OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 168, 29 August 1996

U.S. ARMY TO SELL OFF NON-MILITARY PROPERTY IN HUNGARY. Private
individuals and enterprises will have the opportunity to purchase
recyclable equipment and other materials used by IFOR troops in Hungary
and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungarian media reported on 29 August. The goods
for sale include telecommunications and office equipment, construction
materials, general mechanical equipment and recyclable waste. No
military hardware will be offered. Revenues from the sales will be used
to support the IFOR mission. The Logistics Directorate of the Hungarian
Army will be in charge of the sales. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

CONFUSION REIGNS OVER BOSNIAN REFUGEE VOTING. The two leading Muslim
parties have called for a suspension of voting by Bosnian refugees
abroad until the issue of widespread fraud in voter registration is
clarified, the BBC reported on 28 August. The SDA and former Prime
Minister Haris Silajdzic's Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina were
seconded by the small Bosnian Patriotic Party, led by Muslim wartime
Gen. Sefer Halilovic. Onasa reported from a refugee camp in Hungary that
voting is, in any event, confused. Hungarian camp director Lajos Horvath
said of the balloting to date: "For the most part, [the refugees] really
didn't understand what was going on. It was confusing, they had no
experience of voting, many...are only semi-literate, and none of them
knew anything about the candidates. They just voted along ethnic lines
where they could." Meanwhile in Serbia, refugee voter turnout is low,
Reuters noted. -- Patrick Moore

SENIOR NATO OFFICIALS PRAISE ROMANIA. General Klaus Naumann, head of
NATO's Military Committee, on 28 August ended an official visit to
Romania, Radio Bucharest reported. Naumann, who met with President Ion
Iliescu, Defense Minister Gheorghe Tinca, Foreign Minister Teodor
Melescanu, and other high-ranking Romanian officials, praised Romania
for its active participation in the alliance's Partnership for Peace
(PfP) program. On the same day, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter,
currently in Bucharest, described Romania's PfP record as "superb." He
further hailed the recent agreement between the Romanian and Hungarian
governments over the text of a bilateral basic treaty. -- Dan Ionescu

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave