From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News, 3 Jan 93 (fwd)
Date: 4 Jan 1993 22:41:03 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
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Forwarded message:

 : Russia pledges more active role in ex-Yugoslavia
 : Britain offers homes for Yugoslav rape babies

 Subject: Russia pledges more active role in ex-Yugoslavia

        MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin Sunday expressed
 support for U.S. and U.N. policy in former Yugoslavia, but said Russia
 would seek a more active independent role in pursuing peace in the
 region.
        ``The positions of our two sides have been close ever since the
 United Nations reolution (imposing sanctions on Serbia) and we will
 continue to adhere to this line,'' Yeltsin said in the Kremlin after the
 ceremonial signing of the START II Treaty.
        ``But at the same time we will try more actively to achieve peace in
 Serbia and in Yugoslavia as a whole,'' Yeltsin said.
        The United States is seeking Russian support for a U.N. resolution
 calling for military enforcement of a no-fly zone over Bosnia. Yeltsin's
 comments suggest Moscow wants to step up diplomatic efforts to seek a
 peaceful solution before resorting to military force.
        Yeltsin told reporters assembled in Moscow's Grand Kremlin Palace
 that the START II landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty had given ``a
 great impetus to world diplomacy,'' which might encourage peacemaking
 efforts in ex-Yugoslavia.
        ``Today I would like to express the hope that the diplomatic services
 of the United States and Russia and diplomats of European countries will
 double or even triple efforts to solve conflcits that are of concern to
 the world,'' he said.
        The war in former Yugoslavia was at the top of the agenda for talks
 between French President Francois Mitterand and U.S. President George
 Bush, who was stopping over in Paris on his way back from the lightning
 24-hour summit in Moscow.
        The two Western leaders were expected to discuss conditions for
 possible military intervention to end fighting in Bosnia-Hercegovina if
 the peace talks currently underway in Geneva break down.
        The four-day Geneva meeting is the first time Muslim Slav, Serbian
 and Croatian leaders have met together in direct talks to end the civil
 war that erupted late last March.
        The United States is keen to secure Russian backing for a U.N.
 resolution backing military involvement and enforcement of a no-fly zone
 over Bosnia.
        ``We would like a commitment from Russia to continue working with us
 to ensure the credibility of U.N. Security Council resolutions that
 would include the no-fly resolution,'' one U.S. official told reporters
 this weekend on condition he not be named.
        Yeltsin would be faced with stiff resistance from his conservative-
 dominated Parliament if he decides to back enforcement of the air
 exclusion zone.
        Lawmakers passed a resolution last month calling on Russia to veto
 any U.N. attempts to allow outside interference in former Yugoslavia and
 suggesting anti-Serb sanctions should be widened to take in all warring
 sides.
        Anti-Western legislators in the Russian Parliament see Christian
 Orthodox, Slav Serbs as Russia's traditional allies and fiercely oppose
 sanctions against Serbia.
        mjc-gc-emki
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Britain offers homes for Yugoslav rape babies

        LONDON (UPI) -- Britain is trying to speed up formalities that would
 allow babies born to Muslim Slav women allegedly raped by Serbian
 soldiers to live in the United Kingdom, health officials said Sunday.
        Junior Health Minister Tim Yeo asked local authorities to speed up
 adoption processes so Yugoslav babies rejected by their mothers could be
 adopted by British families without bureaucratic delays, officials said.
        Yeo also wrote to Foreign Office Minister Douglas Hogg urging him to
 ask appropriate authorities and welfare organizations helping raped
 Muslim women in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia whether unwanted children
 could come to Britain for adoption, a Department of Health spokeswoman
 said Sunday.
        ``This would be in the event of them (the mothers) not getting help
 elsewhere,'' the spokeswoman said.
        Yeo said the move was ``a humanitarian response to appalling
 atrocities,'' The Mail on Sunday reported.
        ``Goodness knows the extent of this tragedy,'' Yeo said. ``We hear
 stories of hundreds, even thousands of rapes.
        ``Even if a fraction of all of this is correct, then we can and must
 act to help.
        ``Surely, if it turns out there are women who have been raped and do
 not want to keep their children, we must try to help,'' he said.
        ``If it fulfills a need for childless parents in Britain, then all
 well and good,'' he said.
        The Health Department spokeswoman said it was not clear how many
 infants would be involved but said no corners would be cut to speed the
 adoption process.
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