MONTGOMERY: NEW MAPS OF BALKAN ARE NONSENSE

ZAGREB/BELGRADE, June 8 (Hina) - The US Ambassador to Yugoslavia, William Montgomery, dismissed on Friday the existence of new maps of the Balkans and attempts to re-tailor borders in the Balkans, saying the map published on Thursday by the right-wing Belgrade paper Glas was complete nonsense. Montgomery told today's issue of the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti that every six months, since 1996, he was forced to dismiss the existence of a new map of the Balkans. The US ambassador reiterated the stance of his government about the inviolability of borders in the Balkans, adding the State Department had contacted former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, named by the Glas daily one of the creators of the new map, who dismissed any involvement in the "drawing" of new borders in the Balkans. Thursday issue of the Glas daily ran an article saying representatives of the Pentagon, the Foreign Office, the White House and the CIA met in Washington on March 28 this year with Kissinger and a former negotiator for the former Yugoslavia, Lord Owen, to discuss the rearrangement of borders in the Balkans. According to the map published by the paper, Croatia would be given the Croat part of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnian Muslims would be given the remaining part of the Croat-Muslim entity, while the Bosnian Serb entity would be given to Serbia. Kosovo would be divided into the southern, Albanian-dominated and northern, Serb-dominated part, while Macedonia would be divided in line with the ethnic principle, which would create conditions for the establishment of a new Albanian state in the Balkans. Serbia and Montenegro would remain part of a community called the "Serbian States", with the Bosnian Serb entity and part of the Adriatic coast at Prevlaka added to it. The "tailors" the Glas article speaks about are also rearranging Bulgaria's borders, giving part of its territory to Turkey and giving a Hungarian-populated part of Romania to Hungary. The paper alleges the authors of the map include, along with the already mentioned institutions, "the US Institute for Balkanology", which is named the main organiser. According to Hina's reliable sources, of a total of 238 registered institutes in Washington, there is not one with this or a similar name, specialising in Balkanology, even if it was disguised under a different title. Also, the meeting the paper refers to, with Kissinger and Owen among the participants, was never held in Washington on that date or any other date in the past year. Some other Belgrade media investigated the allegations and came to similar information - such a meeting was never held in Washington and "the US Institute for Balkanology" does not exist. The Belgrade press concluded that the canard was made up by a Belgrade businessman and president of the Council of the Gorani Community (an ethnic group in Kosovo), Orhan Dragas, who had reportedly given such maps to the Belgrade media on previous occasions as well. The Glas issue of Friday, the day after the map was published, claims the map was reconstructed on the basis of what Kissinger had spoken about at a Washington lunch, organised by a businessman of Serb origin, a man called Draganic whose first name has not been mentioned. (hina) sb rml