******************************************************** UN -- Bias In Yugo Report ZAGREB, Croatia (Tue, 3 Jan 1995) -- A confidential U.N. report on various players in the war in the former Yugoslavia is marred by factual errors, and a U.N. spokesman acknowledged Monday that it was biased and incomplete. Long excerpts of the 76-page report, billed as a Who's Who of former Yugoslavia, were published in the current edition of the Zagreb weekly Globus. U.N. spokesman Thant Myint-U acknowledged Monday that the report contained ``sketchy and incomplete generalizations ... which could be viewed by different people as unfair, partial or biased. ``It is regrettable that some of the observations or comments contained in the document were made,'' he said. One of the entries is the Serbian paramilitary commander, Zeljko Raznjatovic, known as Arkan. He is described without any reference to the killing, terrorizing and expelling of Muslims and Croats allegedly perpetrated by his units in Bosnia and Croatia. ``Captain Dragan,'' the head of a feared Serb militia in Croatia known as the Red Berets, is also described in what some would view as innocuous terms as ``very outspoken, extremely clever and quite Western in his manners and way of speaking.'' The report, dated June 1994, was put together by the U.N. Military Information branch at U.N. headquarters in Zagreb following high-level requests for a dossier of the various players in the Balkans, Thant said. It mostly describes lower-level or lesser-known figures. President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, the instigator of the war, got only six lines, as did another regional power broker, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia. The description of Tudjman as ``the Croatian version of the extreme nationalism of Slobodan Milosevic'' is ``incomplete and likely to be viewed as unfair,'' Thant acknowledged. Serbs wound two Canadian peacekeepers ZAGREB, Croatia (Tue, 3 Jan 1995) -- Rebel Croatian Serbs wounded two Canadian peacekeepers by raking a U.N. vehicle with bullets in southern Croatia on New Year's Eve, a United Nations spokesman said Tuesday. ``A vehicle carrying two Canadian soldiers was fired on by a group of some 20 Serb soldiers on Dec. 31 in Kolarina. The car took 54 shots and both soldiers suffered injuries,'' U.N spokesman Michael Williams told a news conference. One soldier was hit by four or five bullets, the other was hit three times. Both were taken to a U.N. field hospital in Zagreb and were in stable condition Tuesday. Michael Williams described the attack as outrageous and said it was the "most serious incident in the U.N.-patrolled areas of Croatia for a long period of time.'' General Bertrand de Lapresle, commander of U.N. troops in former Yugoslavia, made a strong protest about the shooting when he met the ``prime minister'' of the Croatian Serbs' breakaway state of Krajina. De Lapresle demanded that the soldiers involved should be court-martialled. ====================================================== NEW REPUBLIC 9 January 1994 Editorial Merry Christmas, Mr. Karadzic "One of the rare chances to let the world know the truth": This is what Jimmy Carter promised Radovan Karadzic last week. The abasement took even our breath away. And there was more. "I cannot dispute your statement that the American public has had primarily one side of the story," the mad dove of Plains told the mad hawk of Pale. The difference between the men paled before the similarity. They were collaborators in evil; and when, in a few weeks or a few months, the genocide in Bosnia finally pays off, and a Greater Serbia is brought into being, a statue of the vain, meddling, amoral American fool should stand in its every ethnically cleansed square. Jimmy Carter's reputation for idealism has been one of the great swindles of American politics for two decades. In fact, he is the man in his time who will have done the most to damage the prestige of idealism and the prestige of peace. For peace is never lasting or true when it is based on the belief that there is nothing worse than war; but that is Carter's belief. He practices "conflict resolution," a contentless approach to conflict, for which all parties in all conflicts are like all parties in all conflicts, and there are no conflicts that cannot be fairly ended by compromise. It is the gospel of reasonableness, which is, as the Carter presidency demonstrated, a hapless foundation for foreign policy. And since the world is not reasonable, the world must be misdescribed, as Carter misdescribed "the truth" about the Balkans. Be reasonable, Carter says to the butcher of Sarajevo, as he said to the butcher of Hama; and they, assuring themselves that they have Sarajevo and Hama in their power, are glad to oblige. He provides tyrants with the thing that tyranny cannot provide, which is legitimacy. He brings them even a little pathos, as he sees into the hearts of men who have no hearts. Sitting between Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, that is, at the most dishonorable table in the Western world, Jimmy Carter secured from them, according to press reports, the reopening of Sarajevo's airport, "a cease-fire leading to the complete cessation of hostilities," the free movement of aid convoys, "full protection of human rights" and freedom for all people in the region "regardless of age, sex or ethnic origin to choose where they wish to live." This is an indecent farce. There is no promise that the Bosnian Serbs made to their turtle-necked, brow-furrowed, return-ticketed stooge that they have not made before, and broken. He is elated that they agree to take another look at the "Contact Group" plan, when that plan, as Albert Wohlstetter showed in these pages last summer, is a blueprint for a Greater Serbia. He entertains their plan for a partition of Sarajevo, which they call "the sacrifices around Sarajevo." He talks human rights with them! But Carter is not alone to blame for his mission. He is, after all, a former president. There is, after all, a current president. Why can't the current president tell the former president to stay the hell out of American foreign policy? The question, alas, is a rhetorical one. The whole country knows the answer. It is that Bill Clinton lacks a spine. This has been especially the case in foreign policy, and especially the case in Bosnian policy. He cannot stand up to Carter, and we are expecting him to stand up to Karadzic. To be sure, his press secretary was quick to "distance" the administration from Carter's analysis of "the truth" by insisting that the Bosnian Serbs are the "aggressors"; but it has been only a few weeks since his national security adviser called the same aggression a "civil war." (And where is Al Gore?) Here is "the truth." Carter is a menace. Clinton is a sap. Karadzic is a murderer. And unlike the menace and the sap, the murderer knows what he is doing. ============================================================= TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C14N1805 Date: 01/04/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 07:30pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Attacks were reported in Bihac yesterday. U.N. officials blamed rebel Muslim forces of Fikret Abdic for the fighting. In Sarajevo yesterday, the airport reopened after closing for bad weather, and streetcars began service again. (Reuters/N.Y.T.) ======================================================= TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C15M0111 Date: 01/05/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 06:01pm \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Fighting near Bihac continues. Some 300 artillery and mortar explosions were recorded near Velika Kladusa on Tuesday, with further shelling yesterday. (Reuters/N.Y.T.) ******************************************************** Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 11:32:46 GMT Message-ID: THE INVISIBLE BALKAN WAR /NYTIMES ---- The Week in Review/ By ROGER COHEN c.1994 N.Y. Times News Service ZAGREB, Croatia The Bosnian war is increasingly invisible. Its most recent crises, at Bihac in western Bosnia and Gorazde in the east, have had enormous repercussions around the world, but the two small towns themselves have remained lost in the fog of second-hand reporting. Western journalists, almost without exception, have been unable to get there. The result is troubling, and the reports sometimes baffling. Serbian forces advance and advance and advance across towns you can drive through in five minutes. Villages are taken, then retaken by the same army a few days later. Casualty figures swing wildly, reported by local witnesses who may be hunkered down in their basements or distant from the scene. The precise locality of photographs is often vague. Television crews plead for ``bang-bang pictures'' from commanders not above a touch of stage management. The bizarre situation thus created in Bosnia is that journalists' access to information stands in inverse proportion to the volume of sophisticated gear they carry around to communicate what they know. The very possibility of instantaneous and worldwide transmission, it seems, has made the facts that much more politically explosive and that much more necessary to conceal. Of course, there have been attempts to limit or censor reporting in most wars. The Pentagon set strict standards for the gulf war that provoked the ire of many editors. But concern over divulging military information has usually been the main consideration behind the constraints. In Bosnia, where attempts to manage and manipulate the press are now accorded as much importance by Muslims and Serbs as maneuvers on the battlefield, the concern is much wider: that any graphic image or report could shift public opinion and so public policy. Thus does information become suspect and the journalist dangerous. It took a while to learn this in Bosnia. The war was chaotic in the early months and more treacherous. But there were few restrictions. In August, 1992, I crossed the Bosnian border from Serbia in a bus full of Serbian volunteers armed to the teeth, and I followed them to the hills overlooking Sarajevo: telling images too telling for today's bureaucratic and intensely media-conscious managers of the war in the Serbian stronghold of Pale and in Sarajevo. The responsibility for the war's increasing disappearance from view lies with both sides, but particularly the Serbs, and with the United Nations, for its apparent complicity in this exercise. Acutely aware that a strong press report can affect U.N. sanctions or NATO's role, the Serbs have taken to sealing off areas under their control. The United Nations has allowed them to do so. The Muslim-led Bosnian government has also become more restrictive, limiting access to advances in central Bosnia, perhaps out of concern that its image as victim could be affected. When was a reporter last in Srebrenica, the seething and Serbian-encircled Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia? Or in Gorazde? When another shell hits the Bihac hospital, what does that really look like? As for Zepa, another eastern enclave, no western reporter has managed to get there since it was surrounded by the Serbs. At the end of the Gorazde crisis last April, Lieut. Gen. Sir Michael Rose took to berating the Sarajevo press for inflating Muslim casualties and so, he claimed, almost precipitating World War III. Why, then, I asked him, would he not put a handful of reporters into one of the U.N. helicopters then going to the town? Oh, no, he replied, that would irritate the Serbs and cut off U.N. access to Gorazde. When I suggested he was kowtowing to the Serbs, he got angry. But that, in essence, is the United Nations' policy toward the press. There is scant evidence that Rose, or anybody else, has pressed the Serbs to allow journalists into Muslim enclaves, and on no occasion has the United Nations taken the initiative in deciding that information was more important than the Serbs' objections. Announcing last week that journalists would henceforth be allowed on U.N. flights in Bosnia, Kofi A. Annan, the U.N. under-secretary for peace operations, said: ``Peacekeeing operations in particular depend for their support on widespread public awareness of the conflicts, and we are committed to doing everything we can to facilitate the work of the media.'' Up to now, however, this has not been the case. Of course, it is not the United Nations' business to do journalists' work for them. It is always possible to try to circumvent restrictions, by walking over a mountain and across a front line, for example. But in this conflict, where such courage has not generally been lacking, 46 journalists have been killed far more than in Vietnam. Journalists have been directly targeted, particularly by the Serbs, who think they are biased against them. Last month, Luc Delahaye of the Magnum photo agency and a colleague were picked up by the Serbs just north of the Bihac pocket. They were held for two days, kicked, punched, doused in cold water in freezing rooms, threatened with death, made to lean against walls with their entire body weight on their heads until they collapsed, kicked again and repeatedly interrogated. ``Every time I would deny that I was a spy for the Muslims and say I worked for Magnum, I braced myself for the next blow,'' Delahaye said. ``You say the word Magnum and you know what it will trigger.'' For ``Magnum,'' the word ``journalist'' could easily be substituted. The Muslim-led government and the Serbs, not used to any open flow of information after five decades of Communist rule, have come increasingly to see international reporters as either tools or enemies. It is not just in Bosnia that information is under attack. In another bitter conflict, in Algeria, journalists have been a prime target. In all, 24 have been killed in the last two years. The most recent, Said Mekbel, the editor of Le Matin of Algiers, was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists Dec. 3. In his last, prophetic article, he wrote: ``This thief who, at night, hugs the walls as he walks home, is him. This father who recommends to his children never to mention his profession is him. This vagabond who does not know where to spend the night is him. This man who swears he will not die with his throat cut is him. He is all these things, and he is only a journalist.'' ========================================================== Vol. 1, No. 4, 5 January 1995 We welcome you to the Open Media Research Institute's Daily Digest - a compilation of news concerning the former Soviet Union and East-Central and Southeastern Europe. The Daily Digest picks up where the RFE/RL Daily Report, which recently ceased publication, left off. Contributors include OMRI's 30-member staff of analysts, plus selected freelance specialists. OMRI is a unique public-private venture between the Open Society Institute and the U.S. Board for International Broadcasting. Due to network congestion, many subscribers did not receive some issues of the Daily Digest. The Daily Digest is archived weekly and subscribers may access missing issue themselves. To review a list of the available weekly archive, send an e-mail message containing the sentence INDEX OMRI-L to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu The computer will return an index listing; to have a file sent to you, send an e-mail message containing the sentence GET FILENAME to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu NB: use the filename specified in the index. surrender their weapons until Dudaev's forces have been completely neutralized. Also on 4 January, Interfax quoted an unidentified senior Russian Foreign Ministry official as stating that Moscow is drafting an official response to the OSCE proposal to send a group of experts to evaluate the human rights situation in Chechnya. -- Liz Fuller, OMRI, Inc. ********************************************* BOSNIAN UPDATE. The BBC reported on 5 January that follow-up talks on the ceasefire agreement between Bosnian government and rebel Serb representatives had broken down. The Los Angeles Times quoted a UN spokesman as adding that fighting was continuing in parts of the Bihac pocket, notably around Bosanska Krupa and Cojluk. Those actions were launched by the Serbs, whose ally Fikret Abdic similarly has not been living up to his pledge to respect the four-month truce in his Velika Kladusa fiefdom. The Los Angeles paper also cited UN reports that the Serbs were preventing the evacuation of 35 sick and wounded people from Gorazde, two of whom had since died. Meanwhile in Washington, international media reported on 5 January that the new Republican majority leader in the Senate, Robert Dole, had introduced legislation the previous day to end American compliance with the arms embargo against the Bosnian government. He said it would put the necessary pressure on the Bosnian Serbs to get them to accept a peace agreement. Reuters quoted a State Department spokesman as responding that such a move would be "the wrong thing to do at this very important point in the crisis in Bosnia." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. A TOUGH LINE IN CROATIA . . . Reuters reported on 4 January that the Croatian government has threatened to end all talks with break-away Serb forces unless the latter begin implementing last month's economic agreement. So far the only part of the pact to materialize has been the reopening of the main east-west highway. Further provisions call for, among other things, the reopening of the Adria pipeline connecting Rijeka with Central Europe. Croatian chief negotiator Hrvoje Sarinic said that his government will not talk about or sign anything more until existing pledges are carried out. He also suggested that Croatia might not renew UNPROFOR's mandate when it runs out on 31 January. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. . . . OR JUST DEJA VU? These statements seem to fit an established pattern in Croatian policy since the UN's presence there began at the start of 1992: Croatia makes much noise in the weeks leading up to the renewal of the mandate to the effect that the UN must aid the reintegration of the occupied territories into Croatia if the troops' stay is to be prolonged. Zagreb's allies then quietly pressure it into extending the mandate, while the Croatian government publicly claims victory, pledging not to renew the agreement again if the territories in question remain under Serb control much longer. As part of the apparent ritual, the chief of the general staff recently said that he would not rule out a military solution to the Krajina question. This possibility has also been a central subject of the Croatian rumor mill, amid reports of increased conscription levies in Split and elsewhere. President Franjo Tudjman, however, seems to be publicly taking the line that for now diplomacy offers the best hope for Croatia to realize its goals. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. MORE SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENT SERBIAN DAILY. Reuters reported on 4 January that the London-based International Center for Censorship had protested to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic over his attempts to take over the daily Borba and extend censorship over the independent media. That paper itself said that some 3,000 people had formed a "ring of freedom" around its Belgrade offices on 1 January in response to a call by the Independent Media Union. One speaker said that "our weapons are words of truth and they reflect hard facts," but added that now more than words is needed to stop government from destroying the freedom of the press and airwaves and that of individuals. In other Serbian developments, that same paper noted that the Steering Committee of the independent union at the Ikarus-FAO plant had entered the sixth day of a hunger strike for back pay. Government officials continued to ignore the men's requests for talks. Politika on 5 January, for its part, reported that rumpYugoslavia and Russia had concluded an economic agreement that provides for mutual most-favored-nation trading status. The text must first be approved by the Federal Assembly. -Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. ALBANIAN UNIVERSITY IN MACEDONIA STILL IN OPERATION. Fadil Sylejmani, a professor at the selfproclaimed Albanian language university in Tetovo, said that the work of the institution will continue even though police tried to physically destroy it, Nova Makedonija reported on 5 January. Sylejmani said that the Macedonian government "will not gain anything other than its own loss of face" if it continues to oppose the university. Meanwhile, a journalist for the Kosovar Albanian dailies Rilindja and Bujku, Ramush Tahiri, said that the expulsion of Kosovar legislators from their Macedonian havens affects all Macedonian citizens. Tahiri added in a letter to Macedonian Interior Minister Ljubomir Frckovski that the government's conduct showed an undemocratic spirit. He also said that "the measures the Macedonian authorities take against the Albanians now will be taken against all citizens tomorrow." The letter was published in Flaka on 5 January. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc. [As of 1200 CET] Compiled by Pete Baumgartner and Steve Kettle ===================================================== Bosnia cease-fire -- Bihac fighting SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Wed, 4 Jan 95) - U.N. peacekeepers said Wednesday fighting in the Bosnian enclave of Bihac marred the country's new cease-fire on the eve of a meeting of major powers to discuss how the truce might further the peace process. The U.N. reported heavy shelling in the north of the Bihac enclave near Velika Kladusa Tuesday. Some 300 artillery and mortar explosions landed in the vicinity of the town with more overnight. The UN has blamed rebel Serbs from the Krajina and renegade Muslim allies for clashes with Bosnian government forces but said there was little they could do as the rebel elements were not signatories to the truce. Diplomats from the five-nation "contact group" on Bosnia, planned to hold talks in Bonn Thursday to build on the new truce to press for a negotiated settlement of the war, the German foreign ministry said. The meeting will discuss "which steps can be taken to continue the efforts toward a political peace settlement against the background of the cease-fire agreed for Bosnia-Herzegovina," the foreign ministry said. Since the latest truce was proposed (by Jimmy Carter,) diplomats say the major powers appear to have shifted their stance to accommodate Serb demands. A statement last week by the contact group welcoming the truce cautiously referred to its peace plan as a "starting point" instead of a fixed proposal which they had presented as an ultimatum earlier this year. The truce accord was signed after U.N. shuttle diplomacy persuaded the Bosnian government not to insist on peace in Bihac and the Serbs on a government army pullout from Mount Igman overlooking Sarajevo as firm preconditions for the agreement. Bosnian army forces were expected to carry out a pledge to withdraw an estimated 250 soldiers from the demilitarized mountain zone, a U.N. spokesman said. Bob Dole --- Arms Embargo Bill Meanwhile in Washington Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole introduced a bill in the new Congress Wednesday to break the Bosnia arms embargo despite opposition from President Clinton's administration and European allies. "We have an opportunity to take real action, to take meaningful action by terminating this illegal and unjust arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina," Dole said. The State Department sharply criticized Dole's action, saying his timing was particularly bad because the four-month cease-fire won by former president Jimmy Carter is holding. "We continue to believe that it is just the wrong thing to do at this very important point in the crisis in Bosnia," State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said. "Perhaps Congress, as it considers Sen. Dole's resolution, might want to think about what that four-month period offers by way of an opportunity for negotiations," he told a news briefing. McCurry said the State Department would discuss this with Dole and others in Congress. "We think we can argue effectively that we're at a point in the diplomacy based on the work the contact group has done that we need to see if we can't use this new diplomatic opportunity to build on the opportunity for peace," he said. McCurry also said that if the United States unilaterally lifted the embargo it would take on the moral responsibility to arm, equip and train the Bosnian government, which has been hit by the ban in its conflict with Bosnian Serbs. "How that could be achieved without massive use of U.S. force unilaterally, and very, very likely the introduction of U.S. ground troops, is a question that someone I hope will pose to Sen. Dole," he said. But Dole said his bill breaking the embargo would not undermine Carter's cease-fire, and instead would apply pressure on Bosnian Serbs to accept peace. "The bottom line is that if this legislation is passed and no peace settlement is reached, (Serb leader) Radovan Karadzic and his thugs will have to face greater consequences than another meeting of the contact group," he said. Dole did not say how soon he would put the legislation to a Senate vote. It would also have to be approved by the House, which would be likely, and signed by President Clinton to become law and take effect. McCurry said he did not know if Clinton would veto such legislation. Dole also introduced a proposed "Peace Powers Act of 1995" that would restrict use of U.S. troops and funds for U.N. peacekeeping operations. ***************************************************** DATE=1/5/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE= BOSNIA CEASEFIRE (S-ONLY) BYLINE= DAN YOVICH DATELINE=SARAJEVO INTRO: CONTINUED FIGHTING IN NORTHWESTERN BOSNIA IS COMPLICATING EFFORTS TO IMPLEMENT THE FOUR- MONTH CEASEFIRE. DAN YOVICH IN SARAJEVO REPORTS U-N OFFICIALS ARE MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL SIDES IN THE CONFLICT TO TRY TO RESOLVE THE SITUATION. TEXT: U-N OFFICIALS ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE SPEEDY IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FOUR-MONTH BOSNIAN CEASEFIRE. A SERIES OF NEGOTIATING SESSIONS IS SCHEDULED IN THE HOPE THAT SERIOUS SETBACKS TO THE FLEDGLING PEACE PROCESS CAN BE RESOLVED. UNITED NATIONS PROTECTION FORCE SPOKESMAN MAJOR HERVE GOURMELON SAYS SPORADIC BUT HEAVY FIGHTING IN NORTHWESTERN BOSNIA JEOPARDIZES THE CEASEFIRE. ALSO HINDERING PROGRESS IS THE APPARENT RELUCTANCE OF THE BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT ARMY TO WITHDRAW FROM THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE JUST NORTH OF SARAJEVO. MAJOR GOURMELON SAYS BOTH DEVELOPMENTS ARE FORCING U-N MILITARY COMMANDERS TO TAKE A MORE REALISTIC APPROACH IN DEALING WITH THE HIGH LEVEL OF MISTRUST BETWEEN BOSNIAN SERBS AND BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT ARMY COMMANDERS. STILL, MOST OF BOSNIA WAS CALM ON THE FIFTH DAY OF THE CEASEFIRE AND MAJOR GOURMELON SAYS THAT IS ONE ACHIEVEMENT U-N COMMANDERS HOPE TO BUILD ON. (SIGNED) 05-Jan-95 11:36 AM EST (1636 UTC) Source: Voice of America ***************************** DATE=1/5/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=BOSNIA MEETING (S ONLY) BYLINE=EVANS HAYS DATELINE=BONN /// EDS NOTE: MEETING EXPECTED TO CONTINUE UNTIL ABOUT 22 GMT OR LATER. EVANS WILL UPDATE AFTER MEETING ENDS /// INTRO: SENIOR DIPLOMATS FROM FIVE NATIONS ARE MEETING IN BONN, GERMANY, TO ASSESS THE SITUATION IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, WHERE A FRAGILE CEASEFIRE IS STILL IN PLACE. THE DIPLOMATS ARE DISCUSSING WHAT STEPS THE WORLD COMMUNITY CAN TAKE TO REINFORCE THE TRUCE. VOA CORRESPONDENT EVANS HAYS IN BONN HAS THIS REPORT. TEXT: DIPLOMATS REPRESENTING WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE "CONTACT GROUP" ON BOSNIA ARE MEETING IN BONN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION IN BOSNIA IN LIGHT OF A CEASEFIRE AGREED TO BY THE WARRING PARTIES LATE LAST MONTH. THE CONTACT GROUP INCLUDES THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY AND RUSSIA. A STATEMENT FROM THE GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY IN BONN SAYS THE GROUP IS LOOKING AT WHAT THE WORLD COMMUNITY CAN DO TO ADVANCE THE PEACE PROCESS IN BOSNIA. A KEY POINT IN THE TALKS IS THE PEACE PLAN PLAN PUT FORTH BY THE GROUP ITSELF FOUR MONTHS AGO TO SEPARATE THE WARRING FACTIONS IN BOSNIA. THAT PEACE PLANS CALLS FOR A DIVISION OF TERRITORY BETWEEN THE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS AND CROATIANS ON ONE SIDE AND BOSNIAN SERBS ON THE OTHER. THE CONTACT GROUP'S MEETING IS THE FIRST TO BE HELD SINCE FORMER U-S PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER WENT TO BOSNIA, WHERE HE HELPED TO BROKER A CEASEFIRE IN THE WAR THAT HAS SO FAR COST HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES. (SIGNED) 05-Jan-95 12:39 PM EST (1739 UTC) Source: Voice of America ======================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1AP2869 Date: 01/06/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 08:47pm \/To: ALL (Read 19 times) Subj: U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ON MISSIONS In a progress report of the last two years of U.N. peacekeeping operations intended as a follow-up to the 1992 Agenda for Peace, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told the Security Council yesterday that it was "micromanaging" peacekeeping efforts at the expense of his authority and that of ground commanders. He also criticized unnamed countries for demanding strong and costly action, then failing to support it. Boutros-Ghali suggested that the U.N. develop a supply of reaction troops from various nations to dispatch to crises in a short ammount of time, and maintain larger ammounts of equipment and supplies for the forces. He also noted he was having a hard time finding qualified special emmissaries to oversee operations in the field for long periods of time. Boutros-Ghali also spoke of the use of sanctions, which he said were "a blunt instrument." He continued: "They raise the ethical question of whether suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups in the target country is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on political leaders whose behavior is unlikely to be affected by the plight of their subjects." He advocated the formation of a system to assess the results of potential sanctions, and after they are implemented, would be able to "fine tune" them to incease political effect and decrease human suffering to the extent possible. The following is an overview of U.N. activity: 1/31/88 1/31/92 1/31/94 Security Council resolutions adopted 15 53 78 in last 12 months Conflicts in which the U.N. was 11 13 28 actively involved in diplomacy or peacekeeping Deployed peacekeeping operations 5 11 17 Military personnel deployed 9,570 11,495 73,393 Civilian police deployed 35 115 2,130 International civilians deployed 1,516 2,206 2,206 Countries contributing military or 26 56 76 police Budget for peacekeeping operations 230 1,690 3,610 annually in millions (U.S.$) Countries in which U.N. monitored - 6 21 electoral activities were held in preceeding 12 months Sanctions imposed 1 2 7 (Dun and Bradstreet Economic Analysis Department, Barbara Crossette/N.Y.T.) =========================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1BP1182 Date: 01/07/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 08:19pm \/To: ALL (Read 16 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Several hundred Croat and Muslim civilians were reported taken from Banja Luka in December by Bosnian Serbs to other Serbian held areas, as part of their "ethnic cleansing." The moves were appearantly in retaliation for a Croatian attack on Glamoc that sent around 5,000 Serb civilians fleeing the town. With the exception of Bihac, the cease-fire appears to be holding. The U.N. has requested 6,000 more peacekeepers for monitoring. Talks at Sarajevo airport yesterday on establishing a demilitarized zone at Mount Igman west of the airport collapsed yesterday when Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Government failed to agree on the size of the zone. Bosnia Serbs are unlikely now to reopen roads to civilian traffic into Sarajevo. The U.N. sent out patrols yesterday on Mount Igman to check if Bosnian Government troops had completed their pullout. Three posts were still occupied as of yesterday morning. (Reuters/N.Y.T.) ====================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1CP0037 Date: 01/08/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 08:00pm \/To: ALL (Read 10 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Flights to Sarajevo Airport were cancelled yesterday. Bullets were found lodged in the fuselages of two U.N. aircraft after they returned to Zagreb, Croatia, from Sarajevo. (Reuters/N.Y.T.) =================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1DR1605 Date: 01/09/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 10:26pm \/To: ALL (Read 6 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE GEN Ratko Mladic, the military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, said yesterday that his forces would not lift their blockade of Sarajevo until Bosnian Government troops withdrew from a demilitarized zone on Mount Igman. Mladic wants Bosnian troops to return to the positions they held in the summer of 1993, before the zone was created. Aid flights to Sarajevo resumed yesterday. The cease-fire continues to hold, except for a few explosions reported near Bosanska Krupa. (A.P./N.Y.T.) =========================================================== Date: Sat, 7 Jan 95 3:30:14 PST ZAGREB, Croatia (Reuter) - Warring factions in former Yugoslavia are brazenly stealing cars from the United Nations in large numbers with the knowledge of their political leaders, a U.N. official said Saturday. A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the agency had 32 of its cars stolen last year. ``We lost one million dollars' worth of cars, including those with four-wheel drive, highly-valued armored cars and even trucks used to deliver humanitarian aid,'' spokesman Peter Kessler told Reuters. Car thefts are the latest humiliation for the United Nations mission which has suffered blockades, hostage-taking and direct attacks at the hands of Serb, Croat and Muslim forces in Bosnia and Croatia. Kessler said all the warring parties in ex-Yugoslavia were involved, but most of the thefts were committed in Croatia and Croat-controlled parts of Bosnia, where there is ``clearly a well-organized car theft ring.'' ``The stolen cars turn up in a matter of days in (Croat-held) Bosnia, repainted,'' Kessler said. Several UNHCR cars were seen escorting senior Bosnian Croat officials, he said. ``But our cars were also seen in the entourage of (Bosnia's Muslim president) Alija Izetbegovic.'' Serbs from Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia stole 10 UNHCR cars last year, while the Muslims took five, he said. ``Bosnian Serbs even had the affrontery to use a stolen UNHCR car in the escort for the High Commissioner Sadako Ogata herself when she visited (Serb headquarters in) Pale last year,'' Kessler said. He said car thefts were organized with the knowledge of ``senior officials'' in the Croatian capital Zagreb and the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and ``certainly with Serb authorities too.'' The UNHCR has repeatedly complained to respective authorities, but none of the cars has been returned so far. In the first week of the new year two UNHCR cars were stolen by the Croats and another was fired on as the driver sped off to avoid being hijacked by ``Croat thugs'' in Medjugorje in southern Bosnia, Kessler said. The problem appeared to be even greater for the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), which has some 23,000 peacekeepers deployed in Bosnia and Croatia. ``We lose five cars every week,'' a U.N. source with UNPROFOR in Zagreb said. Kessler said he was not surprised. ``No wonder, UNPROFOR has better cars.'' ******************************************************** Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 19:58:43 GMT Message-ID: ***************************************************** * BOSNIA / DETAINEES * BOSNIA / U-S (S-ONLY) * BOSNIA SUPPORTERS PLAN STRATEGY **************** DATE=1/9/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=BOSNIA / DETAINEES (S-ONLY) BYLINE=DANIEL YOVICH DATELINE=SARAJEVO INTRO: U-N OFFICIALS HAVE LODGED A PROTEST WITH BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIALS OVER THE CONTINUED DETENTION OF CIVILIANS TAKEN PRISONER AS PART OF ETHNIC-CLEANSING. ALMOST ONE-THIRD OF THE BOSNIAN MUSLIMS BEING HELD IN A SERB JAIL NEAR SARAJEVO ARE CHILDREN OR ELDERLY PEOPLE. DANIEL YOVICH REPORTS FROM SARAJEVO. TEXT: THE HEAD OF THE U-N HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS IN BOSNIA HAS FIRED OFF A STRONGLY-WORDED LETTER OF PROTEST TO BOSNIAN SERB LEADER RADOVAN KARADZIC REGARDING THE DETENTION OF MORE THAN 30 BOSNIAN MUSLIM CIVILIANS. THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE U-N HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, KRIS JANOWSKI, SAYS U-N HUMANITARIAN CHIEF, KAREN ABU-ZAYD, IS OUTRAGED. ALL THE DETAINEES WERE VICTIMS OF AN ETHNIC-CLEANSING CAMPAIGN IN THE BOSNIAN SERB-HELD VILLAGE OF ROGATICA, ABOUT 18 KILOMETERS EAST OF SARAJEVO. SINCE THEIR ARREST, TWO ELDERLY DETAINEES HAVE DIED. THE BOSNIAN SERBS CONTINUE TO LINK HUMANITARIAN ISSUES TO THE WITHDRAWAL OF BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES NEAR SARAJEVO. UNPROFOR SPOKESMAN MAJOR HERVE GOURMELON SAYS THE BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN SLOWER THAN EXPECTED IN HONORING THE COMMITMENT TO REDEPLOY THEIR FORCES OUT OF THE AREA. STILL, THE PROVISIONS OF THE FOUR-MONTH BOSNIAN CEASE-FIRE PROHIBIT LINKING HUMANITARIAN ISSUES WITH MILITARY ISSUES. RED CROSS SPOKESWOMAN NINA WINQUIST SAYS IT IS JUST ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS BEING THE VICTIMS OF THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY CONCERNS OF THE LEADERS OF FACTIONS INVOLVED IN THE BOSNIAN WAR. (SIGNED) 09-Jan-95 1:38 PM EST (1838 UTC) Source: Voice of America ***************************** DATE=1/9/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=BOSNIA / U-S (S-ONLY) BYLINE=DAN YOVICH DATELINE=SARAJEVO INTRO: U-S ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS RICHARD HOLBROOK HAS MET WITH BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT LEADERS IN SARAJEVO, TO TRY TO ADVANCE STALLED NEGOTIATIONS OVER A PEACE PLAN FOR BOSNIA. BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT LEADERS ARE WORRIED THE SO-CALLED BOSNIA CONTACT GROUP MAY ALTER ITS PEACE PLAN TO SATISFY BOSNIAN SERB DEMANDS. DANIEL YOVICH HAS DETAILS FROM THE BOSNIAN CAPITAL. TEXT: BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC IS RULING OUT FURTHER TALKS WITH MEMBERS OF THE FIVE-NATION BOSNIA CONTACT GROUP ATTEMPTING TO BROKER A LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO THE WAR IN BOSNIA. HE SAYS BOSNIAN SERBS MUST FIRST ACCEPT THE CONTACT GROUP'S PEACE PLAN AS DRAFTED. THE BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT UNCONDITIONALLY ACCEPTED THE PLAN IN JULY; BOSNIAN SERBS, WHO OCCUPY MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF BOSNIA, HAVE CONTINUED TO REJECT THE PROPOSAL. MR. IZETBEGOVIC SPOKE TO REPORTERS AFTER ALMOST TWO HOURS OF TALKS WITH VISITING U-S ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, RICHARD HOLBROOK. MR. HOLBROOK SAYS THE GOAL OF THE CONTACT GROUP IS TO GAIN ACCEPTANCE OF LAST YEAR'S PEACE PLAN THAT WOULD ROUGHLY DIVIDE THE COUNTRY, WITH 51 PERCENT OF THE TERRITORY AWARDED TO THE BOSNIAN MUSLIM/CROAT FEDERATION AND 49 PERCENT FOR THE BOSNIAN SERBS. MR. HOLBROOK PLANS TO BRIEF REPRESENTATIVES OF BRITAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY, RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES IN PARIS BEFORE THE TALKS BEGIN THIS WEEK. HE INSISTS THE PLAN DRAFTED BY THE CONTACT GROUP HAS NOT CHANGED TO SATISFY BOSNIAN SERB DEMANDS. WHAT HAS CHANGED, HE SAYS, IS THAT THERE IS HOPE THAT THE CURRENT BOSNIAN CEASE-FIRE MAY OPEN SOME DOORS THAT COULD END THE NEGOTIATING STALEMATE. (SIGNED) 09-Jan-95 9:21 AM EST (1421 UTC) Source: Voice of America ***************************** DATE=1/9/95 TYPE=CLOSEUP TITLE=BOSNIA SUPPORTERS PLAN STRATEGY BYLINE=PAMELA TAYLOR TELEPHONE=619-1101 DATELINE=WASHINGTON EDITOR=PHIL HAYNES CONTENT= // INSERTS AVAILABLE FROM AUDIO SERVICES // INTRO: LEADERS OF 190 SEPARATE AMERICAN GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS SUPPORTING BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA HELD THEIR SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON THIS PAST WEEKEND TO PLAN FUTURE STRATEGY. JOINED BY REPRESENTATIVES FROM SIMILAR MOVEMENTS IN BRITAIN AND CANADA, SPEAKER AFTER SPEAKER CALLED ON THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION TO EXERCISE LEADERSHIP AND SHOW RUSSIA AND THE WORLD THAT AGGRESSION DOES NOT PAY, WHETHER IN BOSNIA OR CHECHNYA. THE ONLY REMAINING WAY PRESIDENT CLINTON CAN DO THIS, THEY SAID, IS FOR THE UNITED STATES TO FINALLY LIFT THE U-N ARMS EMBARGO AGAINST BOSNIA. VOA'S PAMELA TAYLOR COVERED THE CONFERENCE AND FILED THIS REPORT: TEXT: HODDING CARTER, THE FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN DURING THE ADMINSTRATION OF PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER, WAS THE FIRST OF SEVERAL SPEAKERS TO POINT OUT THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE BOSNIAN CONFLICT AND THE RECENT FIGHTING IN CHECHNYA. HE SAID THE INACTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN BOSNIA WILL SEND A SIGNAL AROUND THE WORLD ABOUT HOW FUTURE SIMILAR CONFLICTS WILL BE TOLERATED. MR. CARTER CALLED ON HIS FELLOW DEMOCRATS TO JOIN THE REPUBLICAN MAJORITY IN THE NEW CONGRESS AND VOTE TO SUPPORT A BILL TO LIFT THE ARMS EMBARGO: TAPE: CUT # 1 H. CARTER RUNS [:37] "THE IMMEDIATE TASK IS ON CAPITOL HILL IN THAT WE NOW HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY, HAVING FIRST AT LEAST REMOVED OUR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE ARMS EMBARGO, TO IN FACT TAKE THE NEXT STEP LEGISLATIVELY AND TO MOVE THIS NATION AWAY FROM THE UTTERLY DISHONORABLE, NOT TO MENTION ILLEGAL, ENFORCEMENT AND PARTICIPATION IN THAT EMBARGO. THE REASON THAT THOSE ON CAPITOL HILL ARE NOW ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF LIFTING THE EMBARGO IS BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND FULLY THE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILING TO DO SO." TEXT: MR. CARTER SAID WHAT'S GOING ON IN BOSNIA IS BEING ACTED OUT IN CHECHNYA WHERE RUSSIA, LIKE SERBIA BEFORE IT, HAS CONVINCED THE WORLD NOT TO INTERVENE IN AN INTERNAL AFFAIR. BRITISH AUTHOR MARK ALMOND, A VOCAL CRITIC OF LONDON'S POLICY TOWARD BOSNIA, AGREED. HE PREDICTED THAT THE WORLD COMMUNITY WILL SOON REGRET ITS INSISTENCE ON CLASSIFYING THE CONFLICT IN CHECHNYA AS AN INTERNAL MATTER AS IT SIMILARLY CLASSIFIED BOSNIA AS A CIVIL WAR: TAPE: CUT # 2 ALMOND RUNS [:44] "BECAUSE WE SEE EVERYDAY ON THE NEWS PROGRAMS AND IN THE NEWSPAPERS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN CHECHNYA, WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND THE FRINGES OF RUSSIA, (AND) ARE CONFRONTED BY THE BLEAK NEWS OF THE WORST FEARS THAT MANY OF US HAD THAT IF THE EXAMPLE OF BOSNIA WAS ALLOWED TO CONTINUE IT WOULD STRENGTHEN THE VERY NEGATIVE FORCES IN MOSCOW THAT WE MOST WISHED TO SEE WEAKENED. THAT IT WOULD AT THE SAME TIME DISCREDIT THE VERY PRO-DEMOCRATIC, PRO-WESTERN FORCES THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE STRONG AS THE BASIS OF A POST-COLD WAR PARTRNERSHIP ACROSS THE OLD COLD WAR DIVIDE. ALL OF THOSE BLEAK FEARS HAVE COME TRUE." TEXT: FELLOW BRITISH AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN NOEL MALCOLM, WHO WROTE THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BOOK, "BOSNIA: A SHORT HISTORY", ALSO POINTED THE FINGER OF BLAME FOR INACTION AT EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS. HE SAID BRITAIN AND FRANCE HAVE PROPAGATED WHAT HE CALLED THE MYTH THAT THE BOSNIAN CONFLICT IS A WAR OF "ANCIENT HATREDS" AND THAT EUROPE SHOULD NOT GET INVOLVED. MR. MALCOLM SAID LONDON AND PARIS HAVE ALSO ADOPTED A MORE DANGEROUS MYTH, ONE HE CALLED THE "DOCTRINE OF EQUIVALENCE": TAPE: CUT # 3 MALCOLM RUNS [:27] "ON BOSNIA, GOVERNMENT POLICY HAS BEEN PROPELLED AND JUSTIFIED BY A 'DOCTRINE OF EQUIVALENCE' AT ALMOST EVERY LEVEL: HISTORICAL EQUIVALENCE, MORAL EQUIVALENCE, DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL EQUIVALENCE AND LEGAL EQUIVALENCE. THE IDEA OF ANCIENT HATREDS PUTS EVERYONE ON THE SAME LEVEL. (BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ALIJA) IZETBEGOVIC THUS REPRESENTS ANCIENT MUSLIM HATREDS AND IS NO DIFFERENT FROM (BOSNIAN SERB LEADER RADOVAN) KARADZIC REPRESENTING ANCIENT SERB HATREDS." TEXT: IN FACT, MR. MALCOLM SAID, AS HIS BOOK POINTS OUT, THE HISTORY OF TODAY'S BOSNIAN MUSLIMS SHOWS THEM TO BE REMARKABLY TOLERANT OF THEIR SERB, CROAT AND JEWISH NEIGHBORS, ALL OF WHOM REMAINED IN THE AREA SINCE OTTOMAN TIMES. TWO AMERICAN JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE REPORTED EXTENSIVELY ON THE WAR IN BOSNIA ADDED THEIR VOICES TO THE CHORUS CALLING FOR ELEVENTH HOUR ACTION BY THE U-S GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW AN EQUIVALENCY OF ARMS IN BOSNIA. ROY GUTMAN, THE REPORTER FROM THE NEW YORK NEWSPAPER "NEWSDAY", WHICH BROKE THE STORY OF THE SERBIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS AT OMARSKA AND TRNOPOLJE, [TRN-AH-POLE-EE] RECEIVED A STANDING OVATION FROM THE CONFEREES. HAVING JUST RETURNED FROM SARAJEVO THE NIGHT BEFORE, MR. GUTMAN REPORTED THAT DESPITE THE FLIGHT OF INTELLECTUALS AND THE FLOOD OF REFUGEES COMING INTO SARAJEVO, IT REMAINS A VIBRANT, COSMOPOLITAN CITY. AS EVIDENCE OF THE DETERMINATION OF SARAJEVANS TO REMAIN A MULTI-ETHNIC SOCIETY, MR. GUTMAN REPORTED THAT OUT OF 11 RECENT MARRIAGES IN SARAJEVO, FIVE WERE MIXED (SERB-MUSLIM, MUSLIM-CROAT ETC.). HE PRESENTED SEVERAL NEW BOOKS WHICH HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED UNDER SIEGE, AS WELL AS THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE SARAJEVO NEWSPAPER, 'OSLOBODJENJE'. AND HE SAID, DESPITE THE ONGOING SIEGE, A MUSLIM ORGANIZATION IS PLANNING TO PUBLISH A TRANSLATED VERSION OF HIS OWN BOOK: "A WITNESS TO GENOCIDE". FINALLY, FELLOW JOURNALIST JONATHAN LANDAY OF THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR WARNED THAT UNLESS AN EQUIVALENCE IN ARMS IS ESTABLISHED IN BOSNIA, THERE IS NO INCENTIVE FOR EITHER SERBIA OR THE BOSNIAN SERBS TO STOP FIGHTING. [REST OPT] HE SAID NEITHER SERBIAN PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC NOR BOSNIAN SERB LEADER RADOVAN KARADZIC ANY LONGER SERIOUSLY WANTS A GREATER SERBIA. THE SERBIAN PRESIDENT, MR. LANDAY SAID, FEARS A CHALLENGE TO HIS LEADERSHIP FROM MR. KARADZIC IF THE TWO AREAS ARE JOINED, WHILE MR. KARADZIC NOW SAYS HE WANTS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY OF HIS OWN. MR. LANDAY ALSO DREW A COMPARISON BETWEEN SARAJEVO AND THE CHECHEN CAPITAL OF GROZNY, WHERE CIVILIANS ARE BEING SHELLED BY A SUPERIOR ARMED FORCE. HE ECHOED HODDING CARTER'S COMMENT THAT WHAT'S HAPPENING IN BOSNIA MAY ONE DAY BECOME COMMONPLACE. (SIGNED) ******************************************************** Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 07:53:16 GMT Message-ID: ***************************************************** Source: The Jerusalem Report, January 1995 Title: How are Bosnia's Serbs getting Israeli arms? By: Tom Sawicki Israeli officials don't deny foreign press reports that Bosnian Serbs have regularly fired Israeli-made shells at Sarajevo and use Israeli light weapons. The only dispute is over how the weaponry gets there: Pro-Bosnian activists here charge government support of Serbia: officials blame third parties. "The Serbs have large quantities of Israeli arms, and they couldn't have gotten there without the Israeli authorities being aware," charges Daniel Kofman, a Hebrew University lecturer who heads the Israel Public Committee for Bosnia. Responds a spokesman for overseeing Israeli arms sales abroad: "We strictly observe the U.N. embargo and have not sold any weapons there" since the U.N. announced the ban on sales to the combatants in April 1992 [sic]. A foreign Ministry spokesman adds: "We're not responsible for how arms move around once they leave Israel". And Ori Orr, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, concurs: "It could only happen through some private channels, once the arms have left Israel." "We don't take sides in the conflict", insists the Foreign Ministry spokesman, adding: "Because of anti-Semitic sentiments in (Croat president) Franjo Tudjmans's book and the Hizballah-Iran help to the Muslims, you may draw the conclusion where our sympathies lie". Kofman responds that "Israel generally does keep track of what happens to its arms. So how can they say they don't know what happens to them once they reach the international market?" Hebrew University professor Igor Primorac, who taught philosophy in Belgrade before coming here a decade ago, agrees with Kofman. "Belgrade papers regularly report on Isreli arms shipments", he says, "and it's not far from Serbia to Bosnia. Maybe it's not official, but the pro-Serbian slant of the Israeli political leadership is clear: The government has never condemned the killing of Muslims or Croats." ******************************************************** Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 07:56:06 GMT Message-ID: ***************************************************** DATE=1/10/95 NUMBER=2-172020 TITLE=U-N / BOSNIA (L) BYLINE=DOUGLAS ROBERTS DATELINE=GENEVA INTRO: U-N OFFICIALS ARE VOICING GROWING CONCERN OVER HUMANITARIAN CONDITIONS IN THE NORTHWEST BOSNIAN ENCLAVE OF BIHAC. DESPITE THE LATEST CEASE-FIRE, CROATIAN SERB FORCES AND MUSLIM REBELS IN BIHAC ARE CONTINUING TO BLOCK RELIEF SUPPLIES TO THE AREA'S 180-THOUSAND CIVILIAN RESIDENTS. AS WE HEAR FROM V-O-A'S DOUGLAS ROBERTS IN GENEVA, THE U-N HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES HAS ASKED NATO TO RESUME AIRDROPS OF FOOD AND MEDICINE INTO BIHAC. TEXT: U-N-H-C-R SPOKESWOMAN SYLVANA FOA TOLD REPORTERS HERE (TUESDAY) ONLY THREE U-N RELIEF CONVOYS HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO ENTER THE BIHAC POCKET SINCE THE BEGINNING OF OCTOBER. FOOD AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES ARE RUNNING OUT. AND MISS FOA SAID THE SITUATION IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY DESPERATE. /// FOA ACT /// THE FOOD SITUATION IN BIHAC IS GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE DOCTORS AT THE HOSPITALS THERE ARE TELLING US THAT PEOPLE, WOMEN ARE BECOMING SO MALNOURISHED THAT THEY ARE GIVING BIRTH PREMATURELY. WE ARE STARTING TO SEE THESE KINDS OF SIGNS OF MALNOURISHMENT. PEOPLE ARE GETTING SICK MUCH MORE EASILY BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE A PROPER FOOD BASKET. /// END ACT /// MISS FOA SAID ESSENTIAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES, INCLUDING ANTIBIOTICS, ARE VIRTUALLY EXHAUSTED. AND DOCTORS HAVE BEGUN TO WASH AND RE-USE BANDAGES TO TREAT THE AREA'S WAR-WOUNDED. SHE SAID THERE IS NO HEAT AND LITTLE ELECTRICITY IN THE HOSPITALS OF BIHAC, AND THERE IS NO FUEL FOR THE THE DISTRICT AMBULANCES. BOSNIA'S FOUR-MONTH TRUCE, THAT WENT INTO EFFECT NEW YEAR'S EVE, STIPULATES THAT ALL SIDES WILL FACILITATE THE DELIVERY OF HUMANITARIAN SUPPLIES. BUT NEITHER THE CROATIAN SERB FORCES NOR THE MUSLIM REBELS BATTLING GOVERNMENT TROOPS IN BIHAC SIGNED THE ACCORD. BOTH HAVE OFFERED VERBAL ASSURANCES THAT THEY WILL COOPERATE. BUT THE BLOCKADE OF RELIEF SUPPLIES REMAINS IN EFFECT, AND SPORADIC FIGHTING HAS CONTINUED IN THE AREA. THE U-N-H-C-R MADE ANOTHER ATTEMPT TUESDAY TO DISPATCH A GROUND CONVOY TO THE ENCLAVE THROUGH AREAS CONTROLLED BY THE CROATIAN SERBS AND MUSLIM REBELS. BUT U-N OFFICIALS HERE ARE NOT OPTIMISTIC THAT IT WILL GET THROUGH. THE U-N HAS BEGUN TO EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE ROUTES INTO BIHAC, THROUGH AREAS TO THE SOUTH AND EAST CONTROLLED BY BOSNIAN SERB FORCES. MISS FOA SAID THE BOSNIAN SERBS HAVE GENERALLY COOPERATED WITH U-N EFFORTS TO DISTRIBUTE RELIEF SUPPLIES SINCE THE TRUCE WENT INTO EFFECT. THE U-N-H-C-R DELIVERED A FORMAL REQUEST TO NATO ON MONDAY ASKING FOR A RESUMPTION OF AIRDROPS OVER BIHAC. BRITISH, FRENCH AND AMERICAN CARGO PLANES WERE USED TO PARACHUTE RELIEF SUPPLIES INTO THE AREA FOR A FEW DAYS LAST AUGUST. BUT NATO COMMANDERS HAVE BEEN RELUCTANT TO RESUME THE AIRDROPS BECAUSE OF THE DANGER OF ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE. MISS FOA SAID MOST OF THE GROUND-TO-AIR MISSILE BATTERIES IN THE BIHAC AREA ARE CONTROLLED BY BOSNIAN SERB FORCES WHO HAVE PLEDGED TO ABIDE BY THE TRUCE. (SIGNED) 10-Jan-95 9:13 AM EST (1413 UTC) Source: Voice of America ************************ DATE=1/10/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=YUGO / HUMAN RIGHTS (L-ONLY) BYLINE=WAYNE COREY DATELINE=VIENNA INTRO: THE ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE HAS FAILED TO PERSUADE YUGOSLAVIA TO ALLOW HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS TO BE REDEPLOYED IN THE COUNTRY. V-O-A'S WAYNE COREY REPORTS FROM VIENNA. TEXT: O-S-C-E OFFICIAL FRANK SWALEN SAYS HIS DELEGATION'S VISIT TO BELGRADE HAS BEEN EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. SPEAKING IN THE YUGOSLAV CAPITAL, HE SAYS HE WAS LED TO BELIEVE SOME RESULTS WOULD COME OUT OF HIS VISIT, BUT HE SAYS THERE WERE NO RESULTS AT ALL. MR. SWALEN AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE O-S-C-E DELEGATION FAILED TO PERSUADE THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING TEAMS TO RETURN TO THE ETHNICALLY-TROUBLED REGIONS OF KOSOVO, SANDZAK, AND VOJVODINA. SERBIAN PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC INSISTED THAT YUGOSLAVIA MUST BE READMITTED TO THE O-S-C-E, FORMERLY THE CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE, BEFORE THE MONITORS COULD RETURN. THE MONITORS WERE EXPELLED FROM YUGOSLAVIA IN 1991 WHEN BELGRADE WAS SUSPENDED FROM THE EUROPEAN SECURITY CONFERENCE. THE SUSPENSION WAS LINKED TO THE OUTBREAK OF WAR IN CROATIA. MR. SWALEN SAYS IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YUGOSLAVIA TO JOIN THE ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE NOW BECAUSE SOME O-S-C-E MEMBERS WOULD OPPOSE IT. BUT, THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT IS CLEARLY NOT TOO CONCERNED ABOUT THAT. THERE IS NO OBVIOUS REASON WHY IT SHOULD BE. THE O-S-C-E WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION OF THE C-S-C-E IN KEEPING WITH DECISIONS MADE AT THE C-S-C-E SUMMIT IN BUDAPEST IN DECEMBER. BUT, THE FINAL SUMMIT DECLARATION DID NOT EVEN MENTION THE CONFLICT IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, THE WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN EUROPE SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR. IN BOSNIA, ITSELF, THE SERBS CONTINUE TO IGNORE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW BY PURSUING THEIR ETHNIC-CLEANSING POLICY. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS CONDEMNED THE POLICY BUT HAS REFUSED TO TAKE EFFECTIVE ACTION TO STOP IT. (SIGNED) 10-Jan-95 12:23 PM EST (1723 UTC) Source: Voice of America ======================================================= TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1GP2588 Date: 01/12/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 08:43pm \/To: ALL (Read 17 times) Subj: CROATIA SET TO END U.N. MANDATE Croatian President Franjo Tudjman was set to announce today that he has decided to end the mandate of U.N. forces in Croatia on March 31. The statement was echoed by Croatian Prime Minister Nikica Valentic on a visit to China yesterday. Tudjman is reported exasperated by the continued Serbian occupation of large swaths of Croatia, the failure of the U.N. to disarm Serbs and to open the way for the return of Croatian refugees. Two recent factors have prodded Tudjman: the Croatian Serb assault on Bihac and the recent offensive of Croatian Government troops in Bosnia, which was mostly successful. 15,000 U.N. troops are in Croatia, acting as a buffer between the Croatian Army and the Serbs. Tudjman is appearantly convinced the Serbs will not give up the land they have taken with the U.N. present, and if necessary, he believes the Croatian Army is strong enough to take it back by force. U.N. forces would have until the end of June to withdraw from Croatia. (Roger Cohen/N.Y.T.) ========================================================= Subject: BOSNEWS-NEWS: OMRI Jan 13 Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLVES TO CONTINUE WITH EASING OF SERBIAN SANCTIONS. The UN Security Council voted 14-0 on 12 January to continue easing sanctions against the rump Yugoslavia for another 100 days. Russia, objecting primarily to additional restrictions on oil convoys from Serbia Serb-controlled territories of Croatia, was the only nation to abstain. Reuters on 13 January reports the council's decision received mixed reviews, with leaders from Islamic states arguing that sanctions should not be eased until the Bosnian Serbs show their full support for peace. Reuters also quotes Muhamed Sacirbey, Bosnia's UN ambassador, as saying the sanctions monitors' means for tracking activity along Serbia's border with Bosnia and Herzegovina were "flawed and inadequate from their inception." A partial easing of sanctions was introduced by a resolution dating from September 1994 in recognition of what appears to be Belgrade's severing of some ties with the Bosnian Serbs. Sanctions on transportation links and cultural and sports events were first eased for a period of 100 days. -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc. CROATIA ENDS UNPROFOR MANDATE. Hina on 12 January carried the texts of messages by President Franjo Tudjman to the Croatian nation and to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali saying Croatia will not renew UNPROFOR's mandate when it expires on 31 March. The UN forces will have three months to leave the country, although they may continue to use Zagreb as UN regional headquarters. He thanked the UN forces for their initial successes in keeping peace and noted that many were killed or wounded in the process. But he argued that UNPROFOR has not promoted the reintegration of the Serbheld one-third of Croatian territory despite repeated warnings from the Croatian government to do so or face the loss of its mandate. The president concluded that UNPROFOR is not only "inefficient" but also "significantly counterproductive to the peace process." He added that UNPROFOR's departure could provide a fresh impetus for a peaceful solution to the problems of Croatia, Bosnia, and the region as a whole. Tudjman stressed that his government seeks a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis, and he also reassured the Serbian minority that its rights will be protected in keeping with Croatian law. Croatian diplomats had informed Contact Group representatives as well as Italy, China, and the Vatican of Tudjman's decision in advance, although speculation continues as to whether his word is final. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM OF TUDJMAN'S STATEMENT. Reuters on 13 January quoted some UN officials as suggesting that the president's speech leaves little room for maneuver, while also mentioning that the world organization should not overreact but rather make a "considered reply." Boutros-Ghali nonetheless said he is "gravely concerned about the risk of renewed hostilities," and Croatia's two closest major allies, Germany and the United States, were also critical of Tudjman's moves, the BBC reports. But public opinion polls in Croatia have indicated widespread disgust with the UN's role. The peacekeepers are often derided with the nickname SERBPROFOR, reflecting the widespread view that UNPROFOR has become a buffer between Croatian and Serbian forces and hence protects Serbian conquests. The Croatian media have long expressed the fear that the country will become "another Cyprus," with UN forces originally sent to promote a ceasefire eventually ensuring the partition of the area. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. BOSNIAN UPDATE. The Washington Post on 13 January writes that Contact Group negotiators held talks with Bosnian government leaders in Sarajevo the previous day and are now off to visit the rebel Serbs in Pale. Bosnian government officials told the diplomats that they will allow no changes in the peace plan that Sarajevo accepted in July. Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic nonetheless seemed to take at face value a British statement that the delegation "sticks to the Contact Group plan" and added that "it is now clear that the Contact Group never shifted its position." But this may be an exercise by Sarajevo to forestall expected diplomatic concessions to Pale by the international negotiators. The German agency dpa on 12 January reported an increase in the fighting around Bihac, while AFP said that the Serbs in the Livno area are using Croats and Muslims as human shields. The French agency also reported on threats by the Bosnian army against UNPROFOR at Tuzla airport, apparently over the presence of a Serbian liaison officer there. -Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. ----------------------------------------------- The OMRI Daily Digest offers the latest news from the former Soviet Union and East-Central and Southeastern Europe. It is published Monday through Friday by the Open Media Research Institute. The Daily Digest is distributed electronically via the OMRI-L list. To subscribe, send a LISTSERV subscribe command to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu The publication can also be obtained for a fee in printed form by fax and postal mail. Please direct inquiries to: Editor, Daily Digest, OMRI, Na Strzi 63, 14062 Prague 4, Czech Republic or send e-mail to: omnipub@omri.cz Telephone: (42 2) 6114 2114 Fax: (42 2) 426 396 -- Adnan Dzinic e-mail: adzinic@sun14.vlsi.uwaterloo.ca ======================================================= TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1IQ3377 Date: 01/14/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 09:56pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Members of the "Contact Group" visited Bosnian Serb leaders in Pale yesterday, in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution barring contacts with the Serbs. It is the first time members of the "Contact Group" have met the Serbs in Pale since its peace plan was rejected last July. (Roger Cohen/N.Y.T.) ====================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1JN2674 Date: 01/15/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 07:44pm /\To: ALL (Read 5 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Artillery rounds hit a bridge in Bihac yesterday, killing four people. They were fired either from Bosnian Serbs or Serbian rebels in Croatia. Fighting was reported near three other towns nearby. Roads from Sarajevo to central Bosnia remain closed, despite an agreement reached Wednesday for the Bosnian Serbs to reopen them. (A.P./N.Y.T.) =================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C1KK1060 Date: 01/16/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 04:17pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Bosnian Serbs halted the movement of U.N. convoys through much of their territory, and are still refusing to open roads out of Sarajevo. An artillery shell, possibly fired from Serbs in Croatia, killed a 19-year-old woman yesterday at a school in Bihac. Another shell killed a 15-year-old girl and wounded her mother. 11 were reported wounded as shells hit. The number of people killed from a mortar attack on a bridge in Bihac on Saturday has increased to five. (A.P./N.Y.T.)