Lukavica – Sessions of the both Chambers of the BiH Parliament – MPs ratified US$ 50 million contracts with the WB, to be invested in transport (US$ 39 million) and education (US$ 11 million), as well as adopting the proposal of the BiH Official Gazette, which will be printed in all three languages. HoR MPs established commissions for Constitutional and Legal issues, for Human Rights and Refugees, for Budget and Finances, for Foreign Trade and Customs, for International issues, for Transport and Communications, and for Administrative issues. The commissions were also ratified by the HoP. This is a step forward to the establishment of the Dayton BiH, said one of MPs from RS. Serb side is satisfied with the formula 2+2+2+1, hoping that other similar issues and decisions will be made according to the same formula. Prior to the session, MPs accepted RS MP Simic’s proposal to find out more about possible crime and illegal trade between the Entities before the next Parliament session. HoP MPs discussed the SDA MPs complaint about the official title of Mr. Krajisnik. HoP Chairman, Tosic said that he was surprised by SDA MPs question which is Krajisnik’s title in the Presidency and whether he can represent himself as the President. I think that this is now irrelevant, because he is the President in the BiH Presidency from the RS. We have shown and proven that on several occasions, and it has also been accepted by the IC, Tosic said.
4:00
Bijeljina – RS Prime Minister Klickovic talked to representatives of Czech, Japanese, and Novi Sad companies about the possibilities of reviving production of the oil refinery in Serb Brod. Klickovic said that they agreed to invest $140 million initially, but there will be another meeting in Brod to specify the agreement and financial resources by the end of September.
3:00
Biljeljina – VRS General Colic met British General Cordy-Simpson, and discussed the relations between VRS and SFOR, and SFOR’s role in implementation of the local election results. Cordy-Simpson underlined that the meeting did not have an agenda, and that frequent meetings of this type with Gen. Colic confirm VRS readiness to co-operate with SFOR, which has resulted in very fair relations with VRS in the last two weeks. However, they also talked about the Banja Luka incident and the local elections. Cordy-Simpson congratulated the VRS, the police, and the people on their behaviour, which he said was a good step towards democracy. Colic expressed his hope regarding the establishment of the SCMM in Sarajevo yesterday, adding that VRS had to preserve good relations with SFOR and implement the DPA.
4:00
Election report:
In regard to the SDS victory in Brcko, Head of the SDS Directorate, Vrkes and Vice-president of SDS Banja Luka, Popovic congratulated the Brcko local leadership, thanking the Brcko people who preserved the town and the RS with their firm and honest position. President of the Serb Radical party (SRS) Poplasen concluded, using official election results, that the Serb people had realised that their survival in this territory was closely related to their national parties which fight for constitutionality of the RS.
SDS won in 36 towns, SRS won in 8 towns, RS Socialist Party in 2 towns, and Party of the Independent Social Democrats won 24,8% of the votes. Data is still missing for 13 RS municipalities. RS PEC informed all the political parties and independent candidates that took part at the elections to come to the OSCE centre for ballot counting in Rajlovac, to monitor the counting of the absentee votes.
OSCE spokesman Foley said, at today’s press conference, that the Head of the OSCE mission in BiH, Frowick overruled the decision concerning the SDS Pale disqualification due to the use of posters displaying Karadzic’s picture during the pre-election campaign. This decision was made by the Election Appeal Sub-commission yesterday, but it was overruled by OSCE late yesterday evening because of the security of OSCE and other IC employees in the RS.
5:00
Flash news:
Russian media confirmed that Serbs and Croats voted for disintegration of BiH, underling Izetbegovic’s statement that no-one should expel Muslim refugees from apartments that were abandoned by (evicted) Serbs. Brussels papers Morgen said that Serbs will never return to Drvar, quoting Croat people from that town.
German media reported on success of the local elections, adding that election results must be implemented as well.
Member of the US Senate Hutchinson said that Clinton’s policy towards BiH is biased which jeopardises the IC mission in BiH.
3:00
Belgrade – Prominent scientific figures and RS Senators held a meeting last night, to discuss the subject of ‘how to defend the unified RS and the DPA.’ They underlined that FRY and RS must join their efforts in the economic and cultural fields. Buha said that multi-ethnic and multi-cultural BiH is a utopia because of the different history of all three peoples. This fact which was proven three times this century should be accepted by the IC as well. We are there (in BiH) a part of the Serb people, and our motherland should treat us in a special way. Especially now when the war has stopped and the reconstruction begun, they should have a special programme for reconstruction. This is how the real people do it, we are not to teach them what they should do. If the motherland does not have such a programme then it is hard to expect from us, who are exposed to all kinds of pressure from all sides, to endlessly endure without their programme, dual citizenship, and our internal unity, Buha said.
3:00
Summary SRT TV News Banja Luka
There weren’t any significant activities in the RS today as if the elections exhausted also the politicians.The session of the House of Representatives and the House of the people of the Parliament of BiH was held in Lukavica and, according to the information that we received from the Agencies, the contract concerning the World’s Bank financing project was ratified.
The law on party paper of BiH should have been adopted today
- We are still waiting for the final election results
According to the unofficial results received from the Republic Electoral Commission, SDS won the largest number of the Board seats in Sokolac, Pale, Brcko, Doboj, Prijedor, Gradiska, Trebinje, Visegrad, Novi Grad, Kozarska Dubica, Pelagicevo, Knezevo, Krupa na Uni, Srpska Ilidza, Kotor Varos, Kalinovik, Srpsko Gorazde, Srpski Brod, Bilece, Cajnice, Derventa, Han Pijesku, Srpskom Mostaru, Nevesinju, Roogatici, Teslicu, Zvorniku, Srpskom Sarajevu.
According to information from the same source, SRS has the biggest number of votes in Srpski Sanski Most, Srpsko Novo Sarajevo, Ugljevik, Srpsko Orasje, Vlasenica.
SPS won the biggest number of votes in Banja Luka, Mrkonjic Grad, Sipovo and Celinac, while the Party of the Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) won the trust of the voters in Laktasi and Srbac. The final election results will be known at the beginning of next week, after counting the votes which arrived from abroad.
2 min. 35 sec.
The High Representative of the IC, Carlos Westendorp, and his Deputy Jacques Klein had a meeting with representatives of the country members of the Contact Group in London today. The main subjects of this meeting were the further implementation of the DA and the recently completed elections in BiH.
Here are some reactions from the world’s officials and media:
USA assessed the first post-war elections as a step forward towards peace, but as a threat at the same time to those people in BiH who try to manipulate the municipal elections.
The leading Russian magazines regard the fact that the elections in the RS and in FBiH were held as representing a great success of the IC. But they emphasise that Bosnia voted last weekend against the unity of the people, which was the main objective of those who organized the elections.
It was perfectly clear to everyone that the leading parties, which started the inter-entity war, would win the elections.
French observers and analysts are asking if the three leading parties in BiH are the main winners of the elections.
The local elections are gaining positive comments from the German press.
Local elections in the RS and in FBiH passed surprisingly well, was the Austrian assessment.
2 min 40 sec.
The Ambassador of Hungary visited Gradiska today. The Hungarian members of SFOR built 1.5 km of macadam road on Orahovo territory in the municipality of Gradiska. The Ambassador of Hungary and the president of the Municipal Assembly of Gradiska opened the road by the cutting of a ribbon.
2min 21 sec
Today’s statement by a representative of OHR at the press conference in Banja Luka is a little bit different than the statements of representatives of OSCE in reference to the voting in Drvar. Saying that the authorities in Drvar were prolonging the election procedure, the spokesman for OHR, Vladislav Savic, also warned of the alleged sins of the people from Drvar. Our reporter reacted to that statement immediately with the following question: “Mr Savic, you said that the Serbs from Drvar were manipulated and used for political purposes by certain people who wanted to cause incidents. The question is on what basis you drew this conclusion?”
Nils Kastberg from OHR, who supervised the elections in Drvar, responded that there were some technical mistakes. The ballots were filled in with pencil. Nils Kastberg was not convincing in explaining the fact that people from Drvar were involved in manipulation and used for political purposes . No-one from the IC answered the question ‘why did the people from Drvar wait 20 hours under the open sky’. It is obvious that the IC did a great job organising the elections and contributed to the final success of the elections and they should be thanked for this. But to call manipulation of the voters by the filling of the forms with pencil, that could not be accepted.
1 min 54 sec.
The Council of the Ministers ratified last week the establishment of the BiH Department for Civil Aviation and confirmed three separate memorandums on the agreements reached with SFOR in regard to the opening of the airports in Banja Luka, Mostar and Tuzla. The process of opening the air fields for regular air traffic began with this.
1 min. 58 sec.
Do teachers and professors have an understanding of the difficult economic situation in the country? Does the Government consider that someone else will pay its debts? Those are some of the questions that the Government and the Branch Trade Union want to discuss.
Teachers, professors and others know that, even without a real and appropriate fiscal policy, certain holes could be closed with the existing budget means, if those means were treated in a proper way and with purpose.
The source in the Hotel “Bosna” from Banja Luka, who wished to remain anonymous, stated, and the public media published, that on the occasion of Krajisnik’s recent arrival in Banja Luka, he and his friends ran up a bill of 10,000 DM, which will be paid by the Government. If this is true, and no one has denied it so far, then we have a question: how come that the Government finances the party rally, which, by the way, was forbidden and which caused some disorder. The people who know a little bit more about this say that this is not the first restaurant bill paid by the Government.
5 min 21 sec.