From: zarros@turing.scs.carleton.ca (Theodoros Sp. Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Tue, 30 Nov 1993 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Geneva, 30/11/1993 (ANA - N. Georgiadis / Reuters): Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes said yesterday that the leaders of Bosnia's warring factions had agreed to recommence immediate negotiations on their country's ethnic division at the end of talks between EC foreign ministers and Bosnian leaders. "All the parties are ready to begin immediately the negotiations", said Mr. Claes, whose country holds the rotating EC presidency. Greece's Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, who met with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic late Sunday night, reiterated Greece's objections to sanctions imposed on Serbia at peace talks in Geneva yesterday and pondered the political benefit stemming from such sanctions. EC mediator Lord Owen confirmed that the negotiations were to resume last night with a meeting between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Croat leader Mate Boban. Bosnia's Moslem president, Alija Izetbegovic, would join in further bilateral negotiations today, he added. The Geneva conference will continue over the next two days without the presence of the 12 European Community ministers. Meanwhile, a member of the Greek delegation at the Geneva conference said that Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias had no bilateral meeting with his EC counterparts yesterday on the issue concerning the intentions of certain partners to offer diplomatic recognition to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Paris, 30/11/1993 (ANA - O. Tirana): The Greek delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) issued a briefing circular relating to Greece's' attitude on the Skopje issue to participating delegates in Paris yesterday. The circular pinpoints and corrects inaccuracies against Greece contained in the reports by the Johnston Defence Committee and the Witgens Political Committee. The reason why the Greek delegation had used this method of briefing delegates was because it had no right either to take part or vote prior to the endorsement of Greece's admission to WEU, and had no other means of stating its case before committees. The circular underscored the following points: - It had been wrongly alleged in the Johnston report that Greece had exercised its right of veto to block Skopje recognition. The Community had unanimously adopted recognition prerequisites based on arguments set forth by Greece. - The Batinder report on Skopje related to the legal facet of the issue, not the political one. - It was inaccurate to claim Greece reacted to the use of Macedonia as a name, for historical or other emotional reasons. Greek objections were prompted by strictly political assessments. - Barring press reports, Greece had never been accused by any country or international agency of collating the embargo against Serbia. Supporting evidence and assessments of Greek compliance were included. - It was equally inaccurate to claim Greece had withdrawn from UN-sponsored talks, thus misinterpreting the Greek foreign minister's letter to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, who had never made a negative content on the contents of the letter. The circular also drew attention to the fact that "European interests" included all twelve member-countries, which thus included Greece. Moreover, Greece was the only Community country that had suffered from the consequences of the crisis in the region. An allegation in the Witgens report claiming Greece followed a "disturbing" policy was inadmissible, since -viewed globally- Greek policy was purely defensive. Referring to negative comments on Cyprus' protection and defensive measures along Greece's border, it was stressed that challenging any country the right to its self-defence denied the Western European Union its own right to existence. There was discussion of the issue of Greece's accession as a full member, and Iceland, Turkey and Norway as associate members, which will continue today. The prevailing view is that associate members should be given the same voting rights as regular members which entails an amendment of the WEU's charter. The significance of this for Greece is that, although Turkey is an associate member, it will have the same ability to influence WEU decisions. According to reports, however, the parliamentary Assembly's socialist group convened in the morning and expressed opposition to such a decision. Socialist deputies are expected to request that associate members not have the right to vote at two agencies: the Administrative Committee and the General Assembly. Such a decision would satisfy the Greek delegation. Geneva, 30/11/93 (ANA - N. Georgiadis): Foreign Minister Karolos Minister Karolos Papoulias expressed reserved optimism Sunday night after holding two-hour talks with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic on yesterday's Bosnian conference. "Athens' primary target is a stop to hostilities in Bosnia. This war is creating concern for Athens and must stop", Mr. Papoulias said. Speaking to Greek reporters after meeting Mr. Milosevic, Mr. Papoulias said the Serbian president was clearly convinced to make concessions, provided of course a similar attitude was displayed by the Moslems and Croats. He termed the Serbo-Croat rapprochement on Zagreb's relations with Serbs in Croatia "extremely important". Mr. Papoulias also attributed great importance to today's CSCE meeting in Rome. He did not rule out the possibility of meeting his US counterpart Warren Christopher while there, a meeting expected to be repeated at the NATO conference in Brussels on Thursday. Mr. Papoulias will also meet his Russian counterpart Andrei Kozyrev in Rome. Asked whether the question of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) acceding to the CSCE will be raised, Mr. Papoulias said indications were that it would not. Commenting on whether Albania has recently changed position on this issue, Mr. Papoulias said that, according to reports, Tirana continued to object to FYROM's accession to the international forum. Athens, 30/11/1993 (ANA): Political Spring leader Antonis Samaras will send a letter to US President Bill Clinton underlining the importance of a final and just settlement of the Skopje issue for Greek-US relations. Mr. Samaras announced his intention to send the letter via the US Embassy in the next few days during an interview in yesterday's edition of the Athens daily Eleftherotypia. Mr. Samaras reiterated that the issue of the recognition of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia should be dealt with within the framework of the European Union, making use of article 1-2 of the treaty which obliges the contracting states to display solidarity on matters concerning the security of members. He said that the issue should be raised from this point of view at next month's EC summit meeting. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Greece's policy on the Maastricht treaty remains unchanged, Alternate Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos told Parliament's European Affairs Committee last night, adding that the government would make an effort to change the deadline for implementation of the treaty. Mr Pangalos said the government would table a proposal concerning the "White Paper", underlining that on the issue of unemployment, Greece was against a shortening of the working week and subsequent reduction in wages. however, the minister said, the government was willing to discuss issues related to labour peace and funding of small to middle-size enterprises. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou yesterday received European Socialist Party Secretary General Axel Hanis and former Swedish finance minister Alan Larsson, who is chairing an ad hoc committee of the European Socialist Party in preparation for the European Community summit in December. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): The government said yesterday that it was not considering prohibiting the activities of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) or other Kurdish organisations in Greece. Replying to press questions, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos added that "if necessary" he would come back to the issue. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Foreign Under-secretary Theodoros Pangalos flies to London today for talks with British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. Foreign Ministry sources said the talks were in light of preparations for the Greek presidency of the European Community, beginning January 1. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Senior officers of the NATO National Defence School are on a three-day official visit to Greece. The visiting group were given a briefing at the National Defence General Staff on the situation which has evolved in the Balkans, and Greece's role within the framework of the Alliance. The Commandant of the School, Richard Evrer, also paid a formal call on the Chairman of the Greek Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dimitris Skarvelis. Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Greece's "legal" population numbered 10,134,534, in 1991, compared with 9,667,336 in 1981, according to figures released by the National Statistics Service (NSS) yesterday. Announcing the results of the march 17,1991 census, the NSS clarified that the "legal" population takes into consideration only those Greeks registered with municipalities and communities who were in the country at the time of the census or temporarily abroad. The NSS said that the "actual" population, that is the total number of Greeks and foreign nationals entered in the census results, was 10,259,900, compared with 9,740,417 in 1981. Between 1981 and 1991 the "legal" population rose by 4.8 per cent and the 'actual' population by 5,3 per cent. In certain prefectures of the country there was a drop in the size of the legal population, the biggest being in Evrytania (13.5 per cent) Fokida (8 per cent), Arkadia (9.5 per cent) ,Laconia (4.5 per cent) Messinia (4.1 per cent), Corfu (2.1 per cent), Kefallinia (7.3 per cent) and Lefkada (7.8 per cent). Athens, 30/11/93 (ANA): Reinstatement of approximately 20,000 civil servants dismissed from their positions since 1990 is provided for by article 25 of a bill published by the Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office yesterday. The article includes both persons employed on a contractual basis or permanent staff. Persons with court ruling restoring them to their posts will be re-employed within the year without, however, receiving remuneration for the period they were kept away from work. Those who did not take court action or lost their case if they did, will be gradually reinstated by summer 1996. Other persons employed under special agreement suspended between April 8, 1990 and October 15, 1993 may apply for reinstatement, if they establish suspension was unjustified or prompted by political motives. Athens, 30/11/93(ANA)-- Sources from the main opposition party New Democracy told the Athens News Agency yesterday the possibility of future co-operation between ND and Democratic Renewal (DHANA) would be discussed at the New Democracy Congress in Spring next year. Recent statements by DHANA leader Kostis Stephanopoulos which broached the possibility of co-operation between DHANA and ND were met with favour by ND officials. Former minister Theodoros Anagnostopoulos stressed the need for "every power to rally around New Democracy", while his colleague, former minister George Souflias said Kostis Stephanopoulos was "a member of the New Democracy family". ND deputy Nondas Zafiropoulos said Mr Stephanopoulos had "offered a lot to the party", adding that "brothers should come together".