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