Brussels, 5 June 1997 (RFE/RL) -- Representatives of the five successor countries to the former Yugoslavia have ended three days of meetings without reaching any agreement on dividing the assets and properties of the former state.
An RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels reports that the new round of talks, which ended yesterday, failed to bring the sides closer together. Serbia and Montenegro claim most of the assets, saying the other republics chose to leave the Yugoslav Federation. The others want the assets divided on the basis of the republics' payments to the federal budget prior to 1991, to which Slovenia and Croatia were the largest contributors.
Croatian Opposition To Form Election Monitoring Committee
Zagreb, 5 June 1997 (RFE/RL) -- Croatian opposition parties have formed a committee to monitor the country's presidential elections scheduled for later this month.
The committee held its first meeting yesterday and warned that better controls are needed to ensure there is no tampering with ballot papers. Social Democratic candidate Zdravko Tomac called for a big turnout on June 15 to deny President Franjo Tudjman an outright victory in the first round and force him into a runoff. In Rijeka, Liberal candidate Vlado Gotovac accused Tudjman and the ruling Croatian Democratic Community of turning political life into political ritual.
Serbian Opposition Demands Media Access
Belgrade, 5 June 1997 (RFE/RL) -- Representatives of 12 Serbian opposition parties have agreed on a set of minimum conditions that the government must meet before they will participate in elections due later this year.
The agreement was reached at a meeting in Belgrade yesterday. Key opposition demands include access to the electronic and other media and funding for the parties. There has been no reaction from the government.