27.06.1999

OHR BiH TV News Summary, 27 June 1999

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  • A representative of the international community and his interpreter found dead on the road to Pristina
  • “Media Center” in Pristina robbed last night
  • Belgrade’s detailed design of eviction of Kosovo Albanians
  • Momir Bulatovic ought to resign immediately, Montenegrian Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic says
  • Former Greek dictator Papadopoulos died
  • Is there a trade with people in BiH?
  • What is a security studies network, and what a security studies center for Southeastern Europe and BiH?

British troops of KFOR found yesterday a mass grave with, as a survivor alleges, 60 bodies, near Bela Crkva. France Press reports that hundreds of documents evidencing a deliberate design of ethnic cleansing by Milosevic had been found in Kosovo. A NATO intelligence officer said that the documents listed the cities where massacres had been scheduled to take place, and where they actually did take place. KLA is also in possession of the evidence.

1:30

Violence continues in Kosovo. A humanitarian worker and his interpreter were found dead yesterday. Dead body of a woman was found in village Belo Polje, near Pec. Associated Press reports she was killed by a group of uniformed Albanians. KFOR continues patrolling the area. Life has been returning to normalcy in Pristina. Another advance group of Russian technicians arrived yesterday at Pristina airport to prepare arrival of Russian contingent. Representatives of NATO and Russia met yesterday to end the stalemate and open the Slatina airport in Pristina. The state controlled media in Serbia report that a large number of Serbs returned to Kosovo, but independent media report that the refugee wave from Kosovo has not decreased. While Serbs decided to leave Kosovo Polje out of fear from Kosovars’ revenge, KFOR in the area has been trying to persuade them to stay. Reuters report that thousands of Kosovo refugees flooded the border between Kosovo and Macedonia, and that the number of oil-smugglers in Blace, a city on the border between Kosovo and Macedonia, significantly increased recently. UNHCR report that 330,000 Kosovar refugee returns were registered to Kosovo, while some 70,000 Serbs left the province since the end of the NATO strikes. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the international community not to give rise to another humanitarian disaster by failing to deliver humanitarian assistance. KFOR Commander Michael Jackson said that the degree of damage (in Kosovo) is less than he feared, and that he is somewhat encouraged by that. FRY Government decided to start reconstruction of the bridge over Danube connecting Belgrade and Novi Sad. The reconstruction will cost US$ 300,000, and it will take 40 days. Monte Negro Government wishes to introduce new particularly Montenegrian currency.

5:00

OSCE Chief in BiH Ambassador Robert Barry told ONASA that the situation in BiH neighborhood changed. He pointed out that economic dependence of RS on FRY ended, and that the power centers in Zagreb as well as in Belgrade have weakened. The prospects for HDZ in the upcoming elections in Croatia are much bleaker than before, which is why Bosnian Croats mus realize that their future lies in BiH.

1:00

A huge gathering of RS Croats wanting to return to RS is scheduled to take place tonight at about 20.00 p.m. in Slavonski Brod. The BiH Presidency Chair Jelavic will address the gathering. Prior to the addressing the gathering Jelavic addressed a gathering at Plehan (Posavina) to which a pilgrimage of Bosnian Croats was organized, and from which Franjo Leban reports for the TV BiH. Over 2000 inhabitants of Plehan and the Croats from throughout Bosanska Posavina visited Plehan. This is the most massive visit to Plehan since 1992. An interim convict was opened for 300, out of 8,000 pre-war Catholic believers, who remained in Derventa. “This is a step bringing us closer to return”, Jelavic told the gathering of the 2,000. Leban also reported that Ivic Pasalic, and Vladimir Seks from Croatian Government will address the gathering in Slavonski Brod as well.

2:00

French SFOR says they have got no idea as to where Radovan Karadzic found his sanctuary. This was their response to the request by US Human Rights Ambassador David Scheffer for French Division of SFOR to seize Karadzic.

0:25

ONASA reports that the damage caused by illegal woodcutting in the area of Drvar amounts to more than KM 1 million. Vladimir Jurcevic, Head of local public enterprise “Forestry”, claims that the area of Klekovaca-Repovac, near the inter-entity border, suffered most of the damage. He added that calls on IPTF and SFOR so far brought no success.

0:30

A two-day conference on the trade with people, and slavery, ended yesterday in Neum. The conference attendees issued the conclusion that human rights must be watched, while police judiciary, and NGO networks in BiH must be receptive of this issue.

1:20

A three-day seminar on both a network and a center of security studies is taking place in Sarajevo under auspices of BiH OSCE Mission and its Head Ambassador Barry. The idea of the seminar is to organize a university-run network of security studies to follow and support the Stability Pact initiative. The network would address the issue of military budgets and military ratios in the area, including a broader security perspective. Another idea presented at the seminar is to set a security studies center or a Commission, which would consist of BiH University rectors, to ensure full transparency of both security analyses and data.

1:30