Print Media Headlines |
Dnevni Avaz: Ashdown addresses the BIH Parliament: We have to destroy the webs of crime; Island football team to play against Zeljo
Jutarnje Novine: CRA announces election rules for electronic media
Nezavisne Novine: Ashdown: Criminals in BIH want to control politics
Glas Srpski: Pensioners dissatisfied with the Pension Fund decision
Nacional: Pavkovic: I will sue Kostunica; Plan of terrorist organization Hammas failed: Yugoslav President narrowly escaped assassination attempt in Sarajevo, SFOR prevented bringing down a plane
EuroBlic: Karadzic’s picture on banknote in envelope with salary; 11 policemen removed; Paddy Ashdown: Laws for reconstruction of BiH needed
Dnevni List: Elections – Anic ahead of Covic?
Vecernji List: Ashdown suspends three judges
High Representatives’ Activities |
The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, issued on Tuesday three Decisions suspending, with immediate effect, President of the Siroki Brijeg Municipal Court Ivan Brekalo, President of the Capljina Municipal Court Marinko Katic, and RS Supreme Court Judge Svetislav Stanojevic. The suspensions will apply until the High Judicial Councils review each case and decide on appropriate action. “Each of the three cases involves alleged violations of the rule of law either through a disregard for proper court procedure, or by breaking the very laws that it is the duty of judges to uphold,” reads the OHR press release. (Vecernji List f.p., Dnevni Avaz p. 5, Oslobodjenje, back page, Nezavisne Novine p. 3and Glas Srpski p. 3, Slobodna Dalmacija back page, and Dnevni List, f.p. and page 2, Blic p. 11)
Financial Affairs |
In a statement for the press, the US Embassy joined other representatives of the International Community in BiH in their appeal to the Federation Parliament to withdraw the Proposed Law on Veteran’s Rights from this week’s agenda for discussion and thereby secure the conclusion of the “stand by” arrangement with the IMF. “We are also asking the Federation government to initiate the audit of the existing program of veterans’ protection, which could serve as a basis for a more focused and rational system of benefits that could be financed from the presently available funds,” reads the statement. “The BiH must conclude the stand by arrangement with the IMF in order to obtain over 100 million USD of new financial means from the International Community. These funds will be of crucial importance for supporting economic measures necessary for improvement of the living standard of BIH citizens.” (Dnevni Avaz p. 4, Jutarnje Novine p. 6, Oslobodjenje p. 4)
In his Tuesday’s address before the BiH Parliament, the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, also urged the deputies in the Federation Parliamentary Assembly to reject or withdraw the Proposed Law on Veteran’s Rights, which suggests increasing veteran’s benefits. “On the surface, quite an attractive proposition you might think…But unfortunately, things are not that simple. Not when the economy is weak, when aid is falling and debts are mounting. We cannot afford to spend money we do not have, however worthy the cause. If we do, then we will put ourselves onto the road to bankruptcy and those who suffer will be the ordinary people of this country – and that includes the veterans too…As you know, the International Monetary Fund, with the World Bank, the EU and others in full agreement, is threatening to withdraw over $100 million US dollars from BiH this year alone. One hundred million dollars! That’s a high price to pay for a pre-election political ploy to attract votes.” (Dnevni Avaz p. 2, Oslobodjenje p. 7, Jutarnje Novine p. 4, FTV and BHTV 1)
CIPS
In a letter to Dnevni Avaz (p. 9), the Presidency of the SDP rejects all the allegations put forth by this paper and which imply that the leader of this party, Zlatko Lagumdzija, sought to prevent the comprehensive investigation of the CIPS project and responsibility of certain ministers. “At a recent session, the SDP Presidency unanimously adopted the conclusion proposed by Zlatko Lagumdzija …whereby the party tasks Sead Avdic, the deputy chairman in the BiH Parliament’s House of Representatives, to investigate the role of Minister Jadranko Prlic in the implementation of the project…The SDP concluded that the present information about the CIPS create confusion which could endanger the implementation of this project, which is of extreme importance for BiH citizens.”
In a statement for the press, the ProENS party of Jadranko Prlic says that it is unacceptable that the issuance of BIH identity documents is late for over a year. “The ProENS will insist on responsibility of BIH institutions and ask international organizations for an explanation about the delay…The present media campaign about the CIPS project is again directed at maintaining the state of chaos in BIH.” (Dnevni Avaz p. 9)
Dnevni Avaz rejects the arguments of Zlato Lagumdzija and Jadranko Prlic that this paper’s writing may delay the issuance of common identity documents and be detrimental to interests of BiH citizens. “It is not the BiH interest that is endangered, but the interests of Lagumdzija’s best man (Mirko Skrbic, director of the CIPS project) and Prlic’s wife (the owner of one of the companies implementing the project).” The daily also writes, quoting anonymous sources, that the CIPS project is “planned to be used as a formula for the invasion of Serbian and Russian tycoons in BiH.” “That tycoon lobby wants to gain control over the system of registration and identification of citizens.”
Nezavisne Novine (p. 3)reports that the CIPS Project may turn into a scandal. The Cantonal Attorney, Mustafa Bisic, confirmed to the daily that he addressed a request to the Federation Finance Police to launch an investigation into the CIPS project. Bisic did not want to go into details or give any explanations about the case until the investigation is ongoing. The Chairman of the House of Peoples of BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Sejfudin Tokic, said that the Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade in the BiH CoM, Jadranko Prlic, abused his position as the company co-owned by Prlic’s wife has been entrusted with purchasing software for the project. The Minister for Civil Affairs and Communications to the BiH CoM, Svetozar Mihajlovic, emphasized that the CIPS project has to be fully transparent due to its importance for the entire BiH.
The president of the Graphic Design Workers Union, Amer Toskic, said that the chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, Dragan Mikerevic, was “shocked” when he presented him data about capabilities of the BIH Graphic industry and its technical capacity. “He promised to us that the will insist on searching for detail information about the CIPS project and on determining individual responsibility for this project,” Toskic told Avaz (p. 10) after his meeting with the chairman of the BIH Council of Ministers. Later today, he is to meet with the BIH Presidency chairman, Beriz Belkic.
Federation government
Vecernji list (page 2) carries an article titled “Croats in (Federation) Government don’t have insight in financial transactions“, in which Mijo Anic, the Minister of Defence of Federation BiH, says that although two Croats (him and Zeljko Misanovic, Minister of Health) were given a signing authority for financial transactions, neither of them has signed a single financial transaction so far. The daily reports that the leader of NHI, Kresimir Zubak, will meet with the High Representative today and ask him to appoint a new Minister of Finance.
Cigarette smuggling
Oslobodjenje (front page) reports that the Federation Tax Administration filed criminal charges against the Capljina company Trgopromet-Jurkovic, which is owned by Andrija Jurkovic, the Federation Minister of Trade. According to the daily, tax officers discovered several shipments of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages with fake tax stamps.
ICTY-related Issues |
BiH foreign relations |
Commenting on the initiative of the Federation government to boycott the import of Slovenian goods to BiH market until the issue of Ljubljanksa Banka savings is not resolved, the Slovenian ambassador to BiH, Tadej Labernik, said that the “boycott reminded him on the attitude of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, who wanted to boycott the products coming from this country because he disliked its politics.” (Oslobodjenje p. 4-5)
Presidents’ Summit in Sarajevo- Reactions |
In Slobodna Dalmacija on page 2 Bisera Lusic says that the summit in Sarajevo was not a historical one because Vojislav Kostunica, the Yugoslav President, did not apologize to BiH. “Perhaps it was Paddy Ashdown … who gave the best evaluation of the summit by saying that the value of the meeting is the very fact that leaders of the parties, which were in conflict during the war, met in Sarajevo, one of the greatest symbols of suffering during the war in BiH.”
Jutarnji List’s Snjezana Pavic writes that “Paddy Ashdown envisaged correctly that the meeting in Sarajevo will symbolically mark the end of the post-war period and the beginning of the new one, in which the connections, which were cut during the war, will be renewed not because of the renewal of some sort of Yugoslavia but as a prerequisite to approach the unified Europe.” Pavic also says that the International Community has been revising the Dayton Peace Agreement for a few years already by building the joint institutions, which are necessary for one state. “With the arrival of Ashdown, this process has been sped up.”
In an article in Vjesnik (page 8), Mario Marusic quotes Ashdown’s statement that the “way to Brussels goes through Sarajevo”. “There is not too much euphoria and support to the Ashdown’s judgment that this is a historical meeting. As a matter of fact, there is a general impression that nearly all BiH media are trying to be realistic about the summit and agree that the time has come to stop using fancy words.”
The United States on Tuesday commended the leaders of BiH, Croatia and Yugoslavia for holding their first post-war summit, describing the meeting as a “good model for the future.”
“We note that this was the first summit meeting among the three countries since the end of the conflicts that for too long racked the former Yugoslavia,” said State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker. (AFP)
Nacional (page 24) reports that Croatia will, together with Serbia and Montenegro, BiH, Albania, Macedonia and Ukraine, become a full member of the NATO in 2006. The weekly notes that Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and BiH have to fulfill some requirements (return of refugees, repossession of property, fight against corruption and organized crime), the requirements that the countries have to work together on because of the links between them. “No one questions the advantage and developments that Croatia has over the future candidates, for example over BiH and Serbia and Montenegro. But there are obvious differences even between the current candidates, but all this will not affect the end result”.
Belgrade’s Nacional (p. 5) reports that on Monday Islamic extremists planed to bring down the plane in which Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica flew to the Sarajevo’s summit. Reliable intelligence information gathered by SFOR indicated that members of Hammas had prepared all the necessary weapons and logistics for the attack. That was the reason why the Sarajevo’s meeting was protected with so many SFOR soldiers and local policemen in uniforms and civilian clothes.
Electronic Media Headlines |
- A bank note with a portrait of the indicted war criminal, Radovan Karadzic, appears in Lukavica branch of Razvojna Banka
- IPTF de-authorizes 10 police officers from Banja Luka, Srpsko Sarajevo and Bijeljina for their role in war crimes
- The High Representative suspends three judges because of violations of the rule of law
- The High Representative addresses a joint session of the BiH Parliament and urges the deputies to pass the necessary legislation which promotes the rule of law and economic development
FTV
- BIH Parliament’s House of Representatives passes the Draft Law on Securities Desposits and the Draft Law on Concessions
- The issue of (ir)regularities of the CIPS project raised at a session of the BIH Parliament’s House of Representatives
- The High Representative addresses a joint session of the BiH Parliament and urges the deputies to pass the necessary legislation which promotes the rule of law and economic development
- The High Representative suspends three judges because of violations of the rule of law
RTRS
- Haris Silajdzic says the Presidents’ Summit was a good move. “It was necessary for our neighbours to say that they have no intention of attacking BiH, changing its borders or meddling in its internal affairs
- SDS hails the Sarajevo Summit and the priorities defined here
- Directors of the RS, Federation and Brcko Tax Administrations discuss how to prevent double taxation of excise goods in BiH
- RS government fails to discuss the resignation of the RS Defense Minister