- BH-Central Institutions
- Democratic Alliance for Change formally created on Saturday;
- Lapisnica road between Sarajevo and Pale to officially reopen in
May; Sporadic traffic started on Saturday;
- Federation
- Pensioners associations to decide on future demonstrations this
week;
- Ante Jelavic: Authority in the Croat majority cantons will not be
constituted until the Constitutional Court's ruling;
- Republika Srpska
- RS Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, proposes candidates for his
government;
- Traffic accident near Foca: Eight die, Eighteen wounded;
- ICTY to pursue more former SDS members?;
- Milorad Dodik comments the composition of the new RS Government;
- International community:
- Reactions to the HR's decision to establish the Entity's
Constitutional Commissions differ;
- President of the BiH Constitutional Court: HR's decision an interim
solution;
- New investigation of de-mining process in BiH;
- OHR concerned about decision of the BiH Presidency;
- OHR Agent for Transfer holds an informal session with journalists;
- Editorials:
- Republika: The Alliance for Change - the success of the
International Community in BiH;
- Vjesnik: 'If the Alliance takes over the power, the HDZ BiH will
call the referendum';
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Central Institutions related Issues:
Democratic Alliance for Change formally created on Saturday:
Representatives of ten political parties which form the Democratic
Alliance for Changes issued a joint public statement on Saturday
confirming that they will accept the documents titled "Priorities for the
Coming period" and "The Operational Plan for the Implementation of tasks
established by the PIC Steering Board". This formal establishment of the
Alliance in practical terms means that all the parties also accepted the
principles of co-operation in the process of the formation of authority in
BiH, however, without the three nationalist parties, the SDA, the HDZ, and
the SDS. SDP's Zlatko Lagumdzija told Oslobodjenje that the Alliance
members will come up with a list of candidates for the chairmanship of the
Federation Parliament's House of Representatives at its (HoP) constitutive
session, which is scheduled for Monday.
Lapisnica road between Sarajevo and Pale to officially reopen in May;
Sporadic traffic started on Saturday:
According to information in media, the vital road between Sarajevo and
Pale over Lapisnica will be opened for traffic on Tuesday (7-9am and
16-19), while its official opening is scheduled for May, when the process
of paving should be completed. RS Road Management (Direkcija za Puteve RS)
company is in charge of the works, while a Srpsko Sarajevo company
"Romanijaputevi" will provide its ploughing services on this stretch of
the road.
Federation
Pensioners associations to decide on future demonstrations this week:
Pensioners associations in the Federation announced to continue with
strong protests if their August pensions are not disbursed in the coming
week. The president of the FPA, Enver Sarajlic, told Dnevni Avaz that the
executive board of his association will decide this week as when to launch
a new wave of protests, which, he promises, will be significantly stronger
then the ones held in December. "Meetings between the OHR, the IMF, the WB
and the Federation Government are not more then a mere fooling of the most
vulnerable segment of the population," said Sarajlic, and added that his
association would like the OHR to "finally explain to pensioners what kind
of economic benefits will Petritsch's law bring to them." Dnevni Avaz
reported that the OHR will decide on Tuesday as to whether the F
Government will start with the disbursement of August or January pensions
this month.
Ante Jelavic: Authority in the Croat majority cantons will not be
constituted until the Constitutional Court's ruling:
In an interview with Dnevni Avaz, the Croat member of the BiH Presidency
and the leader of the HDZ, Ante Jelavic, said that the authority in the
cantons with Croat majority will not be constituted until the
Constitutional Court decides as to whether the PEC and the OSCE can
constitutionally pass laws in BiH. "If we decide to take part in the
implementation of elections results and the constituting of authority, we
would give legitimacy to rulings of the PEC, and we do not want that,"
said Jelavic, and added that the CC ruling will have profound influence on
the future relationship between BiH and the International Community.
Republika Srpska
RS Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, proposes candidates for his government:
According to media reports, the structure of the new RS Government, which
was inaugurated on Friday is still not definite. Oslobodjenje writes that
the RS Prime Minister is presently discussing the nomination of one of his
ministers, who is also a member of the SDS, with representatives of the
International Community and the Alliance. The candidacy of the
controversial Minister of Trade and Tourism, Goran Popovic, is likely to
be withdrawn in the coming week, because of the strong criticism by the
SDP and key international organisations. Despite the reports that the new
RS government is to include even three ministers from the ranks of the
SDS, Ivanic told Oslobodjenje that he nominated only one - Popovic. Ivanic
also expressed hope that this issue would be resolved in a satisfactory
fashion for both the citizens of the RS and the International Community.
He also stressed that his party, the PDP, will support the Alliance
parties in the process of the formation of the BiH Council of Ministers.
Both the SDA and the Party for BiH protested against Fiday's inauguration
of the RS Government.
Traffic accident near Foca: Eight die, Eighteen wounded:
There has been a terrible traffic accident near Foca on Saturday morning.
A bus en route from Sarajevo to Montenegro (Sandzak) slipped off the road
and fell 200 m down into the canyon of the Bistrica river. Nine
passengers, including several children, died, while eighteen others are
mostly in the critical condition. According to reports, driver of the bus
lost control over the vehicle, probably due to slippery conditions on the
road. German battalion within the SFOR provided most of the support to
rescue the injured, while several female patients are taken to the SFOR
hospital in Foca.
ICTY to pursue more former SDS members?:
One of Momcilo Krajisnik's attornies, lawyer Goran Neskovic, announced
that more arrests of the Bosnian Serb leaders from 1992 might take place
in the RS in the coming period. According to the same source, some leading
members of the SDS might be the targets of those arrests "I cannot say who
actually will be the next indictee but they could be people from the SDS
main and executive boards, someone close to Krajisnik, Plavsic and
Karadzic", Neskovic told Monday's edition Banja Luka daily Nezavisne
Novine.
Milorad Dodik comments the composition of the new RS Government:
Today's edition of Nezavisne Novine carries a lengthy interview with the
departing RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik in which he comments on the
composition of the RS Cabinet, war-crimes and the ICTY. As to composition
of the RS Cabinet, Dodik said that the IC will not tolerate SDS members in
the Cabinet and if Mladen Ivanic decides to keep SDS members in it, then a
sort of financial sanctions will be introduced to the RS. "I know that
some sort of financial sanctions have already been introduced to the RS by
some states and the international organisations, which will bring the new
Cabinet in a very difficult position. I also know that a deadline was
given to Ivanic to remove all SDS ministers from the Cabinet. In a day or
two we will be in a situation in which some of Ivanic's ministers will
have to resign or the sanctions, not only financial but also political",
says Dodik. Moreover, Dodik said that to his knowledge, there are 7 SDS
ministers in the RS Cabinet, and that the attempts of presenting these
people as experts are ridicules since it is very well known that these
people were very active in the SDS. As to the ICTY, Dodik recently said
that almost all leading SDS people might expect to be summoned to The
Hague as witnesses. Commenting on this statement, Dodik says that there is
a great fear among all those people who were at leading positions during
the war. Everybody knows that some deputies in the RS NA, such as Vojislav
Maksimovic and Branimir Savovic from Visegrad, were afraid to come to
Banja Luka to attend RS NA sessions. What I want to say is that war crimes
were committed by all three sides. As far as I am concerned, Alija
Izetbegovic is also responsible for the war crimes and should end up in
The Hague. Tudjman would have also be in The Hague had he been alive",
said Dodik.
International community related issues:
Reactions to the HR's decision to establish the Entity's Constitutional
Commissions differ:
While the Alliance reactions to the decision to establish the entity
Constitutional Commissions are, as is expected, strongly positive,
comments of the nationalist parties in the Federation, in particular of
the SDA and the HDZ, stress that there is no place for euphoria. In a
statement issued on Saturday, the SDA marked Petritsch's decision as "an
incomplete solution, which provides no guarantees that the discrimination
of Croats or Bosniaks in the RS will not continue." The statement also
said that the SDA does not believe that members of the Constitutional
Commissions, which will be appointed by the High Representative, will be
able to protect the vital interests of the Bosniak people in BiH. The SDA
concludes that the present political euphoria caused by the decision is
not more than the alibi for the creation of the Alliance, which otherwise
would not be capable of creating a majority government even on the
territory of the Federation, much less of BiH.
Comments of the leading Croat national party, the HDZ, echo the reaction
of the SDA. In its statement, the former said that although the
establishment of constitutional commissions appears to be a mechanism of a
genuine protection of peoples in BiH, it only masques the efforts of the
International Community to give the authority to the so-called Alliance.
The HDZ also stressed that this decision violates the Constitutional
Court's ruling about the status of peoples in BiH, and provides space for
the creation of unfair political alliances. Finally, the HDZ expresses its
disappointment with the fact that, by passing this decision, the "High
Representative minimised the importance of the Constitutional Court's
ruling on the status of all peoples in BiH." Several Federation media
quoted the HDZ President, Ante Jelavic, as saying that the Alliance, which
was created following the HR's decision, is a terrorist organisation.
Commenting on the reactions of the leading nationalist parties in the
Federation, Oslobodjenje columnist noted that, had the SDA cared more
about the national interest of BiH then about staying in power, Alija
Izetbegovic would have congratulated Haris Silajdzic on his success.
"Petritsch's decision strengthened both the Alliance and the internal
structure of BiH," - concluded the editorial.
President of the BiH Constitutional Court: HR's decision an interim
solution:
"The implementation of the decision about the constituent status of
peoples is the primary responsibility of the parliaments in the Federation
and the RS," said Kasim Begic, (for Nezavisne Novine) commenting on the
decision of the HR to impose an interim procedure for the protection of
the vital interests of constitutive peoples and others.
"This decision of the HR I see as 'an interim move', as an aim which will
speed up the process of the creation of the entire social and political
atmosphere in BiH, and which will result in the final harmonization of the
entity and the BiH constitutions in the spirit of the four partial
decisions of this case. We are talking here about the institutional
protection of equality of constitutive peoples in the structures of entity
governments. That is an important part of these decisions, however, it
must be kept in mind that the CC ruled that even 21 article in the entity
constitutions were unconstitutional. These were the key articles of the
entity constitutions and some of the most significant elements of the
constitutional and legal systems in BiH. Today, we have an unacceptable
vacuum in the entity constitutions, and the hard work for the entity
parliaments is still ahead of us."
Asked if Petritsch's decision could be seen as a political one, Begic
answered affirmatively.
"Of course, this is more of a political then legal decision, although it
has the elements of both. However, the only adequate way of the
implementation of the CC decision is the change of the unconstitutional
articles in the entity constitutions. This is the only satisfactory way.
Thus, I believe that the Petritsch's decision is more of a political then
of the legal nature.
Begic refused to comment this decision in the light of the Alliance
efforts to secure from the HR the political presuppositions for the
democratization of BiH. He said that the real problem lays within the
legal and constitutional system in BiH.
"It is the fact that the key articles of the entity constitutions were
proclaimed unconstitutional. The work of the constitutional and legal
system typically does not depend on political parties, for the structure
of authority in the entities, in particular parliaments, must reaffirm
their legitimacy and legality through changes of their constitutions. In
this political setting, I will refrain from commenting this, for I believe
that this issue belongs to the legal system. The High Representative did
what he could in a given situation, hoping that this would create the
necessary presuppositions for changes and amendments to the entity
constitutions, based on the CC ruling."
Begic, who is also the president of the BiH CC, said that there could be
some improvement in the legal and constitutional system of both the state
and entities after March 15, until when the entity parliaments should
implement the CC decision.
"Presently, it has to be born in mind that it will take time for the
additional translations, changes and commentaries to be completed...It is
not a coincidence that the HR reacted on January 11, when the fourth
decision was finally published. In addition, it has to be taken in
consideration that we had the elections, and that now we may have a new
and better political structure, which will strive for confirming its
legitimacy through affirmation of the legal and constitutional system.
Practically, this means that the HR realised that nothing could be done
unless he changes his jurisdictions, since the BiH CC does not have an
enforcement mechanism. Thus, it is clear that his decisions are binding
for all structures of authority.
New investigation of de-mining process in BiH:
In an exclusive front page story, Dnevni Avaz reports that the
comprehensive investigation of de-mining process in BiH is widening, and
will now cover certain US and European officials. The main goal of the
present-stage investigation is to determine what happened with the
millions of dollars which were earmarked for the de-mining in BiH.
OHR concerned about decision of the BiH Presidency:
OHR press release about the decision of the BiH Presidency to postpone the
nomination of the Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers until the House
of Peoples is formed has been carried by all Federation media. For most
electronic media, the PR was the leading news on Saturday.
OHR Agent for Transfer holds an informal session with journalists:
Most Federation media reported (mostly on their back pages) about John
Shearer's informal session with journalists held on Friday, in which he
set a new deadline for the start of the PBS. According to Sarajevo
dailies, Shearer stressed that the PBS Radio program could begin
broadcasting by the end of April, while the deadline for the start of the
Federation RTV is still unknown. The HR's Agent for Transfer also
announced that the Radio Fern would become a part of the PBS Radio
service.
Editorials:
Republika: The Alliance for Change - the success of the International
Community in BiH:
The representatives of ten political parties in BiH signed a statement
which binds them to co-operation and the joint establishment of the
executive bodies of authority which will exclude the three nationalist
parties (SDS, HDZ, SDA) that were running the country in the past ten
years.
For the time being, the Alliance for Changes, as it was called earlier,
consists of the parties based in the BiH Federation, but Milorad Dodik's
SNSD is expected to join them.
The IC, faced with the danger of further rule of the nationalist parties
in BiH, has obviously applied the already tested and successful model of
creating large coalitions. Wolfgang Petritsch managed to gather the
political parties that will try to democratize BiH, initiate economic
reforms and deal with crime and corruption, which are just some of the
prerequisites for a more considerable financial aid from the IC.
The model of large coalitions that proved successful in overthrowing the
former regimes in Croatia and the FRY, and will probably be applied by
Milo Djukanovic's opponents in Montenegro, is at present time the only
model under which BiH can start heading towards the other countries of the
Southeastern Europe, approaching the international organizations and the
European-Atlantic army and political unions.
This development of the situation will homogenize the nationalist parties,
which will try to obstruct the decisions and activities of the newly
elected authorities. The IC, which is running out of patience due to the
fact that BiH is not functioning as a democratic and social state of law,
will harshly settle accounts with all those who do not act in accordance
with their devised policy of final settling of the situation in BiH.
Vjesnik: 'If the Alliance takes over the power, the HDZ BiH will call the
referendum':
Ante Jelavic considers the Alliance to be a union of Bosniak parties,
which it really is, because, of all Croat parties, it only includes the
NHI and the HSS, which do not have even as little as 5% of support from
the Croat constituency.
The major objection from Jelavic's Office refers to the fact that
Petritsch himself nominates the members of the constitutional commissions
and that the final decision, in case the commission members do not reach
an agreement on some issue, is again in his hands, by which the HR
practically and formally takes over the protector's powers in this realm
as well.
The one-person-one-vote principle could be introduced, which does not suit
Croats, as the people that is the smallest in number. According to
Vjesnik's information, in that case, there is a general consensus within
the legitimately elected Croat political leadership in BiH, to call a
referendum on the position of the Croats through the Croat People's
Assembly, that is, on the forming of parallel institutions of some kind in
the territory where this people has the majority, perhaps even an alliance
of the Cantons with the Croat majority. Does this mean causing of a new
war?
"No, we will fight for our rights with the democratic means, and if
necessary, we will offer the passive civil resistance," says Vjesnik's
interlocutor from the leadership of the HDZ BiH.
A highly ranking politician of the SDP stated that the national parties
should be removed from power even at the price of a long-term crisis of
the authorities.
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