From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News, 6 Jan (from Haluk)
Date: 7 Jan 1993 21:41:04 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

From: Haluk DEMIRBAG <TEX5HAD@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk>
 Bosnian foreign minister raps international community
 EC mediator says Serbs must give up state-in-a-state
 Irish minister says rape is widespread in Bosnia-Herzegovina
 Security Council studies enforcement of Bosnia 'no-fly' zone
 Yugoslav president calls for government of national salvation
 Romania demands Serbia release ships
 Subject: Bosnian foreign minister raps international community

        BONN, Germany (UPI) -- Bosnia's foreign minister urged the
 international community Wednesday to either lift its arms embargo or
 launch a military intervention in the civil war in former Yugoslavia.
        Harris Silajdzic told a news conference -- ``either stop the agression
 or let us stop it. Anything else is complicity.''
        The commander of the Bosnian forces, Sefer Halilovic, said he found
 it difficult to explain to his troops why Bosnia-Herzegovina is not
 allowed to import weapons, and described the United Nations' arms
 embargo as ``illegal''.
        ``The desire of our soldiers is the lifting of the arms embargo. If
 that is not possible, then there should be a limited military
 intervention, that is the destruction of targets from the air or by
 missiles,'' he said.
        He also claimed that three Russian generals are in Belgrade helping
 Serbians plan the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that 15 Russian
 mercenaries have been captured.
        The foreign minister said the situation is desperate in the besieged
 Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, where people are dying of cold and hunger.
        ``Sarajevo is dying. It is freezing to death, yet we are not allowed
 to use the little bit of army we have,'' he said.
        ``It is not only those monsters in the hills who are killing Sarajevo
 and other towns, it is the international community killing Bosnia-
 Herzegovina,'' Silajdzic said.
        He accused U.N. and European Community negotiatiors at the Geneva
 peace talks of making too many concessions to the Serbian side.
        ``It is very hard not to suspect there is willingness on the part of
 the international community to surrender Bosnia-Herzegovina to the
 aggressors.
        ``The world has Bosnia-Herzegovina on its conscience,'' he said.
        The Bosnian officials were in Bonn at the invitation of Christian
 Schwarz-Schilling, the former post and telecommunications minister, who
 said he wanted Germans to hear first-hand ``the truth about the
 situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.''
        Schwarz-Schilling, a member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative
 Christian Democratic Union, resigned last month, saying he was
 ``ashamed'' to belong to a government that was unable to send troops to
 Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        Several conservative politicians have urged the government to send
 troops to participate in multi-national missions such as those in
 Somalia and the former Yugoslavia despite a constitutional clause seen
 as barring out-of-area troop deployments.
 =========================================================================
 Subject: EC mediator says Serbs must give up state-in-a-state
>
        COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- The European Community mediator in the
 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina said late Tuesday the time had come for
 Bosnian Serbs to give up demands for a state-within-a-state in the
 former Yugoslav republic.
        Former British Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen was in Copenhagen
 for a 12-hour visit to brief the Danish government, which currently
 holds the rotating EC presidency, on the progress of peace talks between
 Bosnia's warring ethnic groups.
        Owen was to fly early Wednesday to Belgrade for discussions with
 Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic prior to the resumption of the
 Geneva peace talks on Sunday.
        Those talks were suspended Monday when Bosnian Serbs rejected a peace
 plan put forward by the joint EC-U.N. mediators involving the division
 of Bosnia-Herzegovina into 10 autonomous regions within one unified
 state.
        ``I think President Milosevic is intelligent enough to know that this
 idea (of a state-within-a-state) will not fly with the European
 Community, with the United Nations or with the other parties in Bosnia-
 Herzegovina,'' Owen said, adding, ``This dream has got to be ended.''
        Speaking of the possibility of international intervention in the
 conflict, Owen said he still believed that negotiations were the best
 way forward. ``But there may come a time in the next few months when the
 patience of the international community runs out,'' he added.
        ``If the current peace talks fall through, there will be extremely
 strong pressure on the United Nations Security Council to stop the
 conflict and impose a settlement,'' Owen said.
        But he added that although a breakdown in the peace process could end
 in intervention, prospects for an immediate operation were weakened by
 the severe winter.
        ``I would be much more enthusiastic for intervention if it was
 summer, when you would know the population could live off the land,''
 Owen said.
        ``The problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who
 are dependent on the United Nations and the convoys to get basic food.
 If you intervene militarily you affect the convoys and you affect the
 humanitarian effort.''
        ``These are ethically and morally very difficult issues. You have to
 weigh in the balance the loss of life by disruption of the humanitarian
 effort with the gain in life of getting a cessation of hostilities. It
 is not an easy choice,'' Owen said.
        He said he had hopes that his discussions with Milosevic and other
 Serbian leaders could enable the peace process to move forward when it
 resumes in Geneva on Sunday.
        ``It is worth remembering,'' said Owen, ``that Cyrus Vance negotiated
 the cease-fire between the Serbs and the Croats which was signed in
 January last year with Mr. Milosevic.''
        ``(Milosevic) is a tough customer and he has very definite views, but
 he is also someone you can negotiate with,'' Owen added.
        ``He has no authority within the constitution to deal with foreign
 affairs, but there is no question he is the power behind much of the
 policy of Yugoslavia and has been a major encouragement to Bosnia's
 Serbs in their stance in Bosnia-Herzegovina.''
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Irish minister says rape is widespread in Bosnia-Herzegovina
>
        DUBLIN, Ireland (UPI) -- An Irish official investigating allegations
 of rape in Bosnia-Herzegovina said Tuesday that Muslim women in the war-
 torn region are being subjected to widespread and sadistic sexual abuse.
        Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs David Andrews said a preliminary
 report by European Community officials concludes that although the scale
 of sexual abuse was difficult to quantify, a ``horrifyingly high''
 number of Muslim women are being raped.
        At least some of the rapes were being committed in ways to inflict
 maximum humiliation on the victims, Andrews said in a statement.
        ``Rape had, therefore, become an instrument and not a byproduct of
 the war,'' Andrews said in the statement.
        At the EC's Edinburgh summit held before Christmas, Andrews was
 appointed to lead the investigation into charges Muslim women in Bosnia-
 Herzegovina were being raped.
        A spokesman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said Andrews
 is pushing to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina sometime this month. Andrews
 spoke earlier Tuesday with EC leader and Danish Foreign Minister Uffe
 Ellemann-Jensen, who agreed a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina should take
 place as soon as possible, the spokesman said.
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Security Council studies enforcement of Bosnia 'no-fly' zone
>
        UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council, in its opening
 session of the new year, deliberated proposals for enforcing the no-fly
 zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina Tuesday amid growing pressure for military
 action to enforce the U.N. ban on military aircraft over the republic.
        Western diplomats said they do not expect any action by the 15-nation
 council this week, however. They said any decision to enforce the no-fly
 zone would depend on the outcome of the Geneva peace talks on the former
 Yugoslavia.
        The council is immediately under pressure from a proponent for
 military enforcement of the no-fly zone, Alija Izetbegovic, the
 president of the Muslim-led government of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who was to
 visit the U.N. headquarters in New York Wednesday.
        The diplomats said Izetbegovic would seek to talk to members of the
 council for speedier action to end the ethnic conflict in his nation.
 Izetbegovic had been attending the talks in Geneva, sponsored by the
 United Nations and the European Community.
        The diplomats said the private session of the council was intended to
 discuss what possibilities exist to begin serious talks on a draft
 resolution that would allow a U.N.-sanctioned force to implement the
 flight ban in the air space of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        Hungarian Ambassador Andre Erdos said negotiations for a draft
 resolution have been going on and ``I understand that it might be more
 imminent than people would think.'' He said a draft resolution would be
 presented to the council in the ``next couple of days.''
        The president of the council for January, Japanese U.N. Ambassador
 Yoshio Hatano, told reporters before the meeting that he will ``take up
 with my colleagues the issue to see what action should be taken
 depending on the outcome of the Geneva talks.''
        The flight ban was imposed last October in an effort to deter Serbian
 forces from using their superior air force against Croats and Muslim
 Slavs, who were being routed from their destroyed villages as part of
 Serbian ``ethnic cleansing'' methods.
        U.N. monitors posted throughout the former Yugoslavia have reported
 hundreds of violations of the flight ban, most of them by Serbian forces
 using their helicopters on what they claim were humanitarian missions.
        The Western diplomats said negotiations held between four permanent
 members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russia, France and
 Britain -- in December had not resolved deep differences related to the
 targets in Bosnia-Herzegovina in case an enforcement resolution is to go
 into effect.
        The fifth permanent member of the council, China, does not usually
 attend negotiating sessions dealing with use of military force and
 imposing economic sanctions. Beijing also usually abstains when the
 council votes on such measures.
        Western diplomats said three major areas of differences remain to be
 ironed out if the council wants to enforce the ban. They related to the
 rules of engagement, the timing of the beginning of enforcement of the
 ban and whether the council should give Serbian forces a grace period to
 abide by the ban.
        The United States had favored immediate and direct attacks against
 Serb-held airfields while Britain and France had preferred to shoot down
 only violators of the flight ban. London and Paris are concerned that
 widespread U.N. military action might bring Serbian retaliation against
 the 7,000 British and French troops currently engaged in humanitarian
 assistance on the ground in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        While they acknowledged that there were still deep disagreements on
 ways to enforce the ``no-fly zone,'' one Western diplomat said that
 ``there is some prospect now for moving closer toward an agreement. But
 how much of prospect, we just don't know yet.''
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Yugoslav president calls for government of national salvation

        BELGRADE, Bosnia-Herzegovina (UPI) -- President Dobrica Cosic of the
 rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro urged Wednesday the urgent
 formation of a government of ``national salvation'' in preparation for
 possible foreign intervention to halt the Serbian territorial conquests
 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        ``The evil and senseless powers of this world have surrounded us with
 spite and hate,'' said Cosic in a televised address to the nation on the
 eve of Serbian Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated Thursday
 according to the Gregorian calendar.
        ``We have no time to lose,'' he said.
        ``I suggest, advise, appeal and plead to all parliaments, federal and
 republic, to start immediate negotiations for the formation of a
 government of national salvation,'' said Cosic, a largely powerless
 politician regarded as a venerable and influential elder statesman.
        The former communist-turned-dissident and popular novelist appealed
 to all political leaders to put aside their differences and unite in the
 national interest.
        Serbia and Montenegro held irregularity-ridden elections Dec. 20 in
 which hardline communist President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, widely
 regarded as the main patron of the Serbian ``ethnic cleansing''
 territorial conquests in Bosnia-Herzegovina, won a new five-year term.
        Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia took the largest share of seats
 in the Yugoslav and Serbian legislatures. But it did not retain its
 majorities, making it likely it will have to form ruling coalitions with
 the second-place Serbian Radical Party, an extreme nationalist group led
 by a suspected war criminal, Vojislav Seselj.
        Cosic's call for a national unity government underscored his
 preference for a coalition that would also include opposition parties.
        His speech came two days after the U.N.-European Community-sponsored
 Geneva peace talks on former Yugoslavia was adjourned due to a refusal
 by Bosnian Serb leaders to abandon a demand for acceptance of the self-
 declared Serbian state their forces are fighting to carve out of war-
 torn Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        The demand was ruled out by the co-chairmen of the Geneva conference,
 Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen. They presented their own peace plan
 that would divide Bosnia-Herzegovina into 10 largely autonomous
 provinces, but maintain its territorial integrity.
        There have been increasing calls, particularly among Islamic states,
 for military intervention to halt the Serbian territorial siezures in
 the former Yugoslav republic of 1.9 million Muslim Slavs, 1.4 million
 Christian Orthodox Serbs and 750,000 Roman Catholic Croats.
        Intervention would likely first take the form of enforcement by the
 Western powers of a U.N.-decreed no-fly zone that has been repeatedly
 violated, especially by Serbian aircraft.
        Cosic said he returned from the Geneva talks ``more worried than
 ever.''
        ``The diplomatic bureaucrats of the EC have drawn ethnic maps that
 divided the Serbian people into provinces,'' he said. ``Supported by the
 U.N. Security Council, they drafted the constitution of the new Bosnia-
 Herzegovina.
        ``This concept multiplies the causes of the ongoing war and
 disregards Serbian political will. If accepted, it will turn Bosnia into
 a permanent and genocidal jihad-like battlefield,'' said Cosic.
        ``If the Serbs do not accept this ultimatum-like concept, we were
 told bluntly, they will have to face an air force and rocket assault by
 the United States and NATO,'' he continued.
        ``So, the Serbs face a terrible dilemma: political and military
 capitulation, or the attack by the most powerful forces of this world,''
 said Cosic.
        But Cosic did not recommend what course the Bosnian Serbs should
 chose. Instead, he placed primary blame on the international community
 for the Balkan embroglio.
        ``We are being judged in absence. We are being faced with ultimatums
 based on lies. And if we refuse, we are being put in concentration camp
 and threatened by the most powerful armies of the world,'' he said.
        ``The future policies of the world concerning Yugoslavia depend on
 the outcome of the Geneva talks. The final decision on military
 intervention against Bosnian Serbs by the U.S. and the EC will depends
 of this outcome,'' he said.
        Cosic also said the recent elections also contributed to the crisis,
 a veiled criticism of Milosevic and the Serbian Radical Party.
        ``The elections have not improved our position. In some ways, they
 made it worse,'' he said. ``Some parties competed in hatred, false
 promises, and false patriotism. The power-hungry 'patriots' still have
 not shown us the way out of our misfortune.''
 =========================================================================
 Subject: Romania demands Serbia release ships

        BUCHAREST, Romania (UPI) -- Romania warned Wednesday it would appeal
 to the U.N. Security Council for help unless neighboring Serbia releases
 four barges it impounded in retaliation for the siezures of Serbian
 vessels trying to break the U.N.-imposed trade embargo on former
 Yugoslavia.
        In a carefully worded statement, the Romanian Foreign Ministry called
 the seizure of the Romanian barges ``illegal and abusive.''
        ``If the (Serbian) authorities do not immediately release the
 Romanian vessels, we will be obliged to address the U.N. Security
 Council to solve this situation,'' the statement said.
        The barges were seized between Dec. 31 and Wednesday in Belgrade and
 the port of Bezdan on the Danube River, a vital commercial route and the
 common border between Romania and the rump Yugoslav federation of Serbia
 and Montenegro for about 120 miles.
        Serbian authorities said they stopped the Romanian's barges in
 retaliation for the seizure of Yugoslav vessels in the Romanian Danube
 ports of Galati and Braila.
        The Yugoslav vessels were stopped because they tried to break a trade
 embargo imposed on Serbia and Montenegro under U.N. auspices in May for
 the two republics' roles in the Serbian territorial conquests in Bosnia-
 Herzegovina.
        A Romanian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the siezures put Romania
 in ``a delicate situation,'' while the Foreign Ministry statement shied
 away from specific threats, referring instead to a ``desire to maintain
 good neighborly relations.''
        The two countries are old allies but Romania is set to lose about $3.
 5 billion in cancelled trade with Serbia because of the U.N. embargo.
        The losses come as Romania suffers what President Ion Iliescu
 recently described as ``an acute crisis'' in attempting to restructure
 its economy. Romania has asked the United Nations to compensate it for
 its financial losses from the embargo.
        Romania estimates it suffered $3 billion in lost trade in 1990-91
 because of the U.N.-imposed embargo on Iraq.
 =========================================================================
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