- BH-Central Institutions
- Official denies new government poses threat to Serb interests;
- State Border Service establishes unit in Velika Kladusa;
- Council of Ministers holds its first session on Monday;
- Federation
- Edhem Bicakcic says he should be rewarded for some of his decisions,
not dismissed;
- HDZ official says Croats in BiH in an unenviable position;
- Evictions in Bocinje still on hold;
- Republika Srpska
- The RS Helsinki Human Rights Committee is concerned about moves of
the RS Government - Ivanic resurrects war extremists;
- Ivanic meets with Zoran Djindjic (FRY PM) - Support to trade between
the FRY and BiH;
- Mirko Sarovic intends to re-engage wartime Serb police chiefs?;
- International community:
- The ICTY rules on two highest Croat officials in The Hague;
- HDZ marks the ICTY verdict as unfair;
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Central Institutions related Issues:
Official denies new government poses threat to Serb interests:
The deputy Speaker of the BiH Parliament's House of Representatives,
Zeljko Mirjanic, said today that the new Council of Ministers is a legal
and legitimate body and that its program guarantees respect for the
Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution and the Dayton Agreement. Speaking at a
news briefing, Mirjanic said that the new Council of Ministers, led by
Bozidar Matic, was legal since it was elected in accordance with the
procedure foreseen by the Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution and the standing
orders of the House of Representatives. He denied statements that the body
was illegitimate since before its election, delegates of the HDZ walked
out of the house session, adding that other Croat parties voted for Matic
as well as Croat delegates from non-national parties. Mirjanic also denied
statements by certain parties from the RS, especially the SDS about the
alleged danger of threatening the interests of the Serb Republic.
"Protection of RS interests is an institutional and not a partisan or
personal matter, and it will depend on the functioning of the RS and BiH
state institutions," he said. Speaking about the composition of the new
Council of Ministers, Mirjanic said that it was important that for the
first time there are no officials from the nationalist SDS, HDZ and the
SDA in this body.
State Border Service establishes unit in Velika Kladusa:
The BiH State Border Service [SBS] on Monday established a unit in Velika
Kladusa, northwestern Bosnia, TV BiH has reported. The Velika Kladusa unit
is the third SBS unit established in February, after similar units were
formed in Trebinje on 20 February and in Kamensko on 22 February. Another
unit, this time in Orasje, is expected to be formed on 28 February, while
in March SBS units will also be established in Brcko, Bosanski Brod, Hum
and Neum. By the end of March, the State Border Service should consist of
11 units with around 1,250 employees, who will control more than 60 per
cent of the BiH state border.
Council of Ministers holds its first session on Monday:
The Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Bozidar Matic, and members
of the new Council held their first session following its constituting
last Thursday. The session was not attended by any HDZ members, nor by the
former Chairman, Martin Raguz, who was to officially transfer his post to
Matic. According to media, yesterday's session was of purely technical
nature.
Federation
Edhem Bicakcic says he should be rewarded for some of his decisions, not
dismissed:
In his first public appearance since the High Representative made a
decision to remove him from the post of the General-Manager of
Elektroprivreda, Edhem Bicakcic argued that he is falsely accused and that
Petritsch's decision was illegal since, as Bicakcic claims, he does not
have the authority to interfere in the sphere of economy. In an interview
with the RTV BiH late last night, Bicakcic said that the decision of the
High Representative is also unfair since it retroactively penalizes him
for the things he has done while serving as the Federation Prime Minister.
He also said that the manner in which he has been accused was utterly
uncivilized and almost treacherous, since none of the allegations have
been proven true yet. "What if I prove him wrong, what if all this is a
lie?," asked Bicakcic. Speaking in a slightly nervous but confident manner
and flipping through a pile of papers in front of him, Bicakcic addressed
each individual item in the OHR decision. Commenting on the allegation
that he has transferred funds from the Federation Current Reserve Funds to
the Association of Families and Fallen Soldiers, but then used it to
further capitalize the Sehin Bank, Bicakcic said that the transferred
money went to families of fallen soldiers and that they decided to invest
it into the Sehin Bank. Most funds were used to provide scholarships to
children without a parent. Bicakcic said he should be rewarded, not
penalized for this decision. Referring to the alleged illegal transfers of
funds via banks in Austria and Germany, Bicakcic said that neither he nor
the Federation Government ever had accounts in foreign banks. He also said
that he has never given a Pfenig to the SDA, nor to any other political
party for that matter. He said that the process of funding of the party is
completely transparent and that the OHR can easily consult its books.
Commenting on the recent scandal over the illegal import of vehicles into
BiH, Bicakcic said that he has not even been present at the session of the
Federation government when this decision was voted on, and thus, could not
be held accountable for it. Despite that, he stressed that he believes
that his government made a right decision on this matter. Bicakcic
conceded that he has always been week with media, "even those who turned
against him," he said, and added that he indeed gave 100,000 KM to the
Bosniak Radio Television. Finally, the former Prime Minister and now the
former General Manager of Elektropriovreda invited the High Representative
to participate in a television debate, and enable the viewers to see for
themselves what the reasons behind his decision were.
Meanwhile, the Steering Board of Elektroprivreda will elect a new General
Manager at its extraordinary session scheduled for today. Papers speculate
that Ognjen Markovic, one of the company's directors is the most serious
candidate for the position.
HDZ official says Croats in BiH in an unenviable position:
Speaking at a political forum about the status of Croat people in BiH,
Dragan Covic of the HDZ said that Croats are in an unenviable position,
since Serbs have their RS, and Bosniaks virtually dominate the Federation.
Other speakers stressed how Croats are disadvantaged economically as well,
as they received only 5 percent of the five billion dollars US aid to BiH.
"Still they showed the best results," it was concluded.
Federation Parliament's House of Representatives to discuss the
nominations for the President and Vice President:
At a session scheduled for today, the Federation Parliament's House of
Representatives will discuss the nomination of Karlo Filipovic and Safet
Halilovic for the post of the Federation President and the Vice President.
It is still not certain whether the Republican party will support the
Alliance during this session, since its president, Stjepan Kljujic, has
not been offered any high positions in the Federation government. Despite
the questionable support of the Republicans, Sarajevo dailies say that the
Alliance will retain a tight plurality in the House of Representatives.
Evictions in Bocinje still on hold:
Evictions of the 12 remaining Bosniak families from Serb houses in
Bocinja, which were supposed to be carried out today and over the next two
days, have not commenced, Adem Mehinagic, the Head of the Housing and
Communal Issues Department of the Municipal Assembly Maglaj, told Glas
Srpski. Over the last weekend, according to Mehinagic, eight families
vacated Serb houses, while the remaining four families will probably
follow suit by the end of the month, that is, prior to forcible evictions.
The BiH Federation Government has set aside 7000 KM intended for
construction material, to each of nine Bosniak families in Bocinja that do
not have alternative accommodation. The FBiH Government has also set aside
1500 KM to each of the nine families, which is intended for paying their
rents while their houses are built.
According to the Chairperson of the Maglaj Municipal Assembly, Dzevad
Galijasevic, Abu Hamza has benefited most from the entire situation. He
has been donated KM 20,000 for solving his housing problem. Galijasevic
pointed out that he did not know where the Bosniak families, who had been
granted the donation by the Government for construction material, would
reside. He said, however, that he knew that they would not be residing in
the area of Maglaj municipality.
Republika Srpska
The RS Helsinki Human Rights Committee is concerned about moves of the RS
Government - Ivanic resurrects war extremists
Today's edition of Nezavisne Novine carries press release of the RS branch
of the Helsinki Human Rights Committee which reads that this institution
is concerned about the moves made by the RS Government which are aimed at
reaffirmation of extreme war-nationalists who are back again at the RS
political scene and are able to keep obstructing the implementation of the
DPA. The latest dismissals of general managers in the RS-owned enterprises
bring "the old people" on new positions and these "old people" are very
well known for corruption, misuse of position and views unacceptable to
democratic society. The RS Helsinki Human Rights Committee finds
unacceptable providing support to extreme nationalistic war-leaders who
were involved in ethnic cleansing, war-crimes and violation of human
rights, and who are currently trying to wash away their pasts and the
crimes they committed.
Ivanic meets with Zoran Djindjic (FRY PM) - Support to trade between the
FRY and BiH
After yesterday's meeting with his FRY counterpart Zoran Djindjic, the RS
Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, said that both sides supported the Free
Trade Agreement between the FRY and BiH. According to Ivanic, the
Agreement will be beneficial to both countries and the entire region as
well. He also says that many problems pertaining to economic co-operation
between the FRY and BiH have been removed. Djindjic said that they agreed
to remove all administrative obstacles and that payment operations that
would be carried out via commercial banks between the two countries should
be simplified.
Mirko Sarovic intends to re-engage wartime Serb police chiefs?
According to Dnevni Avaz, the RS President Mirko Sarovic was planning to
re-engage some of his long-standing colleagues from the SDS and offer them
even "more important official posts." Those Sarovic's colleagues, Avaz
writes, include the former RS Interior Minister Dragan Kijac, and war-time
Chiefs of Police in the Sarajevo suburb of Grbavica Sreto Pekic and Dragan
Govedarica. The daily concluded that such an image, according to which
"Sarovic gathers old friends to revive old ideas," is not suitable for the
SDS, which claims to be a pro-democratic political party.
International community related issues:
The ICTY rules on two highest Croat officials in The Hague:
The ICTY on Monday sentenced two Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and Mario
Cerkez to 25 and 15 years respectively for crimes against humanity. Kordic
is the highest ranking politician to be convicted by the court for his
role in the massacres of hundreds of Bosniak civilians during much of the
war in BiH, particularly in the central Bosnian Lasva Valley in 1993. The
trial of Kordic, 40, and Cerkez, 41, began on April 12, 1999 and is one of
the longest-running in the court's history with 240 days of hearings and
500,000 pages of documents. While most international organizations and
foreign governments welcomed the verdict, inhabitants of the small village
of Ahmici, where the two committed their most serious crimes, were
appalled and distressed with what they say is a light sentence.
HDZ marks the ICTY verdict as unfair:
The HDZ BiH deems the verdict passed by the international war crimes
tribunal Monday on Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez as unfair, the party's
public relations office stated. The sentence to Kordic and Cerkez, who
received 25 and 15 years imprisonment respectively, is "unfortunately in
the service of reviewing the character of the past war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina". "The faith in the fairness of the Hague-based war
crimes tribunal and the good will of the accused central Bosnian Croats to
wilfully surrender to the court was exploited for a collective
criminalization and creation of a public perception that Croats in
Bosnia-Herzegovina committed the most crimes and as if there were no
crimes committed against Bosnian Croats," the party stated.
The HDZ expects the Hague tribunal to undertake resolute measures to bring
those most responsible for the war and war crimes in the region of the
former Yugoslavia before justice, and to have those most responsible
answer for crimes against Croats. The party also expressed hope the
tribunal would correct its mistake in the second instance of the trial,
and make a fair judgment in the Kordic and Cerkez case.
Meanwhile, reactions to the verdict coming from Croatia are different.
While representatives of more moderate parties like the IDS and HSP
believe that the ICTY ruling is just, or even mild, the Presidency of the
HDZ Croatia is appalled by it. Its president, Vladimir Seks said that
Cerkez and Kordic are certainly innocent, and that they will be absolved
of their responsibility the second time around.
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