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| Milutinovic surrenders | Milutinovic surrenders | Milutinovic in The Hague | HR with trade union reps |
| BiH and CRO bishops | More workers to lose jobs? | Trial in Serbia begins | RS opposition on new gov. |
| Mostar-Split protocol | Salkic’s appeal | Bankruptcy Law | SNSD writes to OHR |
| Italian investments in BiH | Inspection in 10 cantons |
| Milutinovic in The Hague |
| Oslobodjenje | Criminal detrimental for FBiH pensioners; Police examining car perforated with bullets; Ashdown with unions reps – 1,2 billion-KM in criminals’ pockets; Who are judges and prosecutors of the state court?; Masked attacker beat old people and then ran away; |
| Dnevni Avaz | The distribution of loans in February; Traditional Avaz election – Ashdown and ef. Ceric personalities of the year; An attack in Prijedor – married couple Rokvic beaten |
| Dnevni List | A two-day session of the Standing Bilateral Board for economic co-operation between Italy and BiH – 18,5 million Euro for small and medium size companies in BiH; Milutinovic finally in The Hague |
| Vecernji List | Exclusively – the OHR speeding up reform of customs system: unified customs by the end of February; Bishops from Croatia and BiH meet up in Zagreb – a drama of Catholics in BiH continues |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Herzegovina and Dalmatia two close regions; The showdown of criminal groups in Ahmici; A returnee beaten up over stolen goods |
| Glas Srpski | Kicking out Slobodan Milosevic – a wish of Albright’s; RS pensioners satisfied with the Human Rights Chamber decision – getting their checks in the Federation |
| Nezavisne Novine | Division within the SDS grows – Nikic claims the new RS government does not represent the will of people; Former President of Serbia surrendered voluntarily to The Hague – Milan Milutinovic arrives to Scheveningen; Dusan Stojicic answers Milorad Dodik – no reason for extraordinary elections; High Representative with presidents of Trade Unions – The Law on Bankruptcy leaves 100, 000 people without work |
| FRY Nacional | Milutinovic in The Hague |
| Blic | SFOR soldiers riddled with bullets two cars; Extended holiday for five schools in the RS; Sarovic – threats of sanctions apply to both the RS and Federation; Ognjen Tadic – radicals’ votes for the government illegal |
| Vecernje Novosti | Milutinovic voluntarily in The Hague – state gives guarantees |
Political Affairs | |
| Salkic officially removed
| Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘Salkic’s appeal denied’, Avaz pg. 2 ‘Federation government confirmed Hasib Salkic’s removal’ by A. Hadziarapovic – the Federation government confirmed yesterday a decision by Deputy Finance Minister, Sefika Hafizovic, on the removal of Deputy Director of the FBiH Customs Administration, Hasib Salkic. According to Avaz, due to the fact that the new FBiH government has not taken over yet, the current government will not appoint a new deputy, and Salkic has an option of filing an appeal to the government’s decision. |
| HDZ candidates for FBiH government | Avaz pg. 2 ‘HDZ candidates will be known by Thursday’ – a statement by HDZ Vice-President, Niko Lozancic. He stated that by Wednesday or Thursday the latest the HDZ would decide on their candidates for the ministerial posts at the Federation government. According to FENA’s unofficial sources the most serious candidates are the following. Dragan Vrankic (finance), Miroslav Nikolic (defence), Borjana Kristo (justice), Nevenko Herceg (agriculture) and Bozo Ljubic and Krunoslav Vukovic (health). Dnevni List pg. 1 and 5 by S.K. ‘Central Bosnia HDZ not happy with apportionment of ministerial seats’ – claims there’s a rift within the HDZ’s Main Board after it has been made known that all of HDZ candidates for ministerial position come from Herzegovina. The alleged rift is between the ‘reformers’ and ‘self-rulers’ within the HDZ. The latter were even against the HDZ participating in the last elections and now the reformers believe they should be given ministerial posts they allegedly reserve. The HDZ Main Board is to sit on Wednesday and, according to the daily, it is going to be a tempestuous one because HDZ cantonal boards are not happy with candidates proposed for ministerial posts |
| FBiH HoR session today | Avaz pg. 3 ‘Today a decision on the Federation heads’, Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘The appointment of FBiH President today’, Vecernji List pg. 2 ‘Lozancic: we are ready to offer a name of the designate’ – the HoR to hold a session today where they should appoint the new Federation President and two deputies. Niko Lozancic (HDZ) is nominated for the FBiH President, Sahbaz Dzihanovic (SBiH) and Desnica Radivojevic (SDA) for the deputies. The HoR should also appoint the FBiH Secretary, and the only candidate for the post is Anto Baotic (HDZ). The new FBiH PM will most probably be Ahmed Hadzipasic (SDA). VL quoted Lozancic. “I expect all three of us to be appointed without problems. As soon as the House of Peoples complete the necessary procedures, we are ready to offer the PM designate, which means we could have a new FBiH government very soon.” |
| Election Commission on HoP | Avaz pg. 3 ‘Korac: some are trying to politicise the lack of Serb delegates in the HoP’ by A. Pilav – a statement by Lidija Korac, President of the Election Commission (EC), regarding the lack of Serb delegates in the Federation House of Peoples (HoP). She stated that the EC expected from the Federation parliament to adopt constitutional changes that would solve the problem of Serb caucus in the FBiH HoP. “The Federation Constitution established a rule that a number of Bosniak, Croat, Serb and the Other delegates in the HoP was directly dependent on the election results, meaning the number of chosen delegates in cantonal assemblies. That is in collision with a regulation on the structure of constituting peoples caucuses that should count 17 members and the Other should have seven members,” said Korac. She further explained that the EC could help in the devising of the necessary amendments to the Constitution to solve the problem. |
| Ajanovic on HoP | FENA – a statement by President of the Bosnian Party (BOSS) Mirnes Ajanovic. He condemned actions of the SDA and SBiH reps, who had, as Ajanovic said, in co-operation with the HDZ, ignored the lack of Serb delegates in the FBiH House of Peoples during the unconstitutional constituting of the House. BOSS calls on representatives of the FBiH House of Representatives to prevent ‘anti-Bosnian’ actions at tomorrow’s session and to request from the Parliament urgent amending of the complicated procedure of certification and de-certification of representatives, in order to enable their direct replacing and efficient resolving of parliamentary crisis. |
| GDZ on HoP | FENA – The BiH Citizens’ Democratic Party (GDS) declares that it is important to speed up the constituting of authority structures. GDS states that this process must be complete and fully legitimate in relation to constitutional amendments, which have been installed in the FBiH Constitution. GDS President Ibrahim Spahic said at press conference that it was necessary to urgently hold a session of the BiH House of Representative and launch amendments to the BiH Election Law. |
| Dodik | Avaz pg. 9 ‘Dodik is afraid of being four years in opposition’ by M.V. – an initiative by Milorad Dodik for the opposition parties in the RS to devise a program of measures in case of the premature elections. Dodik thinks that such program should be devised in the next two weeks. His assessments however about premature elections were described in the PDP as an unrealistic option. According to PDP Spokesperson, Igor Crndak, Dodik is afraid of being in opposition in the next four years. Nezavisne Novine on pg. 7 ‘There is no reason to hold extraordinary elections’ – quoted SDS Spokesman, Dusan Stojicic. He accused the SNSD leader Dodik of advocating the extraordinary elections in order to get into power, no matter what. “Dodik wants extraordinary elections only because he is not in power. The SDS sees no reason whatsoever for irregular elections.” Answering the accusations by the Serb National Revival leader, Mirko Banjac, that the SDS bribed party delegate to vote for the new government, Stojicic said accusations were nothing else but rubbish. Nacional pg. 11 ‘It is pointless to talk about extraordinary elections’ – a statement by Pantelija Damjanovic, President of the SRS Executive Board. “Dodik condescended to participate a session of the RS NA during which the government was elected, and now he considers himself entitled to give such statements. It is normal that opposition criticises government’s work, but at the moment such statements are not politically productive and in the interest of RS. I think that politicians who give such statements just confirm that their personal interests are in the first place for them”, Damjanovic said. |
| Divisions within the SDS | Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘Nikic claims the new RS government does not reflect the will of people’ – officials of the SDS Bijeljina branch have strongly reacted over the fact that none of the ministers in Dragan Mikerevic’s government were from the Semberija region., told the press conference: “It is strange that Bijeljina and Semberija, where the SDS had the best electoral results, were not represented in the government,” said Cvijetin Nikic, President of the Bijeljina SDS Board. Nikic announced that the session of the SDS Main Board would be held soon and that the SDS Bijeljina would not give up its requests. Blic on pg. 7 ‘Persistent in their requests’ quotes Cvijetin Nikic, President of the Bijeljina SDS, as saying that Djojo Arsenovic, an SDS delegate in the RS NA, did not vote for Mikerevic’s government, in accordance with an agreement reached at a session of the SDS Municipal Board. |
| RS opposition | Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘Dragan Mikerevic violated the RS Constitution’ – the RS opposition announced that it might request the RS Constitutional Court to assess a decision on the formation of the new RS government. The opposition claims that Mikerevic did not respect the 40 days deadline for the formation of the new government, as anticipated by the RS Constitution. Mikerevic was one day late, thus the RS Constitution was violated. SNSD’s Ljubomir Sandic believes that the election of the new government will be annulled if the RS Constitutional Court finds that the Constitution was violated. Leader of the Serb People’s Revival, Mirko Banjac, supports the idea to initiate the procedure before the Constitutional Court. The leader of the RS Socialist Party, Petar Djokic, claims this initiative will not be fruitful, as the new government is supported by the OHR. ‘It is obvious that this government is established to execute someone’s orders. Due to that, we cannot achieve anything,” said Djokic. Drago Kalabic, a DNS delegate to RS National Assembly, also claims that Mikerevic violated the RS Constitution. |
| NHI on RS government | FENA – the New Croat Initiative (NHI) thinks that the appointment of the new RS government represents a complete failure to the establishing BiH peoples’ constituency, degradation of the constitutional changes and a giant step back for all BiH peoples. “It is an utter nonsense to describe Dragan Mikerevic’s government as multiethnic because its appointment was decided only by one people supported by a party that reneged its promise that it would never support a government with the SDS ministers. Those who proposed the termination of the RS in their election program had supported those who established the RS,” the NHI stated. “Croat ministers in that government represent no one, not their people nor a political party. They are no more than SDS’s personal choice,” the NHI stated and added that this government required not political obedience, but obedience of officials who would not disturb the SDS concept of the RS as an exclusively Serb entity. |
| SRS press conference | Blic pg. 7 ‘Votes for government illegal’, Vecernje Novosti pg. 13 ‘Fall within a year’ – a statement by dismissed SRS SG, Ognjen Tadic. He said that the election of the RS government was harmful for the RS, since the persons elected were not qualified for jobs they were supposed to do. He added that the new government would be under SDA control. “The SDA will try, by participating in this government, to prove that the RS cannot function.” He said that this government would collapse by the end of the year and that the responsibility would fall on those parties who elected it. |
| Green light for three ZDK ministers | Avaz pg. 6 ‘Three ministers get a green light from the OHR’ by E.B. – Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDK) PM, Nedzad Polic, received official confirmation from the OHR and the Election Commission regarding the approval of three ministers in the ZDK government. Muhidin Alic (MoI), Zeljka Klobucar (Judiciary), Sreto Tomasevic (Education, science and culture) – are the three candidates that passed the OHR vetting. |
| Commentary in Oslobodjenje | Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘Mostar’ by Mirko Sagolj – on the Mostar unification. According to Sagolj, the main force behind the recent Declaration on Mostar being a single municipality with the units of local self-governing is Safet Orucevic and the SBiH. He then switches to the HDZ and SDA saying that the later now does not want to agree to the unification because they are afraid of the city being majority Croat. “The problem is that all national parties, even the SDA, got used to rule alone in areas where they are majority, and that Mostar had been divided into Croat and Bosniak. Every semi-politically literate person would understand that without unified Mostar there would be no unified BiH.” Sagolj also thinks that Mostar is a real test towards BiH as a state, and also a big temptation for the SDA-SBiH coalition. |
| Ajanovic vs. Ashdown | Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘Ashdown must apologise to citizens and journalists’ – President of the Bosnian Party [BOSS], Mirnes Ajanovic, requested the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, to apologise publicly to the citizens of BiH for calling them fools. The daily recalls that at the meeting he had recently with young BiH politicians, Ashdown said that those who read some of the BiH print media are fools. According to Ajanovic, Ashdown also owes an apology to BiH journalists because they were also insulted by his words. |
Economic Affairs | |
| HR Ashdown with trade union reps
| Avaz pg. 2 ‘Tax criminals and pay off workers’, Dnevni List pg. 12 ‘HR Ashdown meets Union reps’, Nezavisne Novine pg. 5 ‘The Law on Bankruptcy leaves 100, 000 people without work’, Glas Srpski pg.2 ‘100, 000 workers without jobs’ – on HR Paddy Ashdown meeting yesterday with presidents of the Federation and RS trade unions, Edhem Biber and Cedo Volas. “Take away from criminals, pay off workers and solve the problems of pensioners, unemployed and social cases,” said Ashdown. He further added that the Union is an important OHR partner in the aspect of economic reforms and announced the continuation of talks with the union reps. Ashdown also said he would deal with the issue of upcoming redundancy problems in both Federation and RS. Volas and Biber concluded that they supported the reform of custom and VAT introduction at the state level. |
| VAT introduction
| Avaz pg. 9 ‘The introduction of VAT in BiH will not bring benefits’ – a statement by Zlatko Hurtic, Co-ordinator of the BiH Strategy Development Devising (PRSP). He made the point related to the introduction of the VAT by saying that this will not be followed by the introduction of the tax benefits characteristic that exist almost everywhere in the world. He added though that the time would come for the tax benefits to be introduced in BiH, but eventually it would. |
| VL on joint customs | Vecernji List pg. 1 and 3 by Zdenko Jurilj – regarding the customs reforms in BiH. “If representatives of political authority in BiH do not sum up preliminary talks on the establishing of unified customs system at the state level by mid February, then the job will be done by the OHR. According to OHR Spokesperson, Kevin Sullivan, Paddy Ashdown called on representatives of authority to lead the talks on the unification of customs system in BiH. “OHR wants them to intensify talks about the issue in the next few weeks,” added Sullivan, refusing to reveal what the HR will do if the aforementioned goals of the reform of customs system are not achieved by the fixed date. The daily goes on to say that the RS authorities are reluctant to have unified customs at state level and says that despite such a stance of the RS authorities, the OHR is ready to simply impose the Law on Unified Customs, as they have the right to do so. VL announces a round table on BiH economy in Banja Luka also on page 3 entitled ‘A round table in Banja Luka’. |
| People’s Party for Progress | Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘VAT at BiH level’ – the People’s Party Working for Progress branch in the RS hails the commitment of the international community and progressive political forces in BiH to introduce the VAT at BiH level. The party Board believes that the introduction of VAT will deal a hard blow to the gray economy, reduce the market price of goods, and contribute more to the budgets, which would provide more money for budget users. Also, the party advocates the introduction of VAT as soon as possible, as it would also represent a strong stimulant for the creation of an economy focused on the export, which would provide better incorporation of BiH into the European Union. The RS party branch emphasizes that the introduction of VAT is inevitable and that all suggestions coming from those opposing it should be ignored. |
| OHR organises conference on BiH economy | FENA – the OHR organizes on Tuesday in Banja Luka a conference on the current status of economy in BiH, it was announced by OHR. Economists and businesspeople from the entire country will attend the conference, which will take place at the Chamber of Commerce, and will be hosted by Principal Deputy High Representative, Donald Hays. The conference will also be attended by the Director of the World Bank Mission to BiH, Joseph Ingram, Deputy Chief of EC Delegation to BiH Renzo Daviddi and Advisor for Economic Issues to IMF, Marijana Milic. |
OHR/International Community | |
| Prosper arriving to Sarajevo
| Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘Talks on processing of war crimes in Sarajevo’, Avaz pg. 2 ‘Ambassador Prosper in Sarajevo on Thursday’ – on the arrival of the US Ambassador for issues of war crimes, Pierre Richard Prosper, to Sarajevo on Thursday. He will meet with the Presidency members and talk about current issues related tot he processing of war crimes committed in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. Vecernji List pg. 2 ‘RS authorities expecting direct threat of sanctions’ – VL says although Ambassador Prosper warned Croatia over failure to extradite generals Ante Gotovina and Janko Bobetko ‘it is obvious the US Administration has most complaints to behavior of authorities in Belgrade and especially in Banja Luka’. “It should therefore be expected that this time Ambassador Prosper would issue, the main, perhaps a final warning to the Chair of BiH Presidency, Mirko Sarovic, and other senior politicians in the RS”. |
| OHR appeal | Avaz pg. 10 ‘Adopt the Law on Ministries ASAP’, Dnevni List pg. 3 ‘OHR: urgently adopt the Law on Ministries’ – a very short article saying that the OHR appealed to the BiH Parliament to immediately adopt the Law on Ministries. It was announced from the OHR that there was no more time to waste, meaning that this country needed reforming government that would start working ASAP. |
Police Affairs | |
| Update on Ahmici incident
| Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 14 – reads that Bosniak newspapers wanted to label the incident, albeit with reserves, as an attack on a Bosniak returnee. According to SD’s sources, the two attackers who beat up the Bosniak returnee Elmin Ahmic were in fact employees of Elmin and Elmin brother’s boss who came to collect a debt. Allegedly, Elmin and his brother Edin, who live in a cellar of a devastated house in Ahmici, sell stolen goods, mostly car stereos, and this time they did not make the payment to their boss who sent in his two collectors. Moreover, according to SD, Police Administrations in Vitez and Zenica have criminal records on Elmin and Edin’s criminal activities. |
| Brcko police chief | Oslobodjenje pg. 5 ‘I did not volunteer, not was I mobilized’, Avaz pg. 8 Milicevic claims he did not participate in the famous action in Brcko malta’ – a reaction by the only candidate for the new Brcko Police Chief, Milenko Milicevic, to the recent accusations in the RS media (see yesterday’s media round-up) regarding his war activities. He claims that his unit was never at a battlefield and that his conscience is clear. He also added that if anything was suspicious about his war-past then the OHR and the EU police would react. Also reported in Glas Srpski pg. 2 ‘He was doing his job’, Blic pg. 8 ‘Accusations because of the war past’ and ‘Milicevic: I have clear conscience’, Vecernje Novosti pg. 13 ‘Nothing is ‘suspicious’, Jutarnje Novine pg. 4 ‘I was not a volunteer’. |
Special Events | |
| HR Ashdown and ef. Ceric personalities of the year | Oslobodjenje pg. 48 ‘The Personalities of the Year awards handed over’, Avaz pg. 4 ‘Significant award for Paddy Ashdown and Reis-l-ulema Mustafa efendija Ceric’ – on the ‘Personalities of the Year’ awards ceremony held yesterday at Dnevni Avaz. Following Avaz’s ‘Personality of the Year’ election where readers have a chance to vote for the best local and international personality for each year, ef. Ceric and HR Ashdown won the award for the year 2002. The entire pg. 4 and most of the pg. 5 were dedicated to the event – four articles in total. During his speech, Ashdown stated that Avaz did a huge job in the reforming of this society in the past six months. |