- BH-Central Institutions
- BiH gets a new government without the three nationalist parties;
- Croat National Assembly to hold a session on March 3;
- Federation
- FEDERATION BiH HOUSE OF PEOPLES CONSTITUTED:
- SDA says OHR legal opinion about the House of Peoples is of "dubious
foundation";
- Neven Tomic - new Mayor of Mostar;
- Republika Srpska
- RS Prime Minister says the content of agreement on special and
parallel relations should be made public
- British Ambassador visits Banja Luka;
- British Ambassador visits Banja Luka;
- International community:
- The Hague Tribunal sentences three BiH Serbs for mass rape of
Bosniak women in Foca;
- Editorials:
- Vecernji List: Police officials against Croat insignia on uniforms -
Pressures for no reason and cause;
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Central Institutions related Issues:
BiH gets a new government without the three nationalist parties:
Yesterday's formation of the BiH Council of Ministers was by far the top
story in BiH media. According to reports, the country got its first
non-nationalist government in a decade, i.e., the Council of Ministers
without representatives of the three nationalist parties, the SDA, the
SDS, and the HDZ. During yesterday's session of the BiH Parliament's House
of Representatives, Bozidar Matic of the SDP was nominated the Chair of
the Council of Ministers, team of his Ministers was accepted by the
majority. During the voting process, members of the SDA and the SDS
abstained, while representatives of the HDZ left the session before voting
took place, claiming that the session, called by the deputy speaker, was
unconstitutional. Apart from this criticism of the HDZ, most other
representatives complained because they have not received Matic's work
program in a written form prior to the session.
The High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, and the European Commission
welcomed the formation of the Council of Europe. Most Federation media
carried the OHR and the EU press releases.
Croat National Assembly to hold a session on March 3:
Niko Lozancic of the HDZ, the Secretary General of the Croat National
Assembly, told the press in Mostar that this body will hold a session on
March 3 in order to decide as to its future steps and the so-called
Platform, which will reflect the attitudes of Croat people towards BiH.
Lozancic said that the Assembly will make decision in order to protect the
national interests of Croats in BiH.
Federation
FEDERATION BiH HOUSE OF PEOPLES CONSTITUTED:
At the constituting session of the Federation Parliament's House of
Peoples, Ivo Komsic of the SDP has been elected the chairman, while Meliha
Alic of the Party for BiH - the deputy chairperson. Komsic and Alic were
the only candidates for the positions. During the voting, SDA deputies
abstained. The House of Peoples also nominated Karlo Filipovic (SDP) for
the Federation President and Safet Halilovic (Party for BiH) for his
deputy. This proposal still has to go before the Federation Parliament's
House of Representatives. HDZ delegates failed to come to the session.
Before the adoption
of the agenda the Bosniak SDA delegates warned that the House of Peoples
does not reflect the will of the people and the voters, and marked it a
"House of Robert Barry and the OSCE". On behalf of the 4 Croat delegates
from the NHI, Ivo Zivkovic confirmed that they would participate in the
work of the House, adding that he regretted the HDZ boycotting the work of
this body. Out of 30 delegates of Croatian nationality, only 14 of them
came to the constituting session. They are members of the NHI, the SDP and
the DNZ.
SDA says OHR legal opinion about the House of Peoples is of "dubious
foundation":
At yesterday's press conference, a high SDA official, Nedzad Brankovic,
said the OHR reading of constitutional provisions related to the
Federation House of Peoples have a "dubious foundation". "Despite that,"
Branovic said, "SDA deputies will take part in the constituting session of
the House which is scheduled for Friday (today)," and added that the main
reason for the SDA decision is the present crisis in the implementation of
the elections results. He stressed, however, that the obstruction of the
process by the HDZ is far worse then the "defect" in the reading of the
Federation's Constitution, and reminded the Croat party that it should
fight for its rights within the legally established institutions.
Meanwhile, the HDZ repeated once again that there are no constitutional or
procedural basis for the constituting session of the House of Peoples
which is scheduled for later today. HDZ's Marko Tokic said at yesterday's
press conference that diplomatic circles in BiH are leading a special,
dirty and bestial war against the Croats, but stressed that they will not
give in. He also said that Croat National Assembly will convene in the
near future, and will most likely make a decision that Croats will not
take part in the "imposed" authority, and will not accept its status to be
degraded to the category of "others."
Neven Tomic - new Mayor of Mostar:
Neven Tomic will be the Mayor of Mostar in the next one-year period, while
the former Mayor Safet Orucevic announced his withdrawal. As Orucevic
said, in his speech before the Council, "until the new Deputy Mayor,
Hamdija Jahic, is officially elected current Head of the city's Urban
Planning Department will be filling in. In his media statement following
the City Council session, Neven Tomic rejected any possibility of being
appointed the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Yugoslavia, and
stressed that he would persist on setting up a functioning and normal City
of Mostar.
Republika Srpska
RS Prime Minister says the content of agreement on special and parallel
relations should be made public:
Speaking at a press conference in Banja Luka, the RS Prime Minister,
Mladen Ivanic, said that, following the meeting between the FRY President,
Vojislav Kostunica, the RS leadership and the High Representative,
Wolfgang Petritsch, in Belgrade, tensions caused by the signing of
agreement on special and parallel relations between the FRY and the RS are
significantly lower. According to Ivanic, certain issues, such as the
question of dual citizenship and derfense, are still to be discussed. "The
BiH Parliament will have a chance to intervene if it believes that any
part of the Agreement is detrimental to interests of BiH," said Ivanic,
and added that he thinks that there are no such parts in the agreement.
Ivanic said at the end that the content of this agreement should not be
hidden from public, and suggested a more transparent process.
British Ambassador visits Banja Luka:
The British Ambassador to BiH, Graham Hand, met today in Banja Luka the RS
Vice President, Dragan Cavic, and the RS Minister for Refugees and DPs,
Mico Micic. Minister Micic and Ambassador Hand discussed the
implementation of property laws and the dismissals of collective centres
in the RS.
The top priority task for the RS Ministry for Refugees and DPs will be to
dismiss collective refugee centers in the RS and provide alternative
accommodation, Minister Micic stated. He said that there were great
difficulties in providing necessary financial assets for this. "Another
priority task to be implemented in near future is to provide alternative
accommodation, as well as to implement the program of reconstruction and
construction of devastated facilities", he said This Ministry expects to
be supported by Ambassador Hand and international organizations, because,
according to Micic, this Ministry can not count on substantial assets from
the RS budget.
British Ambassador Graham Hand said that his country set aside 20 million
KM per year, intended for finding solution to refugee issues in BiH. He
said that he expected to see the results in the return of refugees. "Most
of that is going into economic reform, welfare and refugee issues". He
said that he was especially pleased with the fact that Deputy Ministers
for Refugees were of Bosniak and Croat ethnicity, and that the Office of
RS Ministry for Refugees and DPs would be opened in Sarajevo. He said that
he expected a good cooperation between the RS Government and the new BiH
CoM.
International community related issues:
The Hague Tribunal sentences three BiH Serbs for mass rape of Bosniak
women in Foca:
Three Serbs were sentenced to 28, 20 and 12 years in prison Thursday for
leading a campaign of mass rape during the war in BiH in a first verdict
that recognized sexual assault as a crime against humanity. Dragoljob
Kunarac, Radomir Kovac, and Zoran Vukovic, all in their forties, have been
on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague (ICTY) on
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They were accused of
organizing the rape and harassment of Bosniak women in the Foca region
between June 1992 and February 1993. The verdict was welcomed by most
representatives of the International Community, however associations of
Bosniak women say the three received a minimum punishment for the crimes
they committed.
Editorials
(Provided by the OHR Mostar)
Vecernji List: Police officials against Croat insignia on uniforms -
Pressures for no reason and cause (by R. Bubalo)
The last West Herzegovina Canton Government session was dominated by
discussion on the insignia on Cantonal Ministry of Interior police
uniforms. Bearing in mind that the Government president, Andjelko Mikulic,
and the acting Minister of Interior, Vinko Culjak, had previously had a
meeting with IPTF representatives on the subject, they informed the
Government members on the content of the meeting in detail.
Namely, at the end of the last year, the Government put its earlier
decision on police uniforms insignia, by which the police officers at the
time had to remove all the insignia, out of force. As the international
community considered the insignia inappropriate, it threatened to remove
the MoI officials should the police officers keep on wearing those. The
Government discarded the threats finding them ungrounded as the procedure
for change of insignia is conducted in conformity with the Constitution
and the law, so the conclusion was adopted at the session by which the
Cantonal Assembly is recommended to complete the started procedure.
"The problematic is regulated by the Cantonal Constitution Articles 8 and
9 of which describe what the coat-of-arms and the flag should look like.
Beside this, there are a number of other provisions that regulate these
issues such as the law on Seal. Yet, the BiH Constitutional Court passed
the decision on he change of insignia so, in that sense, the Assembly
formed a Commission and the issue will be solved within a legislative body
of our Canton", Gojko Kolobaric, the Minister of Justice stated after the
session.
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