21.05.2003 CPIC

Transcript of the International Agency’s Joint Press Conference at CPIC

CPIC/Media Conferences

Subject: JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE – 20 May 2003

1.       The following attended the regular Press Conference held at the CPIC at 11:30 hours on Tuesday, 20 May 2003:

Agency

Spokesperson

Topic

a.       OHR

Vedran Persic

 

  • Djukic murder
  • PDHR Hays to visit Bosmal construction project
  • PDHR to speak at World Economic Forum in Athens

b.       EUPM

Jon Oskar Solnes

 

  • Murder case in Bugojno
  • Increased Transparency through internal control in the BiH police

c.       OSCE

 

Emir Salihovic

 

  • Agreement reached by the Common Military Doctrine Working Group on a common military doctrine
  • Increased enrolment of Romani children

d.       ICTY

Refik Hodzic

  • Request for additional time to present evidence and witnesses approved in trial of Slobodan Milosevic

e.       SFOR

Captain Dale MacEachern

  • Suggested model for the restructure of the Armed Forces submitted by Commander, SFOR
  • 40th Joint Military Commission (JMC) meeting

2.       Seventeen members of the media.

3.       The transcript of the questions and answers is attached.


Vedran Persic – OHR

You will have seen the press reports of the shocking murder of Grozdana Djukic, in Sultanovici near Bugojno.  Whatever the motive for this murder may have been, OHR condemns this criminal act, and all such violent incidents, in the strongest possible terms. The High Representative has a zero tolerance policy towards criminal violence.  The High Representative will be following the investigative process through the EUPM closely and expects to see real results in this case as in others.  It is the local police who are responsible for conducting a thorough investigation and the High Representative looks to them to find the perpetrators and ensure that they are delivered to the Court system.  The local police must provide proper assurance to all citizens in the district that they can go about their lives without fear, secure in the knowledge that they are properly protected.

The Principal Deputy High Representative, Don Hays, will be visiting the Bosmal construction site in Sarajevo tomorrow morning.  Ambassador Hays will be briefed on the history of this singular investment.  Around 100 firms and 2,500 workers are involved in putting up what will be the highest building in the Balkans. Ambassador Hays will ask the management about their experience in making a multimillion dollar investment in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lay out the steps that have to be taken in order to make BiH a more competitive destination for international investment.  Press will be invited to cover Ambassador Hay’s visit and there will be a press opportunity at the top of one of the two towers.  We will issue a media advisory with the times and details later today.

On Thursday, the Principal Deputy High Representative will travel to Athens, where he will take part in a World Economic Forum meeting that will focus on speeding up the pace of economic development in Southeastern Europe.  Ambassador Hays will be talking, among other things, about the steps that need to be taken to revive the privatisation process in BiH.  He will also address the subject of BiH’s brain drain.  Talented young people are expressing a catastrophic lack of confidence in the future of BiH by emigrating.  If this trend continues, the destiny of the country will be left in the hands of discredited and aging politicians, and those talented young people who do choose to stay in BiH will have the odds stacked heavily against them.  So something must be done. Ambassador Hays will be laying out strategies that the International Community believes can effectively address this demographic crisis so that more and more young people choose the option of staying in BiH to make it a better place for themselves and their children.

Jon Oskar Solnes – EUPM

It is very unsettling when hideous crimes like the one in Bugojno are committed, where an elderly lady was found dead in her house.  You have already seen most of the details in the Media, so the EUPM will not be discussing them at length here.  The house was ransacked in an apparent search for valuables.  On ground of this evidence and other findings, the EUPM believes this was a terrible criminal act, targeted at a frail elderly citizen suspected of being in possession of valuables.  The EUPM condemns this crime and will be following the local police investigation.  The EUPM would also like to note, that in the media reports on this tragic event in Bugojno, the EUPM has only seen well balanced reporting, not jumping to any ethnic related conclusion, as we have sometimes seen in the past.

The EUPM has through its specific programmes sought to advise the BiH police on the establishment of transparent internal control procedures.  Only if the BiH police itself is subject to disciplinary measures in a case of misconduct, just as the other citizens, can a widespread trust in the BiH police be obtained.  The EUPM is monitoring a number of cases where BiH police officers have been subject to internal control through breach of rules and sometimes laws.  These disciplinary procedures will reveal how efficient the BiH police will be in moving forward to an European standard, where misconduct of police officers is not tolerated.  In the past we have seen a pattern where in many cases a blind eye was trained upon police officers in relation to offences, ordinary citizens would be punished for.  Now the EUPM wants to see progress in these matters.  And there is progress.  I will not go into too many individual cases, you will have to discuss them directly with the local police in the regions of BiH.  The EUPM would just like to note that in Pale, currently an officer has been suspended due to charges of complicity in robbery, forgery and abuse of confidence.  In such cases, a transparent and just internal control process must be conducted.  Exactly that is the case in Pale and the EUPM is seeing general progress made in BiH police internal control, in many other locations in BiH.  There, is however considerable room for improvement, so that the citizens can be sure that the police is serving them, in a transparent way.

Emir Salihovic -OSCE

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomes the recent agreement reached by the Common Military Doctrine Working Group on a common military doctrine. The Mission commends the work of the group, which consists of representatives from the SCMM, Entity Ministries of Defence, the Armed Forces of the Federation and the RS, and representatives from the International Community.  Reaching consensus on such an important issue signals that the leadership of the Armed Forces in BiH have understood that defence policy is a matter for BiH as a whole.  The agreement also clearly demonstrates that it will be possible to find common ground for other issues of the Defence reform.  The Mission will continue to contribute to the reform of the defence sector and is confident that solutions can be found for all outstanding issues, enabling BiH to comply with all its political-military commitments as an OSCE member state and paving the way for BiH’s final integration into the Euro-Atlantic security structure.

The OSCE Mission to BiH commends the increased enrolment of Romani children to Branko Radicevic Primary School in Banja Luka.  After the school director explained enrollment procedures to parents of Roma children, the school arranged together with municipal authorities to exempt parents from paying taxes or the costof medical examinations in order to enrol their children in school.  Plans were also made for older children to take preparatory classes over the summer and to take missed exams.  This is a good example of a school helping Romani children to have full access to school and enrol in the upcoming school year.  Taking into account different forms of segregation to which Roma are exposed, and the fact that many Roma parents are not able to send their children to school due to financial difficulties, we hope to see good examples like this one all around the country.

Refik Hodzic – ICTY

President of the Trial Chamber presiding over the case of Slobodan Milosevic, Judge Richard May, issued an oral decision today regarding the Prosecutor’s request for additional time to present evidence and witnesses.  The Trial Chamber approved additional time of 100 trial days from 16th May onwards.  May 16th was the date set earlier as the deadline for Prosecution to complete its case.  Details of this decision are contained in a press release available in English at this time which you can get after the briefing.  International Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia welcomes the decision by the Federal Television to start live broadcast of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in its portion focused on the Bosnia and Herzegovina indictment.  The distant location of the ICTY has always been an obstacle for a timely and adequate informing of BH public about trials conducted before the Tribunal.  Initiative like this enable the public to have a direct access to the process in which facts about crimes which were committed in BiH are established through independent and objective criminal proceedings conducted before an international court.  This particularly applies to the trial of Slobodan Milosevic which, due to the extent of crimes and events covered in the indictment, can be seen as one of the most significant trials before the Tribunal.  ICTY hopes that the other public broadcaster in BiH, RTRS, will also start broadcasting the signal from the Tribunal’s courtroom which is provided free of charge by the US organisation IREX and Belgrade-based TV B92, which is broadcasting the Milosevic trial since the start. 

Captain Dale MacEachern – SFOR

Good Morning, I have two points today.

My first point is to advise you that the Commander of SFOR, Lieutenant General William E. Ward sent a letter to the Ministers of Defence and the Chiefs of Staff of the AFBiH over the weekend.  In the letter, COMSFOR expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to join the meeting held in Banja Luka on 09 May 03.  The letter also included a suggested model for the restructure of the Armed Forces and some planning figures for the number of soldiers in the Armed Forces.  The structure for the Armed Forces suggested by SFOR included State-level Command and Control with a single chain of command from the Presidents, through the Secretary General of the SCMM, to the Chiefs of Staff Committee and onto the Armed Forces.  This was a suggested model only.  The plan for the reform and restructuring of the AFBiH will be a plan created by the military leadership of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for their Armed Forces to support their people. Ownership of the plan will rest entirely with the political and military leadership of the AFBiH.  The manning level planning figures were prepared by the OSCE.  They made an analysis of the potential strength based on the assumptions that the collective Defence Budget will stay within the nominal level of 2002 and that 60% of the budget is allocated to personnel in accordance with the goal set out in the BiH Defence Policy.  The analysis shows that BiH can only afford about 9,500 soldiers.  Further analysis assuming a 30% reduction in fixed costs, as a consequence of force reduction, would allow for up to 2,500 additional soldiers. Therefore the maximum should be 12,000 regular soldiers. 

My second point pertains to the 40th Joint Military Commission (JMC) meeting.  The meeting will be held this Friday, 23 May 03 at Camp Butmir.  In attendance will be COMSFOR, Lieutenant General William Ward, the Secretary General of the Standing Committee on Military Matters, Mr. Pocrnja, Colonel General Dudakovic, Major General Zeko and Colonel General Savic.  The meeting will last all of Friday morning and will focus on the reform and restructure of the Armed Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  There will be two opportunities for the media.  This first opportunity will be a photo opportunity at 8:40 am. Photographers will have to be at the back gate at 8 am for an accreditation and security check.  The second opportunity will be a press conference at 12:50 p.m. Media must be at the back gate at 12 p.m. for an accreditation and security check.  Timings are not flexible.  Those who do not meet the timings will not be permitted to attend the opportunities.  At this Thursday’s press conference, I will confirm the details of Friday’s meeting and the media opportunities. I will also provide you with a detailed schedule.  Once again I would like to remind you that the media events planned for Friday will only be open to SFOR accredited media.

Thank you.

Questions and Answers

There were no questions.