Differences

Registration of Krajina cars in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FRY (the so-called re-registration) will be possible only for car owners whose identity cards were issued in FRY. Those who left Croatia during last May and August will not be allowed to register their cars despite the enormous taxes. They have the status of "exiles" in Yugoslavia and do not have the same rights as the "refugees".

The names attached by the administration reflect the difference: those who left were active while the others waited and let themselves be exiled. Due to their relative slowness and hesitation, they are helpless before the Yugoslav administration: they have been told they can not participate in legal affairs.

Appeal

The Constitutional Court of Yugoslavia, upon an appeal by the State Prosecutor of Montenegro Vladimir Susovic, on 13 March instituted proceedings for the examination of the Law on founding the Air Traffic Public Company JAT, passed by the Serbian Parliament.

The State Prosecutor of Montenegro maintains that the Law violates the sovereign right of Montenegro as a member of the federation: JAT had been founded upon a decision of the government of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, so Serbia cannot decide on its property alone. Susovic maintains that the Law allows for "unauthorized and anti-constitutional usage of property of the citizens and the state of Montenegro, because the property includes also the land and buildings of the Tivat and Golubovci airports which are in the territory of Montenegro."

The Constitutional Court is awaiting a reply from the Serbian Parliament which is to be submitted within 45 days.

Geneva

The key participants of the Dayton peace agreement on Bosnia: Slobodan Milosevic, Franjo Tudjman, Ejup Ganic replacing the ill Alija Izetbegovic, four of the five members of the Contact Group (the Russian representative is missing) and the U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher met on 18 March in the building of the U.S. Permanent Mission in Geneva to resolve the problems which have arisen in the implementation of the Dayton agreement and the Rome talks.

What are the accomplishments of the latest summit? The representatives of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FRY agreed to resume talks on the establishment of diplomatic relations on 23 March in Moscow and in the meantime to reach an agreement concerning trade, transportation, telephone traffic and railways and to open air traffic on the Belgrade-Sarajevo and Belgrade-Banja Luka lines. The conflicting sides once again took up the obligation to free all the prisoners of war, as such the Bosnian side is expecting the release of 300 people from Zepa.

FRY and Croatia will continue normalization of their relations. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, during the preliminary talks in Geneva, said the demilitarization of Prevlaka was the only acceptable solution for Croatia. The Croatian Government promised to guarantee the return of Serb refugees to their homes in the territory of Croatia. The interim government for the Srem-Baranja region was also discussed. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said Gen. Tihomir Blaskic suspected of war crimes will appear before The Hague Tribunal. According to a joint statement from the Conference, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic promised that two Serbs, Drazen Erdemovic and Radoslav Kremenovic, would be transferred to The Hague.

Tito in Benkovac

Tudjman Discovers Enemies

"President Tito has just finished his speech," said a reporter of the Croatian Television closing the Sunday TV broadcast from Benkovac. The reporter covering the celebration of the sixth anniversary of the Croatian Democratic Union was speaking about Franjo Tudjman. According to our Zagreb correspondent Boris Raseta, the reporter has been suspended.

President Tudjman helped the wretched journalist make the mistake: he spoke about the foreign and local enemies who want to restore Yugoslavia, but he himself and his party created Croatia and only they can defend it.

Expensive Water

Herzeg-Novi - Dubrovnik Talks

It seems that Herzeg-Novi will be thirsty again this summer. The Dubrovnik authorities seem unlikely to allow transportation of water from the hydro-energetic system "Trebisnjica" across the Croatian territory to Herzeg-Novi. After a few months, the talks have reached a deadlock because neither side has the incentive to resume them.

The problems which arose concerned the length of the period for which the water-transportation agreement would be signed and the price of transportation. The Dubrovnik authorities demanded 0.32 German Marks for each cubic meter of delivered water, while Herzeg-Novi offered to pay only 0.06 German Marks. To tell the truth, Herzeg-Novi in 1980 laid 38 km of pipes (22 km of which across the Croatian territory) to the Dubrovnik hydro-electric power plant. The system brought water from Trebisnjica in the percentage equivalent to the Montenegro river basin and it all functioned perfectly until the war and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

The Herzeg-Novi authorities, which had the mandate to negotiate with the Dubrovnik authorities, are now trying to transfer the talks to the federal level, demanding that the problem be resolved in the process of the normalization of relations between Croatia and FRY which is unacceptable for the Croats.