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=================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C2IL2714 Date: 02/14/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 05:45pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE The U.N. tribunal investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia charged the Serbian commander of a concentration camp in Bosnia with genocide yesterday. In the first such indictment, Zeljko Meakic, overall commander of the Omarska camp in northwest Bosnia, was charged with "genocide and crimes against humanity." 20 other Serbian commanders, guards, and visitors at Omarska were charged with war crimes. Omarska was a mine complex used by Serbs as a concentration camp from May - August, 1992, where more than 10,000 people from the area, most of them Muslims but also many Croats, were imprisoned. Executions were daily, and the Muslim elite of nearby towns were eliminated, such as those of Prijedor. Based on investigations of 20 lawyers and detectives traveling to 12 countries, the tribunal said yesterday that prisoners were "murdered, raped, sexually assaulted, severely beaten, and otherwise mistreated." Meakic was charged with genocide under the criteria set for genocide:" Killing members of a group or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group." (Roger Cohen/N.Y.T.) ========================================= OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 32, 14 February 1995 MORE SERB FLIGHTS - THIS TIME NEAR TUZLA. The 14 February Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that UN personnel have observed yet more flights over Bosnia in recent days by "Serbian combat aircraft," this time around Tuzla. Previously, Serbian helicopters and airplanes had been detected in the Bihac and Srebrenica areas. The UN reported its findings to NATO headquarters in Naples, but the Atlantic Alliance once again claimed to have found no trace of the Serbs on its radar screens. * Patrick Moore MORE REINFORCEMENTS FOR SERBS IN BIHAC POCKET. News agencies on 13 February noted that some 1,000 Serb fighters have arrived in northwest Bosnia from Krajina. It is not clear whether they are Croatian Serbs coming to help their allies or Bosnian Serbs who have been training in Krajina. In any event, this and other developments underscore the close connection between the Bosnian and Croatian Serb forces, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says on 14 February. Meanwhile, UN officials warn of growing starvation in Bihac, with the most vulnerable already dying and even the better off now in danger. * Patrick Moore US SOURING ON THE CONTACT GROUP? The 14 February Washington Post reports that US envoy Charles Thomas will leave his full time position as representative to the Contact Group and will be replaced by a part-time appointee. Thomas will concentrate instead on helping reinforcing the Croat-Muslim alliance. Thomas was active in recent direct negotiations with Pale, which Washington has now "concluded . . . were not leading to any productive discussion." The paper also notes that US Ambassador to Bosnia Victor Jackovich has been reassigned to Slovenia. Jackovich was reportedly unhappy with the Clinton administration's talking directly to the Bosnian Serbs in violation of a UN ban on such contacts as long as the Serbs reject the peace plan. * Patrick Moore CRIME NEWS FROM THE YUGOSLAV AREA. War is not the only source of news in the former Yugoslavia, and recent days have featured crime in the limelight. The Croatian media have been reporting at length about a weekend drug-bust, in which police confiscated some 30 kilograms of heroin. It was one of the biggest drug seizures ever reported in Croatia. Elsewhere, Nasa borba notes on 14 February that the Hungarian airline Malev has sacked 11 employees for stealing money from airmail letters being sent by citizens of rump Yugoslavia via Malev. The full extent of the thefts is still being investigated. * Patrick Moore ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- B o s N e w s - Feb. 15, 1995 ========================================== CHICAGO TRIBUNE Copyright Chicago Tribune 1995 DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995 SECTION: NEWS PAGE: 3 SOURCE: From Tribune Wires. DATELINE: THE HAGUE, Netherlands 21 SERBS INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES UN TRIBUNAL CAN'T ARREST ANY SUSPECTS The tribunal lacks the right to arrest suspects, and Bosnian Serb authorities have said they won't hand over anyone to the tribunal. None of the people accused came from the Serbian military or political leadership. Such a step would have considerable political repercussions in that international groups are still engaged in peace negotiations with these Serbs. Setting the stage for the first international war crimes trial since World War II, a tribunal on Monday indicted 21 Serbs for atrocities against Croatians and Muslims interned in a Bosnian prison camp. Proposed by the UN secretary general in May 1993 and set up by the Security Council six months later, the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal that announced the indictments is trying to focus world opinion on the only instance of alleged genocide in Europe since the Nazi exterminations during World War II. But the prospects for prosecuting and punishing defendants are uncertain, since only one of the men indicted Monday, former police officer Dusan Tadic, is in custody. The rest are believed to be in Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia, as is the only other suspect indicted to date: a Bosnian Serb named Dragan Nikolic, whom the tribunal indicted in November. Unlike the post-World War II tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo, which were organized by the victors with suspects already in custody, the Yugoslav tribunal is attempting to try suspects while the conflict is still raging. Collecting evidence and apprehending suspects as the war continues are two reasons for the long delay in handing down the first batch of indictments. The tribunal lacks the right to arrest suspects, and Bosnian Serb authorities have said they won't hand over anyone to the tribunal. The tribunal may not try suspects in absentia, but it can hold public hearings on the charges. "If we are not in a position to fulfill a judicial mission, we'll be at least in a position to have a documentary mission," said tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier. The indictments Monday capped a five-month inquiry involving 20 investigators, lawyers and analysts who traveled to 12 countries to examine evidence and interview victims. They coincided with this week's budget discussions for the tribunal at the United Nations. The UN so far has allocated three months' funding, $7 million, out of a requested 1995 allocation of $28 million. Nineteen of the 21 indicted were functionaries at the Omarska camp in Bosnia, a mine complex used by the Serbs as a concentration camp in 1992. Guards and so-called visitors allegedly killed, tortured, raped and beat prisoners. More than 10,000 people from northwestern Bosnia, most of them Muslims but also many Croats, are known to have been imprisoned in Omarska, where executions took place daily and the Serbs eliminated the Muslim elite of surrounding towns. None of the people accused on Monday came from the Serbian military or political leadership. Such a step would obviously have considerable political repercussions in that international groups are still engaged in peace negotiations with these Serbs. *********** (Source AP) The four top suspects charged on crimes committed at the Omarska detention camp in the Prijedor region and charges against them: --Zeljko Meakic (Z^eljko Majakic,) commander of the Omarska concentration camp, a former mining complex used to intern Muslim and Croat intellectuals, professionals and political leaders from Prijedor region. From May to August 1992, about 3,000 inmates passed through the camp. Terror was the regime at the camp, with inmates routinely beaten, tortured, raped and killed. Before the war, Meakic was a police official in the village of Omarska. He is the only suspect indicted for genocide. In one incident alleged in the indictment, toward the end of June 1992, Meakic entered a room where two guards were kicking and beating a Bosnian Muslim with batons. Meakic jumped in and kicked the inmate in the chest. Meakic was charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the law or customs of war, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of civilians in time of war and command responsibility for the crimes. ********* --Dusan Tadic, a former police officer in Kozarac, is accused of rape and participating in group beatings of prisoners, several of whom died. During one of the beatings, a prisoner was allegedly forced to bite off one of the testicles of another. That prisoner and two others died during that beating session. Tadic was allegedly one of a group of Serbs who took four Bosnian Muslim residents of the Kozarac area, pushed them against a wall and shot them to death. He is charged in the killing of 13 people, most if not all Muslims. Tadic is in German custody and is expected to be extradited to the Tribunal in March. Tadic has reportedly denied ever being inside Omarska. He was indicted for crimes against humanity, violations of the law or customs of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of civilians in time of war. ********* --Mladen Radic, a shift commander at the camp, who on five different occasions allegedly raped one of the approximately 40 women in the camp. He would reportedly summon his female victim from the room where she slept in the administration building, and then rape her. He was indicted for crimes against humanity, violations of the law or customs of war, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of civilians in time of war, and command responsibility for the crimes. ********* --Milan Pavlic, a camp guard. In June 1992, a large group of prisoners was confined to the canteen in the administration building at the Omarska camp. One night an elderly man stood up and shouted in apparent protest over the prisoners' confinement. Pavlic ordered him to sit down. When the old man didn't obey, Pavlic allegedly shot him and wounded several other prisoners sitting nearby. He was charged with crimes against humanity, violations of the law or customs of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of civilians in time of war. ============================================ OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 33, 15 February 1995 U.S. OFFERS SERBIA CONDITIONAL LIFTING OF SANCTIONS. The Washington Post and the BBC on 15 February report that the Clinton administration has again made a major change in its policy toward the former Yugoslavia in the hope of cobbling together a settlement before fighting resumes in Bosnia in the spring. The new plan calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro for two months, with extensions if President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to several conditions. Those include recognizing the other former Yugoslav republics in their Titoera boundaries, tightening his dubious blockade of the Bosnian Serbs, and pressuring Pale to accept the Contact Group's peace plan. The policy was agreed to only after much heated discussion, with opponents fearing that once the sanctions are lifted they will not be reimposed, even if Milosevic flagrantly breaks any promises he makes. The Serbian president is unlikely to agree to recognize Croatia's and Bosnia's frontiers, since that would mean giving up hopes of a Greater Serbia that he harbored even before starting the current war. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. BOSNIAN ARMY RETAKING LOST GROUND IN BIHAC POCKET. Radio Bosnia and Herzegovina reported on 14 February that government forces have reversed most, if not all, the gains the Serbs made in their counteroffensive last fall. The broadcast claimed that the Fifth Corps has retaken the strategic Debeljaca Hill from the Serbian forces there, which consist of units from both Bosnia and Krajina as well as of those loyal to local kingpin Fikret Abdic. If the reports are correct, then the government forces now control the frontiers of the UN-declared "safe area" of Bihac. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 15 February also notes that the UN is trying to confirm the Bosnian claims. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. WILL CROATIA AGREE TO A NEW MANDATE FOR UNPROFOR? Ever since President Franjo Tudjman announced last month that UNPROFOR must leave Croatia when its current mandate runs out on 31 March, there has been much speculation as to whether his decision will stick. Some observers suggested that he had to stand by the new policy because of domestic political pressures. Others felt that equally strong demands from Washington and the EU would force him to reconsider. Now Vecernji list, Nasa Borba, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 15 February suggest that a compromise may have been found. The reports quote Deputy Director of the German Foreign Ministry Klaus-Peter Klaiber and the Croatian ambassador to the US as saying that UNPROFOR may be able to stay but under redefined conditions. Vecernji list notes that Klaiber did not spell out what changes he had in mind and whether they would be major or minor, but the Contact Group has reportedly made a concrete proposal to Zagreb. The Frankfurt daily quotes Ambassador Sarcevic as saying that "a new UN contingent for controlling the frontiers and monitoring human rights could be accepted." Elsewhere, Slovenia's foreign minister told his German counterpart that he hopes UNPROFOR's mandate can somehow be renewed but added that he understands that Croatia cannot accept a UN presence that merely serves to protect Serbian conquests and effectively partition the country. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. SERBIAN NATIONALISTS CALL FOR UNITY AGAINST KOSOVARS. Momcilo Trajkovic, leader of the Serbian Defense Movement for Kosmet, has called for unity among "all political forces, regardless of party affiliation, to hinder the [creation of a] parallel state of Albanian separatists in Kosovo and Metohija," the state-run Borba reports on 15 February. Trajkovic alleged that the Kosovar shadow government is harboring a "war option." Since the abolition of Kosovar autonomy in 1989, the Albanians have followed a program of non-violent resistance. According to the independent Nasa Borba, Trajkovic admitted that his organization has not yet gotten an answer to an open letter addressed to various institutions and parties in December calling for the creation of a "national council in which all political parties would work out one common national program." But he said that 40,000 people in Pristina have so far signed the letter. Reuters reported on 13 February that Albanian President Sali Berisha said a peace conference on former Yugoslavia, as proposed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, should discuss the Kosovo crisis and invite the Kosovar shadow state government as that country's "legitimate representatives." -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----- B o s N e w s - Feb. 14, 1995 ========================================= Source AP 21 Serbs were indicted Monday for attrocities against Bosnian Croats and Muslims interned in a prison camps in northwest Bosnia. Only one of them, a karate expert named Dusan Tadic, is in custody. As a prison guard in Omarska, he is accused of numerous killings, tortures, rapes and beatings. Nineteen of the 21 indicted were functionaries at the Omarska camp. Other indicted include camp commander Zeljko Meaknic (sp?), Goran Borovnica, w None of the indicted are better known to the public. The list of alleged criminals includes Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and nationalist Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic (as identified in 1992 by then US Sec'y of State L. Eagleburger). The Serb militia leaders Vojislav Seselj and Zeljko Raznjatovic - Arkan were not on the list either. The indictments are the result of a five-month inquiry involving 20 investigators, attorneys and analysts. The United Nations has so far allocated three months' funding, $7 million, out of a requested 1995 allocation of $28 million for the Tribunal budget. ``With the exception of the accused Tadic, who's in custody in Germany, it's understood that the remaining accused still reside in the Prijedor region, which of course is still under control of the Bosnian Serbs... At this point we have no reason to anticipate that there will be any significant cooperation in terms of surrendering individuals,'' said Graham Blewitt, tribunal deputy prosecutor. Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier commented abouty the indictments: ``If we are not in a position to fulfill a judicial mission, we'll be at least in a position to have a documentary mission.'' Source AP ``The word `starvation' is now appropriate,'' said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski about situation in NW Bihac region. Monique Tuffelli, UNHCR rep in the Bihac region, said the most vulnerable -- children, the elderly, women -- ``are on the verge of starvation.'' U.N. officials in recent days have reported movement of about 1,000 Serb soldiers from Croatia's Krajina region, into the area, possibly in preparation for a new attack on Bihac. Nationalist Bosnian Serbs held a session of their self-proclaimed assembly Monday in Samac. Some of the deputies apparently want to reestablish ties with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who formally withdrew his support last summer. Nationalist Bosnian Serbs did not permit UN aid convoy to reach northwest Bosnia Tuesday, despite giving their agreement on Sunday. ``We have not obtained clearance which is the same as saying no,'' said Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the UNHCR. ``We believe this is the first time during the war that people in a safe area are seriously threatened with starvation.'' The UNHCR twice requested air drops over Bihac, however countries flying the planes refused, saying there are too many anti-aircraft missiles in the region. ``It's not just the most vulnerable sectors of society at risk - the old and the sick,'' Janowski said. ``It is increasingly visible that even the most affluent areas and families are suffering.'' Aid workers said last week that poor nutrition appeared to be contributing to some deaths in the Bihac hospital. U.N. officials reported rising tensions around the eastern town of Srebrenica. U.N. spokesman Maj. Herve Gourmelon said a hand grenade was thrown into the main U.N. base there in what he described as ``a direct attack on peacekeepers,'' and a U.N. observation post on Monday came under small arms fire, attributed to Bosnian Serbs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- B o s N e w s - Feb. 16, 1995 ========================================== Food Convoy Reaches Bihac SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Feb 15) 10 trucks from the UNHCR carrying 96 tonnes of wheat, flour, cooking oil, sugar, canned beef and medical supplies entered Bihac just after 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) Wednesday. UNCHR spokesman Ron Redmond said the convoy was forced to halt briefly after coming under fire. Warning shots were fired over the first vehicle from positions controlled by Abdic's forces. The vehicles later moved on with an escort of UN aromored vehicles. Nothing was hit, and no one was injured. Redmond said that convoy alone will not sufice to eliminate the threat of famine in Bihac. He added that since october the Un has been able to deliver only about 10% of the food needed for the 180-thousand civilians in Bihac. Another, smaller Red Cross convoy with medical supplies and food left the Croatian capital of Zagreb on Wednesday and was to arrive in Bihac on Thursday. "We also have clearances for convoys on Thursday, Friday and Saturday," said UNCHR spokesman Kris Janowski. The UNCHR planned to run an aid convoy on Thursday to Velika Kladusa and two more convoys would head to Cazin if Krajina Serbs in Croatia kept their pledges, Janowski said. In Zagreb, the World Food Program reported serious malnutrition and hunger in northwest Bosnia. The agency estimated that 200,000 people are in the Bihac enclave. It said hospitals have reported a surge of "illnesses linked to malnutrition and inadequate sanitation," as well as cases of pneumonia, acute respiratory diseases and hepatitis. "For the first time, hunger is being felt beyond urban areas. Private food stocks in rural areas are gone and the winter harvest is consumed," the WFP statement said. FRONTLINES, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Feb 15-16) Except for the northwest, a cease-fire has kept most of Bosnia quiet. The United Nations confirmed sizable gains by government forces in the Bihac pocket. "Government forces now control around 95 percent of the safe area," said Maj. Herve Gourmelon, a UN spokesman. "Bosnian government forces have been repelling a separatist Bosnian Serb counterattack initially launched last Thursday. The Serb army was desperately trying to retake territory captured by the government south, southwest of Bihac town in mid-January," said UN military spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Coward. Coward said that fighting had died down in the region with only periodic firing indicidents, while residents that had fled the conflict had begun slowly returning to their homes. "The Bihac area has witnessed a quiet period, with few firing incidents and eight detonations around the outskirts of the area reported during the past 24 hours. No shells landed in Bihac town," he said. "It has been confirmed by U.N. military observers that Zavalje and Sokolac are in the Bosnian Fifth corps' hands and that the villages have suffered considerable damage and looting," said Coward. In Velika Kladusa to the north of the pocket, Bosnian government forces appear to be withstanding a punishing assault by rebel Muslim forces, aided by Krajina Serbs from Croatia. "Activity was registered east and southeast of Velika Kladusa where some 400 artillery and mortar detonations were recorded. Most of the fire we believe was centered on the village of Jelinic," said Coward. UN spokesman in Zagreb, Paul Risley, said Wednesday that about 100 Croatian Serb troops had crossed the border to help separatist Bosnian Serbs. They followed more than 1,000 Croatian Serbs who crossed the border over the weekend. Sniper attacks Tuesday and Wednesday wounded two civilians in Sarajevo, the capital. Separatist Serb soldiers fired on a UN helicopter carrying out a medical evacuation of a three-month-old infant to Sarajevo on Tuesday. UN spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Coward said that the Norwegian helicopter was targeted by two bursts of machine gun fire over the eastern enclave of Gorazde. Serb forces surrounding Gorazde had been informed of the evacuation in advance and the UN said there was no excuse for the attack. The helicopter was flying in daylight and Coward said the shooting could not have been an accident. The helicopter, which was also carrying the child's mother and brother, was not hit and arrived safely in Sarajevo. ================================================= "Contact Group" -- Serbia -- Revised Approach On Sanctions WASHINGTON, USA (Feb 14) The United States, Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany (countries which make up the "contact group") agreed Tuesday on meeting in Paris to suspend all UN economic sanctions on Serbia if President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes his Balkan neighbors. In addition to this recognition, Serbia would have to tighten its borders. Diplomats said that if Milosevic, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman agreed, the contact group would invite them to a summit in Paris in March. "If the deal isn't accepted by all, there will be no summit," one said. Senior USA officials were pessimistic that Milosevic will go along, and gave the impression that the new approach was a desperate grasping at straws. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said Congress had not been consulted despite a promise by President Clinton. Describing himself as angry, Engel told a reporter Clinton had promised him in a letter Jan. 4 to continue the sanctions until the issue of Kosovo, a largely Albanian ethnic enclave of Serbia, was resolved. "It shows the Serbs can thumb their noses at agreements," Engel said. "And I don't think the French ought to be driving our foreign policy." The congressman called the new proposal foolish and shortsighted, as well as a reversal of USA policy. The official and others said the plan also has been endorsed by the other Balkan nations -- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Bosnian Vice-President Ejup Ganic said that the proposal is realistic "if Serbia is interested in staying within its borders. If Milosevic wants a deal with the international community, he has one now." Croatian ambassador Mario Nobilo said Wednesday it would support lifting economic sanctions against the Belgrade government and its subsequent recognition of other Balkan states if borders between them are strictly controlled. Addressing a rally in northern Bosnian town of Bosansko Grahovo on Wednesday, Radovan Karadzic slammed the Contact Group as a "bewildered bunch which does not know how to solve the war." He warned that the Bosnian Serb army would further escalate the conflict by "striking against the most sensitive places of our enemy. We shall no longer strike them in forests and villages, but where it will hurt them most." Meanwhile in Belgrade Mediators David Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg met Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic Wednesday for talks that followed a proposal to suspend sanctions if Serbia recognizes former Yugoslav republics. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev will visit Belgrade on Saturday for talks with Milosevic, Itar-Tass news agency said on Wednesday. The lifting of sanctions by the UN Security Council depends on the following conditions: recognition of Croatia and Bosnia must be unequivocal; sanctions enforcement mechanisms must be kept in place; the lifting of sanctions does not include a chance to obtain loans or aid from international lending institutions or the European Union; Serbia must endorse the contact group plan, which divides Bosnia roughly in half between a Muslim-Croat alliance and the Serbs. Albanian warns of insurrection in Macedonia SKOPJE, Macedonia (Feb 15) An ethnic Albanian academic leader, Fadil Suljemani, rector of a newly-opened Albanian university in Macedonia warned President Kiro Gligorov on Wednesday he would face armed insurrection if he tried to prevent a new Albanian university from opening. He said that if "police try to prevent us working, 200,000 Albanians will rise to our defence, and they have guns and grenades." To Macedonian authorities, he said: "You must find the strength to prevent that from happening. It would take us directly to war." Suljemani's university, with an Albanian-language curriculum, was proclaimed illegal by the Macedonian authorities who have already prevented it from opening once. Macedonian government spokesman Djuner Ismail said on Wednesday evening that the opening of the university was a "flagrant violation of the state's constitution." It was a political act with little to do with education, he said. Asked if the police would prevent classes, Ismail said: "the authorities will act according to the law." ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- B o s N e w s - Feb. 16, 1995 ========================================== 2/16:EDITORIAL: SERBIA HAS EARNED NO REWARD c.1995 N.Y. Times News Service The New York Times said in an editorial on Thursday, Feb. 16: The five-power negotiating group on Bosnia, which includes the United States, is offering to lift all remaining U.N. economic sanctions on Serbia. In return, it asks Belgrade to recognize the independence of Bosnia and Croatia and cut off supplies to rebel Serbian armies in both countries. That might be a reasonable proposal if Serbia's president, Slobodan Milosevic, had a record of honoring his commitments, or if the five-power group had a record of insisting on compliance with its deals. Neither is true. The Clinton administration, which portrays itself as a reluctant partner in Europe's pro-Serb strategy, should have rejected this latest diplomatic charade. The new humiliations it courts can only strengthen the hand of Senate critics like Bob Dole, the majority leader, who are already pushing Washington to ditch its European allies and independently lift the arms embargo on the Bosnian government. The latest offer to Belgrade comes as evidence mounts that Serbia has not lived up to the last deal it made with the five powers, whose other members are France, Britain, Germany and Russia. Last year Milosevic pledged to stop supplying the Bosnian Serbs in exchange for a partial lifting of U.N. sanctions against Serbia. Recently Serbian helicopters have been brazenly flying supplies across the supposedly sealed border. Yet instead of reimposing the lifted sanctions there is an offer to eliminate those that remain. The sanctions lifted last year were symbolic. Those now being discussed affect Serbia's ability to wage protracted war. Washington's motive in going along with the five-power plan was apparently fear that Croatia would expel U.N. forces from its territory, perhaps triggering a wider war. Serbian recognition of Croatian independence, in theory, might allow the U.N. troops to stay. It is a worthy, if elusive, objective, but the price is too high. Bribing Milosevic to make peace was never the Clinton administration's preferred policy. Washington long and correctly argued that the world should let Bosnia defend itself by lifting the unfair arms embargo that tilts the battlefield balance toward the Serbs. Regrettably, the administration has all but dropped its efforts on the arms embargo in the name of NATO unity. Instead of strengthening NATO, the administration's passivity toward Europe has weakened it. American lawmakers are becoming disenchanted with an alliance in which American dollars and troops are welcome, but American ideas are not. Washington needs to reconsider this latest proposal to court the Serbs. Instead it should start pressing its allies to move together toward lifting the Bosnian arms embargo before the Senate forces separate American action. The time to talk about lifting more sanctions on Serbia will come when Serbia starts honoring its commitments. The Times Mirror Company Los Angeles Times February 14, 1995, Tuesday, Home Edition U.N. War Crimes Tribunal Charges 21 Bosnia Serbs BYLINE: MARJORIE MILLER; TIMES STAFF WRITER PAGE: A-1 BONN -- Acting 2 1/2 years after the world discovered Serbian concentration camps on the nightly news, the United Nations' Yugoslav war crimes tribunal charged 21 Serbs on Monday with war crimes and crimes against humanity at the most infamous of those camps. One of the suspects, Zeljko Meakic, the commander of the notorious Omarska camp in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina, was charged with genocide for his role in the "ethnic cleansing" of Serbian-held regions of Bosnia. But while the case marks the international community's first attempt to seek justice for the mass rapes, torture and murder of Bosnian Muslim and Croat prisoners in the Serbian-run camps in the summer of 1992, U.N. officials admit that they have little hope of bringing most of the suspects to trial. Meakic and 19 of the other indicted commanders, guards and visitors to the camp are believed to be in Serbian-held Bosnia, where rebel leader Radovan Karadzic said Monday that he will not surrender any citizens for an international trial. Only one of the suspects, Dusan Tadic, is in custody. He is being held in Germany and awaiting extradition to The Hague for what could be the first international war crimes trial since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials following World War II. The 38-year-old Tadic is charged with "the collection and mistreatment, including killing and rape, of civilians within and outside the Omarska camp." In one fatal case, U.N. officials have said, Tadic and his cohorts beat three prisoners unconscious and then forced a fourth to bite off the others' testicles. Tadic reportedly moved to Germany on a Muslim prisoner's passport in 1993 and was recognized by other Muslims, who reported him to police. The German government is expected to pass a law allowing for his extradition next month. An estimated 3,000 Muslims and Croats are believed to have been held in the barbed-wire camp in the Prijedor region of northern Bosnia between May and August, 1992, as Serbs purged them from communities to set up an "ethnically pure" territory there. Among the prisoners were much of the local Muslim and Croatian elite, including political, religious and business leaders, the tribunal said. "The prisoners were held under armed guard in brutal conditions. They were murdered, raped, sexually assaulted, severely beaten and otherwise mistreated," the tribunal said in issuing the charges. "One of the four buildings at the compound was known as the 'red house': Most of the prisoners who were taken to it did not emerge alive," it said. Tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier said that investigators did not have a figure for the number of dead and missing from Omarska but said that "we call it a death camp." The tribunal was created by the U.N. Security Council in 1993, and critics view it as a palliative for the Western conscience for its general inaction in the nearly three-year Bosnian conflict. Chartier defended the tribunal, saying that the indictments--the result of a five-month, 12-country investigation--show "we are moving ahead, we are doing our job." He acknowledged, however, that the court is not likely to detain the suspects any time soon. "We believe them to be still in the Prijedor area, which is still a Bosnian Serb-controlled territory," Chartier said. At a news conference earlier in the day, deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt said, "We are not expecting any significant cooperation from the Bosnian Serb administration." His expectations were confirmed by Karadzic, who told the Reuters news agency that he was unfamiliar with the specific charges and list of suspects but that "our constitution forbids us to give up any of our citizens." In a printed statement, Justice Richard Goldstone, the tribunal's prosecutor, said there will be further indictments, possibly including Serbian political and military leaders. Goldstone, a South African, was responsible for bringing many police officers accused of crimes to trial in his homeland. But the rebels remained defiant Monday as the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb parliament once again rejected an international peace plan. The rejection of the latest peace proposal from the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Britain had been expected after Karadzic said he could not accept the plan, already rejected by the parliament last year. PHOTO: U.N. deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt, in The Hague, discusses the charges against 21 Serbs. ==================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C2LL1616 Date: 02/17/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 05:26pm \/To: ALL (Read 13 times) Subj: OPERATION DENY FLIGHT UPDATE Operation Deny Flight update as of February 15, 1995: Mission: Enforcement of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 816 ("no-fly zone") and 836 and 958 (close air support for U.N. peacekeepers) and airstrikes against targets threatening the "safe areas" of Bihac, Gorazde, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Tuzla, and Zepa. All operations are over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Command Structure: Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) delegated command to Commander-in Chief, Southern Command (CINCSOUTH), ADM Leighton W. Smith Jr., U.S. Navy, Naples, Italy. He delegates command to Commander, Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (COMAIRSOUTH) LT GEN Michael E. Ryan, U.S. Air Force, Naples. Operational control of day-to-day mission tasking is delegated to Commander, 5th Allied Tatical Air Force, LT GEN Andrea Fornasiero, Italian Air Force, Vincenza, Italy. Coordination between N.A.T.O. and the U.N. is provided by an exchange of representatives of the 5th A.T.A.F. and the UNPROFOR Headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Aircraft and vessels operating: Note: All bases are located in Italy unless noted. French Air Force: 4 Mirage F-1CR at Istrana A.B., reconnaisance 7 Mirage 2000C at Cervia A.B., fighter 5 (4 on recall) Jaguar A at Istrana A.B., attack 2 Jaguar A at Istrana A.B., reconnaisance 3 Mirage F-1CT at Istrana A.B., attack 3 (3 on recall) Mirage 2000D at Cervia A.B., attack 1 C-135R at Istres, France, tanker 1 E-3F Sentry at Avord, France, or Trapani A.B., A.E.W. French Navy: Clemenceau-class Aircraft Carrier F.S. Foch (R 99) (as available) from the Naval Action Force, Toulon N.A.T.O.: 8 E-3A Sentries at Geilenkirchen, Germany; Trapani A.B.; and Preveza, Greece 2 E-3D Sentries of No. 8 Squadron at R.A.F. Waddington, U.K., and operating from Aviano A.B. and Trapani A.B. Royal Netherlands Air Force: 6 F-16A Falcons at Villafranca A.B., fighter 3 (5 on recall) F-16A Falcons at Villafranca A.B., attack 3 (1 on recall) F-16A Falcons at Villafranca A.B., reconnaisance Spanish Air Force: 1 T.12B Aviocar at Dal Molin Military Airport, Vicenza, transport 6 EF-18A Hornets at Aviano A.B., fighter 2 KC-130H Hurcules at Aviano A.B., tanker Turkish Air Force: 8 (10 on recall) F-16C Falcons at Ghedi A.B., fighter Royal Air Force: 6 F-3 Tornado at Gioia del Colle A.B., fighter 7 (3 on recall) Jaguar GR.1 at Gioia del Colle A.B., attack 2 Jaguar GR.1 at Gioia del Colle A.B., reconnaisance 2 K-1 Tristar at Palermo, Sicily, tanker Royal Navy: lead ship of H.M.S. Invincible (R 05)-class Aircraft Carrier (as available) from Portsmouth U.S. Air Force: 12 F-16C Falcons at Aviano A.B., fighter/attack 12 O/A-10 Thunderbolt II at Aviano A.B., attack 3 (2 on recall) EC-130Q Compass Call at Aviano A.B., command and control 3 AC-130H Specters at Brindisi A.B., attack 10 KC-135R Stratotanker at Pisa, Italy, and Istres, France U.S. Marine Corps: 12 F/A-18D Hornets at Aviano A.B., fighter/attack U.S. Navy: Nimitz-class Nuclear Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (as available) from Norfolk, VA (Supporting but not assigned are six U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowlers) Statistics: Number of days since operation began: 674 Number of "no-fly zone" sorties flown: 17,137 Number of close air support and airstrike sorties flown: 17,572 Number of A.E.W., refueling, reconnaissance, and support sorties flown: 16,158 ====================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C2LL1749 Date: 02/17/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 05:29pm \/To: ALL (Read 12 times) Subj: OPERATION SHARP GUARD UPDATE Operation Sharp Guard update as of February 16, 1995: Mission: To enforce compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 713, 757, 787, and 820 (preventing all unauthorized vessels from entering the waters of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia [Serbia and Montenegro] and all arms from entering the former Yugoslavia by ship). NOTE: The U.S. stopped embargo enforcement at midnight local time on November 12, 1994. This update retains the listing of U.S. ships and aircraft until final arrangements are made for their withdrawl. Command Structure: ADM Mario Angeli, Italian Navy, Commander, C.T.F. 440 (and Commander, Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe) RADM Gianfranco Coviello, Italian Navy, Deputy Commander, C.T.F. 440 Commodore Nicolaas Van Der Lugt, Royal Netherlands Navy, Commander, C.T.G. One CAPT Franco D'Agostino, Italian Navy, Commander, C.T.G. Two RADM James R. Stark, U.S. Navy, Commander, C.T.G. Three RADM John Coleman, U.S. Navy, Commander, C.T.F. 431 (Angeli and Coviello are responsible for the operations of the group, C.T.F. 440. The group is further divided into three C.T.G.s: One and Two conduct actual operations, Three conducts training and port visits. C.T.F. 431 is under command from C.T.F. 440 and operates maritime patrol aircraft from Sigonella A.B. and Elmas A.B., Italy.) Aircraft and vessels operating: Canadian Maritime Command: Halifax-class Frigate H.M.C.S. Montreal (FFH 336) French Air Force: E-3F Sentry aircraft operating from Avord, France, or Trapani A.B., Italy French Navy: Georges Leygues-class Destroyer F.S. Jean de Vienne (D 643) D'Estienne d'Orves-class Corvette F.S. Commandant de Pimodan (F 787) Atlantique ATL 1 or ATL 2 aircraft German Navy: Bremen-class Frigates F.G.S. Niedersachsen (F 208) and F.G.S. Koln (F 211) of the 6th Frigate Squadron Atlantic-1 aircraft of Naval Air Wing 3, "Graf Zeppelin," Nordholz Greek Navy: Kimon-class Guided Missile Destroyer H.S. Nearchos (D 219) Italian Air Force: 8 Tornado GR.1 aircraft from Gioia del Colle A.B., Italy Atlantic Mk 2 aircraft with Navy crews Italian Navy: Maestrale-class Frigates I.T.S. Aliseo (F 574) and I.T.S. Espero (F 576) N.A.T.O.: Eight E-3A Sentry based at Geilenkirchen, Germany; operating from Geilenkirchen; Aviano A.B. and Trapani A.B., Italy; and Preveza, Greece Two E-3D Sentry from No. 8 Squadron, R.A.F. Waddington, U.K.; operating from Waddington and Aviano A.B. and Trapani A.B., Italy Royal Netherlands Navy: Kortenaer-class Frigates H.N.L.M.S. Abraham Crijnssen (F 816) and Philips Van Almonde (F 823) P-3C Orion Update II aircraft from Valkenburg Portuguese Navy: lead ship of N.R.P. Vasco da Gama (F 330)-class Frigate P-3P Orion aircraft from 601st Maritime Reconnaisance Squadron, Montijo Spanish Air Force: P-3B Orion aircraft Spanish Navy: Santa Maria-class Frigate S.P.S. Reina Sofia (F 84) from 41st Escort Squadron, Rota (Aviation Group Alfa), Straits Zone Baleares-class Frigate S.P.S. Asturias (F 74) from 31st Escort Squadron, Ferrol Arsenal, Cantabrian Zone Replenishment Oiler S.P.S. Marques de Ensenada (A 11) Turkish Navy: Muavenet-class Frigate T.C.G. Trakya (F 254) Royal Air Force: Nimrod MR.2F aircraft from 18th (Maritime) Group, Strike Command Royal Navy: Cornwall-class Frigates H.M.S. Cumberland (F 85) and H.M.S. Campbeltown (F 86) from 8th Frigate Squadron, Devonport U.S. Navy: lead ship of U.S.S. Kidd (DDG 993)-class Guided Missile Destroyer from Atlantic Fleet Spruance-class Destroyer U.S.S. John Rodgers (DD 983) from Atlantic Fleet Oliver Hazard Perry-class Guided Missile Frigate U.S.S. Klakring (FFG 42) from Atlantic Fleet P-3C Orion aircraft Statistics: Vessels challenged: 46,890; Boarded and inspected at sea: 3,632; Diverted and inspected in port: 963 Ship days spent at sea: 8,570 Maritime patrol aircraft sorties: 6,071 ; A.E.W. aircraft sorties: 3,866 ======================================================= TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C2LN1793 Date: 02/17/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 07:29pm \/To: ALL (Read 12 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Aid convoys reached the Bihac area yesterday. A report by the World Food Program says that 10 - 20% of the people in Bihac area in danger of imminent starvation. (A.P./N.Y.T.) ====================================================== TODAY'S ISSUES==> TOPIC: MILITARY & ARMS Ref: C2QM2396 Date: 02/21/95 From: STEVE SCHULTZ (Leader) Time: 06:39pm \/To: ALL (Read 13 times) Subj: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA UPDATE Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic rejected yesterday the "Contact Group's" latest offer. It would have lifted trade sanctions in exchange for Serbian recognition of Bosnia and Croatia. In preparation for the possibility of a second Croatian war beginning next month after the Croatian Government ends the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers there, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic met in Banja Luka yesterday. There, they announced the formation of a joint defense council, obliging each to come to the defense of the other if necessary. The council's creation is a formality, as GEN Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serbs, has long lead all Serbs west of the Drina River and coordinates their actions. In further evidence of possible renewed fighting, the Bosnian Government has recently increased air activity. There have been at least 17 helicopter flights, and one transport aircraft landed at Tuzla, all in defiance of the "no-fly" zone. Origin and purpose of the flights are unknown. (Roger Cohen/N.Y.T.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- B o s N e w s - Feb. 21, 1995 ========================================== FRONTLINES, Bosnia and Herzegovina Fighting continued on Monday in and around the UN-declared safe area of Bihac where Bosnian government forces are surrounded by separatist Serb forces allied to local rebel Moslems and Serbs from the breakaway Krajina region in neighbouring Croatia. Krajina Serbs on Monday stopped a UN aid convoy reaching Bihac from Zagreb. A UNHCR spokesman described the action as "pure harassment." The convoy will try to enter the enclave again on Tuesday. Peacekeepers have also been concerned by constant violations of the no-fly zone by separatist Bosnian Serb helicopters and by helicopters believed to have flown into Bosnia from rump Yugoslavia. The UN is also increasingly concerned at reports of helicopters and cargo aircraft flying into Tuzla airport in northeastern Bosnia, in violation of a NATO-backed no-fly zone. Last week UN observers said they spotted a large cargo aircraft, probably a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, over Tuzla airport. They said the cargo plane was escorted by two fighters. The UN and NATO are investigating why the mystery aircraft were apparently not picked up by AWACs early warning patrols. UNCHRA accusing Abdic of stalling the aid deliveries SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (21 Feb) The representatives of UNPROFOR and the UNHCR in Sarajevo have accused forces loyal to Fikret Abdic as well as Serbian forces from the occupied sections of Croatia of deliberately stalling the deliveries of humanitarian aid to the civilians of Bihac. The UNHCR spokesman in Sarajevo Kris Janowski stated that despite being given clearances by the Knin Serbs to use the Licko Petrovo Selo route to get aid to the Bihac pocket, rebel Serbs in Croatia have re-directed the convoy to the Maljevac border crossing where it was stopped by the Abdic forces this morning. The UNHCR is also planning to deliver a certain quantity of aid through air-drops, but the operation may run into trouble due to possible Serb anti-aircraft fire. Izetbegovic Meets Gen. Smith SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (21 Feb) This morning at 10:30 hrs, Lieutenant Gen. Rupert Smith Commander of UNPROFOR troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina accompanied by Mr. Enrique Aguilar, Civil Affairs Co-ordinator for Bosnia met with Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic. They discussed progress with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and the Central Joint Commission. According to UNPROFOR spokesman Alexander Ivanko, an expert level meeting chaired by Sector Sarajevo Civil Affairs was held this morning at the airport. They dealt with the issue of the freedom of choice concerning the place of living which was point 2 of the Protocol signed on 23 January. Mr. Ivanko added that UNPROFOR was planning a high-ranking meeting at the airport to discus a number of issues, among them the opening of the routes across the airport for the five local NGOs. Serbia -- Sanctions BELGRADE, Serbia (Feb 20) Serbia said on Monday the international community must relax sanctions crippling its economy before Belgrade can consider the latest peace proposals for the former Yugoslavia. Official media said Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic told Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev that easing sanctions was a precondition for Serbia's cooperation. He added that Milosevic and Kozirjev had not changed their view that sanctions against Belgrade should be lifted but they were unhappy with the international community's resistance to this. Kozirjev left Belgrade on Sunday. Russia's Contact Group envoy, Alexandar Zlotov, was in Belgrade waiting for the USA delegate, Robert Frasure, now briefing Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on the group's latest plan, to join him for talks with Milosevic on Monday. Belgrade's independent Television Studio B reported that Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic was also due in Belgrade, most probably on Monday. Archbishop Puljic Received by Pope VATICAN, Rome (21 Feb) The Bosnian Archbishop Cardinal Vinko Puljic was received by Pope John Paul II yesterday. Quoting Italian newspapers "Avvenire", Cardinal Puljic spoke to the Pope about the problems faced by Catholics in Bosnia and Hercegovina adding that the people were not only expecting humanitarian aid, but were also looking for their human rights to be protected as well as their rights to life, work, home and personal identity to be observed. Digging Trenches In Krajina KNIN, Croatia, (Feb 20) UN monitors say rebel Serbs and Croatian forces in Krajina, Croatia are digging trenches and gun pits along ceasefire lines although no big troop build-up has been seen yet. "We are preparing for war," said Malden Kalapach, a Serb official who acts as liaison with the UN "But I don't think the people here want it." All fit males in Krajina between the ages of 18 and 60 are registered for service. Some are fighting in Bosnia's Bihac enclave 100 km (60 miles) to the north, supporting Moslem rebels against Bosnian government troops. Krajina president Milan Martic said in Belgrade last week he did not want war but if attacked his forces would strike with all their might. Krajina Serbs have an arsenal of heavy weapons and missiles which can hit almost every town in Croatia, including Zagreb. UN special envoy Yasushi Akashi is to visit Knin today. According to UNPROFOR spokesman in Zagreb, Chris Guinness, Mr. Akashi will talk with Knin leaders in regard to the realisation of the economic agreement with Croatian government authorities and the free passage of humanitarian convoys for the Bihac pocket. Separatist Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Krajina Serb leader on Monday announced that they had formed a joint military council in Banja Luka. Tensions Rise In Macedonia SKOPJE, Macedonia (Feb 20) Vandals tore down 30 tombstones in a Moslem graveyard in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo in the latest sign of rising tension between ethnic groups in the former Yugoslav republic, state radio said on Monday. The radio said it was the first such incident in the area, which has a mixed population of Macedonians, Serbs and mainly-Moslem Albanians. International minority rights mediator Max van der Stoel of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe appealed for calm on Monday after meeting Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov in Skojpe. More than 1,000 United Nations troops, including 600 from the USA States, have been deployed in Macedonia. =========================================== OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 37, 21 February 1995 DID THE UN IMAGINE AIRCRAFT NEAR TUZLA? The Washington Post reports on 21 February about disputes between the UN and NATO over violations of the no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The newspaper points out that all sides use aircraft freely because they know there is no serious possibility that NATO planes will go after them. In the latest development, UN observers recently saw large transport aircraft of uncertain origin unload high-tech equipment for Bosnian government forces near Tuzla. NATO, however, said that no such mission took place and asked the UN to change its report. The newspaper suggests that NATO is trying to get the UN to cover up for its own incompetence. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. BOSNIAN AND KRAJINA SERBS FORM JOINT WAR COUNCIL. Nasa Borba says on 21 February that Bosnian and Krajina Serbs set up a joint military council at Banja Luka the previous day. Their respective leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Milan Martic, announced the setting up of the Supreme Defense Council, which provides for joint defense and mutual assistance in keeping with a 1993 pact between the two rebel Serbian states. Elsewhere in Bosnia, international media report that Krajina Serbs on 20 February stopped a UN relief convoy heading for Bihac and forced it to Velika Kladusa, which is under the control of local kingpin Fikret Abdic. The Serbs had promised to let the relief vehicles through to the besieged town, where some 20% of the population is reportedly threatened with starvation. The BBC on 21 February said the UN is trying to negotiate the release and safe passage of the convoy. Finally, news agencies report a sharp increase in fighting on 20 February in the narrow but strategic Posavina corridor in northern Bosnia. The route provides a land bridge between Serbia, on the one hand, and Serb-held territories in Bosnia and Croatia on the other. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. =========================================== OMRI DAILY DIGEST No. 38, 22 February 1995 CROATIA, SLOVENIA, AND BOSNIA MAKE JOINT PROTEST. The ambassadors to the UN from Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina jointly protested to the world body against Serbia-Montenegro's claim to be the legitimate successor to Tito's Yugoslavia, Hina reported on 21 February. Belgrade made the demand in order to automatically acquire seats in international organizations and valuable properties around the world. Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Sarajevo point out that federal Yugoslavia has long ceased to exist and that all successor states must be treated equally.-- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. AKASHI'S LATEST "GLIMMER OF HOPE." Back in Krajina, UN negotiator Yasushi Akashi held talks with rebel Serb leaders on 21 February to try and persuade them to stop holding hostage 10 relief trucks headed for Bihac. He told Reuters that he saw "a glimmer of hope" and that "there is a willingness to commence fruitful dialogue and that's the first time they have made an indication of that kind." A UN refugee spokesman saw things a bit differently, saying that "the bottom line is both the Abdic forces and the Krajina Serbs are using food as a weapon of war, trying to deny food to the people of Bihac." Meanwhile, the Serbs still have the trucks. -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. MACEDONIA ACCUSES ALBANIA OF INTERFERENCE. Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski accused Albania of interfering in its internal affairs, Western agencies reported on 21 February. Crvenkovski said at a news conference that by supporting the self-proclaimed Albanian-language University in Tetovo, the Albanian government "encourages illegal acts, even if only verbally." Albania sharply criticized the conduct of the Macedonian government after police cracked down on the university on 17 =46ebruary. One ethnic Albanian died in a subsequent riot. Meanwhile Albanian Deputy Foreign Minister Arjan Starova said that the Albanian government will "reconsider the political course towards Skopje," Gazeta Shqiptare reported on 22 February. Relations between both countries had improved in the past three years, but mutual confidence suffers from the Albanian minority conflict in Macedonia. -- Fabian Schmidt, OMRI, Inc. TUDJMAN FIRM ON EXPELLING UNPROFOR. The Los Angeles Times reports on 22 =46ebruary on the Croatian visit of EU external affairs commissioner Hans van den Broek, which is one of a series of high-level contacts underway or soon to take place between Zagreb and Brussels or Strasbourg. Commenting on President Franjo Tudjman's decision to end UNPROFOR's mandate when it expires on 31 March, van den Broek said that "it was quite clear that his decision was irreversible." A UN spokesman added that there is "a real danger of an immediate return to war" as a result of both sides trying to take strategic positions once UNPROFOR abandons them. This view was echoed by Dobroslav Paraga, the leader of the rightwing Croatian Party of [Historic] Rights. Nasa Borba quotes him as saying that "the departure of UNPROFOR from the occupied territories would just be the lead-in to a big war with the Krajina Serbs, who would be backed by Karadzic's Bosnian Serbs, and then the [rump] Yugoslav army." -- Patrick Moore, OMRI, Inc. SERBIAN UPDATE. On 22 February Politika reports on the apparent growing cooperation between three of Serbia's main opposition parties--the Democratic Party (led by Zoran Djindjic), the Democratic Party of Serbia (led by Vojislav Kostunica), and the controversial Serbian Radical Party (led by the accused war criminal Vojislav Seselj), which now includes "an opposition agreement on the defense of the independent media." In other news, on 22 February The New York Times reports that the UN Security Council appears to have "reached an agreement that could allow a steady flow of Russian natural gas into both the capital of Bosnia and to Yugoslavia, which includes Serbia and Montenegro." -- Stan Markotich, OMRI, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------- B o s N e t NEWS - Feb. 22, 1995 ========================================== FRONTLINES, Bosnia and Herzegovina The military situation in the Bihac pocket continued tense with 115 artillery detonations reported during the past 24 hours in the Velika Kladusa area. The Bihac town "safe area" was quiet, reporting only seven impacts. Meanwhile in Sarajevo, an increase in "digging in" activity has increased concern of UN military officials. Both Bosnian government troops and separatist Serb soldiers frequently use a cease-fire period to dig and fortify trenches along confrontation lies in the Sarajevo area. "UN are also investigating the sighting of separatist Serb heavy weapons in the Grbavica and Blagovac areas, " UN military spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Coward said. Coward said the tense situation in Sarajevo was emphasised by the direct targeting of French UN troops two times on Tuesday. "One of the attacks was at an observation post in Betanija, the next took place at Rajlovac when a Bosnian Serb soldier took cover behind a French armored personnel carrier and the Bosnian government soldier kept firing," Coward said. "There were no casualties in either attack." Aid convoy reaches Bihac SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Feb. 22) After a two-day delay, a UN aid convoy carrying 99 tons of supplies, reached Cazin, 12 miles (20 km) north of the town of Bihac, on Wednesday morning. Convoy set out Monday from the Croatian capital of Zagreb but was halted while it passed through areas controlled by rebel Serbs and rebel Muslims on Monday and Tuesday. Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the UNCHR called the final arrival of the convoy to the UNHCR warehouse "good news" but reiterated his demand for a regular delivery schedule. The UNestimates 100 tons of food is needed every day to satisfy the bare minimum in the Bihac pocket with more than 160,000 residents and refugees that suffer from malnutrition. USA sees flexibility, Europeans pressing Belgrade??? WASHINGTON, USA (Feb. 21) Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has not categorically rejected the West's offer to suspend economic sanctions if he recognizes neighboring nations and helps isolate Serb nationalists waging war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, USA officials said Tuesday. Although Milosevic has made no public comment, his official news agency said Monday that "Belgrade is categorical -- first a lifting of sanctions and then everything else." Milosevic's failure to publicly reject the initiative combined with statements the Serbian president made privately to contact group officials has given the Clinton administration hope he can be persuaded to accept the scheme, USA officials said. "His options are few if he desires any sanctions relief for the people of Serbia-Montenegro," White House press secretary Mike McCurry said. France, Germany and Britain are sending envoys for talks with Milosevic and there will be a full meeting in Paris next week of the five-nation "contact group" trying to broker a settlement, European diplomats said. "We are making another effort with a trip to Belgrade on Thursday and there will be a contact group meeting next week in Paris to take stock," said one European diplomat, who asked not to be identified. Cardinal Puljic urges UN to stay in Bosnia ROME, Italy (Feb 22) The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sarajevo said on Wednesday a withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces from Bosnia would spell disaster for Bosnia. Puljic accused the West of indifference towards the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and urged countries to work harder to secure a peace deal. The prelate, who discussed the situation in former Yugoslavia with Pope John Paul on Monday, said the 74-year-old Pontiff still wanted to visit Sarajevo. "The Pope wants to come to Sarajevo. But he doesn't want anyone to get hurt or killed because of him," Puljic said. "There are people who don't want the Pope to come and speak about peace in Sarajevo because they do not want peace. They have more interests in war." The Pope has said he raised Puljic to the high rank of cardinal last November to thank the prelate for his courage and to show his concern for those who have suffered in the war. Germany -- Bosnia pullout BONN, Germany (Feb 22) Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet approved a list drawn up by Defence Minister Volker Ruehe spelling out which Tornado fighter-bombers, transport and surveillance aircraft, ships and medical facilities Bonn would lend to NATO should the United Nations quit Bosnia. The move designates 600 soldiers to man and guard a field hospital in Croatia, 600 airmen to fly and service aircraft to be based in Italy, and 600 sailors to operate minesweepers, patrol boats and electronic surveillance aircraft. Another 70 German officers assigned to NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps would head to a base in Bosnia should the alliance have to proceed with plans to withdraw peacekeepers. Croatia sees peaceful solution in Balkans MUNICH, Germany, (Feb 22) Croatian Prime Minister Nikica Valentic said on Wednesday the Balkan conflict could be settled peacefully before the year was out, but only if UN peacekeepers leave his country as planned. "We are aware of the delicate situation that will arise when the UN withdraws," Valentic told reporters during a visit to Bavaria. He added this step was necessary to spur a political settlement between Zagreb and rebel Serbs.