29.01.1997

OHR Local News Issues, 29 January 1997

Sarajevo – Izetbegovic was announced by the director of Democracy Center in Washington as the winner of the international democracy award for 1996. This award confirms all Izetbegovic’s efforts towards a democratic state and implementing the DPA, as well as political strength of the BH people.
2:00

Mostar – Schwartz-Schilling’s press conference – SDA and HDZ are the only ones responsible because no agreement was reached after 6 hours of talks on Bugojno. The people of Bugojno will still suffer under the OHR sanctions because of such behaviour of the party leaders. Scwartz-Schilling will not go to Bugojno anymore until SDA and HDZ sign a serious agreement which they will adhere to. He thought that the mayor of the city would be a Croat, and the IMA president a Bosniak, but Bicakcic, Rajic and Mlaco were not able to reach an agreement. Instead they were trying to find grounds inside the law for obstruction. He said that if the IMA is not established in Jajce by 15th of March, that does not mean that all other aspects of the agreement signed in Jajce yesterday must be brought into question. With regard to Bosnian refugees in Germany, Scwartz-Schilling said that there is no reason for them to live on Germans’ welfare anymore, even more so due to the fact that the party leaders in the Federation are not willing to find a way to bring them back at least to the parts of the Federation where this is possible. The only way to overcome this problem is to organise a strong unified police force which will be able to oust the local powerlords who cause chaos on behalf of their own petty interests. 3:00 An incident happened today nearby Mostar, in Orkljez, where an unnamed person was stopped by two armed civilians in his car and robbed, only two hundred meters away from the Croat police patrol. The joint police forces and IPTF were informed of this case.
1:00

Mostar – Mostar mayor Prskalo addressed Sir Garrod today warning him that the placement of traffic-controled road bumps on Rodoc Boulevard could have a destabilising effect on the security situation in the city. 2:00

The new municipality elections rules announced yesterday have not removed the old P2 form, which can be found now under the cover of articles 503, 504, and 505. OSCE spokesman Verheiden said that the P2 form is officialy canceled, but the Annex 4 of the DPA does allow the refugees to vote in places of their own choice. Upon further enquiries of BH TV, the OSCE spokesman just added that the new rules were accepted by all parties, and therefore are a “reflection of the Bosnian people”.
3:00

Sarajevo – SDP press conference – Zlatko Lagumdzija finds it strange that the QSP draft laws are being proposed by the OHR and not the CoM. The laws in the package have a number of flaws which are unacceptable for SDP, and its opinion is that there are two laws missing: law on CoM and law on private and state property throughout BH. The expert teams established for drafting these laws do not make expert but political decisions.
3:00

Banja Luka – Third meeting of Bildt, Fitzgerald and Crouch with Biljana Plavsic – According to the Reuters report, Plavsic said after the meeting that only those who had houses in the RS before the war and have the necessary papers to confirm it will be able to return; ONASA found out that Plavsic was referring only to former residents of Gajevi.
2:00

Gajevi – the representatives of two sides should meet tomorrow with SFOR and IPTF in order to agree how to proceed with construction works after the two-day pause ends. The village should be protected by joint patrols of RS police and IPTF. Today the area was secured by Russian and US SFOR and the BH representatives visited Gajevi to check if any damages were made to the construction work done so far.
2:00

Ilidza – the former residents of Gornji Kotorac publically announced their wish to return to their own homes, stating that they will uphold the laws of RS and demanding from RS authorities to guarantee them the right to freedom of movement and private property. The mayor of Ilidza and Minister of Refugees of the Sarajevo Canton supported the Gornji Kotorac residents in their initiative, sending an appeal to Serbs from Ilidza currently in Gornji Kotorac to return to Ilidza where they will be guaranteed full security.The Serb authorities have been invited to a meeting where the return of Bosniaks to Gornji Kotorac would be discussed.
3:00


Summary SRT News

The constitutional-legal system of RS was disturbed again yesterday. Forceful entry of Muslims to the village of Gajevi near Lopare was the main reason for the meeting taking place between RS president Biljana Plavsic and the HR Carl Bildt. Despite the agreement that this part of IEBL is jointly patrolled by the IPTF and Serb police, Carl Bildt accused Serbs in advance for Muslims mistakes. “I think that we will bring responsible people to give exact documentation on those people that want to resettle in the ZOS and that have had houses there before. Our municipal institutions must participate and in the future I do not anticipate any conflicts. I think we are having good chances to solve this,” said Plavsic after the meeting. We committed ourselves to stop incidents and to launch an investigation against perpetrators, announced Bildt. He added that from tomorrow on joint police units, consisting of the IPTF and Serb police, will patrol the area. At the end Bildt said that also people from RS should return to the “occupied” areas inside the Federation. Plavsic reacted to this words, pointing out that “this is a little bit different case, talking about the return to Drvar which is not a ZOS”. Plavsic announced that special rules and regulations for the return will be adopted to carry out the procedure, which in her opinion is “pretty much O.K.”
4 min

The cabinet of the RS president officially denied that HR Carl Bildt while in the meeting with Plavsic asked her to replace the RS Interior Minister, Dragan Kijac. “No such demand was placed upon RS president during the talks she had with the HR Carl Bildt,” says a communiqué from the presidential cabinet.

President in the presidency of BIH, Momcilo Krajisnik and the Governor of the National Bank, Manojlo Coric, visited Srpski Brod and met with the political representatives and economists from this municipality. Krajisnik also participated at the meeting of the “Energoinvest” executive board that was held in the Brod oil refinery. Krajisnik made a comment that he is pleasantly surprised at the possibility of the economic growth in the region, but that the state would have to help at the beginning.
2,5 min

VRS Chief of Staff Pero Colic met with the deputy SFOR commander Cordy Simpson in Bijeljina. “I’m very glad that we come to the point where we can trust each other now, and secondly we managed to explain to general Simpson all the problems we are dealing with in so called crisis areas. I convinced him that VRS only tries to stop another genocide of the Serb people to occur,” said Colic.
2 min

World News: SFOR will step to another level, named Joint patrol, on 3 February. SFOR will combine work on the stabilization of peace and guaranteeing holding of local elections in July.

In Germany, disagreements are rising with the governmental plan on forceful return of refugees to BiH.