- BH-Central Institutions
- BiH Presidency to discuss the establishment of BiH Council of
Ministers:
- Alliance for Changes to be constituted:
- Zlatko Lagumdzija met with Ivanic in Sarajevo;
- Federation
- Problems with pensions in Federation continue:
- A possible split within the Party for BiH:
- Federation Constitutional Court to discuss the ``old hard currency
savings'':
- Federation Ombudsmen report on marked improvement of property laws
in Herzegovina-Neretva canton:
- Maglaj: Stabilisation of the tensions caused by the devastation of
the Culture Centre in Bocinja and SFOR presence:
- Drvar: Explosive device activated in a residential building in the
early morning hours of Sunday - 'Hand-grenade explodes in the flat of
family Petricevic':
- Five years after the Dayton Agreement the residents of Bosansko
Grahovo and Drvar have problems with certificates from the register of
births, marriages and deaths: 'One travels to Banjaluka to get
certificates':
- Republika Srpska
- International Community
- German government finds removal of West Mostar University Rector
unacceptable:
- Rounds with depleted uranium found near Sarajevo:
- Interview with the head of UN Mission to BiH:
- Florence Heartman does not deny that Biljana Plavsic was summoned to
the Hague;
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Central Institutions related Issues:
BiH Presidency to discuss the establishment of BiH Council of Ministers:
BiH Presidency will at its next session scheduled for Thursday among other
things discuss the establishment of the new BiH Council of Ministers. It
is expected that Ante Jelavic, Bosnian Croat member of the Presidency,
will present their nominee for the President of the Council. HDZ has
decided that Martin Raguz will be their candidate for the head of the
Council, papers said.
Alliance for Changes to be constituted:
Potential member parties of the Alliance for Changes, initiated by the
SDP, will meet in Sarajevo on Tuesday at a constitutive session of the
Alliance, Sarajevo papers reported. This means that the established
coalition will officially start existing today when parties sign four
document related to the Alliance, dailies said.
Zlatko Lagumdzija met with Mladen Ivanic in Sarajevo:
Today's edition of "Nezavisne novine" reports that Mladen Ivanic met with
Zlatko Lagumdzija in Sarajevo yesterday. The meeting was also attended by
Joseph Ingram (World Bank). After the meeting Lagumdzija did not want to
reveal details of the meeting or to comment on Ivanic's proposal. In a
short interview given to "NN", Lagumdzija says that they did not agree on
members of the RS cabinet, although SDP BiH will not definitely refuse
Ivanic's offer, because his concept is acceptable to the great extant. On
the other hand, Lagumdzija says that political and personnel solutions for
the new RS Cabinet are not acceptable, because they do not guarantee
implementation of what was envisaged by the Alliance for Changes. From the
IC sources "NN" learns that Ivanic also had meetings with the IC
representatives. The same source claims that the IC representatives are
not satisfied with Ivanic's concept of the RS Cabinet and they told Ivanic
one more time that the IC will not accept participation of SDS in the RS
Cabinet, and especially participation of some SDS members. Otherwise,
sanctions will be introduced to the RS.
Federation
Problems with pensions in Federation continue:
Problems with pensions in the Federation continue.
Oslobodjenje reported on its front page Tuesday that the Federation
government officials said that they will try to find a solution for
regular payment of pensions by the end of this week. Federation government
told BiH Pensioners Fund that they accept the obligation to consolidate
the pension fund and to offer a solution by the end of this week.
A possible split within the Party for BiH:
Dnevni Avaz on its front page reported on a possible split within the
Party for BiH. According to the daily Haris Siladzic's party might split
into two streams, one for closer ties with the SDA and other for a
coalition with the SDP. According to the daily only Silajdzic's authority
can overcome the crisis in the party. Enes Karic, one of Silajdzic's close
associates has quit the party and in an open letter published in Dnevni
Avaz said that he is leaving the party because he does not want it to be a
``communist satellite.''
Federation Constitutional Court to discuss the ``old hard currency
savings'':
Federation Constitutional Court will on Wednesday next week discuss the
so-called ``old hard currency savings,'' if BiH citizens, Sarajevo papers
reported. The Court will discuss the constitutionality of the federal law
according to which the old savings of BiH citizens were transformed into
certificates. A number of representatives in the Federation Parliament
said they feel that the old savings should be turned into a state public
debt, papers said.
Federation Ombudsmen report on marked improvement of property laws in
Herzegovina-Neretva canton:
Federation Ombudsmen from Mostar in a report said that a marked
improvement of property laws was noted in most municipalities in the
Herzegovina-Neretva canton last year. This is especially noticeable in
Jablanica, Konjic, Prozor-Rama, Citluk and Ljubuski, ombudsmen said. They
added that the results would be even better is municipalities would
cooperate closer on two way return and if the canton governments and the
representatives of the international community would offer more help,
Oslobodjenje said.
Maglaj: Stabilisation of the tensions caused by the devastation of the
Culture Centre in Bocinja and SFOR presence - 'SFOR Spokesperson Thompson:
This is an attempt of stopping Serb returns'
"The vandals and plunderers in Bocinja used a pneumatic drilling machine
to take window frames out. The same group threatened the SFOR soldiers.
The Commander of the SFOR Nordic-Polish Unit was hit while he was trying
to calm the situation down," Split daily Slobodna Dalmacija quoted
Thompson as saying.
"This is an attempt of stopping the returns to Bocinja because the
reconstruction of 18 devastated houses to which Serbs are supposed to
return, has been suspended," stated Thompson. He added that three persons,
including Abu Hamza, were detained because of the riots, that charges will
be pressed against them, and that they have been released in the meantime.
Abu Hamza said: "We have bought the houses here and we are not leaving the
village despite the pressures."
Drvar: Explosive device activated in a residential building in the early
morning hours of Sunday - 'Hand-grenade explodes in the flat of family
Petricevic'
Slobodna Dalmacija said that the explosion caused damage in one flat only,
without any casualties. The duty policeman at the Drvar Police
Administration, Marko Mijocevic, could not confirm what sort of explosive
device it was, but said it was probably a hand-grenade, judging from the
particles that were found on the spot.
The Petricevics said the motive of the explosion was an attempt of
intimidating the Croats who chose to live in Drvar.
Drvar has around 10,000 inhabitants, and Croat DPs from all over B&H make
up the majority population since 1995.
According to the official statistics from 2000, 4,500 to 5,000 Serb
pre-war citizens returned to Drvar.
Drvar Mayor Rajko Damjanovic claims that a much smaller number of Serbs
have returned to Drvar and that there are currently around 2,500 Serb
returnees in the town.
The owner of the flat where the explosion occurred, Ivica Petricevic,
assumes that the explosive device was planted by one of the Serb returnees
who were celebrating Christmas. According to Petricevic, another strong
detonation could be heard some time after midnight from the direction of
the settlement where the Serbs returned.
Five years after the Dayton Agreement the residents of Bosansko Grahovo
and Drvar have problems with certificates from the register of births,
marriages and deaths: 'One travels to Banjaluka to get certificates':
Zagreb daily Vecernji List reported on Tuesday that in order to get any
certificate from the registry books the residents of the Drvar
Municipality have to go to Banjaluka. The same rules applies also to
Croats, who live in the biggest number in the village of Unista, who also
have other problems. Namely, they even find it problematic to go to the
seat of the Municipality, because they have to cross over the state border
with the Republic of Croatia. " The border is on the 16th kilometre on the
way from Grahovo to Knin, and the people from Unista have to cross over
the border in order to come to Grahovo. Several days ago we sent a request
to the State Borderline Service in charge of borderline traffic and
crossing over the border on the border crossing in Strmica," Mr. Bilcar
told us. However he has not received any reply so far.
We are leaving Grahovo and going to Drvar. The reason is same: to find out
if the residents of Drvar have similar problems. Dragan Puzigaca, the Head
of the Department for General Services, waited for us in the Municipality
building. He says that the registry books have been returned to the native
municipality, however, the original copies of the registry books are in
Banjaluka. With the assistance of the OSCE they were copied and delivered
to Drvar. However, problems still exist because it was shown in practice
that there is a lack of the registry books, Puzigaca says. The Head sent a
report on those problems to the OSCE in Banjaluka and Drvar. As of the
deficiencies, he says:
" The experts did not participate in those activities, in the process of
copying, binding and making registers. The registers of births, marriages
and death were put together without registry lists and you know what it
means when someone asks for certificates from the register of births,
deaths and marriages if there is no registry list. It is almost impossible
to find them." According to his words, the original registers of births,
marriages and certificates were made in such a good way so that every
village, in the period from 1957 to 1995, had its register. If the copying
were made in that way, there would be no problems.
Republika Srpska
Mico Vukovic (BiH Minister of foreign economic relations) says that the
trade agreement between the FRY and BiH will be signed by the end of
January:
Nezavisne Novine on Tuesday reported that Mico Vukovic (BiH Minister of
foreign economic relations) says that the trade agreement between the FRY
and BiH is in the final phase and might be signed by the end of January.
"The Draft Trade Agreement between the FRY and BiH is finished, and the
Draft Agreement between the two countries on customs co-operation,
investments protection, railway traffic and co-operation between the
foreign ministries is underway. The FRY will provide the draft agreements
on air traffic, road traffic and recognition of passports and other
identification documents. The FRY also has to provide the draft agreements
on payment operations between the two countries and on double taxation",
says Vukovic.
International Community
German government finds removal of West Mostar University Rector
unacceptable:
German government has announced that it will not cooperate with the west
Mostar University until further notice, Dnevni Avaz reported. This is a
consequence of the removal of Marko Tadic from the position of the
University Rector. German Ambassador to BiH sent a letter to the
University asking the officials there to explain Tadic's current position
saying that the German government finds his removal unacceptable and he
should be returned to his post.
Rounds with depleted uranium found near Sarajevo:
As part of the Balkan syndrome and depleted uranium story Dnevni Avaz
reported on Tuesday that rounds with depleted uranium were found in
Hadzici near Sarajevo. The daily said for firing of the three rounds an
Italian journalist found on Monday depleted uranium was used. The
journalist has turned over the rounds to Italian members of NATO-led peace
troops, Dnevni Avaz said.
The same daily said that BiH Parliament House of Representative's
officials said this institution will discuss the Balkan syndrome soon and
will form a parliamentary commission to establish what is the truth in the
entire case.
Interview with the head of UN Mission to BiH:
In a two-page interview the head of UN Mission to BiH, Jacques Paul Klein,
among other things, told Oslobodjenje that the three main goals of the UN
Mission to BiH are to organize a mini summit of presidents of BiH,
Yugoslavia and Croatia, the admission of BiH to Council of Europe and the
establishment of a police structure on state level. Klein also warned that
the interest of the world for BiH and its problems is fading away and said
that Serbia is the key for the peace on the Balkans.
Klein said that last year was successful underlining that diplomatic
relations were established between FRY and BiH.
Florence Heartman (ICTY Spoksperson) does not deny that Biljana Plavsic
was summoned to The Hague:
Nezavisne Novine reported that Florence Heartman (ICTY Spoksperson) does
not deny that Biljana Plavsic was summoned to The Hague. Asked to comment
whether Plavsic will appear before the Tribunal, Heartman says that she
does not know.
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