| CROAT RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA (18,00 hrs) | BH TV 1 (19,00 hrs) | FED TV (19,30 hrs) |
| BiH HoR adopts next year’s budget | Budget expenses – 325 million-KM on foreign debt | Up to 1 million people might lose BiH citizenship |
| Strike of education workers in HNK | Presidency in NY, HR in Moscow | Arizona on agenda of Croatian Congress Board |
| Tomac claims media misquoted him | Import by export in BiH – 26% only | Redemption of apartments with certificates |
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| BiH budget adopted |
| Oslobodjenje | Haris Silajdzic does not want to be BiH PM; MoI – old passport valid until January 31; High penalties for negligence; Road taxes increasing prices? |
| Dnevni Avaz | Silajdzic does not want in the government, waiting for SDA’s reply; UN will help reforms; Jonjic accuses HDZ and Hadzovic; Bedrija Hamzic gave birth to triplets |
| Dnevni List | Due to slow constituting of new authority, BiH citizens with dual citizenship might be deprived of BiH citizenship – Ashdown will proclaim changes of Law on Citizenship |
| Vecernji List | Scandal in the Federation Government – ministers are illegal employees |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Who owes what: OHR demands from politicians to give up profitable jobs or their positions: Minister of Trade has shops, Minister of Social Welfare pharmacies, and Deputy Minister of Defense flower shops |
| Glas Srpski | Sufferings of convict Milomir Tepes continue – new prison, same old pain; Drvar- wild boar kills a hunter |
| Nezavisne Novine | BiH House of Representatives passes BiH budget – PDP and SDS support financing of BiH law-suit against FRY; Banja Luka District Court – judges are freezing, most trials postponed |
| Blic | A man kidnapped a policeman’s wife and then committed a suicide in a forest; Orao is awaiting a permission to export to ‘Rolls-Royce’; Ranka Misic: The budget rebalance was not fair; Dodik: A new affair in the customs looms |
Political parties/new government |
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| Silajdzic won’t be BiH PM
Opposition vs. Mikerevic
SNSD on new RS government
SDA on supporting RS PM | Avaz pg. 1 and 8, Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 6 – Sahbaz Dzihanovic stated yesterday after a SBiH Presidency session that ‘due to personal reasons and after analysing the overall political situation, SBiH Presidency supported Silajdzic’s decision not to be SBIH’s candidate for the CoM Chair’. As for the talks with the SDA, Dzihanovic stated that they were sticking to their original offer to the SDA. According to the offer, SBiH wants to split Bosniaks seats in the future government with the SDA. According to Oslobodjenje, SBiH Presidency members had different opinions on whether to co-operate with the SDA. Apparently, Beriz Belkic and Spomenka Micic were against the idea. They insisted on co-operating with moderate parties, and suggested that at entity and state level SBiH was in charge of the opposition. Avaz reported that Safet Halilovic, SBiH President and Adnan Terzic, SDA Vice-President ‘met for a coffee yesterday and talked about possibilities of bringing closer positions of the two parties. Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 15 by Blanka Magas – according to the current distribution of forces at the BiH political scene, SBiH will not participate in the executive authority at both the Federation and state level. “After two-months long negotiations, during which the SBiH leadership was arrogantly demanding two thirds of Ministerial positions, their unrealistic demands resulted in the situation that along with SDP this party will be the biggest opposition to the authority. The national parties will form authority at the state and entity levels with the support of smaller parties,” reads the article. Namely, the ruling parties are willing to give smaller parties high-ranked positions at the Federation authority, such as the position of the President and Vice President of the BiH Federation as well as the managerial posts in some public companies and steering boards. Avaz pg. 8 ‘Mikerevic is Ivanic’s extended arm’ – according to daily’s sources, it is becoming more evident that Mikerevic will distribute eight ministerial posts for Serbs between the PDP and SDS. Those better-informed claim that the combination will be more satisfactory for both parties rather then an option of the PDP getting five and the SDS three ministerial seats. There have also been rumours about names of future ministers. Simeun Vilendecic has been mentioned as the possible candidate for the Finance Minister (currently working in the same post), and Sinisa Djordjevic, Ivanic’s Hague Advisor, as the new MoI head. There have been warnings from the opposition that Mikerevic is Ivanic’s ‘extended arm’ and shall carry out whatever Ivanic wants. Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘Dodik for the premature parliamentary elections’. Glas Srpski pg. 2 ‘SNSD wants early elections’ – SNSD President, Milorad Dodik, stated on Tuesday that his party will advocate for the holding of premature parliamentary elections at the next local elections because the current coalition in the RS government was deadly for the RS. “It is not SNSD’s goal, as the SDS tries to present it, the ruining of the RS Parliament, but the RS Assembly Chair Dragan Kalinic,” said Dodik. According to Dodik, his party holds information about a new customs affair related to the import of shoes at the price of 0,95 KM. As for the state VAT, the SNSD supports the VAT in BiH, but requests a mechanism that would ensure that VAT incomes remain the entity incomes. The Head of the SNSD caucus, Krstan Simic, said that the aim of SNSD’s activities in the Parliament would be to expose a political philosophy, which had deceived the people in the RS for ten years. (Reported in Blic on pg. 2 ‘Srpska’s Parliament in crisis’). Blic pg. 2 ‘SDA conditions support to RS PM’, Nacional pg. 11 – the SDA Presidency member, Adil Osmanovic, confirmed that the SDA was ready to support the nomination of the RS PM, Dragan Mikerevic, under condition that the SDA proposed the Vice-Premier and three ministers. He further confirmed that during the meeting with the SDA President, Sulejman Tihic, he was informed that the SDA would demand to assume one of the key ministerial positions, most probably the ministerial positions of finance, defence or internal affairs. | |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
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| BiH budget adopted
BiH Presidency in NY
Law on Citizenship
Pensions for war invalids
Old passports
Police accreditation in Ze-Do Canton
Police appeals
‘Orao’ affair
Illegal employees in FBiH MoI
Law on Conflict of Interests
Commentary in Oslobodjenje
OHR stops construction in Glogova
Arizona market
Dodik to testify in favour of Plavsic
Commentary in Vecernji List | Avaz pg. 4 ‘State budget of 530 million KM adopted’, Oslobodjenje pg. 8 ‘Budget of BiH institutions amounts 530 million-KM’ – members of the BiH HoR adopted at yesterday’s session state budget of 530 million-KM. Out of the amount, 205 million-KM is intended for financing BiH institutions, and the remaining 325 million-KM for returning foreign debts. Ante Domazet, BiH Minister of Treasury, stated that the budget was the core part of the IMF stand-by arrangement. Nikola Spiric requested that out of the money for the Presidency 1 million-KM be allocated for the SIPA, and 500,000-KM meant for the European Integration Ministry for the Election Commission. His amendments were rejected. The RS reps requested that the financing of international trials and arbitration (includes the lawsuit against FRY) be excluded from the paragraph on budget reserves. The proposal was not adopted. The news was also reported in the RS media. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘BiH HoR passes BiH budget – PDP and SDS support financing of BiH lawsuit against FRY, Glas Srpski pg. ‘HoR passes budget’. Also reported by Blic pg. 2 ‘324.5 millions for debt’. Avaz pg. 2 ‘The Presidency members requested from Annan that UN supports reforms’, Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘The Presidency with Annan’ – the BiH Presidency members yesterday met in New York with the UN SG Annan. They thanked UN SG Annan for inviting them to personally address the UN General Assembly. They expressed hope that the UN will continue to support reforms via their agencies remaining in BiH. Tihic met with representatives from BiH associations of citizens who live and work in the US. They expressed their concern over the possibility of them losing their BiH citizenship unless the changes to the current Law on Citizenship were made. Avaz pg. 2 ‘Mihajlovic suggesting that Ashdown pronounces changes to the Citizenship Law’ – Svetozar Mihajlovic, BiH Minister of Civil Affair and Communication, does not expect a session of the BiH HoR to be held by the end of the year where one of the agenda points should be the Law on Citizenship. He stated that one of the big problems was that the state HoP was still not constituted, as this institution should confirm the Law changes. According to Mihajlovic, unless the BiH institutions manage to overcome the problem there is an alternative, meaning HR would pronounce the changes to the Law. He added that it was not excluded that the state would address the request to HR Ashdown. Vecernji List pg. 2 ‘20 days before legal deadline for regulation of double citizenship expires: Ashdown to proclaim Law on dual citizenship’ and Dnevni List pg. 3 ‘Due to slow constituting of the new authority, BiH citizens with dual citizenship might be deprived of BiH citizenship: Ashdown will proclaim changes of Law on Citizenship’. Oslobodjenje pg. 4 and 5 ‘We are putting together a lawsuit against the Minister’, Avaz pg. 10 ‘I am ready to sign criminal charges against the administration directors’ – Dobrica Jonjic, Federation Deputy Minister for Veterans Issues, told Avaz that he was ready to sign criminal charges against directors of cantonal administrations for Croat veteran’s issues. They refused to submit lists of pension receivers to the Federation Ministry for Veteran Issues. He claims that their behaviour was orchestrated by the HDZ, but also added that Minister Hadzovic was manipulating HVO war veterans by refusing to pay out their pensions. Both dailies however reported that Minister Hadzovic received a support of the PDHR Donald Hays in a letter he sent on December 5 this year. “Based on information we have, OHR fully supports your decision on the non-payments of pensions for HVO war veterans,” wrote Hays. He also added that documents should be forwarded to the Financial Police or other relevant bodies if the Minister thought there were indication of fraud. The Association of Volunteers and Veterans of the Homeland War (UDVIDR) offered their support to HVIDRA and said they would join the protests organised by the same. HVIDRA President Andjelko Barun thinks that ‘those who are losing authority are using the current Minister to divide people, and raise tensions among them’. Minister Hadzovic said she was not applying different standards for Bosniaks and Croats. “I have no intention to differentiate on the basis of nationality,” said Hadzovic. Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 18 – carries an interview with Barun. He said that he received a letter from Donald Hays, Principle Deputy High Representative, and that this letter shows that Suada Hadzovic, Federation Minister for Defenders’ Issues has one-sidedly informed the International Community. “We have also sent letters to the IC demanding to have talks in order to resolve the issue of victims. We, however, have not received a reply. We only received a press release, which says that all peoples in BiH have to be equal before the law. We do not agree with this statement because we are not equal since the payment of our disability allowances has been late for one month unlike the pensions of Bosniak veterans.” Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 3, Avaz pg. 2 ‘Possible to enter BiH with old passports until January 31’ – in co-operation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communication, the BiH SBS will allow citizens of BiH with old passports to enter the country until January 31. Tomislav Mihalj, Deputy SBS Director, stated that the old passport were not valid for leave the country. However, since it’s the holiday’s season, many BiH citizens will be arriving from abroad and will be allowed in with the old passports. Avaz pg. 8 ‘ZDK MoI today receiving accreditation’ – the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDK) MoI will receive today accreditation from UNMIBH. This marks the final phase of accrediting BiH law enforcement agencies, which meet basic standards of democratic policing. The daily reported in a separate article on pg. 9 ‘A request for Frederiksen to review his decision’ – the ZDK Union, on behalf of all 20 branches, requested from IPTF Commissioner Frederiksen to review his decision on decertifying 73 policemen from the Canton. Oslobodjenje pg. 4 ‘The appeals by decertified policemen resolved’, Avaz pg. ‘UN Appeal Council resolved only three policemen appeals’ – the Sarajevo Canton MoI has so far been informed that only three, out of 60 policemen appeals, have been resolved. An appeal by policeman Slobodan Vasic was positively resolved, while the other two policemen Josip Bosnjak and Krunoslav Golub, received negative answers to their appeals. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3‘General Pandzic, for whom the RS Police has been looking for over a month, sends a letter to Bijeljina Basic Court – You know where I am, why didn’t you call me?’ – a retired general of the RS Air Force Radoslav Pandzic, for whom the RS Police has been looking for over a month (suspect in the Orao affair), sent a letter to the Basic Court in Bijeljina. In it, he left his address in Zemun where he currently lives. Pandzic said in the letter that he would respond to the subpoena but only if representatives of the FRY military judiciary questioned him. The paper quotes President of the Bijeljina Basic Court, Dragomir Zivanovic, as saying that now he knows where General Pandzic is and he will order him to show up before the court to give his testimony regarding the ‘Orao’ case. Pandzic said that the criminal procedure against the leading ‘Orao’ people was being run in an improper way, and because of that as well as some other reasons he did not want to show up before the court in Bijeljina. Vecernji List pg. 1 and 3 by Zdenko Jurilj – says that due to administrative-legal negligence by competent services within the FBiH government, the Federation Minister of Interior, Ramo Maslesa, Defence Minister Mijo Anic, Minister of Social Care and refugees and DPs, Mijat Tuka, and his deputy Alija Remzija have been working as illegal employees. VL claims it has collected documentation from the Secretariat of the Federation government, which shows that none of the aforementioned officials has been registered with the Federation Pension and Disability Fund. Moreover, the daily claims that the Federation Deputy Finance Minister, Sefika Hafizovic, received a list of Federation Government’s employees and that she was supposed to know about the negligence. According to the papers, she was to use the information to politically discredit some ministers during the pre-election campaign, but the due to unknown reasons it was never done. Under a title “OHR requests politicians to give up profitable businesses or functions: Minister of Trade has shops, Minister of Social care has pharmacies, and Deputy Minister of Defense has flower-shop”, Slobodna Dalmacija on pg. 1 and 13 tackles the issue of the Law on Conflict of Interest. The Law, which was enacted by HR some two months ago, should regulate what politicians and officials could and must not do. SD says that many politicians are using loopholes to earn extra money, such as registering companies under their wives’ names and goes on to list a number of officials who have other businesses/jobs apart from positions in the authority. Namely, Mijat Tuka, Federation Minister of Social Care and Refugees and DPs, has two pharmacies, one in Kiseljak, one in Fojnica. Federation Deputy Defense Minister, Ferid Buljubasic, has a flower-shop in Sarajevo. Minister without portfolio Mladen Ivankovic is a co-owner of ‘Lijanovici’ meat industry, whilst Andrija Jurkovic, Federation Minister of Trade, is a co-owner of a trade company in Capljina. Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘Today and here’ column by Gojko Beric entitled ‘Play Boze pravde’ – about Dodik’s request that ‘Boze pravde’ anthem was played at the beginning of each RS Assembly session. “This archaic hymn, which calls for the God as a saviour of the Serb king and homeland, falls under the category of Serb archaeological folklore and basically negates politics as the earthly power,” write Beric. He thinks that everyone has the right to their national symbols, whether others like them or not. But Beric warns that the problem arises when the ‘chauvinist crowd’ starts using it. Nacional on pg. 11 ‘SDS and PDP renounce anthem’ – Dimitrije Ivanic, member of the SNSD Main Board. and delegate in the RS NA, thinks that the SDS and PDP ‘have renounced the RS anthem in order to please the SDA delegates’. Blic pg. 6 ‘Church donated, OHR forbade’ – OHR has stopped the construction of houses in Glogova, near Bratunac. The Orthodox Church, Municipality Kravica, allocated the land to refugees and DPs who do not have a place to return to because their property was destroyed during the war. That same OHR, on 19 April this year, allowed the exchange of land between ‘Srpske Sume’ SG ‘Jasenik’ from Bratunac and Kravica’s Orthodox Church. But decision of 22 November 2002 reads that on the basis of complaints of several Bosniaks from local community Glogova, the further construction is stopped, because Glogova is too close to future refugee settlement. FTV 1 (19.30 news, December 11, 2002) – the Appeal Board of the Croatian Parliament has considered the appeal of the Brcko District Landowners and decided that property and legal issues of citizens from other countries are not under board’s jurisdiction. Therefore, the Board submitted the case to the Croatian Foreign Ministry. Dnevni Avaz, pg. 12 ‘Solution can be looked for and found only in Brcko’ – quoting the President of the Association of the Landowners Tomo Tomsic. He said that the Association members went to Zagreb to ‘make it clear that this can no longer be tolerated in the democratic society, as well as that they will not give up their land’. “The landowners have already brought charges against those they consider responsible in this case,” Mayor of Brcko Sinisa Kisic stated. He also pointed out that it was difficult for him to understand why the Association members asked for help from another country if they had their own country. The President of the District Assembly, Mirsad Djapo, stated that all District legal institutions were following the case. According to Djapo, this is not a national issue, nor anyone’s national issue has been endangered. “This is not an issue for the parliament of another country. The Assembly is willing to revise all legal requests as before, and the legal institutions of Brcko are also willing to deal with this case in accordance with the law and under a condition the case is not politicised,” Djapo pointed out. “We have addressed the BiH House of Peoples about this issue, yet our requests have not been fully accepted. We think that decisions of the Croatian Parliament can be diplomatically transferred to BiH in order to help us,” Tomsic said. Nacional pg. 4 ‘Dodik, a witness in Plavsic case’ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik will appear as a defence witness in the trail of former RS President Biljana Plavsic before the Hague Tribunal in the process of presenting evidence to determine her sentence on December 16 and 17. Former High Representative in BiH Carl Bildt, former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, and former OSCE Mission to BiH, Robert Frowick, were also requested to testify for the defence, but it is still uncertain whether they would show up. Vecernji List pg. 2 ‘Reform of education or reform of Dayton’ – an editorial by Pero Zelenika on the issue of education reform in BiH saying that the last month’s meeting in Brussels on education reform gathered everyone who means something in BiH politics, including HR Ashdown and entity ministers. The author says that everyone in BiH is aware that the reform is necessary adding that the reform costs money. “To implement the reform, a support is being offered, various tested and untested schooling systems are being offered too, as well as expertise of foreign experts, but nobody offers money. But, a better climate is awaited for other reforms. It could be a reform of the Dayton agreement and the Federation Constitution”, concludes Zelenika. | |
OHR/International Community |
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| HR Ashdown in Moscow
Round table on customs reform
OHR campaign in RS
Platform for united Mostar
PDHR Hays on VAT | Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘Significant help of Russia for BiH reforms’, Avaz pg. 3 ‘Russian help of vital importance’, Glas Srpski pg. 3 ‘Ashdown in Moscow’, Nezavisne Novine pg. 4 ‘Ashdown: Russia plays important role in the process of reforms in BiH’ – HR Paddy Ashdown met yesterday in Moscow with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igor Ivanov. Ashdown stated that the IC was united concerning the common program, which is the establishment of the rule of law. Minister Ivanov emphasised the importance of the economic reform, especially when it comes to the issues of state customs and VAT. Dnevni List carries a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Jakovenko, as saying that ‘the Dayton Agreement represents the basis of the peace process and securing of balance of interest in BiH’. “The failure to respect the agreement could undermine the foundations of the yet fragile stability and relations between two entities and three peoples that live in BiH. All more important decisions on political-economic system should be taken on basis of freely expressed consensus of all sides”. Avaz pg. 4 ‘BiH is the only state in Europe that does not have single customs’, Glas Srpski pg. 3 – Renzo Davidi, the Chief of Working Group for Reform of BiH Customs, stated that introduction of the joint BiH administration would be the only way to increase the efficiency in collecting customs. Davidi said that the existing customs system in BiH is expensive and inefficient and does not ensure the application of customs legislation at the BiH level. According to him, the main problem is the existence of three different customs administration, which are not capable of fighting the customs fraud, smuggling and crime in an efficient way.CAFAO Chief, Alan Jensen, spoke on the necessity of introducing the state VAT. The statements were made during a round table discussion entitled ‘Reform of the customs system in BiH’ held yesterday in Banja Luka. Nezavisne Novine reported on the same issue pg. 2 ‘VAT will not endanger entities’ – Davidi’s statement that ‘the fiscal sovereignty of entities will not be endangered with introduction of a joint customs and tax administrations.’ “This is because the revenues, which will be collected on one account, will be further distributed to entities,” said Davidi. Please note that the ATV reported last night in its prime time news at 19:00 that there was some misunderstanding regarding a meeting that PDHR Donald Hays had with representatives of the RS parties the day before yesterday. ATV reported that Hays said that all the RS parties agreed on the introduction of VAT and that the SDS and RS Prime Minister denied that. Avaz pg. 10 ‘Experts will present advantages of VAT to businessmen’, Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘OHR continues its campaign’ – OHR Spokeswoman in Banja Luka, Sonja Pastuovic, confirmed yesterday that representatives from the OHR Economic department continued their campaign of presenting advantages of introducing the state VAT. The discussion on the topic will take place on December 16 this year at the Banja Luka University for Economics. Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘Equal and democratic community’ – head of OHR in Mostar, Jean Pierre Bercot, received the Platform for Action that outlines the construction of Mostar as a multiethnic, equal and democratic community. Eighteen Mostar city councillors from the Coalition for united and democratic BiH (includes members from the SDA, SBiH, SDP and independent councillors) adopted the Platform on December 3. The news was announced during a press conference in Mostar yesterday. Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 15 by Marijan Sivric – an editorial regarding the unification of Mostar. It says that the administrative and political unification of Mostar will not go smoothly even after the constitutional changes have taken place. This is because Bosniaks, who loudly advocated for unified city, now claim that Mostar and Bosniaks are now threatened with ‘Croatization’ requesting the status quo. The author also suggests that Mostar should become one constituency in order to avoid the situation that the strongest party in the elections, which has always been the HDZ, does not have most number of councilors in the City Council. Dnevni List pg. 7 by Darko Jukic – carries a similar editorial to the one featured in Slobodna Dalmacija. The author, however, notes that the SDP and SDA are in coalition only in Mostar, which, according to Jukic, speaks for itself. The author also says that OHR and other representatives of the IC should come up with stances regarding the future organization of Mostar as one normal city. “Than, some things would be clearer, from what the establishment of Mostar’s going to be like to who is going to implement it”, says Jukic. Nacional pg. 11 ‘VAT comes into force in 2004’ – reports that preparations for introducing VAT in BiH do not go as planned. PDHR Donald Hays recently told representatives of political parties that participate in the work of the RS Parliament that VAT should replace current sales tax by 2004. According to his, that would increase the budget revenues. “VAT is much better solution than sales tax,” Hays said. However, not everyone shares his opinion. President of the RS Government, Mladen Ivanic, thinks that collection of taxes and customs duties on BiH level would be an additional problem in relations between the entities. “The problem would be reallocation of collected revenues among entities,” Ivanic said. On the other side, OHR thinks that the VAT system of collecting should be single one, and that revenues should be reallocated to the entities on equal parts. “I will not say that everyone agrees on the issue, but they support the introduction of VAT with single tax rate, single tax policy and administration,” Hays said. He warned that those opposing VAT want in fact to evade tax paying. | |