COMPANIES. The UN embargo on rump Yugoslavia is being violated
by Bulgarian companies with falsified registration documents,
Demokratsiya reported on 4 February. The "phantom" companies are
engaged mainly in large-scale fuel smuggling. The Bulgarian
authorities began investigating the matter last year, but so far
no company has been taken to court, owing to a lack of evidence.
Deputy Director of the National Investigation Service Vladimir
Stoykov said in an interview with Demokratsiya on 6 February
that 37 cases involving 12 companies are being examined.
Meanwhile, 168 chasa reported on 6 February that two Bulgarians
who were arrested for trying to smuggle 5,000 tons of gasoline
into Serbia are now living in Belgrade. -- Stefan Krause, OMRI,
Inc.



SERBIAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO HARASS NASA BORBA. The
independent daily Nasa Borba on 6 February reports that its
employees are in effect being "thrown out of their offices." The
staff has been deprived of such vital materials as fax services,
telephone connections, and direct links to AFP and Reuters. Nasa
Borba reincorporated itself in January after the government
appropriated the name and masthead of Borba. -- Stan Markotich,
OMRI, Inc.



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