| RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA(18,00 hrs) | BH TV 1(19,00 hrs) | FED TV (19,30 hrs) | RT RS (19,30) |
| WB approves loan to BiH | RS MoI info on Srebrenica | Prijedor mass grave | WB credit approved |
| Exhumation in Sandici | Abuse of diplomatic posts | Paddy Ashdown in Sandici | Ashdown visits Sadovici |
| Miletic on war criminals | Fischer on BiH in EU | Ashdown to Djeric | Search of Telecom Srpska |
| The first EU Constitution | New WB credit approved | WB credit to BiH | RS parties on debate |
| Oslobodjenje | ‘Creditors to the courts, workers to the streets’; Contract on sale will de-block 22 million KM; RS MoI submitted key information; Internal debt: Money will be given to most vulnerable |
| Dnevni Avaz | Kalinic’s message to Karadzic to surrender; Ashdown: Next is apology; World Bank investments 400 million dollars more |
| Dnevni List | Press conference of international organizations in Mostar: Politicians are again playing the national card |
| Vecernji List | Interview with Toby Robinson: HT thwarts sale of bank |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Administration eats up 60 % of BiH budget |
| Glas Srpske | Prijedor flea market: Living shield defended stalls |
| Nezavisne Novine | Distributors violate Law on medicines in RS: Pharmacy shops’ sell 1000 unregistered medicines; Paddy Ashdown at Sandici: RS MoI handed 16 boxes with documentation on Srebrenica; Radomir Njegus confirmed: Arrest warrants after 400 Serbs from |
| Blic | There is no squandering of money, yet 2,115 KM was spent on fountain-pens |
War crimes | |
| HR Ashdown visits Sadovici exhumation site
| RHB, RTRS, Dnevni Avaz pg 3 ‘Ashdown: There are nroe secreat hidden in closets of crimes perpetrators’, on cover ‘Ashdown: Next is apology’ by A. Hadzic, Dnevni List, pg 5 ‘Bodies of eight killed Bosniaks found’, by NINA, Nezavisne Novine cover and pg 3 ‘RS MoI handed 16 boxes with documentation on Srebrenica’; Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Secret in boxes’– The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, visited Sandici mass grave location near Bratunac on Wednesday, which is a first location to be exhumation based on findings of the Srebrenica Commission. Ashdown said that without a full revelation and appropriate apology for these events, only if individual guilt is acknowledged and established can the sense of collective responsibility that hangs over Republika Srpska be absolved. This site is one of 32 contained in the first part of the Report released last Friday and one of 11 previously unknown to the FBiH Missing Persons Commission. BHTV 1 – Forensic experts of FBiH Missing Persons Commission have found the remains of 16 people in Sandici mass grave and plenty of documents which will facilitate identification process. FTV – Amor Masovic, the president of the Commission said that according to the available information, victims were Bosniaks executed following the fall of Srebrenica. |
| RS MoI submits 16 boxes of evidences on Srebrenica events
| BHTV 1, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘RS MoI submitted key information’, mentioned on cover, by Onasa, Dnevni Avaz pg 3 ‘Three questions for Djeric’ Nezavisne Novine cover and pg 3 ‘RS MoI handed 16 boxes with documentation on Srebrenica’; Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Secret in boxes’- The High Representative Paddy Ashdown stated that RS Interior Ministry on Wednesday submitted 16 boxes of documents that contain key information about the events in Srebrenica in 1995. Ashdown expressed his concern over the failure to submit this documentation to the Srebrenica Commission earlier and evaluated that the RS MoI had not been cooperating with the commission. FTV – He also sent the letter to RS Interior Minister Zoran Djeric in which he asks him to clarify the appearance of boxes with archive. Ashdown also asked Djeric how come that the boxes had not been discovered before now, what the boxes contained and why the boxes had not been handed over to the Srebrenica commission before. As of Wednesday, the documents will be looked after by the Hague tribunal’s office in RTRS – Spokesman for the RS MoI Zoran Glusac could not confirm this information, referring to the commission for Srebrenica, in which, according to him, members of the MUP are also included. |
| Njegus, Miletic on arrest of war criminals
| BHTV 1, RHB, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘Arrests of the suspects by the end of June?’, Nezavisne Novine pg 3 ‘Njegus: Search for indictees’, Blic, pg. RS2 ‘Hague and crime are first on lists’ by Nedeljka Breberina – Associations of Police Chiefs of South-Eastern Europe conference is being held in Banja Luka. One of the issues discusses is the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. RS Police Chief Radomir Njegus stated that the RS Police, when it comes to cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, was working harder than ever. ‘Although our biggest problem is finding locations of war crimes indictees, I hope we will soon have concrete results’, Njegus said. FBiH Police Chief Zlatko Miletic confirms that arresting of war crimes indictees will be the priority in the forthcoming period of time and he promised help of the Federation of BiH Police. ‘We know NATO Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘9000 war crimes suspects in BiH’, Vecernji List, pg 2 ‘9000 war crimes indictees in BiH’, by Branka Stevandic, Slobodna Dalmacija, pg 14 ‘9000 charged with war crimes’, mentioned on cover, by F, Dnevni List, pg 7 ‘Around 9.000 war crimes indictees for war crimes in BiH’, by NINA – Zlatko Miletic stated that there were around 9.000 persons in BiH that have been charged with war crimes, noting that it would be a problem to arrest them in the future. “When it comes to the FBiH, there are around 400 persons for which The Hague Tribunal gave its consent that they could be tried before domestic courts”, Miletic told the press at Banja Luka. Miletic also pointed out that “BiH is not yet ready to handle these procedures”. |
| Kalinic on Karadzic, Srebrenica crimes against Bosniaks and Srebrenica Commission
| Dnevni Avaz cover page ‘Kalinic message to Karadzic to surrender’, pg 5 ‘Karadzic, surrender or RS will be exposed to the harshest sanctions and isolation!’ by Edina Sarac – In an interview to DA, SDS President and Speaker of the RS National Assembly, Dragan Kalinic says: “I have to say that there is a feeling of progress in RS when it comes to the cooperation with ICTY. There is a readiness of the institutions to meet that obligation in every aspect and therefore I believe that rejection from |
| Mothers of Srebrenica to file charges against Dejan Miletic | Dnevni Avaz pg 8 ‘Subasic: We’ll file charges against Dejan Miletic, but also Mladen Ivanic and his predecessor’ by F. Cardzic – DA writes that two years ago RS Government’s Office for relations with ICTY has presented the report on Srebrenica, signed by Dejan Miletic, which stated that 1.800 Bosniaks were killed. Following the publishing of the Srebrenica Commission report last week, representative of the Mother of Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves, Munira Subasic, stated that this association will certainly file charges against Miletic for his report, “but also against Mladen Ivanic, who was the prime minister at the time and enable presentation of Miletic’s” report. Same refers to Dragan Kalinic, says Subasic. |
Defence and police | |
| SEPCA meeting in BL
| RHB, FTV, Oslobodjenje pg 7 ‘Police capable to stop the crime’ by Onasa, Nezavisne Novine pg 4 ‘Cooperation for better fight against crime’; Glas Srpske pg 3 ‘Crime targeted’, Blic, pg. RS2 ‘Hague and crime are first on lists’ by Nedeljka Breberina – Annual General Conference of Southeast Europe Police Commanders’ Association (SEPCA) is taking place in Banja Luka. Police directors will discuss cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and improvements in cooperation regarding the fight against organized crime. The sessions are closed for public. Slobodna Dalmacija pg 16 ‘Mafia is undermining stability of region’, mentioned on cover, by A. Macanovic – During the conference, RS President Dragan Cavic stated that along with the problems of smuggling and tax evasion, organized crime is seriously undermining stability of the countries in the region and is destabilizing their economies. He also stated that willingness for the arrest of war crime suspects is necessary, stressing that there was a need for cooperation with the ICTY in the countries that have obligations towards this institution. |
| RS police arresting persons wanted by
| FTV, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘Interpol BiH activated 400 warrants against Serbs’, Dnevni Avaz pg 2 ‘RS Police did not arrest a person indicted for crimes in Croatia’ by M. K., Nezavisne Novine pg 4 ‘400 persons on arrest warrants’ mentioned on cover ‘Arrest warrants after 400 Serbs from Croatia activated’, Blic pg. RS2 ‘Mistake in communications’ by N. B., Vecernje novosti, pg. 19 ‘Jail against rules’ by M. Labus, – RS Police Head Radomir Njegus confirmed to journalists in Banja Luka that the Interpol of BiH had activated 400 arrest warrants against Serbs from Croatia, which the Croatian authority had issued for alleged war crimes in that country. Njegus said that in line with that, the RS police arrested one person in |
| SFOR carries out inspection of Telekom Srpske
| BHTV1, RTRS, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘SFOR checked Telekom Srpske’, Dnevni Avaz pg 12 “SFOR inspected Telekom Sprske premises’, Nezavisne Novine pg 2 ‘SFOR searched “Telekom Srpske”; Glas Srpske pg 3 ‘Details – a secret’, Vecernji List pg 2 ‘SFOR’s action in Telekom Srpske’ by f and Dnevni List pg 18 ‘SFOR’s soldiers searched building of RS Telekom’ by Nina – SFOR members yesterday carried out an unannounced search at the premises of “Telekom Srpske” in Banja Luka. “Telekom” officials confirmed inspection was performed, n noting that nothing was taken away according to their information. PSC Banja Luka officials claim they were not informed of this SFOR action. SFOR Captain, Geoffrey O’Donnell, stated that the unannounced routine inspection falls under SFOR mandate. He added inspection was carried out in order to ensure full respect of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Around 25 soldiers of SFOR entered the premises of Telekom around |
| VL: HR Ashdown to decrease RS Police competence
| Vecernji List, pg 2 ‘Ashdown abolishes Republika Srpska Police’, mentioned on cover by Ivica Pjanic – Noting that the High Representative for BiH, Paddy Ashdown, has already announced sanctions in case Radovan Karadzic is not behind the bars by June 28 and in case BiH is not admitted to the Partnership for Peace programme, VL claims to have exclusive information as to what the sanctions against the RS might be. VL’s source close to “senior western diplomatic circles” explains that HR Ashdown has already received a general consent from leading countries of the Steering Board of Peace Implementation Council for the measures he plans to undertake. Apparently, the target is the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior, which is labelled as the institution most responsible for failure to arrest war criminals. VL learns that a negative outcome of the NATO Istanbul Summit will lead to pressures aimed at decreasing of competence of the RS MoI and creation of some sort of Police at State level. “We must draw a parallel with sanctions that followed the ‘Orao’ affair. Back then, the most responsible ones were senior officials of the Defence Ministry and RS Army, and everything resulted in, apart from removals of individuals, in big defence reforms in whole of BiH. Now, it is about Police”, says VL’s source. |
| SFOR confirms vetting procedures for BiH MoD
| RHB, Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘SFOR vetting procedures passed by 20 candidates for generals’ by M. Kukan, Vecernji List pg 2 ‘Election of candidates for generals’ positions follows’ by f – SFOR Commander Virgil Packett and Deputy BiH Defence Minister Marina Pendes met on Wednesday, confirming that in total 20 candidates for the generals positions in BiH Armed Foreces have passed the vetting procedure. The Ministry also confirmed that the procedure has been entirely finished, adding that presently MoD will not propose any new candidates as there is a sufficient number of successful candidates to fulfil all positions. |
Economic and audit issues | |
| Meeting of solving issue of internal debts
| BHTV1, FTV, Oslobodjenje pg 5 ‘Money will be given to the most vulnerable’, mentioned on cover’ by A. Omeragic, Dnevni Avaz pg 4 ‘Hays: Government’s proposal is the only option for internal debt’ by E.D., Nezavisne Novine pg 3 ‘Agreement on pay out of BAM 3 billion of debt to citizens’, Slobodna Dalmacija, pg 10 ‘Pensioners in most favourable situation’, by D. Pasic, Dnevni List, pg 5 ‘Entity Governments acknowledge only 1,3 billion KMs of internal debts’, by Renata Radic – following a meeting between representatives of FBiH Government and Parliament and representatives of international finance agencies, which discussed the issue of internal debt, Principal Deputy High Representative, Donald Hays, stated that “solution to the internal debts is acknowledging and understanding how rewarding it is going to be if handled in proper way. The Government has the responsibility to fulfill its obligation within its capabilities. They cannot print enough money and solve the problem by doing that, they cannot raise tax rates and get the money like that, and they do not have big investors that are ready to bring such big amounts of money into the country, and create incomes that way”. According to DL, the strategy of the RS and FBiH Governments acknowledges only 1,2 billion KMs of internal debt, although the nominal value is 4,7 billion. Apparently the amount of 3,5 billion will be written off, whilst the rest will be paid in either cash or bonds. FBiH Prime Minister, Ahmet Hadzipasic, justifies the writing off with lack of money. “The law that we presented here for sure requires improvements in the parliamentary procedure and I am sure we will reach better solutions, but what we did was the maximum that the FBiH Government can do economically”, said PH Hadzipasic. |
| World Bank approves credit lines to BiH; BiH delegation meets WB
| RHB, BHTV1, RTRS, Blic, pg. RS3 ‘Another 97 million dollars for reforms’ by J. D. – The World Bank on Wednesday approved credit lines 97 million dollars worth, which will be realized through three new projects in BiH. The projects mostly rely on findings and recommendations of the first middle-term development strategy of BiH, i.e. on the Strategy on reducing poverty. The projects will directly support the implementation of the goals of the Strategy on reducing poverty and the process of admission to EU. Dnevni List, pg 8 ‘Powell promised expert and technical aid to BiH’, by M. Batarelo – on the second day of stay in Washington, the Chairman of BiH Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, who leads a BiH delegation, held talks with Vice President of World Bank, Peter Woicke, about possibilities to find new financial arrangements for BiH in order to implement the PRSP. Chairman Terzic also informed senior officials of WB about preparations for the forthcoming donors’ conference in BiH, scheduled for September, the aim of which is to secure financial aid for implementation of PRSP and structural reforms in BiH. Dnevni Avaz pg 2 ‘World Bank invests another 400 million’, mentioned on cover, by Sead Numanovic – DA learns that BiH delegation’s meeting with World Bank on Wednesday was very successful. Apparently WB will adopt the new strategy when it comes on Bosnian which will bring another 200 milion KM. PRSP coordinator Zlatko Hurtic confirmed that in line with this, in the next three years about 400 million KM would be invested by the World Bank. |
| WB on BiH status
| Dnevni List pg 11 ‘BiH ceases to be post-conflict country as of July 1’ by Pincom.biz – Head of the World Bank (WB) in BiH Dirk Reinermann stated for the last issue of ‘Banka’ magazine that the WB will stop treating BiH as a post-conflict country as of July 1. Reinermann explained that this means that the number of projects financed by the World Bank will be considerably reduced and conditioned by certain reforms. |
| Reaction of Paravac’s Office on spending of money
| Blic, pg. RS1 ‘There is no squandering of money’ by J. D. mentioned on cover ‘There is no squandering of money, yet 2,115 KM was spent on fountain-pens’ – Upon an audit report on expenditures of the Office of Serb member of BiH Presidency, Head of the Office Simo Bozalo stated: ‘This is not about an irresponsible spending of budgetary funds nor this is about squandering of money. Mistakes and omissions, which had been done and which had been pointed out during an audit, were of a procedural nature’. According to Bozalo, the issue raised regarding the vehicle of the Presidency member was brought without a reason. ‘Is there any chief in the world that does not have such a class of a vehicle at disposal’, Bozalo says and adds that ‘state employees were implementing the procedure of purchasing of vehicles and other equipment and they had made omissions in purchase procedures’. |
| Audit at RS President’s Service
| Nezavisne Novine pg 5 ‘Law on Procurement was not respected’ – One of conclusions in the report of the RS Chief Audit Office regarding audit carried out at RS President Service is that procurement services during the course of 2003 were mainly performed in violation of the Law on Procurement. Namely, procurement was performed through direct bargain and settlement on the basis of approval issued by the RS Finance Ministry, although the total worth of the procurement service exceeded BAM 50 thousand. |
| BiH Parliament Commission for Budget and Finances to discuss audit reports
| Nezavisne Novine pg 5 ‘Budget Commission will discuss all audit reports’ – Martin Raguz, Chairperson of the BiH House of Representatives, yesterday proposed to Commission for Budget and Finances to take into consideration all seven audit reports, which have been handed to them by the Audit Office for BiH joint institutions. State auditors handed audit reports on BiH Presidency, BiH Statistics Agency, BiH State Border Service, BiH Institute for Standards, CRA and Service for BiH joint institutions. Nikola Spiric, Co-chairperson of the BiH House of Representatives, stated he would support the initiative that these reports are discussed at the next session of the BiH Parliament on Friday. |
| Op-ed on audit reports
| Nezavisne Novine op-ed pg 7 ‘Get a thief!’ by Natasa Krsman – The author is criticising the overspending of the BiH Presidency members. On this she says: “Sporadic excuses from BiH Presidency, following publication of the audit report, show that a collective head of state stepped back before public condemnation. However, the fact that comments were made on an individual basis from all three Cabinets show they do not feel much responsibility, as well as they are simply trying to save their skin. It should not be doubted that the ruling triplet would find excuse for itself and uncontrolled overspending.” |
| CoM postpones deadline for 3rd GSM licence
| BHTV 1 – The BiH Council of Ministers will prolong the deadline to issue a third GSM licence. The Communications Regulatory Agency asked CoM to postpone the deadline to 12 July, and Eronet company [one of two companies competing for the licence] said it would tolerate it under condition that this would not take more than one month. HT Mostar also did not object to this. Dnevni List, pg 5 ‘Draft platform for negotiations prepared’, by J. P. – DL reports that a Proposal of platform for negotiations with HT Zagreb, regarding the transfer of HT Zagreb’s share in Eronet onto HT Mostar, was completed yesterday in Sarajevo. According to DL’s information acquired from sources close to the FBiH Government, the Commission in charge of issues pertaining to the transfer of shares assessed the proposal of HT Zagreb as acceptable, legally feasible and economically justified. The Commission also assessed that, should the transfer go ahead, it would considerably increase the market value of HT Mostar, thus increasing the value of State capital in the company. As for the 3rd GSM licence, the Commission assessed that a possible deal would enable an easier issuance of the 3rd GSM licence to HT Mostar. For these and other reasons, the Commission recommends the start of negotiations (with HT Zagreb), stressing that a possibility of invoking of the right to pre-emption by co-owners of Eronet is groundless, because a transfer of shares does not represent a sales contract, therefore a right to pre-emption does not apply. |
| VL interview with Toby Robinson
| Vecernji List, front pg ‘HT thwarts sale of bank’ and pg 16 ‘HT Zagreb endangers sale of Hercegovacka bank to Todoric’, by Zoran Kresic – VL carries an interview with the Provisional Administrator for Hercegovacka bank, Toby Robinson, in which she explains the background of decision of Eronet not to give access to the Provisional Administrator of HB to Eronet’s documentation. Ms. Robinson says that she asked the OHR to interpret the authorities of the Provisional Administrator. “According to the High Representative’s decision, I am allowed access to all documentation related to the Hercegovacka bank, including in Eronet. OHR and I are observing all the laws in this country. The law in this country is clear, owners must be granted access to any documentation without delays”, says Robinson adding: “Eronet’s Steering Board is acting illegally and we wonder why. We are asking for documents in order to establish the value of share that Hercegovina osiguranje has in Eronet and to sell it. In order to complete the sale of Hercegovacka bank, I must complete the job related to Eronet stocks. HT Zagreb is trying to block the sale of the share because it wants to buy them very cheap, for free even”. According to Ms. Robinson, the difference between HT Zagreb’s offer and her evaluation regarding Hercegovina osiguranje share in Eronet is around 45 million KMs. In this context, Ms. Robinson says that recent events have slowed down the sale of Hercegovacka bank for about one month. Commenting on possible outcome of situation as to who gets the 3rd GSM licence in BiH, Ms. Robinson says: “Their (HT Zagreb) intentions are clear that the licence gets awarded to HT Mostar. In fact, all the problems regarding the Eronet documentation are just attempts that HT Mostar gets the licence”. Ms. Robinson also notes that she has a statement of HT Zagreb, which renounced the right to pre-emption during the process of transfer of Eronet shares onto |
| On FBiH Bankruptcy procedure
| Oslobodjenje cover page, pgs 4-5 ‘Creditors to the courts, workers to the streets’ by Hajdar Arifagic – Oslobodjenje’s cover page story deals with the upcoming session of stakeholders of Modna konfekcija |
| Oslobodjenje on FBiH money frozen in HB
| Oslobodjenje pg 3 ‘Contract on sale of the bank de-blocks 22 million KM’, mentioned on cover, by Az. Kalamujic – Oslobodjenje carries that the money held on the accounts of FBiH budgetary users in Hercegovacka bank, frozen in march 2002, will be de-blocked following the contract on purchase of the Banka and halt of the Provisional Administration. In total, about 22 million KM of FBiH money has been on these accounts. |
| Oslobodjenje says authorities continue to overspend
| Oslobodjenje pgs 4-5 ‘Ministers continue to overspent’ by Darko Omeragic – Oslobodjenje reads that if BiH House of Peoples on 29 June adopts the decision on three institutions for standards, measuring and intellectual property with seats in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar, this would threaten BiH integration to Europe. This was told to newspapers by a high official of this institute. Oslobodjenje and its source argue that this has been caused by the wrong decision of the Council of Ministers who would further overspend money, and disregarded already spent budget for training, purchase of equipment, etc. Civil Affairs Minister Safet Halilovic highly criticised such decision of the CoM adding that it was pure political decision and absolutely wrong. |
Political issues | |
| Tihic, Colak, Ivanic meet Fischer
| BHTV 1, Dnevni Avaz pg 2 ‘Fischer: BiH cannot be in EU without full cooperation with ICTY’ by F. M. – On the third day of visit to Germany, BiH Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, BiH Security Minister Barisa Colak and member of BiH Presidency Sulejman Tihic met with the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. In a statement for DA, Tihic said that Fischer stressed, as a friend of the country that BiH must fully cooperate with ICTY if it want to further proceed in Euro-Atlantic integrations. Fischer also stressed that if BiH wants to be admitted to EU in 2009, it has to speed up reforms, strengthen state institutions, adopt laws to ensure investments security, and arrest war crimes suspects. |
| Kalinic on PfP, SDS financial report, initiatives to change BiH constitution
| Dnevni Avaz cover page ‘Kalinic message to Karadzic to surrender’, pg 5 ‘Karadzic, surrender or RS will be exposed to the harshest sanctions and isolation!’ by Edina Sarac – In an interview to DA, SDS President and Speaker of the RS National Assembly, Dragan Kalinic, states that if BiH fails to be admitted to PfP in June the price will be paid by all BiH citizens, as this program has made us closer to the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement with EU. “I say all BiH citizens because leaders of some political parties, especially Sulejman Tihic, almost applaud that BiH will not be admitted to PfP , making that a ground to create strategy to abolish RS. That is bad politics.” Asked about the OHR’s inspection of SDS financial report, Kalinic says that, as the time passes, “it is clear that the story on financial report on party’s dealings served as political and financial tool to weaken SDS prior to the elections. International auditors, who are visiting municipal boards of our party these days, as if they have forgotten what they have been looking for, so they extended their audit to workings of the party since it was established to today.” Also asked to comment to his statement that RS abolishment could destabilise BiH, Kalinic denied he ever mentioned the war, but said he was certain in that case “things would not be well”. |
| OHR: No changes to Mostar Statute
| Dnevni List, front and pg 12 ‘Politicians are again playing the national card’, by D. Kozina, Dnevni Avaz pg 2 ‘No changes to the Mostar Staute’ – Asked to comment on an announcement from the HDZ that their election strategy would be based on changes to the Statute of City of Mostar, an OHR spokesperson, Sanela Tunovic, stated that irrespective of outcome of the elections, the Statute of City of Mostar ensures instruments for protection of vital interests of any people, including mechanisms that unable changes of Statute at initiative of one people only. Tunovic stressed that individuals wanted to stir up national feelings before the forthcoming elections, hoping that the citizens would not succumb to the manipulation. “Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Prime Minister Miroslav Coric should be focusing on solving of numerous problems of citizens of HNC. Unfortunately, it has become a custom that parties in BiH, before elections, divert the focus of voters from their work in the Government by playing the national card”. Commenting on the failure to adopt the Mostar city budget for 2004, which should have been adopted by May 31, Tunovic stated the budget should be adopted as soon as possible. “You should ask the councillors in the City Council why the budget has not been adopted”, commented Tunovic. |
| Comments on public debate on changes to BiH Constitution
| RTRS by Marko Radoja – RTRS comments that political parties in RS are united in the attitude that international community must stop “destroying BiH”. They condemned public debate on possible changes of BiH Constitution held in Nezavisne Novine pg 5 ‘Conclusions of the Constitutional and Legal Commission represents culmination of assaults against RS’ – Stating that debates conclusions represent culmination of assaults against RS, Ivanic called on the international community officials to make sure these processes stop. He said: “Tendencies, which remind of pre-war period when representatives of other two peoples keep denying RS, are dangerous.” Ivanic said that international officials in BiH have an obligation to stop those tendencies, because anything else might represent extremely dangerous political situation in BiH and put in jeopardy everything that has been accomplished by now. Glas Srpske pg 5 ‘Fire and straw’ – GS writes about Tuesday session dedicated to discussion on change of BiH Constitution, which was held without Serb representatives. According to GS, Nijaz Durakovic, member of Constitutional and Legal Commission of BiH Parliamentary Assembly,is in favour of abolishment of RS and FBiH and cantonisation of the entire of BiH. Martin Raguz, Chairperson of BiH House of Representatives, is of the view that BiH Constitution obstructs development of BiH. Safet Halilovic, BiH Minister of Civil Affairs, proposes cantonisation of RS and reduction of authorities of RS and F BiH. Professors with Mostar Law Faculty, Ljubomir Zovko and Bozo Zepic, claim that the existing constitutional and legal solutions of the political system in BiH are superseded, owing to which reason they need to be amended. |
| SDS criticises Patriot magazine
| Nezavisne Novine carry report on these two press releases as one article on pg 9 ‘SDS: Patriot engaged in campaign against SDS; Vaskovic: Kalinic’s groups is destroying RS’, Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Patriot’s racketeering’ – The SDS Presidency issued a press release, in which it condemned the continuation of campaign against Dragan Kalinic, SDS President, and SDS most distinguished members by Patriot magazine. SDS Presidency has warned public, as well as its members, that the campaign of Patriot is brimming with lies, which represent manipulation and insane political construction. Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Hiding traces’ – The editorial Board of “Patriot” magazine yesterday denied claims from the SDS Presidency press release and severely condemned the obvious call on lynch of j0unralists and editor-in-chief of this magazine. The press release, signed by SLobodan Vaskovic, Patriot Editor-in-Chief, says that a group of people from SDS, led by Dragan Kalinic, has been carrying out pogrom against Serb people for years. |
| Hays visits
| Dnevni List pg 16 ‘Success of Municipality Stari Grad is an example to other Municipalities’ by E. Mackic – Principal Deputy High Representative Donald Hays visited yesterday Municipality Stari Grad Sarajevo where the Head of this Municipality, Fehim Skaljic, informed him about particularities and the work of this Municipality. DL says that PDHR Hays was surprised by the things that this Municipality has done: “Some Heads of Municipalities do not have clear vision about the things that should be done and probably they will be removed at October elections when citizens will be able to elect the Heads of Municipalities directly.” |
| SD op-ed on BiH future
| Slobodna Dalmacija front and pg 15 ‘Administration eats up 60 % of BiH budget’ by B. Kristo – SD carries an editorial about gloomy prospects of the BiH future. The author says that there a few reasons for such situation and one of them is the fact that most of BiH citizens do not see BiH as their homeland especially in the RS where politicians support this way of thinking. According to the author, there is also a problem of the huge BiH administration that spends 60 % of the budget. The author also mentions an unofficial information that High Representative Paddy Ashdown allegedly gave to her recently when he said that BiH is a country of criminals. The author goes on to say that the HR will never say in public or confirm that he said that BiH politicians are responsible for such situation in BiH. |