US Department of State Dispatch,
Vol 3, No 44, November 2, 1992
Title: Assistance To Promote Reform In the New
Independent States
Eagleburger
Source: Acting Secretary Eagleburger
Description: Intervention before the Tokyo Conference on Assistance
to the New Independent States, Tokyo, Japan
Date: Oct, 29 199210/29/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: Eurasia, East Asia
Country: Japan, USSR (former)
Subject: Development/Relief Aid, Trade/Economics,
Democratization, Arms Control
[TEXT]
This conference today in Tokyo marks another important mile-stone in the
efforts of the world community to forge a new framework for international
stability in the wake of the Cold War. We began those efforts in Washington
this January, just 1 month after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought a
formal and definitive end to the old order. That one event last December
brought into extreme focus both the promise and the peril inherent in the
new order; namely, the opportunity to bring democracy and prosperity to the
peoples of the former Soviet Union and to bring an end to the nuclear arms
race and the danger of human suffering and political instability on an
immense scale.
The world has had little experience in meeting a challenge of this nature.
For almost half a century, the Cold War had locked all nations into a
seemingly changeless pattern of interrelationships. Now, however, each of
us has been called upon freely to redefine our role and responsibilities. We
are still at an early stage in this process, and it is sometimes tempting to
look at the magnitude of the problems we face and proclaim the glass half
empty, not half full. But the fact of the matter is that we are slowly but
surely evolving a novel collective approach to the challenges we face in this
new democratic era. Thus it is that we have acted collectively to thwart
aggression in the [Persian] Gulf, to resolve regional conflicts, and to
address humanitarian needs and crises in virtually every part of the world.
And that is why we have, all of us, come today to Tokyo. Our presence here
is in recognition of the fact that the fate of the peoples of the former
Soviet Union is not a European problem or an American problem but a global
concern which is key to our collective hopes of truly realizing a peaceful
and democratic new world order.
I would like particularly to salute Japan for hosting this conference. This is
evidence of the fact that Japan is increasingly assuming a role
commensurate not only with its economic strength but with the burdens and
requirements of global leadership. It is a fact that we will not be able to
achieve a new world fully prosperous and free without such leadership from
our Japanese friends.
Our immediate purpose in meeting today, of course, is to chart the next
steps in our efforts to assist the recovery and rehabilitation of the new
independent states. As we look back on what has been achieved since we
met in Washington and Lisbon, I believe we have reason to be satisfied. We
set ourselves the task of coordinating our assistance efforts and of
addressing urgent humanitarian needs over the previous winter. The
working groups we established--medical, food, energy, shelter, and
technical assistance--met immediate needs and, in some cases, laid the
groundwork for longer-term efforts and solutions.
Today, however, our focus is different. While we must continue to address
the humanitarian situation, our main goal in this new phase must be to
emphasize the kinds of technical assistance which can promote self-
sustaining macroeconomic and structural reforms in the new independent
states.
I believe it is important, in this respect, for us to acknowledge the
hardships which the process of economic reforms is bringing to the people
of the former Soviet Union. We know that leaders are facing difficult
choices, and their publics are facing difficult times. That is why it is
incumbent on us to demonstrate our willingness to undertake sacrifices of
our own and to do whatever we can to ease their burdens. Our message on
reform has credibility only to the extent that we are willing to do our share.
But the other side of that coin is that we can not aid those who are
unwilling to help themselves. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the
peoples of the new republics to ensure that the reforms succeed. Since
Lisbon, all the new states have made progress. But more needs to be done--
reform must be accelerated to stimulate domestic and foreign investment
and generate growth in the fledgling private sector. The new states must
promote competition, tax reform, genuine property and contract rights, and
demonopolization. And they must stay the democratic course. Those who
would contemplate another path must know that they will face isolation
from the community of democratic nations.
This conference faces three fundamental tasks:
First, we must continue to take steps now to prevent a humanitarian crisis
this coming winter. It is regrettably true that we are going to have to deal
with problems in this area for some time to come, in spite of our success
over the past year. Ironically, states that have undertaken the most
comprehensive reforms may experience the greatest pain in the short term.
Their ability to stay the course will depend once again on the collective
efforts of those of us assembled here today.
Accordingly, the United States, the European Community, and Japan have
developed a coordinated action plan to address critical humanitarian needs
throughout the new states. As part of this plan, my government will provide
approximately $260 million of grant food aid this winter. We will conduct
medical flights and immunize 225,000 additional children by the end of the
year. We will provide transportation for about 7,500 tons of privately
donated goods and complete a $14-million emergency medical supply effort.
But our efforts alone will not be enough, and we will need the help of all
those meeting here today.
Second, we must find ways to increase our technical assistance efforts to
bolster microeconomic reform and complement IMF [International Monetary
Fund]-sponsored macro-economic stabilization. The United States is
announcing, today, a series of new initiatives which we hope will catalyze
wider collective action on these fronts.
One such initiative is the establishment of enterprise funds for Russia and
Ukraine. These funds will facilitate private sector development by grants,
loans, and equity investments in small and medium-sized businesses and
will also target defense conversion. The initiative reflects our conviction
that only a robust private sector can provide sustained economic growth in
the new independent states. We strongly encourage other governments,
international financial institutions, and private sector investors to
participate in this endeavor.
In addition, we will undertake a public administration program to
strengthen local governments by providing them with American advisers,
training, and equipment. We urge other governments to adopt similar
programs to support reformers in cities which we cannot reach ourselves.
We also plan to devote $50 million in 1993 to promote exchanges for
citizens in walks of life ranging from students to enterprise managers,
bankers to judges and scientists. We
believe one of the most effective ways we can promote reform is to bring
professionals in those and other fields to the industrialized nations and, at
the same time, to place western experts on the ground throughout the new
independent states. In other words, we envisage this ambitious program as
a two-way street, with all sides benefiting from the knowledge and
experience of the other.
We will also embark on a $35-mil-lion environmental initiative to ensure
that environmental quality goes hand-in-hand with economic and democratic
reforms. We will concentrate on specific challenges and also seek to effect
legislative and policy reforms and promote cooperation with US
environmental organizations.
Finally, we will seek to bolster the social safety net in the new states,
particularly by cushioning the impact of change resulting from
demobilization of the military forces of the former Soviet Union. For
example, we will provide health care services, child development services,
and educational scholarships to support the families of servicemen newly
returned from the Baltics.
The third task of this conference must be to look beyond our ad hoc process
and humanitarian focus and to adopt a long-term institutional approach for
promoting reform and structural change in the new independent states.
World Bank-led consultative groups should become the primary mechanism
for international action in this regard.
I believe that this conference will have sent a powerful signal to the people
of the former Soviet Union that the international community will continue
to help see them through the difficult transition to the free market. We are
committed to preventing humanitarian crises and to alleviating human
suffering both now and in the future. And we are committed to the kind of
broad-based engagement and the provision of technical assistance which can
enable those people to help themselves and, eventually, stand on their own
feet unaided.
But we are doing more than simply helping the new independent states to
join the family of democratic nations. By our very presence here in Tokyo,
we are helping to establish a new framework for international peace and
stability, one founded on the enlightened but voluntary commitment of each
of us to collective action on behalf of the new world order. (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 44, November 2, 1992
Title: Humanitarian Assistance for the New Independent
States
Armitage
Source: Richard Armitage, Deputy to the Coordinator for US
Government Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent
States
Description: Address before the Tokyo Conference on Assistance to
the New Independent States, Tokyo, Japan
Date: Oct, 29 199210/29/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: Eurasia, East Asia
Country: Japan, USSR (former)
Subject: Development/Relief Aid, EC
[TEXT]
As winter approaches, it is vital that we consider the emergency
humanitarian needs of the 12 new independent states. Failure to stem
human suffering could complicate or even reverse the fragile reform now
underway. No form of government, least of all a democratic one, can long
survive if it fails to meet the basic human needs of its people.
Several countries and international organizations--including the United
States, Japan, the European Community, Germany, the World Bank, and the
United Nations--have studied the humanitarian situation in the new
independent states. Nutritional assessments indicate that this winter could
see significant hardship in certain locations and among specific populations.
Agricultural production in the new independent states is difficult to
quantify. Overall output appears up from last year but less than the aver-
age of the preceding 5 years. Some countries have increased production of
crops such as grain. It is unclear, however, whether this will translate into
increased trade across national boundaries. Livestock production continues
to decline. Bad weather and natural disasters have damaged harvests in
some of the new states. In others, fighting and blockades, like those which
plague the Caucasus, threaten basic humanitarian needs.
Last winter was generally mild. Traditional social safety nets remained in
place, unemployment had not yet become a major social concern, and the
food procurement and distribution system was still essentially intact. The
people of the new independent states coped by changing consumption pat-
terns, growing food in family gardens, and depleting their savings.
This winter poses new challenges. Price liberalization in many countries,
the closing of food-processing factories, difficulties in inter-regional trade
of commodities, lack of hard currency for imports, the development of
significant refugee populations, increasing social stratification, and an
emerging but still incomplete new food distribution system will combine to
make it difficult for certain population groups to acquire food at current
prices.
Potential food deficits center in large urban areas with high concentrations
of elderly people, single-parent families, refugees, homeless persons, and
unemployed workers. These are pockets of need that must be addressed.
They are, in fact, the focus of continuing direct food assistance efforts by
the United States, Japan, the European Community, and other international
donors. In preparation for this meeting, these donors have shared the
lessons we have learned in providing humanitarian assistance to the new
independent states. We believe that all donors will benefit from this
critical review as we move to implement new assistance measures. In this
regard, I would like to note that, in addition to the measures mentioned by
Acting Secretary [of State] Eagleburger this morning, the United States
intends to provide additional grant food aid particularly to Armenia,
Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan.
I have nothing but the highest praise for the activities of the medical
assistance working group. It has undertaken to define and quantify how the
international community can help the new independent states in meeting
emergency humanitarian needs while restructuring their health services.
We cannot slacken the pace of medical humanitarian assistance--whether by
providing emergency medicines and supplies or sharing medical expertise.
Humanitarian assistance is critical in alleviating needless human suffering.
But it must also support policy reforms. Aid is only a stopgap measure
unless it also helps these nations develop their own capabilities to provide
for the basic human needs. Reforms are essential, and everything we do
must support them. We have made a good start in this regard. The
monetization of donated food, for example, helps bolster the evolution of
free markets and the strengthening of social safety nets. Technical
assistance in agricultural production, storage, and distribution helps
promote long-term food security in the new independent states. A strong
relationship between the medical sectors of the new states and those of the
international community helps enhance quality health care. The
development of reliable social services helps buttress governmental
legitimacy. As we move to mitigate short-term human suffering, we must
always foster long-term self-reliance.
The peoples of the new independent states labor under a 70-year history of
fear, compulsion, and deprivation. They have no desire to turn backward.
They dream, rather, of a free and abundant future for themselves and their
children. Our task today is to find ways to help them--and that dream--
survive. (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Tokyo Conference on Assistance To the New
Independent States
Eagleburger
Source: Acting Secretary Eagleburger
Description: Excerpts from a joint news conference following the
Tokyo Conference on Assistance to the New Independent States,
Tokyo, Japan
Date: Oct, 30 199210/30/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: Eurasia
Country: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan
Subject: Development/Relief Aid
[TEXT]
Acting Secretary Eagleburger. First, I would like to commend the
Government of Japan for its act of political leadership in hosting this
important and successful conference. We welcome Japan's increasing
willingness to assume its rightful and responsible place among global
leaders.
Second, I commend all the governments who have attended this conference
in recognition of the fact that the recovery of the new independent states is
a global challenge requiring the collective response of the entire world
community.
Third, I would commend the 12 new independent states themselves who have
come here to reaffirm their commitment to reform and who have embraced
both the process begun in Washington and the new partnerships we have
agreed to here in Tokyo.
The United States believes this conference was highly successful in
achieving the goals we set for ourselves.
First, we have identified the short-term emergency needs of the most
vulnerable population groups in the new independent states and mobilized
significant resources and developed a coordinated action plan to meet those
needs.
Second, we have acknowledged the primacy of technical assistance in our
efforts to achieve systemic and self-sustaining reform in the new
independent states.
Third, we have agreed that World Bank-led consultative groups will become
the future mechanism by which we maximize long-term donor participation
in ways responsive to the particular needs of each of the new republics.
We believe that the entire process launched in Washington has been a
success. We have mobilized and coordinated a truly global assistance
effort. We have met the immediate humanitarian needs of the peoples of the
former Soviet Union, thereby safeguarding the cause of reform. And as
[Japanese] Prime Minister Miyazawa said yesterday, we have initiated, here
in Tokyo, a new coordination mechanism to ensure long-term support for the
process of reform in the new independent states.
Q. Secretary Eagleburger, in your remarks, sir, you did note that the entire
process was a success. Is that perhaps a little premature, considering the
uncertainty of all of the revolutions that are currently taking place in what
was the former Soviet Union? I wonder if we could have your assessment as
to how you think that is progressing and what the dangers are that there
could be counter-revolution and could be chaos?
Acting Secretary Eagleburger. I think there are two questions here, the
first of which is the process of success. Yes, I think it is a success in the
sense that we have generated and coordinated substantial support. None of
us here, I think, would argue for 1 minute that that guarantees the success
of the reform efforts in any of the republics of the former Soviet Union. So,
this conference can be a success--the process can be a success--in terms
of generating substantial support.
I would certainly, at least personally, not argue for a moment that what the
conference does, what the conferences have done, or what the outside world
can do necessarily guarantees the success of the reform effort. I said
yesterday at the conference--and I think I've said before publicly--that, in
the last analysis, reform, whether it is political or economic in the various
republics, will succeed or fail based on what the peoples of those various
republics are able to accomplish. We can help. I think we have helped. I
think we will continue to help. But in the last analysis, they have to
accomplish their own reform--their own revolution.
What do they face? I think, again, it is a differential answer depending upon
the republic. But I would not deny for a moment--and I don't think any of the
representatives of the states of the former Soviet Union would deny--that
they all have difficult problems facing them. Clearly, that is true, as we
have been reading in the newspapers recently about the challenges from the
conservative right to [Russian President] Mr. Yeltsin, for example. That is
not a new factor. It is not a factor in any of these republics that will
disappear quickly.
I'm reasonably confident with regard to all of these various republics. But,
obviously, in some cases I'm more optimistic than in others--don't ask me
to be precise--as to the rapidity of the success of the reform efforts. If
you're asking specifically about Russia, I think it's clear to me that Mr.
Yeltsin has taken a very clear and brave stand against those who would end
the reforms, and he will have a difficult political time for a while; but he
will succeed, in my judgment.
Q. This question is directed to anyone who would care to answer it. I know
it's been said that this was not going to be a pledging conference, but some
new money was mentioned in some of the earlier speeches. Does anyone
have a total for the amount of new aid that was promised during this
conference?
Acting Secretary Eagleburger. I can't answer the question with regard to
the total amount of new money pledged here. I can only tell you what the
United States' new money is. It is $412 million:
-- $260 million of that is grant food aid for Russia;
-- $100 of it is feed stocks for Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova,
Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan;
-- $38 million in Department of Defense excess food stocks--that's those
MREs [meals-ready-to-eat], you know--we released another $38 million of
those; and
-- $14 million of emergency medical supplies.
That is new money not included in the $417 million that was appropriated by
the Congress at the end of the session this year under the FREEDOM [Freedom
for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets] Support
Act. So that's additional to the $417 million we had appropriated earlier in
the year.
Q. . . . When will you start actually delivering those sums of money which
you were just mentioning? When will the actual delivery start?
Acting Secretary Eagleburger. With regard to the additional humanitarian
assistance that I've discussed--the $412 million--that is intended to be
used over the course of this winter, as I indicated, in Russia and a number of
the other republics. I would assume that most of it will be dispersed--
since it is humanitarian food assistance and medicine--in a reasonably fast
pace and should, I assume, be done within the next 6 months.
There is a point here that I'm not sure you specifically raised, but there is--
and it's a legitimate question--the distinction between what is pledged and
what is obligated. That depends upon the kind of program and how fast the
payout is. With regard to humanitarian assistance, it moves pretty rapidly. .
. .
Q. Have you any idea how to . . . include the East European region to the
delivery, Mr. Eagleburger or anybody?
Acting Secretary Eagleburger. Again, this conference was--as the whole
Washington process has been--devoted to assistance to the new independent
states and does not include Eastern Europe. As you know, the EC [European
Community], the United States, and the G-24 [Group of 24] have a process of
coordinating assistance to the East European states--such as Hungary--and,
in addition, we all have our bilateral assistance programs with regard to
those countries. So, what we discussed yesterday and today does not relate
to assistance programs to Eastern Europe, which are managed on another
track and, in my judgment, have been proceeding pretty successfully. . . .
(###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Focus on the Emerging Democracies:
A Periodic Update
PA
Source: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public
Affairs
Description:
Date: Oct, 30 199210/30/92
Category: Focus on Emerging Democracies
Region: Eurasia
Country: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Georgia
Subject: Development/Relief Aid, Military Affairs,
Democratization, Environment, Science/Technology
[TEXT]
The following US initiatives were announced at the Tokyo Conference on
Assistance to the New Independent States, October 29, 1992:
The United States announced six new assistance initiatives for the new
independent states (NIS) at Tokyo. It will undertake a major humanitarian
initiative to address critical food and medical needs in the NIS this winter.
The emergency assistance package, which includes more than $260 million
in grant food aid and $14 million in emergency medical aid, will target the
most vulnerable social groups in the NIS.
The US will intensify efforts to support political and economic reform in
the NIS by launching five technical assistance initiatives, including:
-- Establishment of enterprise funds in Russia and Ukraine capitalized at a
minimum of $65 million;
-- A $50-million people-to-people exchange program;
-- An $8-million local democratic governance program;
-- A $35-million partnership for the environment program; and
-- Support for military families.
These six initiatives, coupled with ongoing programs, will expand support
for reform and reformers in the NIS. The US continues to work with its
international partners in the newly formed Consultative Groups to ensure
that democratization and market economic reform succeed in the NIS.
Operation Provide Hope III
While the US believes that only comprehensive reform can guarantee the
economic growth to prevent future humanitarian suffering, it is committed
to acting now to safeguard humanitarian needs and support reform. As its
contribution to this winter's multilateral humanitarian assistance effort,
the United States will provide about $260 million in emergency food and
medicines. The United States will:
Deliver more than $260 million of grant food assistance this winter,
targeting specific populations in regions where shortages of basic food
items exist or are likely to develop because of poor local production
capability or disruptions in distribution. Food aid will be provided to urban
areas where the potential for increased unemployment, inflation, and
number of pensioners is high.
Most of the food aid will be provided to cities in northern Russia, the Far
East, and the Ural and Kuzbass regions. At least $70 million will be
monetized. Funds generated from these sales will be used to support
pensioners and other fixed income individuals who are most adversely
affected by the current economic reforms.
Deliver Excess Department of Defense Food Stocks. The US has begun
deliveries of 10,000 tons of excess military rations (valued at $20 million)
and 4 million ready-to-eat meals (valued at about $18 million).
Implement an Emergency Medical Program. The US will implement the
second tranche of a two-part $20-million emergency medical program this
winter. The program is designed to help alleviate critical shortages of
essential medicines and medical supplies including antibiotics for the
treatment of respiratory and other infectious diseases, vaccines to
immunize children and the elderly against life-threatening diseases, drugs
to treat cardiovascular diseases and cancers, and disposable gloves and
syringes to prevent the spread of infections.
Under the first $6 million tranche, the United States purchased measles,
tetanus, polio, and diphtheria vaccines and related medical equipment to
immunize 520,000 infants in Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and
Uzbekistan, and an additional 261,000 children in Armenia and Ukraine.
The remaining $14 million is being used to provide urgently needed
medicines and medical supplies this winter to all 12 independent states.
Support the Public-Private Partnership. The US continues to provide
logistical support, transportation, and expertise to support private sector
and non-governmental organization efforts to assist the independent states
this winter.
More than 5,000 metric tons of food (valued at $24.3 million) and 1,770 tons
of medicines and medical supplies (valued at $25 million) were delivered
since January to cities throughout the independent states.
Enterprise Funds for Russia and Ukraine
The United States will establish Russian-American and Ukrainian-American
Enterprise Funds. The enterprise funds will be modeled after similar funds
established for several Central and East European countries, which have
proven extremely successful in assisting private sector development. The
two funds will be capitalized at a minimum of $65 million a year for 3
years. Each enterprise fund will:
-- Be managed by a board of directors composed of citizens from the United
States and Russia or Ukraine;
-- Provide capital, in the form of either debt or equity financing, to small
and medium-sized private enterprises in Russia and Ukraine;
-- Establish a special "defense conversion window" to provide enhanced
support in this key area; and
-- Provide certain types of technical assistance in Russia and Ukraine and
serve as a conduit for financial assistance from third countries, as is the
practice in other enterprise funds.
The US encourages participation by the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development, other donor countries, and private investors.
Local Governance Program
The United States will begin an $8-million public administration program
focused on strengthening local governments. This will assist reform-
minded oblasts and municipalities to separate public and private functions,
to ensure social services for all residents and promote the growth of the
private sector, train public managers to utilize financial management
systems to make sound public policy decisions with limited resources, and
equip local governments. Coupled with activities in energy, housing,
privatization, and small business development, this program empowers local
authorities and provides the basis for effective governance. Specifically,
the US will:
-- Place resident advisers: The US will place long-term resident advisers
in selected cities in the new independent states to provide assistance in
such areas as financial systems management and city budgeting.
-- Train public managers: US public administration experts will conduct
training seminars and workshops on city management issues for municipal
personnel. Where appropriate, the US will work to strengthen local
institutions and newly established schools of public and business
administration.
-- Provide equipment: The US will provide equipment and software to
improve local government information infrastructure.
People-to-People Exchanges
The US will devote $50 million in 1993 to promote people-to-people
exchanges. These exchanges will place Western experts in the NIS and bring
people from the NIS to the industrialized nations to share experiences and
knowledge.
The United States Information Agency will implement a $20-million
exchange program for secondary school students for 1-month to 1-year long
programs. The first participants in these exchange programs will arrive in
the United States in February 1993.
The US will implement a $30-million program to support a broad spectrum
of exchanges, including college and graduate students, public
administrators, business managers, agriculture specialists, doctors,
scientists, parliamentarians, judges, diplomats, journalists, and other
professionals.
Partnership for the Environment
To ensure that environmental quality goes hand-in-hand with economic and
democratic reforms, the United States will begin a 4-year, $35-million
environmental initiative both at the national policy level and in carefully
selected demonstration regions in the NIS. This initiative will support the
three key groups who share responsibility for sound environmental
management: the government, the private sector, and responsible citizens'
organizations. The program will focus on three areas:
Environmental Policy and Institution-Building. Working with key decision-
makers in environmental and natural resource ministries, as well as their
legislative counterparts, resident and short-term advisers will assist in
the development of new environmental policies, laws, and regulations, and
will organize and conduct training programs to strengthen environmental
management institutions.
Technology Cooperation. In close collaboration with the World Bank, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and other international
institutions, the US will choose regions with significant environmental
challenges for urgent concentrated attention. US expertise will be provided
to identify the health and economic costs of pollution in selected regions
and to develop new policies and practices to improve environmental quality.
Environmental Accountability The US will support partnerships between US
environmental non-governmental organizations and their counterparts in the
new independent states to strengthen their management capabilities and
enhance public awareness of environmental issues.
Support for Military Families
Dependents of military officers returning from former Soviet republics and
the Baltic states are among the vulnerable groups in society. For the
officers who remain on active duty, as well as for those who will be
demobilized, there will be a transitional period in which their social
support systems will fall below traditional--and in some instances--
acceptable standards. Private voluntary organizations are committed to
assisting the most vulnerable families in humanitarian relief, health care
outreach, retraining, and resettlement.
The United States will:
-- Encourage partnerships between international private voluntary agencies
and indigenous groups in Russia to enhance the quality of life for military
families and provide valuable training in social service programs.
-- Support Russian private organizations which foster self-help groups on
bases and in communities impacted by the military presence. These self-
help groups foster programs which could provide needed social services for
both military and civilian children.
-- Undertake joint projects including child immunization campaigns, mobile
diagnostic teams, training programs for volunteers as social workers and
child care providers, community organization skills, information services to
assist families needing special education or medical assistance, and
support for referral networks for demobilized military personnel in major
metropolitan areas. (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Update on Angolan Progress Toward
Democracy
Cohen
Source: Herman J. Cohen, Assistant Secretary for African
Affairs
Description: Address before the US-Angola Chamber of Commerce,
Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 29 199210/29/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: Subsaharan Africa
Country: Angola
Subject: Democratization, Regional/Civil Unrest
[TEXT]
Ladies and gentlemen, Angolans have endured much and over-come truly
difficult obstacles to gain the opportunity to freely express themselves at
the ballot box. The 4.3 million Angolans who walked for miles and waited
for hours to cast their first democratic ballot on September 29 and 30 left
no doubt that they believe democracy is worth the effort. So do we. We
consider this occasion to be a time for reflection on how far the process in
Angola has come and a time to renew our determination to continue to help
that process reach a successful conclusion. I would like to offer some ideas
about what remains to be done, while reaffirming the US Government's
unwavering commitment to the fulfillment of the Angola peace accords, as
well as our firm support for responsible and effective government based on
the principles of multiparty democracy and respect for human rights.
After 16 months of preparation under the terms of the accords, the first
multiparty elections since independence were held throughout Angola on
September 29 and 30. Ballot boxes, election teams, party poll watchers,
international observers, and voters all came together at nearly 6,000
polling places to participate in this first experiment in democracy. The
election was conducted in a calm and orderly manner. Participation
exceeded 90% of registered voters. Logistical problems were many but
overcome with patience and ingenuity; disruptive incidents were few and
addressed with equal determination. Dedication and sacrifice--in time,
talent, and trust--were offered by people of all political persuasions and all
segments of the society to make the process work.
Delays in the vote counting and the piecemeal manner in which partial
results were released prompted some charges of fraud. We believe that the
National Electoral Council, working together with the United Nations and the
political parties, effectively addressed these allegations. After thorough
investigations at both the national and provincial levels, the Secretary
General's Special Representative for Angola certified in her declaration of
October 17 that, errors and irregularities notwithstanding, the elections
were generally free and fair. The United States publicly concurred in the
UN's conclusion. Others, including the EC [European Community], followed.
This complex process--made possible through the combined efforts of many
Angolans, the United Nations, and the international community--is only
partially complete, however. While the selection of legislative
representatives was conclusive, no presidential candidate garnered the
absolute majority during the first round required by the peace accords and
Angolan electoral law. Angolans must now turn to the task of a second
round of voting for the presidency.
The initial steps toward this end have not been easy. During my October 19-
20 visit to Angola, I saw a dramatic and counterproductive evolution in the
situation inside the country since the elections. UNITA's [Union for the
Total Independence of Angola] actions--withdrawal from the unified
national armed forces, initial refusal to accept the electoral results,
vitriolic yet unfounded criticism of the United Nations and "foreign
interference," aggressive takeover of districts in certain provinces, and a
generally confrontational military posture--are causing many to question
UNITA's willingness to accept an electoral result in which it is not the
winner. The MPLA [Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola]
leadership believes it has fulfilled most of its obligations under the
accords, but its seeming winner-take-all post-election attitude and the
confrontational posture of its police forces exacerbated tensions. Most
evident and troubling was each side's refusal or inability to give meaning or
direction to serious national reconciliation--the key and irreducible goal in
this process.
We believe that the existing peace accords remain the only comprehensive
means of achieving stable national reconciliation in which the interests of
all parties can be accommodated. The key provisions of the accords--a
comprehensive, monitored cease-fire; a unified national armed force;
democratic political activity; UN monitoring; and free and fair elections--
are fundamental principles that offer the only real hope of a durable
solution to Angola's conflict. The accords also provide an agreed basis upon
which Angola can be governed. We believe that, after having come so far
within their framework, the Angolan parties must not abandon the
principles contained in the accords.
A presidential runoff election, as expressly prescribed by the peace accords
and the electoral law, is essential to bringing the peace process to closure
and to installing a legitimate new government. We support a runoff election
and strongly encourage that this election be held as soon as feasible. Both
sides have advanced "conditions" under which the runoff should be held.
UNITA wants a strongly enhanced UN participation in the electoral process
and assurances of the neutrality of the entity which administers the
election. Impartiality of the mass media is also a concern. The government
insists that UNITA return to the unified armed forces and withdraw its
troops from areas occupied since the elections. It also calls for the full re-
establishment of its central administration as prescribed by the accords.
Finally, both sides must agree on a date for the election, as there is general
agreement that the 30-day time period foreseen in the electoral law is
insufficient under current conditions.
These issues must be addressed before a runoff can take place. But a
narrow, short-term focus on the next round is not enough. While the two
parties negotiate pre-election conditions, we are encouraging them also to
enter into specific discussions which would give substance to the concept
of post-electoral national reconciliation. We encourage the parties to
consider seriously post-electoral arrangements about security and
continuing governmental roles for the candidates and parties that do not
place first in the balloting. A winner-take-all approach is inappropriate,
given the conditions. But also inappropriate are demands for powers by
those who do not win which far exceed the reality of the popular will as
expressed in the vote.
For the immediate future, the parties should focus on arranging a summit
between [Angolan President] Dos Santos and [UNITA leader] Savimbi as soon
as possible. Such a meeting is crucial to maintain momentum, to move
toward setting a firm date for the runoff, to underline the importance of
dialogue rather than warfare, to send the message of reconciliation to the
supporters of each side, and to convince the United Nations that it has a
meaningful continuing role to play. In preparation for such an encounter, the
parties should put concrete proposals on the table in their joint
commissions to bridge their differences and reduce the potential for an
unwanted confrontation. In this regard, we are encouraged by the
declaration issued on October 24 by the joint military commission on
withdrawal [and] disarmament and monitoring of troops, as well as
indications that some progress is being made in the joint political
commission. The elements of the military declaration should be
implemented promptly. Another essential step the parties must take to
reduce the high level of tension is to put an immediate end to inflammatory
rhetoric.
For each of these three goals--immediate, short-term, and long-term--only
detailed bilateral negotiation between UNITA and the MPLA government can
resolve outstanding questions. But the Angolan parties have not been left
alone with their differences just because the ballots have been counted and
the election observers have gone home. The United States, in close
cooperation with the United Nations, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, and
other interested countries and organizations, is ready to be of assistance in
helping the parties to narrow these differences and advance negotiations.
Both before and after the peace accords were signed in May 1991, the US
commitment to the Angolan peace process has been crucial. We have
maintained a constant and constructive dialogue with the major Angolan
parties; our liaison office in Luanda has worked tirelessly to help the
parties overcome their many difficulties on the way from the peace table to
the polling place. In material resources, the United States committed
nearly $12 million to the electoral process alone: US private voluntary
organizations provided training to the political parties and poll watchers,
US MREs [meals-ready-to-eat] fed election workers in remote areas, US
observers--including one of your members--were financed through our
USAID [US Agency for International Development] program and transported to
and from their destinations aboard a USAF [US Air Force] C-130. In
everything we did, we maintained a total and credible political neutrality.
But US involvement in Angola did not end on September 30. We are
continuing an active dialogue with the parties, begun at Bicesse [Portugal],
both in Washington and in Luanda. Our liaison office remains engaged in the
process; I met with both Dos Santos and Savimbi during my trip to Angola.
In addition to our bilateral contacts, the Joint Political Military
Commission [JPMC] provides an additional means to promote negotiation in
cooperation with the Portuguese and the Russians. We envision continued
utilization of the JPMC to propose new ideas, encourage flexibility on both
sides, and support a mediated solution.
Finally, while we will continue to work bilaterally and through the joint
mechanisms set up under the accords, it is equally crucial that the
international nature of the Angolan settlement be preserved. The role of the
United Nations--and especially that of the Secretary General's Special
Representative--has been key to seeing the process through thus far. In
advancing to the next stage, we must guard the integrity and the authority
of the United Nations and guarantee its continued involvement in peace-
keeping and electoral operations. The United States strongly supports the UN
Security Council's October 27 appeal to the parties to refrain from violence
and finish the electoral process.
The Angolan parties should harbor no doubts about US willingness to remain
engaged in Angola. Nor should they doubt our firm support for the peace
accords, our commitment to the electoral process, and our belief in that
process as the legitimizing principle for any future government. There will
be no US support of or assistance to any party which chooses to abandon the
electoral process and pursue violence. Any return to violence during this
critical period would benefit no one and will not be understood nor tolerated
by any member of the international community. More importantly, Angolans
themselves, no matter what their political views, have all agreed on one
thing in this first election--they want an end to killing and to violent
instability. They want peace, and they want democracy. Nothing should
interfere with that desire. (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: US Access to Records Of POWs/MIAs in
Vietnam
Bush
Source: President Bush
Description: Remarks released by the White House, Office of the
Press Secretary, Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 23 199210/23/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: East Asia
Country: Vietnam
Subject: POW/MIA Issues
[TEXT]
May I start by thanking General Vessey and Senator [John] McCain. And, also,
demonstrating the bipartisan nature of this effort, I want to thank Senator
[John] Kerry for being here and Senator [Robert] Smith--both extraordinarily
active in trying to get to the bottom of the matter we want to discuss for a
minute here.
Let me welcome, also, representatives from a group representing a group of
brave Americans--the families of those still missing in Indochina. I've
visited with some of you all, but I want to welcome you to the Rose Garden.
I've read your letters and listened to your stories. It is a powerful mixture
of pride and fear--proud of your warriors' service but fearful that you will
never know his fate.
Early in our Administration, we told Hanoi that we would pursue a policy
that left behind the bitterness of war but not the men who fought it. Our
approach was called the "Road Map." It was designed to gain the fullest
possible accounting of MIAs. It's been a tough road to follow. You see, for
all of us, the POW/MIA [prisoners of war/missing-in-action] issue is a
question of honor, of oath-sworn commitment kept. It's a nation's test of
its own worth, measured in the life of one lone individual.
To help gain the fullest possible accounting, I asked General Vessey, a
former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to continue to serve as my
personal representative to Hanoi. He has had, as we all know, many years of
distinguished service. But of all his many missions, he might tell you that
this is the toughest task he has ever faced.
He's worked countless hours. He's traveled endless miles, but he's been
persistent and steadfast. And, under his leadership, policy began to work.
Hanoi has yielded the remains of 269 American servicemen.
We secured the right to go anywhere in Vietnam to investigate reports of
live Americans. We began excavating battlegrounds of Indochina, searching
for the remains of our servicemen. In these searches, we never found
anyone alive, but we vowed to follow every lead. And then last summer, we
got our first glimpse of Vietnam's vast set of wartime archives. With proof
of the archives' existence in hand, once again, I asked General Vessey to
undertake a mission to Hanoi and called on a man I greatly admire, Senator
John McCain--himself a former POW--to accompany the general.
The Vietnamese have tremendous respect for Senator McCain, a respect that
transcends country and culture. And because of this, as General Vessey just
told me, Senator McCain was absolutely critical to this mission. General
Vessey and Senator McCain have just now reported to me and to others here
on their mission, and I'm pleased to announce this morning that our policy
has achieved a significant--a real--breakthrough.
Hanoi has agreed to provide us with all--and I repeat, all--information they
have collected on American POWs and MIAs. This includes photographs,
artifacts, [and] detailed records on Americans who fell into Vietnam's
hands. Hanoi's records will at last enable us to determine the fate of many
of our men. We still await the return of their remains, but already my
representatives have begun to provide answers to families who have waited
and prayed for decades. It pains me beyond words to say we may never know
what happened to each and every American, but we will spare no effort to
learn the truth.
Early in my term as President, we initiated worldwide investigations to
determine the fate of our missing men--not only in Vietnam but in all the
battles of the Cold War. And along the way, we've had significant help from
Senators Kerry and Smith who head this select POW/MIA committee. I think
we all stress this point: This is a bipartisan effort. It must transcend
partisan politics in every way.
From Russia, we've had cooperation with President Yeltsin, pledging full
cooperation. We've begun to learn the fate of Americans missing since
Stalin's regime, and North Korea [has] returned the first American remains
in over 40 years.
Today, finally, I am convinced that we can begin writing the last chapter of
the Vietnam war. I want to stress that it is only a beginning, but it is a
significant beginning. It was a bitter conflict, but Hanoi knows today that
we seek only answers without the threat of retribution for the past.
As we cooperate in bringing that painful era to a close, Vietnam and the
United States can begin to look toward the future. To begin that process, we
have extended a very modest disaster assistance to the flood-ravaged areas
of Vietnam--to those that have been hurt the most by the flood. I've also
directed my Administration to work with Hanoi in developing ways to help
identify Vietnam's MIAs and increase humanitarian assistance to the
disabled Vietnamese veterans of the war.
Now we will begin reviewing what further steps we can take with Hanoi.
We appreciate what's been done, and now we are redetermined to go forward
to see what more we can do. Today is a day of significance for all
Americans. It is so because today, again, we honor those who chose to serve
and who gave themselves in the supreme measure of devotion to their
country.
We're honoring them by at long last approaching a point where we can fully
keep faith with their loved ones and bring them peace. So, I am proud to be
standing here with four who are making a significant contribution to
Americans' search for the full truth.
Thank you all for coming. And, General Vessey, my special thanks to you,
sir, for once again serving your nation with such distinction. (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Supplemental Report on War Crimes In the Former
Yugoslavia (Second Report)
PA
Source: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public
Affairs
Date: Oct, 22 199210/22/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: E/C Europe
Country: Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Yugoslavia (former)
Subject: United Nations, CSCE
[TEXT]
Following is the text of the "Supplemental United States Submission of
Information to the United Nations Security Council in Accordance with
Paragraph 5 of Resolution 771 (1992) and Paragraph 1 of Resolution 780
(1992)," released on October 22, 1992. Also, see "War Crimes in the Former
Yugoslavia," Dispatch, Volume 3, No. 39, page 732. For text of Resolution
771, see Dispatch Supplement, Vol. 3, No. 7, page 44. For text of Resolution
780, see Dispatch, Vol. 3, No. 41, page 769.
Editor's note: The following contains some graphic descriptions.
Introduction
This report supplements the previous United States Submission of
information pursuant to paragraph 5 of Security Council Resolution 771
(1992) relating to the violations of humanitarian law, including grave
breaches of the Geneva Conventions, being committed in the territory of the
former Yugoslavia. We have tried not to duplicate information provided to
us from other countries, which we expect will be submitting their own
reports by the November 6 deadline in Resolution 780.
Recent reports out of the former Yugoslavia reaffirm the need for further
investigative work, such as that to be done by the newly established UN War
Crimes Commission. For example, reporters have been unable to locate any
former prisoners of the camp at Omarska; this raises concerns for the
prisoners' safety. In addition, the United States is continuing to receive
reports of forced deportations. We strongly believe that these reports
require expeditious investigation, so that substantiated information can be
obtained about the persons responsible. While interviews with refugees
once they have left the territory of the for-mer Yugoslavia do provide
valuable information, the international community needs to conduct
investigations within the territory of the former Yugoslavia to assemble a
more complete picture. Further, there is a need for forensic evidence
regarding the various allegations of mass atrocities. The United States will
pursue such information actively and will continue to urge other
governments to do so as well.
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Resolution 780 (1992), the United States
will submit additional supplemental reports when other relevant
information comes into its possession.
As in the initial US report, the notations at the end of each of the following
items indicate the source from which the information was drawn.
Former Yugoslavia: Grave Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Second Submission
Willful Killing
21 September: Serb forces with automatic rifles about six miles outside
Travnik fired on Muslim refugees who were leaving Bosanski Petrovac.
"They shot at us from the forest beside the road," according to a 21-year-
old man. "Four were killed in my truck and three were wounded." He gave
the names of five relatives, all civilians, whom he said he saw dragged from
their homes by Serbian soldiers in Bjelaj on September 21 and shot point-
blank.
Other refugees from Bjelaj said they believed more than 100 men and boys
were killed in the village over a four-day period ending on September 22.
(Reuters)
27 August: Croatian paramilitary forces attacked a convoy of buses
carrying over a hundred Serbian women and children, according to a peasant
woman from Gorazde who was in the convoy. She said the Croats killed 53
and left about 50 wounded. She escaped by hiding under some bodies. Her
son, one of two "Serbian Republic" soldiers with the convoy, was badly
wounded but survived. (Department of State)
21 August: More than 200 men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb
police on a narrow mountain track at a place known as Varjanta, near the
confluence of the Ugar and Ilomska rivers about 15 miles north of Travnik,
according to at least three reputed survivors.
Semir, a 24-year-old man, told reporters that he was one of the last off the
bus.
I saw three Serb policemen standing there, and in front of them there
were big pools of blood. I decided at that moment to jump. I rolled a long
way down, until I was caught on a tree. I heard shooting up above for about
an hour after that. Bodies were tumbling past me. There were a lot of them.
"Cerni," a 31-year-old Muslim, described how the prisoners were taken
off the buses.
I jumped as soon as they started. I protected my head and arms and
tumbled down. When I stopped, the other bodies were falling on me. The
blood was all over. The other people . . . were all killed at this place.
Semir, who lost a brother and a 16-year-old nephew during this incident,
said he had recognized several of killers because they were from his home
village, Corakovo. He recognized two brothers in particular--naming them
as among those who had rounded up this group of Muslims in Corakovo.
A third witness threw himself over the edge of the cliff as his guard turned
to speak to another soldier. He had seen a Serbian soldier put a pistol in the
mouths of several men and fire. (Department of State; The Washington Post;
The New York Times; Reuters)
24 July: A Muslim locksmith, who was interned at Keraterm camp in
northwestern Bosnia, reported that on July 24 Serb guards with automatic
weapons systematically had killed as many as 160 men who were locked
inside an enclosure known as Room 3. The locksmith and three other
Muslims imprisoned in an adjacent room said that another 50 prisoners were
killed the next morning and that the killing continued the next night against
an outside wall. "In the morning, they would collect the remains in a
wheelbarrow--brains, blood, pieces of flesh." (The Washington Post)
20 July: A 31-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee stated that on July 20 all
the men living in Biscani were called out of their houses and forced to lie
down in the center of town on asphalt. Serb soldiers beat them with iron
bars, and forced them to sing patriotic Serbian songs. The most prominent
women in the village, about 100, were brought together. As the women were
told to disperse, they were shot in the back. The bodies of the women lay in
the road for four days until Serb trucks came to collect them. (Department
of State)
2 July: An 82-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee from the village of Prhovo,
near Kljuc, described how the Serbian army came to his village, herded the
people together in the center of the town, and called out names from a list.
Three or four soldiers began to execute those whose names were called,
murdering the women and children as well as the able-bodied men. There
appeared to be no pattern to those selected for killing. The soldiers then
set the village on fire. (Department of State)
June: A 22-year-old man who had been interned in Keraterm camp in June
told New York Newsday reporter Roy Gutman that during three days he and
other prisoners buried about 300 men and women from seven Muslim
villages south of Prijedor. One out of every 10 prisoners selected at random
told the reporter that he had been beaten or tortured, or had witnessed
killings. (Department of State)
June: A 31-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee from the village of Hambarez,
near Prijedor, witnessed the execution of two Muslims in the village of
Biscani. One was Emsoud Aliskovic, a cousin of the village chief of police.
As she watched, one Serbian soldier took an ax to the prisoners' heads, then
the flesh of their upper thighs. Next, the soldier dismembered the victims'
arms and legs. (Department of State)
May-June: Between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslim men, women, and children were
murdered by Serb irregular forces near Brcko. Most of the killing reportedly
occurred at a brick factory and a pig farm near Brcko, and was done by
irregulars led by Selijko Raznjatovic ("Arcan"), and Vojislav Sesselj.
Witnesses claimed to have seen the spontaneous murders of up to 50
prisoners at a time. (Department of State September 25 statement, The
Washington Post; USA Today; The Washington Times)
May-June: Alija Lujinovic, a 53-year-old Muslim traffic engineer from
Brcko, on May 3 was captured by Serbian irregulars--two days after the
Yugoslav army and irregular forces attacked Brcko. The following is part of
his account:
3 May: The leader of the territorial defense force was killed by soldiers'
jumping up and down on his torso.
5 May: About five soldiers killed about 20-25 people on the grass in front of
the building in which they were detained by cutting their throats with
knives.
7 May: He and up to 1,500 people were taken by bus to the port known as
Luka, on the Sava River. During their 50 days at this facility, Lujinovic
witnessed the following:
Some people who had already been beaten to death were brought in the
trunks of cars and dumped in the middle of the warehouse.
Lujinovic personally had to help carry out people who had been beaten in the
night and died from the beatings; the bodies were thrown into the river. The
guards were drinking heavily and taking green tablets. "Then they were
really wild."
He once saw about 15 corpses of young men, 18-30 years old, completely
naked, with their genitals torn out. A guard threatened to use a scissors-
like instrument on him.
He saw at least 30 people taken to the sewage canals outside the warehouse
where their throats were cut.
In some cases, he saw a doctor who would slit the throats of young, healthy
people, cut out their organs and pack them into plastic bags, and load the
organs into a refrigerator truck.
In one case, the guards broke a prisoner's head with gun butts to spill the
brains. They then called the dogs to eat the brains.
23 June: On June 23, the guards came and started calling out names of
people to be released. Lujinovic was not on the list, but after he walked
over to a guard with whom he had been acquainted at a former job and
pleaded his case, he was released. He also stated that by the time of his
release, only 150 of the 1,500 people had survived the camp. (Department of
State; Congress; New York Newsday)
Mid-May: A Muslim refugee, a butcher by trade and probably in his early
forties, spent 27 days at Luka camp outside Brcko during which time he saw
a soldier drag a man out of his building and return after a short time with
blood-soaked knife in one hand and the man's head in the other. The refugee
discussed with a US Foreign Service officer in Vienna, Austria, the lack of
food--a piece of bread about every three days. He witnessed one woman in
her mid-thirties die from starvation. (Department of State)
May: Serbian guards at Omarska camp selected seven or eight Muslim and
Croat prisoners at random each night to be executed, according to a 53-
year-old Muslim camp survivor identified as Hujca. The only apparent trait
the victims shared was their muscular build. (New York Newsday)
20 April: Adil Umerovic, a Muslim, shot a young Serb male on a Gorazde
street for no apparent reason, according to a young Serbian woman who
witnessed the killing. She said the Serb was an unarmed civilian who was
handcuffed. (Department of State)
12 April-28 April: A 33-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee--a machine
technician by profession--from Sarajevo and her two children were interned
in Manjaca camp near Banja Luka for 16 days. One day the guards questioned
one mother in front of the others. The guards then raped the mother's
seven-year-old daughter in front of the other women interned in Manjaca
camp. This girl died soon afterward. (Department of State)
April-July: Reporter Roy Gutman obtained testimony from refugees on mass
graves:
Men mainly served for the collecting of dead bodies of their neighbors in
surrounding villages and fields. A group of them during only one day
collected 700 bodies and buried them in a mass grave. The location of the
grave is next to the road leading towards the town of Prijedor--at the edge
of woodland called Gaj in the vicinity of the Europa Inn.
In the Trnopolje settlement itself, there are mass graves almost next to
each house (with) five, ten, or 20 bodies.
During the active existence of the camp (Omarska), lasting three months,
every day, 10 to 20 people were killed. Their bodies were transferred and
partially or completely buried in the mine locations as follows: Jezero open
pit, the old Tomasica mine, the new Ruvac open mine, the lake near the
Mededa dam.
Witnesses estimate that about 3,000-5,000 people were buried . . . (in) a
mass grave . . . around the town of Prijedor, which is located near the
village of Koricani on the road leading from the town of Skender Vakuf
towards the town of Travnik at the place know by name Koricanska Stijena.
Reconnaissance units of the army of Bosnia-Herzegovina were eyewitnesses
of the burial of about 750 people during only one day. Their bodies were
placed by excavators into fortification facilities and trenches for cannons,
which were previously removed. Newly captured civilians and many camp
prisoners from refugee convoys coming from the towns of Prijedor, Banja
Luka, Kljuc, Mrkonic Grad, and Skender Vakuf were killed.
Imam Mustafa Mojkanovic of Bratunac was tortured before thousands of
Muslim women, children, and the elderly at the town's soccer stadium,
according to Imam Efardi Espahic of Tuzla. Serb guards ordered the cleric to
cross himself. When Mojkanovic refused, they beat him, stuffed his mouth
with sawdust and beer, and then slit his throat.
The Muslim mufti of Zagreb, Sevko Omarbasic, has said that by the end of
July the Serbs had executed 37 imams. (New York Newsday)
Mid-April: Muslim soldiers removed Serbian corpses from the Drina Hotel in
Goradze to a nearby river. A former hotel worker said some of the corpses
were mutilated, e.g., were missing hands, and she saw one with his eyes
gouged out. (Department of State)
One Serb seized by the Muslims was named Zekovic. He [was] paraded naked
through Gorazde by his captors and was forced to crawl on the asphalt and
bark like a dog, according to an eyewitness. Then he was tortured
mercilessly before being executed, according to some reports. (Department
of State)
Adil's two brothers, Salko and Arif Umerovic, reportedly participated with
him in the killing of other Serbs in Gorazde. (Department of State)
Torture of Prisoners
May-June: A 52-year-old Bosnian Muslim cleric, whom Serbian military
police had arrested on May 16 and subsequently released, was picked up
again on May 29 or 30 by a convoy of Serb militia; he had been hiding in the
woods. He was interned in Omarska camp for 75 days, during which time he
was beaten regularly until he bled. The cleric witnessed several public
beatings and sexual torture in the camp. He said that several men had been
forced by the guards to have intercourse with each other, and that guards
cut off some prisoners' hands and penises as a punishment and to frighten
the other men. (Department of State)
16 May: A 52-year-old Bosnian Muslim cleric from Bosanska Kostajnica was
arrested on May 16 by Serbian military police. He was beaten by the guards
with rifle butts, boots, and police batons. Three ribs in his back and his
chest bone were broken. All his upper front teeth were knocked out.
(Department of State)
May: A 35-year-old Muslim refugee from Rudo, who was detained in Rudo
camp with 21 other Bosnians, told a US Foreign Service officer on
September 18 that all of the men in his camp had been beaten regularly. Men
would be taken from their room for interrogation and return disfigured, in
some cases with ears, fingers, or noses cut off. (Department of State)
May: Forty young women from the Muslim-populated town of Brezovo Polje,
north of Sarajevo, were brutalized and repeatedly raped in May of this year
by Serbian soldiers, according to the Zagreb weekly, Globus. The US
Consulate in Zagreb reported that the story had contained enough names,
dates, places, and other specifics--including photographs of quoted
victims--to appear credible. (Department of State)
Reporter Roy Gutman wrote that victims had told him preparations for the
mass rape began early on the morning of May 17, when Serb soldiers in army
uniforms and masks piled out of their minivans and rounded up the Muslims
of Brezovo Polje for "ethnic cleansing." About 1,000 women, children, and
elderly were packed into eight buses, driven around the country-side for two
days, and held under armed guard for four nights without food or water in a
parking lot in Ban Brdo. Each night the soldiers reportedly took women off
the buses to an unknown location at knifepoint. Finally, the group arrived in
Caparde, where about 50 followers of Zeljko Arkan separated daughters
from their mothers. The rape victims were "aged 15 to 30, with wholesome
looks, careful dress, and gentle manners." (New York Newsday)
Abuse of Civilians In Detention Centers
August-September: The CSCE [Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe] Thomson Mission visited 21 Bosnian camps in late August and early
September.
The situation in the camps is more or less disastrous. There can be no
thought whatsoever of winter because some of the camps are in meadows
under the open sky. Others have no water or heat, and people are lying on a
bit of straw on the concrete. Malnutrition, bad medical care, and
unsatisfactory hygiene conditions are common place. People live in
constant fear of being beaten or shot in the back of the head. The sick and
old prisoners risk freezing to death when winter comes. (Thomson Mission
Report)
June: A 16-year-old Muslim interned at Trnopolje camp, after having been
raped three times, asked her Serbian rapist, "What are you doing?" He
answered, "That's what your people are doing to us as well." After having
released this girl, he and his group returned at least twice to the camp for
more girls. One of the girls returned at 3:30 a.m. after having been raped by
12 different men that night. (New York Newsday)
May: A 23-year-old Bosnian Muslim from Trnopolje, near Prijedor, was
interviewed on October 5 by a Foreign Service officer in an ex-detainee
transit facility in Croatia. He had to leave his home on May 22 as part of the
Serbian ethnic cleansing operation in northern Bosnia. After living with
neighbors for two weeks, he was taken on June 9 to Trnopolje camp.
He stated that prisoners were occasionally allowed to leave Trnopolje camp
for half-hour to one-hour periods to search for food in the woods. He
explained that a prisoner always had to leave behind something important
when he was let out. If he returned late, he would be beaten or killed. If he
did not return, he would be shot on sight if and when found.
The ex-detainee stated that one month after his internment, he found the
body of a friend in the woods approximately three hundred meters from the
camp. His friend's throat had been slit. The ex-detainee had seen his friend
taken away earlier by a guard named Dragoje Cabic, whom the ex-detainee
described as one of the most sadistic guards at Trnopolje. Cabic beat people
very often and very brutally. Three weeks after discovering his friend's
body, he found in the woods the body of his friend's brother.
The ex-detainee identified the commander of the camp as Major Slobodan
Kuruzovic. (Department of State)
May: A 40-year-old Bosnian Muslim from the village of Kozarac was
interviewed on October 5 by a Foreign Service officer in an ex-detainee
transit facility in Croatia. He described the capture of his village by
Serbian irregular military forces and the severe mistreatment and killing of
many of its people.
The witness stated that on May 24, the irregular forces entered his village
shooting with tanks and guns. They were met by poorly organized, lightly
armed resistance from the villagers, who were compelled to surrender after
a full day of fighting. At the outset of the incident, he had worked to
evacuate the children and elderly. He hid 140 children and 80 old people in
the basement of a house in the town and later began to evacuate them
through the woods toward the Croatian border. At first they had a guide, but
he later deserted the group in the woods. After spending a night in the
woods, the group learned that everyone else in the town had surrendered,
and the witness decided that the group should give themselves up also as
the best hope of ensuring their safety. Several similar groups that had also
fled into the woods gathered in the woods to surrender together, making a
combined group of around 3,000 persons, mainly children and the elderly.
The witness said that as the group walked out of the woods onto a road
called Carsija Ulica, with white flags held high by about every fiftieth
person, they were met by three tanks commanded by Zoran Karlica, a
neighbor of the witness. Despite the white flags, the tanks opened fire on
the group and many children were killed.
The witness was shortly thereafter taken on a bus to the Keraterm camp,
where 120 people spent two nights on the bus parked at the gate of the camp
without fresh air or water. On the third day, as the men filed off the bus
single file, Serbian soldiers beat them on the back and limbs with police
batons. The group spent two nights at Keraterm. On the third day, the
witness and many other men were put on buses at one a.m., told to keep their
heads down, and driven to Omarska camp.
The witness spent 77 days at Omarska, where he was interrogated and
beaten eight times. On one occasion, his hands and feet were bound and he
was hung from a hook by his hands and raised from the floor. He was beaten
by several guards using rifle butts, heavy electrical cables, and homemade
batons carrying small metal balls with sharp spikes. The witness said he
was beaten senseless and awoke in a pool of his own blood, the only liquid
he had to moisten his mouth.
The witness stated that a young Muslim man from Kozarac who had owned a
Suzuki motorcycle was tortured in front of the other prisoners. He was
severely beaten all over his body and his teeth were knocked out. The guards
then tied one end of a wire tightly around his testicles and tied the other
end to the victim's motorcycle. A guard got on the motorcycle and sped off.
The witness said that guards at the camp would pour acid on the fresh
wounds of prisoners after some of the public beatings and laugh as the
prisoners screamed from pain.
The witness said that prisoners at Omarska had to pass a field as they were
herded to the eating area. He stated that there were ten to fifteen new
corpses laid out in the field every morning. As prisoners fled into the
eating area past a line of guards, the guards would trip the men and beat
them on the back, limbs, and joints with police batons and heavy cable.
Every two days the prisoners received about one hundred grams of bread and
a small cup of soup with a bit of rice or potato. The witness went from 86
kilograms to 52 during his 77-day confinement.
The witness described the preparations made in the camp before the first
journalists arrived. About two hundred men in one sleeping room were
moved to another room already at overcapacity. They were told to keep
their heads down below window level and to keep quiet. There was only
enough room for the men to sit with their knees against their chests. The
other room was cleaned and thirty new prisoners from Keraterm were put
there and shown to reporters.
He identified six guards at the Omarska camp by first name only: Neso (used
to work at the Sretno cafe in the Suhi Brod quarter of Kozarac), Ritan, Uros,
Daja, Gruban, Zeljko (probably among the camp commanders; drove a green
Mercedes). (Department of State)
Late May: A Muslim refugee, a butcher by trade and probably in his early
forties, spent 27 days at Luka camp outside Brcko during which time he saw
about 20 soldiers rape a woman in the presence of her child and other camp
inmates. During a September interview with a US Foreign Service officer in
Vienna, he claimed that it was general knowledge that young girls were
being picked up almost daily and brought to the canteen where they were
raped. The girls subsequently "disappeared." (Department of State)
12 April-28 April: A 33-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee--a machine
technician by profession--from Sarajevo and her two children were interned
in Manjaca camp near Banja Luka for 16 days. During a September 25
interview with a US Foreign Service officer in Zagreb, she described her
first interrogation: two Serbian camp guards, who called each other Todor
and Srbo, beat her and burned her right upper thigh twice with a cattle prod.
They raped her in front of her children, a 12-year-old daughter and a 9-
year-old son. Afterward she bled badly. Her daughter was raped twice.
(Department of State)
Wanton Devastation and Destruction of Property
29 May: A May 29 Serb attack on Prijedor destroyed the centuries-old
Prohaska mosque and St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church. (New York
Newsday)
April-July: All 14 mosques in and around Foca, among them the Aladza--the
colored mosque--built in 1550, were destroyed, as was the Ustikolina
mosque near Foca, built in 1448. Thirteen mosques in Mostar, all built
between 1528 and 1631, were destroyed.
According to the head of the Islamic community in Zagreb, 200 mosques
were destroyed and another 300 damaged between April and late July. The
Bosnian Institute in Zurich estimated that, in areas of Serb occupation, 90
percent of the mosques have been destroyed. (New York Newsday)
Other, Including Mass Forcible Expulsion and Deportation Of
Civilians
6 October: Serbs forced hundreds of ethnic Muslims--at least six busloads-
-out of the district of Kotor Varos, southeast of Banja Luka. In addition,
they gave ethnic Muslims in Kljuc an ultimatum to leave their district by
the morning of October 6, a deadline that was delayed until October 8.
(Department of State)
3 October: The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) stated on October 3 that:
[T]he ICRC is convinced that, under cover of a policy of 'ethnic cleansing,'
tens of thousands of members of minority groups in areas controlled by the
parties are still at the mercy of repressive measures applied locally in
accordance with a discriminatory ideology. (ICRC Information Department)
29 September: In the northern Vojvodina town of Subotica, Serbian Radical
party (SRS) regional president Bozidar Vujic declared that his party had
formed a paramilitary to "cleanse Subotica of all those who do not recognize
Serbia and its political and territorial integrity." SRS leader Vojislav
Seselj reportedly was handing out arms to Serbian farmers in Vojvodina as
a prelude to efforts to drive out other nationalities. (Department of State)
25 September: About 80 percent of Sarajevo's 350,000 civilians are
without power and running water. Local Serbian commanders have
repeatedly refused to permit crews from the water company into Serbian-
held areas to repair pumps, clean filters, or replenish chlorine supplies.
Without chlorine, engineers have been unable to fight the growing threat of
water-borne epidemics. The relay station on Trebevic Mountain that carried
telephone calls beyond Sarajevo was switched off by Serbian forces three
months ago. (The Washington Post; The New York Times)
July-September: Banja Luka's 30,000 Muslims have been terrorized by
bombings, beatings, and interrogations, which have resulted in 126 Muslim
deaths. Radisav Brdjanin, chief of the local war crisis committee in early
September said on television that there was only room for 1,000 Muslims in
Banja Luka and the 29,000 others would have to leave, "one way or another."
(The Washington Post)
June: Serb forces chartered an 18-car train in an attempt to deport the
entire population of Kozluk, Bosnia--some 1,800 people--to Hungary, but
Hungary refused to admit them. After four days on board, the villagers were
brought to Palic camp. They were told that "this was part of an ethnically
pure Serbian region, and it was inconvenient to have a Muslim village at a
key road junction." (New York Newsday)
18 March: A Serbian woman in Gorazde lost her right arm when "Muslim
terrorists" threw a hand grenade in her home in a mixed neighborhood.
(Department of State) (###)
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Cuban Filmmakers Imprisoned: Department
Statement
Boucher
Source: Richard Boucher, State Department Spokesman
Description: Statement, Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 23 199210/23/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: Caribbean
Country: Cuba
Subject: Democratization, Human Rights, Cultural Exchange
[TEXT]
Cuban filmmakers Marco Antonio Abad and Jorge Antonio Crespo were tried
on October 13 in Havana on charges of "enemy propaganda" and "contempt."
Although they had been in prison for almost a year, the trial was short,
lasting only 5 hours. Despite the fact that Cuban law requires that trials be
public, a journalist was prevented from attending. They now await the
judge's verdict and possible sentence. The state prosecutor has asked that
the men be sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Abad and Crespo had made a film entitled Un Dia Cualquiera (A Day Like Any
Other). The film, which had never been shown in Cuba, was shown in Costa
Rica in September 1991. The Cuban Government asserted in its indictment
that the film "attacks the integrity" of Cuban President Fidel Castro "with
injurious and offensive pronouncements against him."
We are dismayed that freedom of expression in Cuba is so limited that the
Cuban Government could have a law making "offensive pronouncements"
against its chief of state a crime. It is even more distressing that an
official of that government could consider 8 years in prison as just
punishment for exercising the right of free speech.
Abad was originally arrested in November 1991, while filming an "act of
repudiation" against poetess Maria Elena Cruz Varela, in which her home was
attacked by a government mob of some 200 persons. Ms. Cruz is currently
serving a 2-year prison sentence for felonious association and slander. A
subsequent police search of Abad's home led to the discovery of a copy of Un
Dia Cualquiera and the filing of charges against him. Mr. Crespo was
arrested in December.
We call on the Cuban Government to protect the rights of these men as
artists and as citizens to freely express their opinions as guaranteed in the
UN Declaration on Human Rights, of which Cuba is a signatory, by dropping
the charges against them and releasing them.
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: Prime Minister-Designate Appointed in
Lebanon
Boucher
Source: Richard Boucher, State Department Spokesman
Description: Statement, Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 23 199210/23/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: MidEast/North Africa
Country: Lebanon
Subject: Trade/Economics, Democratization
[TEXT]
We welcome President Hraoui's appointment of Rafiq Hariri to be the new
Prime Minister of Lebanon.
In our view, the economic reconstruction of Lebanon and national
reconciliation are top priorities for a new government in Lebanon in order to
elicit the support of all Lebanese to rebuild the nation at this important
juncture in Lebanon's history. The Lebanese armed forces constitute an
important institution of the central government, with a key role in providing
stability as the Lebanese people assume greater control of their own
affairs.
The US Government continues to support strongly the full implementation of
the Taif agreement in letter and spirit including the redeployment of Syrian
troops. We continue to support the overall goals of Lebanon's political
independence, unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity including the
disarming of all militias and the withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces
from the country.
Further, Lebanon's active participation in the Arab-Israeli peace process is
a key factor in the pursuit of a comprehensive peace settlement.
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: PKK Impeding Truck Traffic Into Iraq
Boucher
Source: Richard Boucher, State Department Spokesman
Description: Statement, Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 26 199210/26/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: MidEast/North Africa
Country: Iraq
Subject: Regional/Civil Unrest
[TEXT]
We are greatly concerned by reports that the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) is
impeding truck traffic into northern Iraq.
This truck traffic is the source of UN-sanctioned humanitarian relief
supplies--including food and medicine--for the people of northern Iraq. By
threatening truck drivers and their families, the PKK is jeopardizing relief
efforts, just as preparations for the upcoming winter months are beginning.
If winterization efforts are to be successful, supplies must begin moving
into northern Iraq promptly.
We applaud the efforts of the Government of Turkey and Iraqi Kurdish groups
to protect this truck traffic and Turkish efforts to restore security and
block PKK blackmail.
Dispatch, Vol 3, No 43, October 26, 1992
Title: US To Admit 1,000 Bosnian Refugees
Boucher
Source: Richard Boucher, State Department Spokesman
Description: Statement, Washington, DC
Date: Oct, 26 199210/26/92
Category: Speeches, Testimony, Statements
Region: E/C Europe
Country: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Subject: Refugees, United Nations
[TEXT]
In response to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) appeal for
temporary protection outside Croatia for Bosnians being released from
detention camps, the United States will take an additional 1,000 former
detainees and their immediate family members. The United States has
previously announced a program to bring to this country some 100 or more
detainees in need of medical care.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is working to arrange
the release of the detainees from camps in Bosnia. To date, some 1,500
persons have been brought to a transit facility in Croatia, where they are
being cared for by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The United States has given strong financial support to the international
organizations providing assistance to the detainees. We have contributed
over $6 million, comprising $3.8 million to UNHCR, $2 million to ICRC, and
$300,000 to the International Organization for Migration, which is carrying
out the medical care program. (###)