NOTE: Due to technical problems, we have not received BORAM Electronic Media Summary.
| Oslobodjenje | SFOR raided headquarters of FBiH MoI? |
| Dnevni Avaz | What SFOR controlled in FOSS and MoI?; Stipe Mesic opened exhibition on Old Bridge |
| Dnevni List | Sarajevo: SFOR searched FBiH MoI building; Andrija Skobic: City of Mostar without working permit; Prlic denies speculations about departure to The Hague |
| Vecernji List | SFOR carried out sudden actions in MoI; Dr. Covic visits Vecernji List; HDZ BiH: Discussions on constitutional changes |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Features Croatia related headlines |
| Glas Srpske | Crime at Gacko Mine and Power Plant: She injured the boss, then committed a suicide |
| Nezavisne Novine | SFOR inspected the building of Federal MoI and FOSS: Documentation and central computer of FOSS confiscated; The eldest population on protest in Banjaluka: Pensioners spitted at their leaders |
| Blic | Protest of pensioners: they request pension increase of 35%; Tragedy in Gacko: She shot at director, then committed suicide |
Security affairs | |
| SFOR raided Fed MoI and FOSS
| CRHB, RTRS, Oslobodjenje cover, pg 3 ‘SFOR raided headquarters of FBIH MoI’, Dnevni Avaz cover, pg 2 ‘What SFOR controlled in FOSS and MoI?’, Dnevni List front, pg 3 ‘Sarajevo: SFOR searched FBiH MoI building’, Vecernje Novosti pg. 3 ‘SFOR searched Federation MoI’ – SFOR troops on Tuesday raided the FBiH Interior Ministry building in Sarajevo, in which Federation Security and Intelligence Service [FOSS] is also located. Following the search, soldiers took out of the building cardboard boxes, computers and files with unknown content. SFOR Spokesperson Jeremy Todd said this was a routine operation that was carried out in line with SFOR’s mandate. The aim of operation to check whether there were obstructions of the Dayton Peace Accord. ‘According to DPA, SFOR has a power to conduct routine searches of the place and in a time it chooses. We do not discuss details as to why we are doing it.’ – said Todd. SFOR also searched FOSS, and confiscated some documents. Vecernji List front ‘SFOR carried out sudden action in MoI’, pg 3 ‘SFOR carried out sudden search of MoI and FOSS’ – VL says it is believed that the FOSS and its files, which are placed in the building of the FBiH MoI, were the main target of the yesterday’s search. Slobodna Dalmacija pg 6 ‘SFOR blocked FBiH MoI building’ – SD speculates that this action is related to the recent coup d’état scandal, while some people believe it is connected to the chaotic situation in the FBiH MoI especially when Head of the FBiH Police, Zlatko Miletic, is in question. Nezavisne Novine cover and pg 3 ‘Documentation and central computer of FOSS confiscated’ – Two officials of FOSS confirmed that SFOR Italian and American contingent confiscated central computer from FOSS. |
| Spiric announces first hearing in coup d’état affair | Nezavisne Novine pg 3 ‘First public hearings next week’ – Nikola Spiric, Chairperson of the BiH HoR and Chairperson of the Commission, which is to investigate into claims on FOSS affair, yesterday confirmed that the Commission is expected to commence with public hearings on alleged coup d’etat sometime next week. |
| Dzaferovic on coup d’état | Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘Dzaferovic: I will demand to remove the confidential sign’ – Deputy Speaker of BiH House of Representatives and the member of House’s Investigative Commission working on the case of coup d’état, Sefik Dzaferovic stated, at the session of the Commission to be held at the beginning of next week, he will demand the sign ‘confidential’ to be removed form the envelope containing information by BiH Security Ministry. ‘In this moment, I cannot say any more. We will have a session and we will bring a decision. The tasks of this Commission are to gather information and present it to the Parliament. The only possible way is to work in accordance with the Law … who talks about the obligation to protect official secrets.’ – said Dzaferovic, adding that only Speaker of BiH House of Representatives Nikola Spiric received the envelope, while he and second Deputy Speaker Martin Raguz [also the members of the Commission] did not. According to the Law on FOSS, information kept by the Service or marked as secret can be disclosed only upon the approval by Service’s Director or the members of permanent working group, consisting of members of both FBiH Houses, President and Vice Presidents, and Prime Ministers of FBiH. |
| Delic: Bugging Alibabic was legal | Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘Vuksic bugged Alibabic legally’ – FBIH Parliament’s Commission for Supervision of FOSS concluded on its session held on Tuesday that complaints by several officials fired last year were grounded, and that in their cases Law was violated and office misused by former Service Director Munir Alibabic. ‘We will suggest to both Houses of FBiH Parliaments to adopt these conclusions in an urgent procedure, and those who were fired to have their jobs back in FOSS, where currently there is 80% of vacant positions.’ – confirmed Chairman of the Commission Sead Delic. |
| FMoI interrogated workers in FBiH Parliament | Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘FMoI’s inspectors interrogated employees in Ibrahimovic and Matic’s cabinets’ – According to Dnevni Avaz, inspectors from FBiH Interior Ministry on Tuesday spent more than an hour in the building of FBiH Parliament where they took statements from certain employees in the case of bugging Munir Alibabic. Talks were also held in the cabinet the Speaker of FBiH House of Representatives Muhamed Ibrahimovic who had an insight into the bugging material. Several days ago, inspectors also questioned the secretary of Speaker of the FBiH House of Peoples, who also had received the material. Allegedly inspectors were keen to learn how did material reach the offices, who brought them and where are they currently located. |
| Oslobodjenje editorial on coup d’état | Oslobodjenje pg 2 ‘Top secret’ editorial by Senka Kurtovic – Author writes to the session of BiH House of Representatives in which coup d’état was discussed. Referring to the envelope containing confidential information on the coup, Kurtovic mocks the entire charade around it, ‘when even birds know the secret’ and goes on accusing SDA and HDZ. |
| OHR on HDZ refusal to endorse intelligence reforms | Vecernji List pg 5 ‘OHR does not accept HDZ’s objections’ – Following announcements that the HDZ BiH will not support the proposal of law on BiH intelligence-security service, VL says “it seems the OHR does not have much understanding for their positions”. “The expert commission presented a thoroughly European Law. Actually this proposal foresees a parliamentary committee that will oversee the work of the intelligence service. Furthermore, the law gives the BiH Parliamentary Assembly protective mechanisms to ensure that there is no unlawful intelligence activity. The proposal of the law meets European standards as set by the Council of Europe”, says as OHR spokesperson, Mario Brkic. Nezavisne Novine, pg. 4, ‘Responsibility rests with BiH CoM and Parliament’ – The OHR Spokesperson, Oleg Milisic, yesterday stated that BiH Council of Ministers and BiH Parliament are the right places to address and examine remarks and objections placed by HDZ of BiH on Monday regarding proposed law on intelligence service. Milisic did not comment on press question as to whether OHR would react upon HDZ denial to accept proposed law on OSA. |
| EUPM on SIPA, Miletic and trafficking | CRHB, RTRS [radio], Oslobodjenje pg 7 ‘Set of laws in two weeks’ – The EUPM Commissioner Sven Frederiksen visited Council of Europe last week in Brussels, where he held briefings on the rule of law and the work of European Union Police Mission with the Political and Security Committee. Presentation was based on a review of the first 100 days of operations of the EUPM. Commissioner noted the gradually developing co-operation between the entity police forces, such as on organized crime and trafficking cases, as well as the progress in the strengthening of State level institutions. In regard to the State Information and Protection Agency [SIPA] EUPM expects the legislation package to be ready in the next two weeks. This will include the SIPA Law, the Criminal Procedures Code, the Law on Witness Protection, the Law on Police Work Relations and the Civil Service Law. The press release reads that EUPM closely monitors the situation in regard to media reports on removal of FBiH Police Director Zlatko Miletic and adds that they have not been informed that measures have been taken in this regard. In respect of trafficking in women, EUPM notes the assessment by the Doboj Public Security Centre that all night bars in their area of responsibility had been closed down. Also that other steps aimed at preventing human trafficking were being taken. |
Economic and social issues | |
| OHR: Value of telecom reduced by incompetent management
| CRHB, RTRS [radio], Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘ Value of telecom reduced by incompetent management’, Slobodna Dalmacija pg 19 ‘OHR does not decrease price of telecommunications companies’, Blic pg. 13 ‘Baselessly accused auditor’, FENA – Office of the High Representatives on Tuesday denied allegations made by some media that the entities governments and the international community have been trying to reduce the value of telecommunications operators in order to sell them as cheap as possible. Commenting some media reports following the special audits into Telekom Srpske, BH Telecom and HT Mostar, OHR Spokersperson Oleg Milisic said that the ‘value of three telecommunications companies in BiH have been reduced due to their incompetent management and it will increase once entities governments implement the reforms they announced.’ Milesic also repeated that the audit reports established facts on mismanagement and corruption in those companies which worked for the benefit of the individuals, and not BH citizens. Glas Srpske pg. 2 ‘Value diminished with ignorance’, Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘Auditors found evidence on crime activities at telecom operators’ – Milisic also denied some claims that special auditor did not find any evidence proving criminal acts were committed at three telekom operators in BiH. |
| NN editorial on telecoms | Nezavisne Novine pg. 7 ‘Teleccomiad’ editorial by Damir Miljevic, – The author refers to international special auditors’ reports on telecommunication operators in BiH. According to him, it is almost impossible to open any paper or switch any channel on TV without avoiding the mention of word “telekom audit reports”. Namely, the public and media are brimming with information related to this. Most of those reports are related to numerous denials of audit report, presentation of other arguments proving that officials of Telekom were right, etc. According to Miljevic, the fact that both, Mladen Ivanic and Haris Silajdzic joined the common criticism of audit reports (when both accused IC as being the most corrupt in BiH) can mean either that they are right or that the authority is joining forces before the joint jeopardy and threat called special audit. He is actually commending audit reports and calling for local officials to stop defending themselves and to instead start providing answers to audit findings (mainly referring to violations of evasion of Law on Procurement, expenditures of large amounts of money, etc.). |
| VL: 60% of HT workers will be made redundant | Vecernji List front, pg 5 ‘Redundancies to follow in HT Mostar’ – The daily claims that regardless of who becomes the new owner of HT Mostar (Croat telecommunications Mostar) or whoever is to be appointed to the company’s Steering Board, the latest estimation say some 60% of the company’s employees will be made redundant. The daily also carries an excerpt of an answer that the CEO of “HT Mostar”, Stipe Prlic, sent to the special auditor of OHR. “By analyzing the human resources, I established there is a surplus of workers by more than 60%, but the issue has to be solved with the FBiH Government as well as with other two co-owners. I state that, within the issue, I am tied by the collective agreement which was signed by the former HPT Mostar and Ministry of Traffic and Communications, and by provisions of the current FBiH Labor Law. At this moment, we are preparing ISO-standards and we will have relevant data on surplus of workers be end of year”, reads Prlic’s answer. |
| Tihic and Ivanic attend OIC summit in Malaysia
| Oslobodjenje pg 5 ‘To Malaysia, BiH is attractive and interesting’, Dnevni List pg 6 ‘BiH is area for strengthening of relation of Malaysia with European countries’, FENA – BiH delegation headed by member of BiH Presidency, Sulejman Tihic, arrived to Malaysia, where they will attend the 10th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). BiH Presidency announced that on Wednesday at the first OIC Business Forum Tihic will address the chiefs of states and representatives of large companies and business associations. On October 17 Tihic will address the chiefs of states and governments of the OIC participating states, and meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahatir. Member of the delegation, BH Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic on Tuesday met with Malaysian Foreign Minister Hamid Jaafar Albar, with whom he discussed possibilities of investments in BiH and other economics issues. Dnevni Avaz pg 2 ‘Economic cooperation with Malaysia must be stronger’ – ‘We agreed that there is a possibility for further strengthening of economic cooperation. One of the ways for that is building of Vc corridor through BiH, for which Malaysia businessmen expressed interests.’ – stated Ivanic following the meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister, whom he briefed on the progress of economic reforms in BiH. |
| BiH delegation at the Bucharest conference | BH Radio 1, Dnevni Avaz pg 5 ‘Terzic invited Prime Ministers from the region to the investment conference in Mostar’, Oslobodjenje pg 8 ‘Terzic invited investors to Mostar’, Dnevni List pg 2 ‘Participants invited at Conference in Mostar’ – Two-day conference ‘Expanding the European Investment Frontier’ commenced on Tuesday in Bucharest. On behalf of BiH, conference is attended by Chairman of BiH Council of Ministers Adnan Terzc, BiH Finance and Treasury Minister Ljerka Maric, BiH Deputy Foreign Minister Lidija Topic and President of BiH Foreign Trade Chamber Petar Milanovic. Prime Minister Terzic addressed to the conference participants on Tuesdy and he informed them about investments possibilities in BiH, and invited them to the investments’ conference to be held in Mostar on 26 and 27 February 2004. Presenting process of reforms and activities in creation of business environment in BiH, Terzic stressed the commitment of BH authorities to improve the relations with the countries in region. ‘Together, as a regional project, we have to work on improving the image of the region. It is not enough to improve individual images of the countries.’ – stated Terzic. |
| Srpske Posts update | Glas Srpske pg. 3 ‘Pejic still in registry’ – Banjaluka Basic Court issued an order, which suspended the procedure related to the removal of the official authorised to represent “Srpske Poste”, until Banjaluka District Court passes its decision on this matter. The request for removal of official was filed by the Executive Board of Srpske Poste, that demanded that the name of Milutin Pejic is erased from the registry and the name of Milijana Dakic be inserted instead. |
| DA editorial on transition | Dnevni Avaz pg 3 ‘Slovenian example’ editorial by Eldar Dizdarevic – Author writes that media did not pay enough of the attention to the second day of international conference held in Sarajevo on transition, when former advisor to the World Bank David Elerman said that in years he saw many bad macro-economic project, but estimated that the worse one was WB’s called ‘privatisation in transition countries’. ‘I wonder why you [people] in BiH even ask the World Bank on privatisation when they know absolutely nothing about it.’ – said Elerman. Article further reads that Slovenian is considered as the best example of the transition in South-East Europe, while well-known Slovenian economist Joze Mercinger believes that the reason is that Slovenian did not listen to the World Bank or IMF. ‘This of course doesn’t mean that the causes of all economic troubles around the world lies with these powerful financial institutions. Without big help from the World Bank, BiH would still not have infrastructure enabled for normal living.’ At the end, author concludes that the time has finally came for BiH citizens to take over their destiny, and for BH economists to fulfil pre-conditions for successful transition as laid down at the *conference. |
| Protests of pensioners in Banja Luka | RTRS [radio], BH Radio 1, Oslobodjenje pg 4 ‘Protest of pensioners/At the end of month, requests for pensions’, Blic pg. 13 ‘Walk towards increase’; Vecernje Novosti pg. 21, ONASA, FENA – About 400 pensioners from Banja Luka protested on Tuesday to warn the authorities about the difficult position of this population and to request increasing and regular paying of salaries. At the rally, organized by the Pensioners’ Democratic Association, pensioners requested the removal of administration of the RS Pension-Invalid’s Insurance Fund (PIO). RS Association of Pensioners did not support the realy, while the president of the association Rade Rakulj called it partisan gathering. Acting Director of RS PIO Jovo Kosmajac said that the Fun will sum up the pensioners’ demands and together with the representatives of the authorized Ministry will discuss them at the end of the month. ‘Requests are certainly grounded, but due to financial situation we must consider them. We will consider jointly today’s demands and those to be posed at the protest organized by RS Association of pensioners and to be held on 20 October’ – said Kosmajac. Nezavisne Novine cover, pg 9 ‘Pensioners spitted at their leaders’ – The dissatisfaction of several hundred of Banjaluka pensioners culminated at the protest, when they literally spitted at their official representatives. The peaceful protest turned into the confrontation amongst pensioners. Pensioners demanded from their representatives to immediately file resignations. |
War crimes | |
| Meeting of working group on missing persons
| Dnevni Avaz pg 3 ‘Jurisic: RS submitted information for the first time’, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘Missing persons will soon have their Law’ – Vice President of FBiH Missing Persons Commission Marko Jurisic confirmed that for the first time since the establishment of the BiH working group for missing persons, representatives of Republika Srpska offered answers in regard to search of missing persons, in this case of 27 of them. At the meeting on Tuesday, working group – organized by International Committee of Red Cross – gathered all those dealing with these issues from BiH, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro. They all concluded that something did change for better in this field, even though not significantly. Participants also discussed the issue of the institute for missing persons at the state level. Glas Srpske, pg. 3, ‘Times for responses’ – The Head of ICRC in BiH, Werner Caspar, yesterday stated that regarding the process of search for missing persons, a slight but significant progress has been achieved. At the session of the Task Force for Missing Persons in Sarajevo yesterday, he stressed that the will for completing this job is increasing. He stressed that local authorities of BiH are ready to take over more responsibility. Aleksandar Radeta, Director of the Republika Srpska Commission for search for missing persons, stated that Commissions are faced with numerous problems, including re-burial of victims and lack of appropriate information. Marko Jurisic said that Federal Commission offered responses on related to 44 missing persons. According to him, “this is not much, but the important thing is that the process goes on.” |
| Lagumdzija on BH lawsuit against SCG | RTRS [radio], Nezavisne Novine pg. 2 ‘Bosniak representatives would drop charges, but they are afraid of their own people’, Dnevni List pg 4 ‘Lawsuit must not be withdrawn’ – Zlatko Lagumdzija, President of SDP of BiH, stated that some representatives of Bosniak people would withdrew lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro for genocide, “but they are afraid of their own people”. On lawsuit, Lagumdzija said that: “From this distance and with this experience, I think that we are not objective to judge anything which took place in BIH.” |
| Investigation into war crimes in Heliodrom | Oslobodjenje pg 4 ‘New Law halted the investigation’ – Cantonal Prosecutor Mirsad Resulovic confirmed to daily that Prosecutions conducts an investigation into the war crimes committed in the Heliodrom concentration camp near Mostar. The investigation against former camp guard Anto Buhovac and former commander of antiterrorist unit [Benko Penavic] Marijo Milicevic Baja has commenced, according to Resulovic six months ago, but has been temporarily halted because Milicevic is in clandestine. ‘The obligations of the investigation – according to the new Law – is to interrogate a suspect. In this case that is not possible because we don’t know of his whereabouts.’ – said Resulovic. He also confirmed that the investigation has been started following the approval by the ICTY, which – as he said – did not demand any information on Jadranko Prlic, former president of Herceg-Bosnia government. ‘We have started the investigation against Buhovac and Milicevic, but I believe it will gradually disclose details on people who committed the worst crimes. Whether those would be members of the [HB] government or HVO [Croatian Defence Council], I don’t know.’ – said the prosecutor. |
| DL editorial on media reports about war crimes committed by Croat officials | Dnevni List front, pg 5 ‘Prlic denied speculations about his departure to The Hague’ editorial by Ivica Glibusic – Editorial deals with the media speculations that The Hague is interested in some Croat officials from the time of the Croat Community of Herceg Bosna. The author says:“Namely, this is about skillfully prepared media harangue against former and current politicians. There is a wish to eliminate them from the political and public BiH scene and certain Sarajevo political and intelligence circles stand behind it. The media issuing of a bill of indictment against former President of the Croat Republic of Herceg Bosna Government Jadranko Prlic they finally want to square accounts with the rest of Croats who played an important role in the last, stormy decade when the struggle for the survival of Croats in BiH was taking place.” |
Military issues | |
| DL on defence reforms
| Dnevni List pg 8 ‘80 million KMs for severance pays to discharged troops – That military experts in BiH believe that the military in BiH is going through the most difficult period, when BiH is to enter the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and go through the defence reform. In context of these, DL says the responsible structures seem not to care about how much BiH gains with entering the PfP, and that some 8000 troops, which are to be discharged once the defence reform has been completed, will place an additional burden on the budget in terms of severance pays and additional training for the discharged troops. DL estimates the cost is in the region of 80 million KMs. Talking to the Radio Free Europe, a member of the Standing Committee for Military Matters, Savo Sokanovic, says it is going to be an extra blow to the already difficult social situation in BiH. “The problem is there are no jobs in BiH. The economy in BiH is stagnating, even worse than that. Everything comes down to: if the economy is not working, there are no jobs. You can make programmes, do additional training for the people, even if they do additional training, what do you do with the training if they cannot find a job”, says Sokanovic. |
| Oslobodjenje editorial on peacekeeping in BiH; armed forces | Oslobodjene pg 2 ‘Here comes Europe [again]’ editorial by Antonio Prlenda – Editorial reads that series of statements given by the international officials proves that the intention of Europe is to take over the control over military developments in BIH through ‘purely’ its own peacekeeping troops. ‘In that way, High Representative… would finally become unofficial, but at the same time supreme protector in our country. And SFOR commander’s … role would be classical military advisor and High Representatives’ military executor ‘As for the military capability of European today, from purely military point of view, the peacekeeping mission in BiH has stopped being complicated some time ago. When you exclude the issue of apprehending war criminals at large, the tasks of patrolling, unannounced raids, seeking and destroying weapons, and the assistance to ‘professionalization’ of local armed forces, are not something that European forces could not do… However, what is a difference is that it would impact BH political credibility… European has to prove itself in it on its own [remember UNPROFOR]. At it would be politically fatal for BiH authorities to give approval to act again in a role of testing animal for something that should be conducted in some other place some times later… Future BiH armed forces with 12000 troops [4000 in RS and 8000 in FBiH] could be guarantee for peace only when their functioning is proved at the field and when they show the will for further integration.’ – concludes the editorial. |
Terrorism in BiH | |
| Copley: ‘NATO must stay in the Balkans due to terrorism threats’
| Glas Srpske pg. 5 ‘Recruitment has commenced a long time ago’ – In a statement to Voice of America, Gregory Copley, Editor of the US magazine ‘Defence and Foreign policy’, stated that the Iranians and Al Q’Aeda have been engaged in building an operational network and recruitment of their supporters in the Balkans for the past 14 years. He warned that terrorism is still present in the Balkans. Accordingly, NATO and US must maintain their presence in the Balkans. |
| Terrorism in BiH | Glas Srpske pg. 5 ‘Zavahiri calls for jihad’ – GS reads that the seriousness of the warning that BiH has become a base of Al Q’Aeda and safe shelter for islamic terrorists is substantiated by the most recent arrest of the Algerian with BiH passport, Aissa Benkhir, suspected of having been involved in a terrorist attack in Algeria in 1995. He is actually employed at the Kuwait General Committee for Sarajevo assistance. He was arrested upon InterPol arrest warrant at the border crossing point of Meteljka near Srbinje. He obtained BiH passport in September 2001. His arrest proves that some west circles are not too far away from the truth when they claim that numerous islamic humanitarian organisations in BiH are just a “cover” of Al Q’Aeda and other terrorist organisations. American lawyers established that Kuwait General Committee for assistance to Sarajevo has close connection with Egyptian, Palestinian and Algerian terrorists. [Reference in regard to headline: Aiman Zavahiri, Al Q’Aeda’s man no. 2, recently called on Muslims in BiH to join jihad]. Oslobodjenje pg 7 ‘Benkhir at the time of terrorist attack in Algeria was in HVO’s prison’ – Daily carries that Aissa Benkhir has been released from the detention after submitting strong evidences which deny allegations that he took part in terrorist attack committee in Algeria in 1995. According to his lawyer Esad Hrvacic Benkhir at that time was in HVO [Croatian Defence Council] prison and he was exchanged in 1996. According to Hrvacic, Benkhir was a soldier of BH Army since 1993, and was arrested by HVO in Kiseljak due to ‘breach of territorial integrity of Herceg-Bosnia’ in 1996. BiH State Court passed temporary measure to cease his BH passport, and demanded from Benhir to report to the court every five days. In Algeria he was sentenced to death in absence. |
Political issues | |
| HDZ to discuss constitutional issues with other parties
| Vecernji List front ‘Discussions on constitutional changes’, pg 2 ‘Talks on changes to Constitution’ – HDZ BiH will initiate talks with other political parties on future organizational set-up of BiH, as decided by the HDZ Presidency two days ago. According to an HDZ spokesperson, Pero Pavlovic, HDZ wants to get involved in ever so frequent talks on constitutional changes in BiH. “In the next few weeks, the party pinnacle intends to talk about the issue with all parliamentary parties to have a clearer picture in the matter”, says Pavlovic. According to VL, the Presidency of HDZ BiH will during its next session, discuss results of implementation of constitutional changes in cantons. |
| Patriot: Bush demands Hays’ removal | Patriot pg. 4 ‘Hays to be removed’ – Patriot magazine has learnt from diplomatic sources that George Bush’s Administration is seriously considering to remove Donald Hays from the post of Principal Deputy High Representative: ‘Washington is not satisfied with Hays’ work for quite some time, but his open support to Democrats, just before the election race in the US, represents the last drop in an already full glass.’ According to the same source, Washington reacted with a great discomfort when it was publicized that Hays openly lobbied for Richard Holbrooke and prepared him a spectacular promotion during his recent visit to Sarajevo: ‘Hays forced Presidency of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly to let Holbrooke address the Parliament. Hays told them that Bush will lose the forthcoming elections for sure, and that Richard Holbrooke will assume the duty of the State Secretary, instead of Collin Powell.’ According to the Patriot magazine source, Holbrooke and [Bernard] Kouchner were well paid to visit Kosovo and Bosnia by radical Albanian and Islamic circles: ‘just like Bill Clinton who received 250 000 $ in cash for the speech he delivered in Srebrenica.’ |
| Croatian President Mesic on some BiH issues | Dnevni List pg 6 ‘With President at tea’ by Marko Tadic – Author writes about the meeting he had with the Croatian President Stjepan Mesic. Talking about the Ploce Port issue, Mesic said that this issue is being politicized and even internationalized too much and that there are too many partial and local interests. With regard to the Corridor Vc issue, Mesic stated that it would be very wrong to realize any phase of this project without the international tender. Asked about the Dayton Peace Accord, Mesic says that the DPA only placed grounds and not the roof of the house and that citizens of BiH have right to decide on the organization of BiH. With regard to the educational reforms in BiH, Mesic said that it is easy to provoke national tensions by this kind of issues, however, the solution will not be found in it, at least not the European one. |
Legal issues | |
| HJPC on judicial reform
| Dnevni List pg 7 ‘6 judges received public warning’ – The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council spokesperson Sanela Tunovic stated at the press conference: “The goal of the launched judiciary reform in BiH is to appoint completely moral, capable persons to the positions of judges and prosecutors, while the criterion of the national representation according to the 1990 census is on the third place.” |
| SDA opposes to judges elected | Nezavisne Novine, pg. 4 ‘HJPC’s claim Rosic is good judge’ – Reacting on SDA criticism upon election of Jovo Rosic as the Judge to BiH Constitutional Court and Mirko Zovko as President of Republika Srpska Constitutional Court, Sanela Tunovic, Spokesperson of the HJPC’s, stated that HJPC finds Rosic to be a good judge, and as such, he was elected as Judge to BiH Constitutional Court. She also said that SDA has a right to file an appeal. Regarding appointment of Zovko, SDA thinks that this position of President of Republika Srpska Constitutional Court should have been assigned to a Bosniak. |
| DA on election of judges for European Human Rights Court | Dnevni Avaz pg. 9 ‘Ljiljana Mijovic denies war crimes in RS’ by H. Orahovac – The election of a judge from BiH for the European Human Rights Court, with headquarters in Strasbourg, results in ‘real drama’, as since the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe elects judges it has never happened before that one of the candidates proposed is not elected in a first run of voting. Previously, in two runs of voting none of the judges did not win majority of votes, and Assembly will vote again in January 2004. BiH candidates are Ljiljana Mijovic, Ahmed Zilic and Zoran Pajic. Author says that it is odd that the majority of the votes so far won anonymous Ljiljana Mijovic, who also opposes the BiH lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro and who allegedly believes that the breaches of human rights did not occur in RS. ‘Ljiljana Mijovic is supported by members of CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly from SCG, and Serbs working in CoE’s administration. Lobbies in her benefits are strong, and those familiar with the situation explain that with the fact that she is also very much engaged in mining BiH lawsuit against SCG.’ – reads Avaz. |