BiH Media Round-up 10/12/2001

• BiH Human Rights Chamber ruling on the right of JNA officers to repossess their flats in BiH; Public and officials in the Federation shocked with the Decision
• OHR: Mehmedagic’s and Kadic’s criticism of OHR’s Property Laws amendments is unfounded and incorrect
• Federation Government against legalization of apartment exchange
• BIH Delegation visiting Russian Federation
• Poll: 83% of BiH citizens concerned primarily about their economic well-being
• BIH Council of Minister rejects the RS government proposal to annul the border agreement between BiH and Croatia
• 47% if the border between BiH and FRY specified
• Svetozar Mihajlovic, the Minister for Civil Affairs in the BiH Council of Ministers: We shall sooner reach agreement on double citizenship with Yugoslavia than with Croatia

• Hercegovacka Banka small depositors in Central Bosnia receive payments
• Hrvatska Rijec closes down

• OHR demands resignation of RS Minister of Refugees Mico Micic?
• Serb politician believes government about to arrest Karadzic, Mladic
• Main Board of Serb Democratic Party (SDS) Expelled Radovan Karadzic and Momcilo Krajisnik From the Party

• BiH Federation to intensify help for Brcko District

• Lagumdzija welcomes the PIC Steering Board decision to re-shape international presence in BiH
• Jacques Paul Klein: IC bodies in BiH need to be reorganized
• EU and BIH sign 56 million USD agreement to help development of democracy in BiH
• FRY President Vojislav Kostunica Stated that Terrorist Network of Osama Bin Laden Was Connected to extremists in Kosovo, Macedonia, BiH and Parts of Albania

• Dnevni Avaz: Unacceptable Decision
• Oslobodjenje, Cabinet in stead of the Office
• Dnevni List: Ad experimentum: Wolfgang Petritsch misinforms Washington and Brussels
• Dnevni List: Cable Television destroys Federation Television!?
• Dnevni List: Tudjman – liberator and creator of State of Croatia
• Vecernji List: BiH gets Central Office for Protection of Constitutional Order and National Security
• Nezavisne Novine: Independent Stance – Bosnian Reforms (By OHR’s Kevin Sullivan)

BiH Human Rights Chamber ruling on the right of JNA officers to repossess their flats in BiH; Public and officials in the Federation shocked with the DecisionThe controversial Friday ruling by the BiH Human Rights Chamber (HRC) which grants right to former officers of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) to repossess their apartments in BiH was by far the top story in all media over the weekend. Titles like “The Ruling Shocked the Public” (Avaz) or “JNA Officers could Repossess their Flats Too!?” (Oslobodjenje) appeared on the front pages of the main Sarajevo dailies, while most electronic media in the Federation began their prime time news with this item.

Oslobodjenje reports that the Federation Defence Ministry was on Friday in disbelief over the decision of the Human Rights Chamber, which will grant the right to former JNA officers to repossess their apartments in BiH, despite the fact that most of them have resolved their housing problems in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. “We are shocked with this decision of the HRC. We did not expect such an outcome,” public attorney with the Federation Defence Ministry, Nura Zimic, told the daily. “We did not think that such an injustice could be inflicted on the Federation, especially because the initial decision was imposed by the High Representative, not by us,” she said referring to the 1999 Decision of the High Representative by which the former JNA officers were not considered refugees and consequently not allowed to return to their pre-war apartments. Zinic stressed that such a decision will be a true precedent in BiH, as this was the first time that one institution overturned a decision imposed by the High Representative. She also said that the Federation Defence Ministry received firm assurances from the OHR that the Human Rights Chamber would pass no additional decisions pertaining to this issue, as long as local authorities complied with the OHR Decision. “OHR played a double game,” Zimic said, claiming that the OHR, in the meantime, also asked the CRPC (Commission for Real Property Claims) to refrain from dealing with military apartments until the HRC makes its decision. “This is attack on the Federation Army and on Bosniaks in particular, because none of them can repossess their property in any other neighbouring country,” she told Dnevni Avaz.

Seada Palavric, the Federation representative before the HMC also told Oslobodjenje that she was shocked with this decision. “I will submit the HRC Decision to the Federation government, but accompanied with a question as to whether the Federation should continue its co-operation with the Chamber, as the thus far non co-operative attitude of the RS has been tolerated by the HRC,” she said.

Associations of War Veterans also strongly protested against the ruling. Zahid Crnkic of the BiH War Veterans Association told Dnevni Avaz that his association will decide in the next few days about the possible mass demonstrations. ” I think that the Human Rights Chamber could not have made a worse and more hasty decision,” he said, adding that the decision represents yet another robbery of this country.

Party of Democratic Action –SDA– was the first political party to slam the Decision of the Human Rights Chamber. Its deputy chairman Elmir Jahic said on Saturday that the party regarded as unacceptable the decision to return apartments to former Yugoslav Army officers, who were “members of an army which waged a war of aggression against BiH”. At a news conference, Jahic said that as a result of the decision, 4,000 families whose members had defended the country would be made homeless. “Someone who evicts defenders of BiH from their apartments and gives them to soldiers of an aggressor’s army risks being held responsible for uncontrollable reactions on the part of veterans,” Jahic said in a statement quoted by nearly all media in the Federation.

SDP and Party for BiH (S BiH) issued their statements for the press on Sunday, calling the decision shameful and asking for the dismissal of Seada Palavric and Nura Pinjo (see above), because of their “failure to adequately represent the interest of the Federation before the Human Rights Chamber.” S BiH also said that this ruling as its stands is completely unacceptable for the party.

Meanwhile, most media bring the OHR in connection with the controversial ruling. OHR spokesperson, Oleg Milisic, however, rejected all allegations that the OHR played a double game. He told Oslobodjenje that although all decisions of the High Representative are legally binding, their soundness could be evaluated by the Human Rights Chamber. “The HRC has full authority to oversee the correctness of these laws and decisions. The OHR supports the work and independence of such institutions and considers all decisions by the Chamber as binding,” Milisic said. He refused to say if this particular decision meant that some High Representative’s provisions were violating human rights, stressing that legal experts need to further analyse the ruling in order to answer to this question.

OHR spokesman Oleg Milisic told Dnevni Avaz on Saturday that the recent criticism of the Federation Minister of Urban Planning, Ramiz Mehmedagic, and the leader of the LDS (Liberal Democratic party), Rasim Kadic, on the imposed amendments to Property Laws in both entities is unfounded and incorrect. Commenting on the statements of the two officials who said that the new amendments will be detrimental to refugees and will cement the effects of ethnic cleansing, Milisic said that the latest decision will pave the way for the accelerated return process. “The High Representative did not make the Federation poorer by not allowing the cash purchase of apartments. The Decision on the ways of privatisation of apartments for certificates was made by the Federation itself. As they have already started implementing it, they cannot change it now and create discrimination between its citizens,” Milisic said, adding that in the entire process, the OHR respected the partnership with local authorities and discussed all issues pertaining to property laws amendments. “Their claims about the lack of co-operation are simply unfair,” he stressed at the end.

Dnevni List reports that competent Ministries in both the Federation and the RS are disappointed with the amendments to the Property Laws imposed by the High Representative. Federation Government disagrees with the legalization of the apartment exchange conducted during the war, whereas the RS welcomes the decision. Some entity officials say the High Representative’s decision, which allows an authorized person to take over the apartment on behalf of the tenancy right holder, is a remote-control administration of apartments.

Dragan Vuleta, the Deputy Minister for Refugees in the RS Government, says that apartments are not private property, and as such, should not be given to authorized persons because, in his words, this provides for a great deal of speculations. Petritsch’s decision freezes the purchase of apartments based on re-verification. The daily quotes OHR Spokesperson Oleg Milisic as saying that the local administrations are expected to establish revision teams within 30 days. The teams will look at the contracts and, in Milisic’s words, in cases where irregular re-verification is identified, judicial bodies will have to act.

A BiH delegation headed by the chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Zlatko Lagumdzija, arrived in the Russian Federation on Sunday on a three-day official visit. A bilateral agreement on trade and economic cooperation as well as an agreement on setting up an inter-governmental committee for economic cooperation are expected to be signed during the visit. Minister Lagumdzija will have talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and other senior Russian officials. The spokesman of the BiH Foreign Ministry, Amir Kapetanovic, told the BiH Radio 1 that the main aim of the visit is the strengthening of economic cooperation between the two states.

Results of the poll conducted in November by an independent polling agency, Prism, indicate that over 83 % of BiH citizens are primarily concerned about their economic future. The Canadian organisation who ordered the poll, Ideation Group, said it expects that BiH citizens will, on the next elections, vote for political parties which have a strong economic platform. At this time, the organisation said, some 34 citizens would vote for such a party, but over 51% would still opt for a party which best protects their national interests. About 18% of citizens who were not sure could still change this ratio.

The poll also indicates that the SDP presently has the most significant support of citizens in BiH, while the SDS and the SDA are following closely. In Croat areas, HDZ still has the strongest support – nearly 39%. Oslobodjenje, Dnevni Avaz and Glas Srpski carry the report on results of the poll.

The BiH Council of Ministers has rejected a request by the RS government for the abolition of the agreement on the state border between BiH and Croatia, which was signed on 30 July 1999. According to a CoM statement, the RS government informed the Council of Ministers in a memo that the Croatian side was not interested in resolving controversial issues concerning the border between Bthe two countries, particularly in the area of Kostajnica. At the session held on Thursday night, the Council of Ministers discussed this proposal and concluded that the commissions for border issues of both states have to find appropriate solutions in order that the agreement be implemented, since its abolition would not be in the interest of good-neighbourly relations which the authorities in the two states have been advocating.

In the meantime, the controversial issue is to be further discussed during the fifth session of the Inter-state council between BiH and Croatia, which is scheduled for Tuesday, December 11 in Zagreb.

President of the BiH delegation in the diplomatic commission for the specification of the border between BiH and Yugoslavia Zeljko Obradovic told reporters on Friday after the meeting of the commission in Mostar that 47% of the border between the two countries has been resolved, identified and described. “This is yet another step forward n harmonizing the agreement on the border and I hope that we will successfully complete this job,” Obradovic said. Dnevni Avaz and Jutarnje Novine carried the report.

Slobodna Dalmacija carries an interview with Svetozar Mihajlovic, the Minister for Civil Affairs in the BiH Council of Ministers, and says that the issues to be discussed at the session of the Inter-State Council of BiH and the Republic of Croatia, scheduled for December 11 in Zagreb, will be agreed upon at the levels of the BiH Presidency and the BiH Council of Ministers one of these days. Mihajlovic said: “One of the important, but less disputable issues that we shall discuss is the Agreement on Double Citizenship.”

Because I have such an impression, that is, I do not believe that there will be something disputable about it. We have already appointed an expert group and informed the Republic of Croatia about it in a diplomatic way. Now, we expect that they do the same. (…) This agreement is very important for both states. The only thing that can be disputable about it are some deadlines, for instance, whether a couple, a husband from Croatia and a wife from BiH, will wait for the second citizenship six months or 5 years, as BiH Law prescribes it at the moment. (…)

Citizens of both countries have special interests to get the second citizenship and I hope that we shall make it possible for them. (…)

We have offered them the same agreement, exactly the same as the one that we have offered to the Republic of Croatia. (…) I also believe that we will sooner resolve this issue with the FRY than we will with Croatia. (…)

We shall also talk about agreements related to border crossings, and some new situations that refer to the current agreement on the border, where certain problems appeared. (…) I expect that we shall sign some protocols and agreements, but I also expect that we shall try to resolve a very important issue, that is the Agreement on Property-Legal Issues, which has been waiting for a long time to be signed, said Mihajlovic.

Slobodna Dalmacija and Vecernji List report that the Provisional Administrator of Hercegovacka Banka, Toby Robinson, started making payments up to 5,000 KM to bank’s small depositors in Livno, Kupres and Zepce on Satruday. The dailies say the pay outs were made under a tight security provided by the SFOR, Civilian Police, Special Police and IPTF.

Dnevni List reports that Hrvatska Rijec, the Croat weekly with the longest publishing tradition in BiH, has not been available on the newsstands for the three weeks now because it cannot cover the printing costs. Dnevni List says many of the Croat officials have been asked to help, including the Federation Minister for Finance, Nikola Grabovac, but he found it much more important to take care of his business partner Vinko Jakic by instating him as his advisor. Kresimir Zubak, the President of the New Croat Initiative, gave empty promises, and Vlado Raguz, the Governor of the Sarajevo Canton, blackmailed the journalists by conditioning his possible financial assistance upon disclosing of the source who revealed numerous financial misuses by this Sarajevo tycoon for Hrvatska Rijec and Slobodna Bosna.

The daily says the OSCE should react to this, and perhaps it would be too much to expect a protest letter from some of the journalist associations or the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

Oslobodjenje reports on its front page today that an anonymous source from the Ministry of Refugees told ONASA news agency that the RS Minister Refugees and DPs, Mico Micic, is preparing to submit his resignation to the RS Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic. The same source said that Micic’s resignation was demanded by the OHR because of the poor rate of returns and implementation of property laws in this entity. However, Micic told Oslobodjenje that he has no intention to withdraw from this post, while OHR spokesman Patrik Volf could neither confirm, nor deny these speculations. He just stressed that the OHR is indeed not satisfied with the return process in the RS.

The vice president of the RS Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS), Jovan Mitrovic, told reporters on Saturday in Zvornik that the RS Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic’s call to the principal and most wanted indictees on charges of war crimes committed in BiH to urn themselves over to The Hague and defend their ideas before the constituted the first stage in their hand-over. Ivanic said recently, referring to Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, that if he were in their place he would defend his ideas before The Hague Tribunal. “We can expect that the RS government, in honouring the commitments it undertook with the international community, will soon launch the action aimed at arresting Karadzic and Mladic,” Mitrovic said. Most media across BiH quoted this statement.

Nezavisne Novine write that the Main Board of the SDS decided to, within preparations for the Assembly of the Party scheduled for December 21st, put the provision in the new statute, according to which the party’s members who are on the ICTY public indictments list or in The Hague should be expelled. Senior SDS official, Mirko Banjac, confimred this information, stressing that this provision is the “logical result of complying with the Annex 4 of the Dayton Peace Agreement”.

The daily’s source suggests that a group of the party members requested a session of the SDS’s Assembly in order to dismiss the leadership of the party.

BiH Federation Prime Minister Alija Behmen said on Friday that the government will intensify its help to the Brcko District and noted the importance of integration of this region into the single BiH economic space. Behmen said that concrete moves would be the inclusion of the region into the distribution of 220 million KM intended for employment in the BiH Federation and assistance to agricultural producers in the District in the amount of 90 million KM. Speaking at press conference after talks with the Brcko District senior officials and supervisor Henry Clarke on relations between the BiH Federation and Brcko District, Behmen stressed the need for harmonisation of tax rates, noting the readiness of the BiH Federation to secure that customs realised in the District remain there.

The chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Zlatko Lagumdzija, welcomed on Friday the latest decisions of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board, saying they coincided with BiH’s well-known priorities: strengthening of state institutions, rule of law, return of refugees and economic reforms. Speaking to SRNA news agency, Lagumdzija positively assessed the Board’s announcement in Brussels that the international presence in BiH would be reduced by 30 per cent by 2003. Lagumdzija saw this projection as perfectly realistic and justified given that the bureaucratic setup in Bosnia-Hercegovina, domestic and international alike, should be reduced starting with international organizations in the country. “Our country is organized along the numbers principle – from one to six: there is one state, two entities, three peoples, 4 million inhabitants, five levels of authority and more than six international organizations which are looking after us. If we have to make a reduction somewhere, we should start from number six,” Lagumdzija explained. Glas Srpski also carried excerpts from this statement.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in BiH, Jaques Klein, agrees that restructuring of international agencies and organisations in BiH is necessary, as it was decided by the Peace Implementation Council’s Steering Board on Thursday. Klein said in an interview with Dnevni Avaz on Saturday, that the current structure could have been efficient if it were used in a more constructive way, however, he stressed “the obvious need for the reshaping of the international presence in BiH.” Klein explained that the streamlining model, which was adopted during the PIC meeting in Brussels, should be sent for revision and re-considered in conjunction with some other options as well. He stressed that his main concern is the restructuring of the UNMBiH, as his organisation, together with the World Bank, the IMF and the UNDP, had some reservations about this plan. “These are the organisations with special mandates and they cannot be restructured so easily,” Klein said, adding that, as the UN will end its mandated by the end of the next year, he is not that concerned about the whole affair.

The European Union and BiH signed on Friday an agreement worth 63.55 million euros (56.7 million dollars) in EU assistance to support democracy, judicial and economic reform in the country. Most of the aid would be earmarked to help stabilize the work of civic institutions and to support private enterprise, road and railway infrastructure improvement and social welfare programs. The agreement was signed by the European Commission representative to Bosnia, Hansjorg Kretschmer, and the chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Zlatko Lagumdzija. The accord covers the last installment of an EU program to provide BiH this year with financial assistance worth 105 million euros.

Glas srpski writes that FRY President Vojislav Kostunica stated, in his interview to Deutsche Welle that terrorist network of Osama Bin Laden was connected with extremists in Kosovo, Macedonia, BiH and some parts of Albania. Kostunica stressed that “terrorism should be called by its real name: regardless of what countries it affected – small or big nations or even world’s forces. He added that there was connection with Balkans when it comes to Bin Laden’s terrorism and that people should have that in mind when fighting this global evil, GS reports.

The Decision of the BiH Human Rights Chamber to return military apartments in the Federation to officers of the former Yugoslav National Army (JNA), who were never citizens of BiH and who remained active in the FRY Army following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, appears incredible.

It is questionable which reasons guided local and international judges to rule this way in the case whose outcome was anxiously awaited by the public.

Could one accept the explanation for registering the ownership of apartments in Sarajevo and Tuzla on the name of those who voluntarily served in the armed forces of the country which made an aggression on those very cities and the state of BiH?

In numerous democratic countries, that fact that a person serves in the armed forces of a foreign country is sufficient for stripping the same of his citizenship and other accompanying rights. For that reason, it is not clear in which conventions on human rights one could find the legal grounds for such a ruling.

However, understandable or not, BiH has become, after this ruling, the only country on the territory of the former Yugoslav state, which will return apartments to JNA officers, just as was the only republic in 1991 and 1992 where they could purchase their apartments. Although the Federation is bound by the law to return funds from the purchase of apartments to all those who paid, but this was not a good reason for judges to make a different ruling.

Therefore, one could understand the bitterness of members of the Federation Army whose pre-war apartments in Belgrade and Zagreb were taken away by the new authorities. Clearly, the judges turned the deaf ear to arguments and rights of the most serious invalids who defended this country.

The PIC Steering Board in Brussels accepted the proposal by the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, on the new concept of coordination of actors of the international peace mission in BiH. The High Representative will be heading the Cabinet made up of the heads of key international organizations in BiH, and the work load will be handled through working groups in four areas: refugee return, economic reform, strengthening of state institutions, and the rule of law. In essence, this is a concept which has been suggested by the International Crisis Group in its critical report about the work of the International Community in BiH. (Please note that this is incorrect. The ICG model is based on the so-called Kosovo pillar system which is diametrically opposed to the one suggested by the High Representative).

One could hope that all aspects of the return problem will become the prime topic and the subject of a decisive and efficient action. Without a sustainable return of those who wish to do so, all promises about the normalization and democracy in BiH are obsolete. Figures of return, or the lack thereof, of refugees and DPs are defeating, and efforts of international institutions in this sphere are shameless. Of nearly 4.5 million residents of the pre-war BiH, more then 2 million has been uprooted from their homes. Only about 790,000 people returned, and close to 1,2 million Bosnians are still not in their homes. Some 615,000 are refugees across the world, and 518,000 within BiH itself. The results of such return politics suggest the silent verification of the effects of aggression and genocide.

Some 10,000 desolate soles living in tent settlements, in their rump homes or slums could testify about the tragedy of returns. Tons of construction material are deteriorating because most returnees are either elderly persons or persons in poor health, and are unable to work on their homes, and aid is not coming. Banja Luka and other larger towns in the RS are closed for returns. The position of people who returned there is not secure, they are exposed to frequent torture and discrimination in particular in the RS and on the territory controlled by the HDZ. In the possible potential crisis moment, the returnees could become an easy target of extremists.

The works on the economic reform in the country are poorly developing. Private and social ownership have been devastated or robbed both in peace and war time, and this trend of devaluing of the BiH economic basis is continuing. Post-war profiteering has completely damaged the economic potential, and the usurpation and corruption created an economic base for parties which operate under the pretext of protection of national interests and in interest of securing the economic wellbeing of the national oligarchies. BiH is not a jointly regulated single economic space and is immensely abused by foreign companies wanting to make a quick profit on our stupidity and corruption.

It is reassuring that the strengthening of state institutions is among the priorities of the further international engagement in BiH. That task has been taken up with a significant delay, but the results achieved in the past period are encouraging despite the obstruction of, in particular, the SDS and the HDZ. The time has come to promptly and decisively penalize political parties for obstruction of proper functioning of state institutions. What is needed for international recognition and integration of BiH is a joint state approach in key political and economic issues.

The establishment of the rule of law in BiH looks like a mission impossible from the present perspective. The Judicial and Police reform bear little fruit and even that only sporadically. The fight for the recognition and protection of human rights and freedoms has fallen in hands of non-governmental organizations and emancipated media. Even after 15 months, the harmonization of entity and state constitutions has not ended. In the atmosphere of constitutional insecurity one cannot expect the legal reliability in other segments of judicial protection of citizens. Neither the peace mission, not the Alliance for Change have demonstrated sufficient sensitivity for human rights.

The fundamental problem of the peace mission in BiH is the fact that it has been primarily concerned with politics and itself, instead with BiH problems which are only now divided into four priority groups. After Dayton, no one knew what needed to be done, and the High Representative did not have sufficiently strong powers. The strategic mistake in the start, and which is still present, is the acceptance of the post-Dayton manner of political negotiations about the already decided matters. SDS and HDZ, despite the always present destructive and anti-Bosnian orientation, are politically accepted as factors of post-war democratization, which was fatally dangerous mistake. In the latter stage, the international politics has not followed the started de-nazification which has been intensified with the better work of the ICTY. The change of the working manner of the International Community in BIH also requires different value judgement and attitude towards domestic political subject and the elimination of the obstructers of the peace process.

Written by Steve Bosnjak, full translation

After Brussels, it has been decided at the session of the Peace Implementation Council that Petritsch would form a government of the international community, which will comprise the Heads of the OSCE, UN, UNHCR, SFOR and OHR experts at certain fields. They are supposed to consolidate the state institutions, accelerate refugee returns, conduct economic reforms and provide for the full rule of law. Those working groups, ministries would, in Petritsch’s words, be the places for “implementation of partner relations with the forum of leading politicians.” The Council of Ministers and the BiH Presidency, the Federation and RS Governments have thus become Partnership Forum in one move. The High Representative, or, as Ivanic said, “King of Bosnia,” is happy because “it was his model that passed and not the model applied in Kosovo.”

So far, the OHR, OSCE, UN, UNHCR, UNDP and SFOR have coordinated their activities through so called Principals Meetings, and from now on, they will be working as Government, on a daily basis and with strictly assigned roles and tasks, but without responsibility. Lagumdzija, Behmen, Filipovic, Zubak, Krizanovic, Radisic, Ivanic and other BiH politicians will certainly “express satisfaction about the progress in the work of the international community,” especially if the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund keep feeding the insatiable state and entity “money drains” with their donations. SFOR will be writing their reports about “atomic bomb” found in a septic tank near Kiseljak, about dangerous nationalists in Stolac, Drvar, Mostar and even more dangerous mujahedeens from Egypt and Algeria residing in Visoko and Zenica, and there you have “peaceful Bosnia.”

“Internationals” have secured three or four more years of easy jobs and pretty high pensions, domestic politicians of the Alliance can rest while awaiting new elections, and criminals of all sorts, including war criminals, can enjoy in the country of “high risk” where dozens of intelligence services are watching one another and writing reports to serve as bases for sterile conclusions such as those made in Brussels on 6 December.

About a month ago, on 15 November, Petritsch was in Washington, asking the National Security Council and the State Department for affirmation of his “ingenious” idea of “reorganization of the international community in BiH.”

Deputy Secretary of the State, Richard Armitage, was harsh to Petritsch and his political directorate, he announced a drastic reduction of SFOR soldiers in BiH and demanded of them “a quick integration of entity armies.”

“Do not speak about a single army, just do it!,” the Deputy Secretary of the State was sharp and concise. For a thousandth time he reiterated that he wanted to see Karadzic and Mladic in The Hague, which, he said, “will be an important signal to the Muslim world.” The Deputy Secretary of the State did not say which Muslims he had in mind, the Bosniak Muslims who were the victims of the aforementioned two, or the Iranian, Taliban or perhaps Kuwaiti Muslims whose price of oil barrel dictates the social peace in America.

Greg Shulte of the National Security Council spoke about the reduction of SFOR soldiers as well.

He admitted that there was no consistent and lasting approach to the military issues in BiH and that even “the SFOR Commander had difficulties in coordinating SFOR.” Perhaps this highly ranked official of the American intelligence establishment was never informed about humiliations that senior NATO officers experienced in BiH. It is not just the disgraceful tying some of them to the bridge fence by Serbs that I have in mind, but also the fact that a saber (!) was drawn at a Norwegian general in Bocinja, of which domestic media reported with two or three lines only. There have been other similar events, but those should better be left unsaid. Another new exclusive idea has been launched about restructuring of not only the army, but also the police, and the idea of “introducing a GENDARMERIE at the state level” has been proposed, but we shall write about that on some other occasion.

The fundamental question is: who needs the army in BiH? Who could they defend the country from? It is not that the army needs a trust of brains from the Center for Security Studies, headed by the respectable Bisera Turkovic, but it is rather that this team of experts need the army to talk and write about, to recommend a defensive doctrine for, to produce a security architecture of the region, and blah, blah… And the people are hungry.

They no longer need SFOR, or the RS Army, or the HVO, or the BiH Army, but what would numerous agents, world policemen and generals without army be experimenting on. Indeed, altogether, it resembles a document that has not yet “leaked” from the laboratories of the CIA and the National Intelligence Council, but it is known to be a strategy under the working title “Global Trends – 2015 (GT – 2015). Translated into the language of common mortals, it is a project under which a World Super-Government would rule via several Regional Forums, and the politicians that “people have the right to vote for” would be in their service. It may be better not to write about that!?

Let us go back to our destiny depicted in the High Representative – the instrument of the execution of the will of world power centers. During the Washington meeting, Greg Shulte complained because the High Representative had not been given a stronger position at the very beginning. However, during his mandate, the “High” dismissed over two hundred of Croat politicians, policemen and officers, not to mention Bosniak and Serb ones, not to mention those who, for their “language of hatred,” or criticism of the Dayton Agreement, were not allowed to run for any office in the executive and legislative authorities. The parties of the dismissed are currently the strongest political forces of all the three peoples in BiH. Those are mostly persons of unquestionable morality, unstained past and anticommunist orientation. That is exactly why they could not fit into the “New World Order.”

Whoever the new High Representative might be, he will probably succeed to the suits both against Petritsch in person and against the institution of High Representative. The quantity of arrogance and lack of vision in those in Brussels, as well as those in Washington, is unbelievable as they have assessed that “a robust engagement of the international community will be necessary for the next two or three years in order to have the principal part of the plan realized.” Petritsch also complained of the Alliance, but he concluded that “it would, naturally, be much easier to intervene against nationalists.” It was concluded that “the Council of Ministers is functioning well, although Bosniaks tend to accumulate power, leaving it up to the international community to solve the Croat problem.” As for the international community’s ways of solving the Croat problem, we will be writing about that more extensively and more often.

By Josip Milic

Dnevni List says that the process of assimilation of Croats into Bosniaks started with the shutdown of the Erotel TV, on which occasion Chris Riley promised the Croat journalists “honey and milk,” i.e. employment for all those who were left jobless after the Erotel shutdown. In answer to the question about the possibility of establishing another channel that would be meeting the needs of the Croat population, he said it was not possible because it would require too much money. The daily says Chris Riley was the guest of a recent TV show “Good, Bad and Evil” on the Mostar-based HTV Oscar-C, on which occasion he said that a big center should be founded in Mostar, in which around a million Marks should be invested.

“However, the problem remains the same. Croats must not have a channel in the Croatian language. Therefore, they can get the money for producing a program that would also be in the service of Sarajevo and so called Federation Television,” comments Dnevni List.

The daily says it is not just the international officials that are to blame, but that a huge blame rests with the Croat officials as well. There has been a rumor that Zagreb sent around 10 million Marks for establishment of a strong Croat Television at a time, but it is unknown whether this money ever reached Mostar.

The paper also speaks of cable television and mentions the Art Company, which does not have any problems with broadcasting license because the CRA has no competence over it. In a recent interview for Dnevni List, the HRT Spokesperson said that cable TV companies have the license for broadcasting HTV 1, whereas the HTV 2 and 3 are a problem. However, he did not say that the HTV 3 is to be shut down soon due to financial problems, says the paper.

Dnevni List carries an article in memory of the first President of the Republic of Croatia, Dr. Franjo Tudjman, on the occasion of the second anniversary of his death. The daily’s editorial for today is also about Franjo Tudjman, and it reads that it will take much time before Croat(ian)s define their opinion about Franjo Tudjman’s role in the national history. “One thing that cannot be disputed – Franjo Tudjman, the first President and the founder of the independent State of Croatia was a great statesman, a historic personality and (perhaps the last) President of all Croat(ian)s,” says the editorial in conclusion.

Written by Zdenko Jurilj, partial translation

After the High Representative announced that after the IPTF mandate expires a state gendarmerie would be introduced, the BiH Presidency, following instructions from the international community, is planning to establish a sort of State Intelligence Service, which will be operating at the level of BiH.

International Intelligence Services, including CIA, have discretely demanded the establishment of such a Service, because they are not satisfied with the coordination of the three existing Intelligence Services in the struggle against the crime, terrorism, drug and weapon smuggling. A special request for an urgent establishment of such a service came from the international intelligence circles after the weapon smuggling chain to Kosovo, in which some AID members participated, was cut.

Following instructions from the international community, the BiH Presidency is planning to organize a Central Intelligence Office, which will gradually take over the role of the three existing Intelligence Services in the BiH Federation and the RS. The strategic and final goal is that BiH gets a milder version of the Council for Defense and National Security (VONS) which used to function in Croatia. Since political parties have already expressed their great dissatisfaction over the work of the three Intelligence Services, we should believe that this proposal will smoothly make this last step, so that the Service can start operating, says Vecernji List.

By Kevin Sullivan, OHR spokesperson

Many readers may be wondering what “streamlining” is all about? Is the International Community leaving? Does the High Representative want “absolute power” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as some media speculated this spring?

Well, the International Community isn’t leaving, the High Representative doesn’t want absolute power, and this is not what streamlining is about. The continued presence of the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina is crucial to achieving the goal shared by BiH citizens and the International Community: making Bosnia and Herzegovina a self-sustainable, sovereign state, serving its citizens and integrating into Europe.

The meeting of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board, in Brussels on December 5 and 6, therefore set the agenda for the next phase of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s long recovery from the 92 – 95 war. In view of steeply declining aid flows, and, after September 11, a decisive shift of world attention to areas far from the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina has to move fast on the reform agenda. If it doesn’t it will lose out to its neighbours in an environment where foreign investment and economic competitiveness determine the wellbeing of a country’s citizens.

Postwar infrastructural recovery has largely been accomplished; the task now is for Bosnia and Herzegovina to wean itself away from aid dependence and move ahead under its own steam, supported by viable political, economic and social institutions. Clearly, the assistance which the International Community can provide for this process will be different from the assistance which was made available during the process of physical reconstruction.

As international agencies complete their remaining tasks, responsibility will be assumed by domestic agencies. The new structure of the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina will adapt to this. Work will be coordinated through task forces in which all of the relevant international agencies participate. Currently, this system works very well in the field of return, where the Reconstruction & Return Task Force (RRTF), has successfully pooled the resources and personnel of several different agencies to make sure that their individual efforts do not overlap or cancel one another out. New task forces will focus on Rule of Law, Institution Building, Economic Policy, and Return and Reconstruction (based on the existing RRTF). In addition to the task forces, the heads of the lead international agencies will meet regularly in a “cabinet” which will be chaired by the High Representative. These cabinet meetings will allow the agencies to coordinate their own activities and the overall IC policy in BiH much more effectively. The details of this system will now be developed and presented to the next meeting of the Steering Board in the new year.

Streamlining is about increasing efficiency. The International Community is committed to staying in BiH until the job is done, and it is reorganising its presence in order to translate this commitment into practical benefits for the people of BiH by delivering economic reform, robust institutions, freedom from crime and freedom to travel or live wherever in the country they may choose.