Kohl urges EC to share burden of refugees

HELMUT KOHL yesterday sent a letter to all European Community leaders, asking them to share the problem of dealing with the Yugoslav refugee crisis. The German Chancellor also blamed other EC heads of government for exacerbating the crisis by dragging their feet on the recognition of the breakaway Yugoslav republics.

Mr Kohl is under attack over his handling of the crisis, and Germany clearly feels that it is bearing more of the refugee burden than other EC states. There are about 200,000 Yugoslav refugees in Germany out of a total of half a million outside the borders of former Yugoslavia.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister had received a letter, but that it was still being translated from German into English. Britain has put its weight behind a United Nations-sponsored conference next week in Geneva on the refugee crisis.

Mr Kohl stressed that Germany, which this week decided to take in 5,000 Bosnian refugees in addition to the 200,000 it had already admitted from Yugoslavia, would continue giving humanitarian aid. 'But here the solidarity of all Europeans, especially the member states of the European Community, is called for.'

The German government is sending six trains to Croatia to bring some 5,000 Bosnian refugees to Germany. Around 1,000 Bosnian refugees arrived in Switzerland yesterday, the first of two groups, and Austria and Italy have also agreed to give shelter to around 5,000 of the trapped refugees. But Germany has so far failed to convince the EC to distribute the refugee burden equally among all member states.

Mr Kohl seemed bitter about attacks on him over Germany's role in Yugoslavia as he spoke to the press before he left for his holiday. He claimed that the fighting was partly the result of EC foot-dragging. 'If we had moved closer to recognition one year ago today - when I was still under public criticism, including in the EC - we would have spared ourselves this fate,' he said. 'For too long, the Serbian leadership thought it could play the game without resistance,' he said.

The Chancellor denied that he was pushing for a greater role for Germany in the crisis. He said the decision to send a destroyer and three surveillance planes to the Adriatic was meant to prevent further conflict. 'Nobody - neither we nor any of our partners - is eager for political or even military adventures,' he said. The opposition Social Democrats failed on Wednesday to head off the move to send German forces to the Adriatic and yesterday Germany sent a second destroyer, the Niedersachsen, to join its sister-ship, the Bayern.

But sanctions-breaking may become a political issue closer to home. The German government is to launch an investigation into reports that German firms are breaking sanctions. 'I have given an order to investigate the issue,' Mr Kohl said. The Suddeutsche Zeitung reported yesterday that German firms were sending industrial goods to Serbia with forged Bosnian papers.

SARAJEVO - At least five people were killed and 30 wounded yesterday in Sarajevo and casualties included a television camera-crew of the US Cable News Network (CNN), Reuter reports. Halfway through a day which residents had described as quiet by the standards of the besieged Bosnian capital, mortar shells landed on a public kitchen and a crowded suburban street in the south-western district of Hrasnica.

In a separate incident, a car carrying a CNN crew came under fire, apparently from close range. A New Zealand-born camerawoman, Margaret Moth, was hit in the face and neck and CNN described her injuries as life-threatening. A correspondent, Mark Dulmage, was slightly wounded in the face and arms.

Despite the exchanges, pilots braving bullets and shrapnel continued to fly into Sarajevo's airport, its only lifeline to the world. By early afternoon, 12 flights had discharged around 100 tons of food and medicine for the city, the United Nations said.

Amateur radio operators monitoring other towns and cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina said there was sporadic shooting in the besieged town of Gorazde, to the south-east of Sarajevo.

(Photograph omitted)