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BiH Media Round-up, 12/12/2000 |
Constituting session of the BiH Parliament's House of Representatives scheduled for December 21: Representatives of the parties which will participate in the new government agreed yesterday to schedule the constituting session of the BiH Parliament's House of Representatives for December 21st. According to newspapers, the present party leaders also devised an agenda for the session during which the elected deputies are to ceremoniously give an oath and then elect the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the House. The Federation and the RS Union agreed yesterday to form a Brcko District
union:
At yesterday's meeting held in Brcko, the Unions from the Federation and the
RS agreed to form the Brcko District Union by February 7, 2001. Until it is
officially constituted, the office of the Union will be open for all Brcko
workers regardless of their ethnic affiliation and will provide legal advice
for those who seek this kind of assistance.
New Energetic Shock: Gas service higher by 50 and heating by 15 percent?: According to Oslobodjenje, the BH Gas (Gas provider in the Federation) asked the Federation Government to sanction an increase of the price for gas services in the Federation by 50 percent. Should the Government approve this move, Oslobodjenje writes, the prices of other relevant services in the entity will also go up. The increase would trigger a chain reaction, so the Toplane (Heating Provider) would automatically have to raise prices of their service by at least 15 percent. The BiH Gas justified its request by claiming higher prices of oil and oil products on the world market. Despite the claims of senior HDZ officials, there is no split in the party: Despite the speculations published in the weekend issues of Sarajevo dailies, a senior official of the HDZ who wanted to remain anonymous denied that there is a split within the party and rejected the possibility of a "more leftist" fraction in the HDZ being formed. He told Oslobodjenje that a number of high officials in the party will either permanently leave their positions or will be appointed to new ones, but no one will be allowed to form a fraction within the party. "The HDZ is not that sort of a party. Here, there are only three options - to be in the party, to leave, or the keep quiet", the same source said. The Head of Mostar Municipality Stari Grad Resigns because of the OHR: The Head of the Municipality Stari Grad in Mostar, Samir Drljevic, submitted his resignation on Monday due to, as he said, an unfair pressure and threats from the Mostar OHR. In a written statement for the press, Drljaca claimed that the Head of the Mostar OHR, Fin Lynghjem, twice asked him to publicly lie about the alleged obstructions within the Municipality's Department of Housing Affairs and protect the Department Head, Ajka Hodzic, who has been repeatedly accused of abusing her authority and mistreating her clients. Apparently, Hodzic failed to "set her priorities straight", and "was quicker to evict paraplegics and helpless refugees from apartments they were occupying", then the genuine double occupants. In his statement, Drljevic said he supports the full implementation of property laws, but he also believes that it is necessary to create a priority lists, and first process the cases of double occupancy, and only then the "extreme social cases". Finally, Drljevic said he could no longer lie about Hodzic in order to "protect his department and the municipality", for it is below his dignity to defend an individual who mistreats refugees and all those who today live in collective centers.
OHR's Finn Lynghjem: Association of Bosniaks obstructs the law: Finn Lynghjem, the Head of the OHR Mostar, is concerned about the statements of the Association of the Displaced Bosniaks in Mostar, who put into question the legitimate and professional work of the Office for the Housing Issues of the Municipality Stari Grad. Besides expressing their views in a very inappropriate manner, the Association threatens that they would obstruct the work of the legitimate body and encourage the citizens to oppose the rule of law. According to Lynghjem, that would harm the refugees and displaced persons, who want to return to their property which was taken from them during the war. He also stressed the responsibility of the media when they publish the slanderous statements.
Lynghjem stated at the press conference:
Jutarnji List: Ante Jelavic - I will be happy if the reduction of funds for the HVO helps the economy of Croatia: "I do understand that, in a difficult financial situation, the Croatian Government must save from the new budget. We are happy if 100 million Kunas, which is as much as they will save at the HVO expense, will help the Croatian economy", Ante Jelavic, the Croat member to the BiH Presidency, briefly commented on the Croatian Government's decision to reduce the originally planned 150 million Kunas for the assistance to the HVO (which is twice as little as this year's 300 million) to 50 million Kunas in the last budget cut. "Everyone in Croatia looks at us as at a great burden. Why doesn't anybody see the amount of capital that Croatia draws annually from BiH, the only country with which Croatia achieves a surplus in the exchange of goods? From 1995 to 2000, Croatia exported goods to BiH in the amount which is 5 billion higher than the amount of its import from BiH. In the first 9 months, when the exchange stagnated due to the lack of any trade agreement, Croatia, in its exchange with BiH, achieved a surplus amounting to 380 million dollars", Jelavic said. Miroslav Prce, the FBiH Minister of Defense, says that they have been, for quite some time now, aware that the Federation could not support such a big army, so they initiated two 15% reductions themselves. But not even that will do. "Our goal is to become independent. In the talks with the Prime Minister Racan and his ministers, on the eve of the preparation of the original draft budget, we had their great understanding. The amount for the HVO was to be reduced by 50%, but Croatia intended to help with taking care of demobilized soldiers with the amount of 100 million Kunas. Unfortunately, in the final version the amount came down to 15 million Kunas", Prce said. Many families, in Posavina and Central Bosnia in particular, live on soldiers' pay as there are no other jobs. Robert Barry, the Head of the OSCE Mission, who in Oslobodjenje requested that the army in BiH be reduced by 50% and come down to 15 000 soldiers, assessed that massive demobilization would not cause any major social disturbances, as there are already 400 000 unemployed people in BiH! I will propose that all the heavy weapons of the Federation Army be sold - cannons, tanks and APCs, including 15 helicopters which were donated by the Americans and which are out of order. There is no money and we cannot make it up, Miroslav Prce, the FBiH Minister of Defense, said. Thus 205 tanks, 173 combat vehicles and 986 cannons would be offered for sale. That would mean admitting that the "Train and Equip" program was an ultimate failure. Mirko Sarovic: We will hold off with suggestions for the Prime Minister until the authority within the RS National Assembly is constituted: Although it was expected that the SDS would announce its candidate for the prime minister at yesterday's session of the Party, Mirko Sarovic said that the decision will not be made until the authority within the RS National Assembly is constituted. After the meeting, Sarovic said that the potential mandatory should not be only to his liking, but that his nomination will largely depend on the forces in the RS NA. Serb Radical Party welcomes the announcement of "an early departure" of Wolfgang Petritsch!?: In a press release issued on Monday, the Serb Radical Party (SRS) welcomed the announcement of "an early departure" of Wolfgang Petritsch from the position of the High Representative. (the SRS is probably referring to the information originated by SRNA last week) The party's spokesman, Ognjen Tadic, said that the SRS does not expect any major changes in the politics of the International Community, but that the departure of Petritsch represents a "glimmer of hope". Commenting on the celebration of the International Day of Human Rights, Tadic said that those who come to the RS and to BiH to preach about human rights are those who most flagrantly violate the same. "Representatives of the International Community in BiH advocate a sophisticated version of the occupying regime by banning political parties, politicians, and by infringing upon the freedom of the press," said Tadic, and added that those representatives will not be gladly remembered in BiH. Meanwhile, OHR Spokesman, Oleg Milisic, once again denied the allegations published in several RS media that Petritsch would leave his post before his mandate expires. "These allegations are completely unfounded. Petritsch will remain in BiH until the end of his mandate and will continue working on the implementation of the DPA, the fight against corruption, and on other issues important for the future of this country", said Milisic at today's press conference.
SDS and PDP agree on the date for constituting the new RS Cabinet:
Delegations from the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and the Serbian
Democratic Party (SDS), led by the party leaders, Mladen Ivanic and Dragan
Kalinic, met in Banja Luka late on Monday and agreed that the new RS Cabinet
should be constituted by December 31, while the first session of the new RS
National Assembly will probably be held on Saturday, December 16. A PDP
official told SRNA that the SDS insisted on getting the same number of seats
as the PDP in the new Cabinet. The SDS delegation included the newly elected
RS President Mirko Sarovic and his deputy, Dragan Cavic, while the PDP was
represented by Zoran Djeric and Branko Dokic. Prior to the meeting with the
SDS, Ivanic met with RS Socialist Party functionaries and discussed the
constitution of the new Cabinet.
Haris Silajdzic tests Wolfgang Petritsch: Jutarnje Novine reported that a source close the OHR confirmed that the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, met yesterday with the President of the Party for BiH, Haris Silajdzic and discussed the proposal containing S BiH's requests to the International Community. Jutarnje did not have any information as to the outcome of the meeting.
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| The BiH Media Round-up is being compiled primarily for the OHR's internal purposes under time pressure. Please disregard grammar and typing mistakes. The mentioned media reports do not reflect OHR views, and the OHR does not take responsibility for them. |
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