"Amerika Hangja" - Voice of America - William Perry Balkani
korutja.
(Elnezest az esetleges kisbetukert, de az eredeti szoveg csupa
nagybetuvel volt irva, amit at kellett cserelnem.)
Buchwald Amy
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date=7/22/94
type=closeup
number=4-07582
title=Toward a New US-Balkan Policy
byline=Pamela Taylor
telephone=619-1101
dateline=Washington
editor=Phil Haynes
content= // inserts available from audio services //
Intro: U-S defense secretary William Perry went on a
well-publicized tour of the Balkans this week, warning
about the dangers of the conflict in Bosnia spreading to
the Southern Balkan tier. The trip began before the
Bosnian Serbs rejected the latest international peace
plan for Bosnia. Mr. Perry wound up his seven-nation
Balkan tour in the Croatian capital of Zagreb Friday.
VoA's Pamela Taylor asked several Balkan analysts if the
secretary's trip will lead to a greater American
involvement in Balkan affairs, as the international
community examines what punitive measures to impose on
the Bosnian Serb's main supporter, Serbia:
Text: Secretary Perry began his trip warning about the dangers
of the Bosnian conflict spreading in the wake of a
failed peace plan. By the end of the week the plan had
been effectively rejected by the Bosnian Serbs and he
was being more explicit. Mr. Perry urged the countries
bordering the former Yugoslavia to tighten their
economic cordon around Serbia. This was not a simple
request. The Balkan countries have already lost
billions of dollars in lost revenues and job
opportunities because of the U-N embargo against Serbia.
Secretary Perry had few incentives to offer the border
states, apart from renewed bilateral assistance,
including some specific items such as surplus U-S
military goods: boots, uniforms, ambulances and other
non-lethal equipment. Professor Nicholas Pano of
Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, thinks
the defense secretary's incentives might do the job:
Tape: cut #1 Pano runs [:32]
"Governments have made an attempt to control smuggling
but as the economic pinch has been felt, some of these
governments have perhaps not been as vigilant as they
might be. And with the promise of economic assistance,
with the promise of military assistance from the United
States, these countries might be induced now to take a
stronger stance on the issue of the embargo and the
economic blockade than has been the case in the recent
past."
Text: But professor Rudolph Tokes (pron: turkish) of the
University of Connecticut thinks the secretary's
incentives are too little and too late:
Tape: cut # 2 Tokes runs [:45]
"The embargo is not working, not working because those
presumably tight boundaries are leaking like a sieve.
You can buy anything and everything (in Serbia) from
imported goods to oil, natural gas whatever. And the
Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Bulgarians, indeed the
Hungarians are violating those un rules to the best of
their ability because they too have to survive
economically. Clearly the pressure should be directly
put on Belgrade rather than using these not particularly
well equipped or highly motivated neighbors to do the
job of the United States and Western political
community."
Text: Professor Tokes (turkish) says neither secretary Perry's
assurances nor similar assurances by president Clinton
on his recent trip to Berlin will alleviate security
concerns in the Balkans.
Professor Pano, however, believes the U-S defense chief
did well to remind Balkan leaders about all the possible
scenarios which could erupt into the next Balkan
powderkeg. // Opt // These include simmering ethnic
problems in Albania, with its Greek minority, and
sympathy for the Albanian majority in Serbia's Kosovo
province. Greece and Albania remain at odds over the
treatment of each other's minority populations. The
former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia (Fryom) is in a
dispute with Greece over its name and internal ethnic
problems are threatening to boil over as the result of a
new census count. These are only the more volatile
examples. Bulgaria and Romania, which share Serbia's
border, have their own ethnic minority issues which have
also been inflamed by the Bosnian crisis. // End opt //
A visiting Balkan analyst at the Washington-Based Center
for Strategic and International Studies (csis), Nicholas
Velef of Bulgaria, thinks the main purpose of secretary
Perry's trip was to organize the embargo against Serbia
as the least controversial punitive action under
consideration by the so-called Bosnian Contact Group
(The United States, Russia and the European Union):
Tape: cut # 3 Velef runs [:55]
"I regard Mr. Perry's visit to Romania, Albania, Greece
and Albania as a part of the US effort to contain Serbia
because Serbia is the major support for the Bosnian
Serbs and to isolate Serbia and to keep the embargo
because the embargo is a key point in US strategy for
the peace plan in Bosnia. And Romania, Bulgaria and
Macedonia are the key players in this embargo. So this
visit has a clear message for Serbia, that the United
States is going to build a coalition in that region to
isolate even more Serbia if Serbia intends to back the
Bosnian Serbs for the next spiral of potential
escalation of the conflict."
Text: But Mr. Velef also thinks secretary Perry wanted to give
the Balkan countries assurances they will eventually be
brought into the NATO partnership for peace element,
which promises closer military cooperation. In the
meantime he assured them the U-S will not stand idly by
if their security is threatened. But professor Pano
thinks the secretary may have presented another reason
why containing the Bosnian war is in the national
interests of all the countries in the region:
Tape: cut #4 Pano runs [:]
"I think secretary Perry is trying to use the Bosnian
incident as an object lesson to these countries as to
what might be in store for them if they allow some of
these crises which are looming beneath the surface to
get out of hand. The fact that secretary Perry has made
this visit emphasizes the importance of the unsettled
condition insofar as the U-S is concerned and I think
what he is trying to do is to insure there will be a
firm but non-violent response to the situation as it
continues to unfold."
Text: Whether or not the United States has decided to take a
greater leadership role in the Balkans will no doubt be
on the minds of the foreign ministers of the Bosnian
Contact Group when they meet in Geneva later this month.
(Signed)
neb/pam/pch
22-Jul-94 2:36 pm edt (1836 utc)
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source: Voice of America
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