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| War-crime suspect Vojislav Seselj arrives in The Hague | Vojislav Seselj in Scheveningen prison | Controversial leader of Serb Radical Party Vojislav Seselj arrived in the Hague | Vojislav Seselj, leader of Serbia radicals, voluntary surrenders to the Hag Tribunal |
| A representative of the office of former Croatian President, Hrvoje Sarinic, gives statement to the Hague investigators | More than 250 persons died in earthquake in China | Unknown persons stole around 400,000 KM from Interex market in Sarajevo suburban Stup | Head of OSCE mission discussed economic reforms with RS authorities |
| At least 250 persons died in earthquake in Northwest China | Summit of non-aligned countries discusses peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis | Sabahudin Fiuljanin is charged with possession of illegal weapons or explosive materials | New generation of policemen in RS |
| In Brcko District, Member of the Croatian Parliament Ante Djapic informed about expropriation of Croats’ land at Arizona Market | Strikes in BiH are happening every day | Great Britain and US to present to the Security Council the draft new resolution on Iraq | BBC journalist from Mostar claims that Mostar and Sarajevo airport may be used for attacks against Iraq |
| Oslobodjenje | Approximately 400,000 KM stolen from Interex market in Sarajevo; Vojislav Seselj in The Hague |
| Dnevni Avaz | After armed SFOR soldiers entered BiH Presidency building – Tihic angry due to military rifles |
| Dnevni List | Representative in Croatian Parliament Anto Djapic: Croatia is obliged to follow situation and positions of Croats in BiH |
| Vecernji List | Josip Merdzo and Dragan Mandic accused ones |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | CIPS project faced with many obstacles: On the same name 4 identity cards with 4 different unique personal numbers were issued |
| Glas Srpski | Joseph Stieglitz on pressures of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank: Destroy and then rule; Request of policemen from RS and BiH Federation |
| Nezavisne Novine | Report of the international audits on business dealings of the RS Elektroprivreda: Contracts as robberies of millions; Report of the RS Chief Audit on the privatisation of Kristal Banka: KM 18 million of debt written off, then Bank was sold for 1 EURO |
| Belgrade Nacional | Milo Djukanovic: Karadzic is not in Montenegro |
| Blic | A vehicle of RS Secret Police stolen; 1,000 people stay without job in Sokolac; Fuel station robbed, 30,000 KM taken away; Mikerevic: To check who is BiH citizen; Milo Djukanovic: Karadzic is not in Montenegro |
Crimes | |
| 400,000 KM stolen from Interex
| Oslobodjenje front page, pg. 29 ‘Approximately 400,000 KM stolen from Interex market in Sarajevo’, Dnevni Avaz pg. 27, mentioned on the front page – The Interex market in the Sarajevo suburb of Stup was robbed late on Sunday when three masked men attacked and tied down the guard and then stole approximately 400,000 KM. Nezavisne Novine, page 2/also cover page, ‘Thieves robbed KM 400 thousand’ – The daily also reports on the robbery in Sarajevo at the Interex trade center. |
| Seselj in The Hague | Oslobodjenje pg. 3, mentioned on the front page ‘Seselj: I am going to The Hague to win’, Dnevni Avaz pg. 10 ‘Amended or even changed indictment against Seselj expected to be raised’ – The leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj early on Monday voluntarily left for The Hague where he will face indictment for war crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the Balkans. “I am going to The Hague to win,” Seselj told his followers at the Belgrade airport. Oslobodjenje pg. 2 In Focus column by Mirko Sagolj ‘Seselj in The Hague’ – “Regardless of Seselj’s arrival, The Hague is still not full to face the truth and the justice. Karadzic and Mladic are not there. Only when they have arrived as well the trial for a large-scale crime committed in BiH may start,” Sagolj wrote. Dnevni Avaz pg. 3 Commentary of the Day by Armin Zeba ‘Farewell to the war criminal going to The Hague’ – “The thousands of chetniks gathered at the departure of Seselj to The Hague witness about the consciousness of our eastern neighbours, but also show why BiH must not give up the lawsuit for aggression,” wrote Zeba. Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘Last Serb in The Hague’; Nezavisne Novine, page 4, ‘Vojislav Seselj at Scheweningen’, Nacional pg. 2 headline ‘Seselj in the Hague’, Vecernje Novosti pg. 16&17 headline ‘He did not even turn back’ also report that Vojislav Seselj, the President of the Serbian Radical Party, yesterday arrived in The Hague. |
| Djukanovic: Karadzic is not in Montenegro | “Montenegro does not have any reason to harbor any person who is on the Hague Tribunal’s list of war crimes indictees”, Montenegrian Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said in Belgrade, and added that the tribunal was welcome to send its own officials to Montenegro to personally verify this. “We clearly told Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that this was mere speculation. We told her that Montenegro has no reason to hide any person who is indicted by the Hague tribunal. We are already cooperating with numerous foreign services, which are also dedicated to this cause, that is, to arresting all war crimes suspects who need to be extradited to the Hague tribunal. We also told Del Ponte that if the tribunal has any reason to question any information provided by Montenegro or these foreign services, it was welcome to send its officials to Montenegro. We are not at all opposed to this move. This way, they will be able to establish whether Karadzic and other indictees, who are allegedly in Montenegro, are actually in Montenegro”, Djukanovic said. (Nacional pg. 2, Blic pg. 3, Vecernje Novosti pg. 10) |
| VL: Bill of indictment issued against Josip Merdzo and Dragan Mandic | Vecernji List (front and page 3, by Zoran Kresic, “Josip Merdzo and Dragan Mandic accused ones”) carries that the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Mostar issued a bill of indictment against former Vice President of the Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Government Josip Merdzo and former Cantonal Minister of Interior Dragan Mandic. VL says that the two of them are charged with abuse of office. Allegedly, Merdzo and Mandic made possible the engagement of the security services agency “Redarstvenik” without a tender and thus they made illegal gain amounting to 600 000 Marks. VL says that Prosecutor Ibro Bulic refused to give up the bill of indictment although during the investigation the court expert for the financial issues concluded that there was no illegal gain. Merdzo, who is currently the Vice President of the Federation of BiH House of Representatives, said: “I do not understand as to why the Prosecutor’s Office insists on the issuing of the bill of indictment and I see in it political motives exclusively. Since I am innocent I do not want to call for my parliamentary immunity. I believe in court institutions of our Canton.” |
Affairs | |
| COMSFOR bodyguards entered BiH Presidency building with machine-guns
| Dnevni Avaz front page, pg 2 ‘Tihic angry due to military rifles’ – The bodyguards of the SFOR Commander William Ward, who was on February 17 coming for a meeting with the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency Sulejman Tihic, entered the Presidency building with machine-guns (military rifles) and the FBiH Interior Ministry members securing the building allowed them to do so. “But when they attempted to entered Sulejman Tihic’s office with the rifles, we did not permit them to do so since we consider such an act absolutely inappropriate. The action seriously ruins the dignity of the Presidency as the state institution,” the Sulejman Tihic’s Chief of Staff, Sehada Kolenovic told the newspaper. |
| CIPS | Dnevni Avaz pg. 2 ‘Setting of the new ID card price – Meeting of CoM Commission and OHR to take place today’ – A meeting of an OHR delegation headed by PDHR Donald Hays with the representatives of a BiH CoM commission tasked to determine the price of the new ID card will take place today, the newspaper learn from the office of Safet Halilovic, the BiH Minister of Civil Affairs. The meeting was supposed to be held on Monday. |
| Cropress on CIPS project | With regard to the CIPS project, Slobodna Dalmacija (front and page 15, by D. Pasic, “On the same name 4 identity cards with 4 different unique personal numbers were issued”) carries that the whole media dust with regard to this project was stirred in order to stop this project completely because the project itself prevents various malverzations that have been done so far. SD says that for instance there are many BiH citizens who even have 4 identity cards with 4 different unique, personal numbers, some identity cards were issued on the name of the persons who died long time ago etc. SD carries that OHR Spokesperson Mario Brkic stated: “The decision that the identity card’s price remains 14,5 KM until the issue is resolved with the Commission of the BiH Council of Ministers has nothing to do with preserving of any companies, including the foreign ones, but it has to do with preservation and sustainability of the CIPS project itself.” This statement was also covered by Dnevni List (page 4, “Preservation of CIPS project serves interests of citizens in BiH”) and Vecernji List (page 2, “First IDs to Coric and Tomic”). VL as well as Slobodna Dalmacija (last page, “Neven Tomic will return new ID”) and Dnevni List (page 13, “First unique BiH IDs delivered to HNC officials”) carry that new IDs were given yesterday to the officials of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and City of Mostar. SD and DL carry that Mostar Deputy Mayor under resignation Neven Tomic stated that he will return the new ID because it does not have the name of the City of Mostar but only the name of the Municipality. |
| Audit of the telecom companies in BiH | Dnevni Avaz pg. 9 ‘Special auditors entered telecom companies – Individuals enriched, campaigns of certain political parties financed by BH Telecom money’ – In 2001, one of the three BiH GSM operators earned between 650 and 700 million marks, and 121 million of the amount represented a pure profit. “We are interested in where exactly the profit went and that is why the teams of the special auditor has gone to all three operators. In BH Telecom, they are facing strong resistance and non-readiness for cooperation. We have reasons to believe that a part of that money was spent in funding the pre-election campaign of certain parties and misused for enrichment of certain individuals,” an international telecommunications expert told the newspaper. |
| DL: The resignation of Mostar Deputy mayor upset nationalists in Mostar | Dnevni List (front page & p 7, “SDA and HDZ manipulate Mostar”, by Eduard Babic) report that, following the announcement by the High Representative in BiH, Paddy Ashdown, that he would, much earlier than he had thought, work on the issue of Mostar, i.e. after he has handled the burning economic and legislative problems, many developments have taken that direction. The daily considers this to be the reaction triggered by Neven Tomic’s resignation. DL learns that the Regional OHR Mostar has been given instructions for its activities in the forthcoming period in order for the town to finally start functioning in its full capacity: urgent and efficient abolishment of all parallelisms and other forms of activities that hinder its integration process. Western countries’ Governments (US, Germany, France) are also getting more actively involved (from suggestions to open pressures). The opponents of the idea of unified Mostar resort to the Constitution and the Interim Statute of the City as arguments, the advocators claim that agreement can change everything and that the HR has, anyhow, intervened in the Constitution anyhow. As it is obvious the relevant political forces cannot agree on the new organisation of Mostar, alternative solutions should be sought. The International Community would very much like, if possible, to avoid being an Arbiter in a case like this. It is interesting that it crossed no interested party’s mind, not even Tomic’s, that there is alternative, as one of most significant achievements of democratic society, to confronting positions: citizens’ referendum through which they would decide upon the fate of their city. The referendum would result in a paradox: contrary to SDA view, Babic is sure that the referendum for a single Municipality would get support in the east part of Mostar whereas, at the same time, HDZ would have to work hard in terms of political work on the ground in order to have support for this idea in the part of the town in which that party has full authority. |
| Report of Int. Audit of RS EP | Nezavisne Novine, page 3/also cover page, ‘Contracts as robberies of millions’ – The daily carries a page-long report of the International audits, who reviewed the business dealings of the RS Elektroprivreda (RS EP). The audits observed some irregularities and concluded that some suspicious business engagement of this firm resulted in vast loss at the RS budget. The contract signed with the EFT (Energy Financing Team Limited), in regard to the sale of surplus power, was also listed as one of suspicious. The report further claims that the reason why EFT got this contract with RS EP was because it was the one and only bidder. Also, EFT seems to be the only bidder for the building of the Electric Power System Buk Bijela, whose worth is to reach EURO 376 million in a return for this, EFT would not be getting back the money, but all the electricity produced at the plant in the next 30 and maybe 50 years. The report further lists the firm called “Premar Services” as another suspicious firm, with which RS EP has signed contracts. The report also lists the names of those most responsible for the enormous loss and suspicious dealings. Those are: Bosko Lemez, the former RS minister for Energy, Svetozar Acimovic, the Director General of RS EP. NN also carries an inset with the statement by the OHR Chief Spokesperson, Julian Braithwaite, quoting him as saying that “the report of international audits contains some measures, which the OHR will undertake. The report also lists the measures, which OHR expects from RS authorities to undertake… It is not on OHR to establish potential criminal responsibility of those, who brought the RS EP into the current state, but the courts will have to do that instead.” |
| RS Telekom responds to Hays | Glas Srpski, page 5, ‘There is a trace for each mark’ – Zeljko Jungic, the Director General of the RS Telekom, yesterday told NN that the claim of the PDHR, Donald Hays, that the Telekom operators in BiH do not render accounts to anybody, is false. He further stressed that Telekom knows well where it invested the money and why. According to him, “Telekom Srpske mainly invests the money into the advancement of nets and improvement of services to its citizens in all parts of the RS.” Commenting on Hays’s statement that the three-telekom operators in BiH hold the monopoly over telecommunication system, Jungic said that Telekom Srpske is eager to become involved in liberalised telecommunication system. |
| Privredna Banka sale | Nezavisne Novine, page 2, ‘Djeric: Disputable sale of Privredna Banka Doboj is a priority for police’ – The RS Minister of Internal Affairs, Zoran Djeric, yesterday told NN that out of million reasons, the priority for the RS police is to investigate the disputable sale of the Privredna Banka Doboj. He also said that this issue was discussed at yesterday’s meeting between the RS MOI officials, OHR and Office of the RS Public Prosecutor. Djeric complained that Bosko Ceko, the RS Chief Audit, has not still started working on this case. On this Ceko responded by saying that he has no staff available to deal with this, stressing that the Prosecutor is allowed to launch investigation without getting audits’ report. |
Political developments/statements | |
| ‘Traders with someone else’s destinies’
| Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘Traders with some one else’s destinies’ – Editorial by Zija Dizdarevic on political relations between Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and BiH Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic. “And the most recent statements and gestures made by Djindjic and Ivanic are very welcome by the nationalists on the both sides of the Drina river. The traders with the someone else’s destinies, with death or alive Bosnians and Herzegovinians are stil at the scene,” Dizdarevic wrote. |
| DL: “Federation of BiH House of Representative did not violate Constitution in its work” | Dnevni List (front and page 5) carries an interview with Chairman of Federation of BiH House of Representatives Muhamed Ibrahimovic. Asked to comment on the fact that the Federation of BiH Constitution was violated during the distribution of 6 crucial positions due to which Bosniaks are holding 3 out of 6 crucial positions, Ibrahimovic says that Amir Jaganjac could not be elected the President of the Federation of BiH Supreme Court since at the time of Jaganjac’s appointment two Bosniaks had been already holding two crucial positions. Ibrahimovic said that President of the Federation of BiH Niko Lozancic will judge whether it is necessary to raise this issue before the Federation of BiH Constitutional Court. Asked about the OHR’s stand on this issue, Ibrahimovic says: “I have not had any contact with OHR officials. However, I have unconfirmed information that the OHR will not involve in this issue since this issue is now under competence of the Federation of BiH Constitutional Court and this is completely right. This is a completely good approach and I appreciate this OHR’s stand with regard to this issue.” |
| DL: “Alija Tipura has biggest number of incompatible functions”
| Dnevni List (page 3, by M. Malic) carries that the International Community and competent institutions of the BiH Election Commission got interested in the case of Alija Tipura, who is performing various incompatible functions in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. Namely, Alija Tipura is at the same time a high-ranked member of the Cantonal Government holding the position of the Cantonal Minister of Finances, he is a member of the HNC Assembly as a representative of Party for BiH and Tipura is also a leader of the Cantonal Privatization Agency. DL says that Tipura proved once again that tricking and neglecting of law and democratic standards is the favorite game of the faction within Party for BiH gathered around the current leader of the HNC Government Omer Macic. |
| DL: Bosniak officials against NATO withdrawal from BiH | Dnevni List (p 6, “NATO forces to be replaced by the EU peace forces, not signed) and Vjesnik (p 10, “Bosniaks do not want SFOR to leave BiH”, by Alenko Zornija) read that the highest Bosniak officials in the BiH bodies of authority have expressed disapproval of the possibility that NATO withdraws from the country and that the EU takes over the peace-keeping mission in BiH. EU Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Javier Solana, has, in a phone talk to the BiH Presidency members, confirmed the EU is ready to take the leadership of the Peace Mission in BiH and has encouraged the BiH leadership to start negotiations that would enable taking of necessary measures and transfer of authority from the NATO to the EU. Unofficially, it has been announced that the NATO flag could in BiH be replaced with the EU one in mid-2004. The Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency, Sulejman Tihic, and the Chair of the Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, have stated they are not sure that the EU would perform the peace-keeping job as efficiently as the NATO forces, i.e. SFOR has. “Apart from aspiring to join European integration, BiH also wants to join Euro-Atlantic integration, such as NATO, and that is why NATO presence, through SFOR mandate, is needed”, Terzic said. Stjepan Pocrnja, the Secretary general of the Standing Military Committee, which is some substitute for the BiH Defense Ministry, is, according to DL, of the opinion that the NATO and the EU will succeed in agreeing upon the best way of new organisation of the peace forces in BiH and that the US will participate in them also. Tihic holds that the change of the current Peace Mission in BiH will take “2 or more years”. |
| Interview with Slaven Pekic | Nezavisne Novine, page 7, ‘Authority will not be able to remove even the porter from his post following the reform of administration’ – Nezavisne Novine carries an interview with Slaven Pekic, the RS Minister of Administration and Local Management, who is one of three Croat members of the current RS Government. Pekic stresses that “No ethnic or political membership will represent a basis for my functioning. I will be working in the interest of the RS citizens, regardless of their ethnic, religious or other background”. |
| “Security policy of BiH” | Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘Unconstitutional document’; Nezavisne Novine, page 3 ‘Security policy of BiH is not acceptable’ – The President of the Parliament Board for Defence and Internal Affairs Review, Velimir Sakan, yesterday said that the document called “Security policy of BiH” is not acceptable for the RS, because it enroaches on constitutional principles of BiH and is not in line with the Dayton Peace Agreement. He added that almost each sentence of the document is ambiguous and can accordingly be interpreted in many ways. Member of the Board, Milorad Dodik, expressed astonishment over the fact that the RS Government, RS Supreme Defence Council and Serb member to the BiH Presidency have not taken any official stance on this significant document. |
| Mikerevic: Checking on who is BiH citizen | RS Prime Minister Dragan Mikerevic has advocated holding a regional conference on combating terrorism. “I am confident that all countries in the region will live up to this civilisational task, that they will prevent terrorism and become a part of the alliance in the fight against this evil,” said Mikerevic. He added that BiH and the RS must make every effort to integrate into Europe, so that there will no longer be a “Balkan route for organised crime and illegal immigration”, and that this is prevented by “around 10,000 naturalised citizens, particularly those who have come from Islamic countries during the war and who were given citizenship”. “I hope that we will find a way to resolve this situation and ensure security for our own citizens and the citizens of neighbouring countries within two years, through the CIPS project, which started last year,” said Mikerevic. (Blic pg. 7) |
| DL: “ Nationalistic patriotism” | With regard to the request of the BiH Society of Writers, who demanded from the OHR and competent state bodies to suspend the Pogorelica case, Dnevni List (page 2, by Ivica Glibusic) carries an editorial which says: “The attempt to cover up the existence of foreign criminals who came to ‘defend’ BiH is deluding of BiH citizens…The BiH future is gloomy and hard as long as justice is being administered by politicians, writers and self-proclaimed patriots and not competent judges.” |
| DL editorial: Kukic – I confess, I plead guilty | Dnevni List editorial (p 6, by Slavo Kukic) reads that the change of authority, which is an achievement in political democracy, in this country has a dimension incomprehensible for democratic societies. Threats with vengeance seem to be something that normally follows the victory and victors. Everyone who have ever been or are critical of new power-wielders is subject to such threats. Some days ago, messages with such content were sent to “disobedient” print media: media should either stop writing critically or should disappear from the face of the earth. And Kukic does not believe the senders of the message were unserious about it – they will try to do so on the first convenient opportunity. And then the senders of the message will, with an expression of underlined concern, in front of cameras express their regret over the fact that yet another media project failed. Kukic goes on to say that, these days, he has also been subject to threats for reasons unknown to him, but he supposes he was threatened because of everything he has been doing over the last years. The message from the highest positions was: “we will have no mercy on you, we will get even in the form of at least 20 charges”. Kukic in the end pleads guilty for having opposed for 12 years the projects of destruction of the country which he still considers to be his only homeland adding opposing was impossible without identifying the bearers of destruction; he pleads guilty for not having accepted the idea of division of the BiH media space onto 3 national reserves and the project of segmenting radio and TV stations on the basis of national prefix as such a concept, in his opinion, equals shooting at this country; he pleads guilty for not running away from pointing his finger at criminals and because he does not intend to keep silent in the future as he has no right to silence, neither as a human being nor as an intellectual. |
International community | |
| Stieglitz on pressures of int. financial institutions
| Glas Srpski, cover page story, ‘Destroy and then rule’ – The daily carries the statements given by Joseph Stieglitz, the former economy advisor to Clinton and the former Vice President of the World Bank, who indirectly ascertained that some sporadic opposition to requests of the WB and IMF existed. Namely he claims that: “The WB and IMF, in details, foresee social disturbances in the states they assist. The first step of the secret plan is – privatisation. Then comes the liberalisation of the market capital, and finally increase of prices at the market.” |
| Ambassador Beecroft in B. Luka | Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘Borders protect peace’; Nezavisne Novine, page 5 ‘Property legislation should have been implemented until the middle next year’ – According to press release, issued by RS President’s Cabinet yesterday, the meeting between RS President, Cavic Dragan, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, Robert Beecroft, concluded that the constitutional order of the BiH is a foundation, on which other bodies and structures sought by EU should be placed. The release further states that it was necessary to accelerate the resolvement of Serb and Croat returnees to BiH and Croatia and to establish a closer cooperation with Republic of Croatia. NN only reports on this meeting. According to GS, Beecroft then met Dragan Mikerevic, the RS PM, and Jasmin Samardzic, the RS Minister of Refugees. This meeting concluded that progress has been made in the RS and the BiH Federation, in regard to resolvement of refugee issues and the ongoing process of educational reform. Blic pg. 7 headline ‘BiH entities together into EU’ also reported on the issue. |
| Update to SFOR action in Ljeskare | Glas Srpski, page 5, ‘Bloodstained shaw preserved’ – According to Nigel Fontaine, SFOR Spokesperson, SFOR soldiers did not hurt Bilbija Milorad. However, Bilbija’s sister, Milka, claims she has a shaw stained with her brother’s blood. Bilbija, who has been hospitalised in Prijedor since Friday incident, stresses that: “It is in their interest to protect their soldiers, whilst it is my interest that the world finds out the truth. As soon as I complete these medical examination and have all the documentation compiled, I will press charges against SFOR.” Milka claims that the blood found on her shaw was Milorad’s, which got stained while he was carrying her to the house after SFOR went. Vecernje Novosti pg. 13 headline ‘SFOR is innocent’ also covered the issue. |
| Croatian right-wing politician says Croat rights violated in Brcko
| Dnevni Avaz, pg 10, Oslobodjenje, pg. 9, Jutarnje Novine, pg. 3, Dnevni List, pg. 3 – The Chairman of the Committee for Citizens’ Complaints and a member of the Croatian Parliament, Ante Djapic, visited Brcko District on Monday. He wanted to find out more about the status of Croats in the area and about complaints sent to the Croatian Parliament by landowners at the Arizona Market. “Nowhere in the world in the 21st century have I seen more human rights violations than in the Brcko District”, Ante Djapic said while touring the Arizona Market. The status of Croats, and not just Croats but I would even say the status of the law-governed state, of human rights and private property is being violated to an incredible degree in the Brcko District. Although he is aware that his visit to BiH would be regarded by some as interference by Croatia in BiH affairs, Djapic notes that Croatia signed the Dayton Agreement and that it should be accepted that, apart from sending its generals to The Hague, Croatia has the right to monitor developments in BiH from the point of view of human rights violations. “By accepting the Dayton accord, we Croats have swallowed the bitterest pill for us. Now, when we should have some benefits from that Dayton Agreement, when the worst is behind us, nothing is happening. It seems that it was applied to the Croats only when the Croatian state was required to use its influence to secure the extradition of BiH Croats to The Hague, and when it should intervene in such flagrant violations of national and human rights, it seen as interference in another state’s affairs”, Djapic said. He urged the legal authorities of BiH to show greater interest in the Arizona Market and other problems affecting Croats from this area. He announced that he would brief the Croatian Parliament about their problems at the next session on Wednesday. Dnevni List (front page & p 3, “Croatia is obliged to have a follow-up on the situation and position of Croats in BiH”, Fena) also reports on the Djapic’s visit to Brcko. |
| SD: Interview with Vice President of Croatian Government Zeljka Antunovic | Slobodna Dalmacija (front and page 17, “We are offering 25 million Marks this year as well”) carries an interview with Vice President of the Croatian Government Zeljka Antunovic. She says: “This year just like the last one 25 million Kunas for financing of various projects from the area of education, culture, science and health will be allocated.” Asked whether she agrees with the judgment that the former HDZ Croatia authority was too much present in BiH while the current one has been present too little, Antunovic says: “I agree that we have been present too little in BiH, however, not because we wanted it but since circumstances and many obligations in some way resulted in the lack of communications.” |