Headlines
- NATO confirms Alliance’s plane hit refugee convoy in south of Kosovo
- New wave of refugees on borders with Macedonia and Albania
- Russian foreign minister says its country ready to participate in international peace forces in Kosovo
- Westendorp announces start of joint institutions’ work next week
- Decreased BiH Federation budget could caused social protests
- Both prosecutor and defense dissatisfy with Goran Vasic’s verdict
Brussels
NATO announced today in Brussels that a preliminary investigation had resulted with following: a NATO plane drop a bomb on a civilian vehicle, moving on the road between Prizren and Djakovica, by accident. France alerted two thousand soldiers and fifteen battle tanks that could join possible international peace forces in Kosovo.
Belgrade
NATO continued its strikes against Yugoslavia. Six new explosions occurred during the last night in Belgrade. Citizens reported that the previous night was the hardest from the beginning of NATO campaign. Other towns in Yugoslavia were also targeted.
Morina (border crossing in Kosovo)
Agencies reported on new artillery fights in the vicinity of the border crossing Morina, on the Serbian border with Albanian. Albanian sources announced that the Yugoslav artillery had been hitting Albanian villages again. NATO confirmed that at least four projectiles were shot to the Albanian territory.
Podgorica
During the broadcast, OBN received a report on new NATO strikes on Montenegro. Although there were no official confirmation, OBN’ s reporter from Podgorica said that NATO was active in the area of Golubovci airport.
Skoplje – refugees
There are some 123 thousand Kosovo refugees in Macedonia. At the press conference held in the NATO Headquarters in Skoplje, it was announced that a convoy of fifty thousand refugees from direction of Urosevac had been moving towards Macedonia. Up to now, 24 500 refugees were sent to third countries. OSCE confirmed that new four thousand refugees came to Albania during the last night.
Ljubljana
Slovenia announced that they would accept some 4,500 refugees from Kosovo. Most of them will be put in families.
Russia
The new Russian mediator for Yugoslavia, Viktor Chernomyrdin, welcomed the German plan for the solving of the Kosovo crisis, while the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, announced that Russia was ready to participate in the international peace forces.
Sarajevo
Three days ago, the BiH Foreign Minister, Jadranko Prlic, attended a meeting of the region foreign ministers in Brussels. The main issue was possible negative consequences of the Kosovo crisis for the region. Specially for OBN, the Foreign Minister gave statement about the meeting. He said that there were negative economy impacts on BiH due to NATO strikes on Yugoslavia.
Sarajevo
SFOR denied once again some media reports that a NATO plane was shot down yesterday in BiH.
OHR and OSCE supports IMC decision to suspend broadcasting of Kanal S from Pale.
Pale
Protests against NATO strikes against Yugoslavia are common in Republika Srpska lately. A protest was organized in Pale today.
RS
The RS representatives in the BiH joint institutions will restart their work from the next week. This was announced after a meeting that the High Representative had with the co-chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Svetozar Mihajlovic, the RS Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik, and the RS Assembly, Petar Djokic, today.
Banja Luka
After a meeting with the Portuguese Ambassador in BiH, the chairman of the BiH Presidency, Zivko Radisic, said that a decision on rejoining of the RS representatives to the BiH joint institutions would be made soon.
Prime minister of the both BiH entities held a meeting today. The prime ministers appealed to the International Community to help both entities to solve problem of refugees from Yugoslavia.
Brcko
A candidate of the RS Socialist Party, Sinisa Kisic, was elected for the new Mayor of Brcko on the today’s session of the multiethnic assembly of the Brcko Municipality.
Sarajevo
The tenth session of the FBiH Government was held today in Sarajevo. It was said that decrease in BiH Federation budget could cause social protests.
Tuzla
A piece on the celebration of seven years of establishing the Second Corpus of the BiH Republic Army in the military barracks, Husein Kapetan Gradascevic, in Tuzla.
Sarajevo
The Federal Minister of Interior Affairs, Mehmed Zivalj, and the Acting Deputy, Tomislav Mihalj, received today new IPTF’s commissar, Buwitt Detlef.
Goran Vasic, accused for the war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Charges for killing president of the BiH government in 1993, Hakija Turajlic, were rejected. Both the prosecutor and defense are dissatisfy with the verdict. The first thinks tgo be too soft, the second that the verdict is too hard.
Tesanj
At the press conference of the Nord-Polish Brigade in Tesanj, the report on the results of the “Zetva 99” action were reported.
Sarajevo
A decision of the High Representative to cancel all occupancy rights gained during and after the war in BiH, resulted with opposite reactions. The High Representative said that he made the decision hoping that all people would return to their pre-war homes.
Travnik / Zenica
The USAID representatives signed memorandums on understanding with the representatives of the Central-Bosnia and Zenica-Doboj Canton today.
Federation / RS
A piece on information presented at the Federal Office for Statistics on salaries in the BiH entities.
Doboj
A piece on new bus lines between RS and Federation, and between RS and Yugoslavia.