| Oslobodjenje | Retirement packages on Saturday, pensions on Monday; Biljana Plavsic gets 11 years in prison; Hays – revisions in Mostar and Sarajevo are next; Sweden as El Dorado |
| Dnevni Avaz | From today pensions for invalids, tomorrow the pay off of other pensions; FTV raised 180,000 charges for unpaid subscriptions; Plavsic sentenced to 11 years in prison; A Federation policeman ensured transport of drugs from Vojkovici; |
| Dnevni List | Interview with Head of the Federation Pension Fund (MIO) Marko Matic: Increase of pensions will be conditioned by MIO reforms |
| Vecernji List | Biljana Plavsic sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Members of Rojs’ Engineers’ Unit demand at court salaries for 5 years; Jelavic, Prce and Medic gave 6,2 million KM for housing loans |
| Glas Srpski | Successful start of the police action ‘Automobile’ – thieves with flat tyres; Plavsic sentenced to 11 years |
| Nezavisne Novine | The Hague Tribunal pass verdict against former RS President – Biljana Plavsic sentenced to 11 eleven years of imprisonment; Svetozar Acimovic, dismissed Director of the RS EP – Ivanic gave an assent for contract with the EFT; Special Audit Service continues audit of public sector – Audit of three telecom operators in BiH commence |
| FRY Nacional | Biljana Plavsic sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment |
| Blic | 11 years for confession; OHR – Bijeljina does not care about returnees’ needs; Ashdown regulates tenders |
| Vecernje Novosti | 11 years for Plavsic |
| Slobodna Bosna | Tomo Kovac, wartime RS Interior Minister, about Children’s Embassy Head, Dusko Tomic – Tomic worked for Dolanc (former socialist, Yugoslavia’s interior minister) and just before the war he was sent to Sarajevo by KOS (Yugoslav military intelligence) |
| BH DANI | Tasim Kucevic, convicted slave-driver – sex is my business |
RS Elektroprivreda |
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| RS Elektroprivreda Steering Board dismissed
| Avaz pg. 2 ‘Members of the Steering and Supervisory Board removed’ – the RS government dismissed yesterday members of the RS Elektroprivreda Steering Board, and would soon start a procedure fir the appointment of new members. RS PM Dragan Mikerevic announced the news. He added the government would appoint in the next 24 hrs a person to perform duties of acting general director, and that all activities related to the issuing of new tenders would be halted. Svetozar Acimovic, removed RS Elektroprivreda Director, said the sale of the electric supplies was being conducted in accordance with the European standards. Nezavisne Novine pg. 2 ‘The government removes RS EP leadership’ – the RS government yesterday removed all members of the Steering and Supervisory Board from their positions, announcing that the Acting Director of RSEP would be appointed in 24 hours time. Dragan Mikerevic, RS PM, stressed after yesterday’s session of the RS government that the Acting Director of the RS EP would remove deputy and assistants to the former director, and then select a team of experts. Furthermore, the RS government tasked the RS Interior Ministry and the RS Ministry of Finance to investigate the allegations in Audit Report. “We expect that these measures would be efficient enough to prevent new damages,” said Mikerevic. Nikola Spiric, SNSD delegate at the BiH HoR, is of the view that the RS government and the RS EP are to bear full responsibility for the criminal activities inside the electro-energetic system of RS. Milenko Stanic, an SDS delegate, stressed that it was necessary to establish the responsibility of all those involved in the affair, stressing that the remarks and objections made by the RS EP should also be considered. Drago Kalabic, a DNS delegate, said that ‘it was a logical thing to arrest persons involved in a theft worth millions the very moment the report was publicised’. NN inset carries a statement by OHR Spokesperson, Julian Braithwaite, who said that the measures undertaken by the government represent a good start, but the OHR expects to see the end of the investigation be even more successful. He also expressed the expectation of the OHR that all those responsible for the theft would be penalised. | |
| RS Elektroprivreda press conf. | Blic pg. 7 ‘Citizens are not robbed’; Nacional pg. 11 ‘The audit report based on assumptions’ – EPRS General Manager, Svetozar Acimovic, rejected the accusations contained in the report against the EPRS management. He said that his goal was not to prove that he was not responsible for the situation in the EPRS, but to reveal the truth through an investigation of competent bodies. According to him the report ‘is based on assumptions’. Acimovic thanked the High Representative for finding the time in his busy schedule to call him and inform him about the results of the report, but he refused to comment his removal. Removed member of the EPRS Steering Board, Bosko Lemez, denies the accusation of the High Representative, saying that the final aim of the report is to forced the RS and EPRS leadership to privatise the majority part of that enterprise. | |
| CRO press on RS Elektroprivreda | Commenting on the RS Elektroprivreda report that shook the entity, Vecernji List on pg. 3 entitled ‘Replacement of the management’ quotes RS Public Attorney Jovan Spajic as saying that he will study the report and see whether there are grounds for conducting an investigation against the responsible persons. The daily says that, according to the announcement from the international community, it is certain that the RS Elektroprivreda-related scandal will not stop at just replacing the company’s management, but will be used for new pressures onto the RS authorities because of the privatization of majority capital in the electric power supply system of the RS. Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 17 ‘We do not rob citizens’ – a reaction by Milan Bogicevic, RS Minister of Industry, Energy and Development, which has been already reported in other media (for more info see yesterday’s Media Round-Up). | |
| Further reactions to RS Elektroprivreda | Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 and 2, Glas Srpski pg. 3 ‘Help is not a theft’ – Svetozar Acimovic, former RS EP Director, yesterday stated that the then RS Premier, Mladen Ivanic, gave an assent for the singing of a contract with the EFT on the delivery of electricity surplus in 2002. At a press conference in Banja Luka he said that reports on the RS EP performance were always prepared and placed at the table during the government sessions, stressing that he had always respected the government decisions. Responding to a question as to whether he feels betrayed because the RS government yesterday removed the entire RS EP Steering Board from the office, Acimovic said he does not know why all of that is going on. “I suppose PM Mikerevic should have phoned me and explained the reasons why he would do that.” Mirko Mijatovic, former Assistant Director at the RS EP, said that four firms responded the tender for electricity export for the last year, and the EFT was selected as the best of all four bidders. “Even if it were the truth that the EFT had held the monopoly status in the region, we could not have had any impact on that,” concluded Mijatovic. Bosko Lemez, former President of the RS EP Steering Board, denied accusations by HR Paddy Ashdown, that ‘the EP RS records a loss of 166 million-KM, owing to the conflict of interest, theft and negligence’. | |
Economic Affairs |
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| SB on BIH Elektroprivreda
| Slobodna Bosna p. 6 and 7 ‘Bicakcic paid 15 million marks for the restoration of the building, Obradovic gave a million marks to the Sarajevo Soccer Club’ by Asim Metiljevic – tracing along the criminal chain of the electric power export from BiH through the Belgrade-London EFT company, Special Auditor Dale Ellen Ralph has discovered a series of failures that could easily be described as crime and robbery. The magazine has come into possession of a draft report on the audit of the BiH Elektroprivreda, which will be publicly announced only in ten days or so, after the enterprise’s management has considered the audit’s conclusions and orders. “The OHR auditor mentions as the largest failures the restoration of the BiH Elektroprivreda building, which has so far cost 15 million-KM, which will, upon the completion, cost additional 15 million,” the article read. “A significant part of the report was dedicated to suspicious procurements and financial loans realized mainly during the mandate of former BiH Elektroprivreda Director, Meho Obradovic, who was, at the time, also President of the Sarajevo Soccer Club,” the article added. | |
| BiH and HZ Elektroprivreda | Vecernji List pg. 1 and 3 – the FBiH Trade Union from the field of electric power supply has warned that the way in which the FBiH government intends to restructure the Elektroprivreda BiH and Elektroprivreda Herceg-Bosnia does not aim at either more efficient work or at successful privatization of the most profitable branch, but at the realization of political goals of the ruling parties. Contrary to the Union, the management of the Elektroprivreda BiH (EP BiH) is of the view that the FBiH government’s program of restructuring will, in the long run, have positive effects. Emir Aganovic, EP BiH Director, believes that the goal of the government’s program, by which separate companies would be formed out of electric power plants, thermo-electric plants and transmission systems, is the creation of competition that would enable progress of successful companies, reduction of production costs and lower prices. Mensud Krljes, Trade Union President, is quoted as saying that the mentioned program of restructuring would leave 50,000 workers jobless and he proposes Slovenian model of restructuring, which proved to be very successful. Instead of separate companies, the Union is in favor of creating a holding. | |
| Milisic on telecommunications | Avaz pg. 4 ‘The telecommunication market still not liberalised’ – a statement by OHR Spokesperson, Oleg Milisic, at yesterday’s press conf in Sarajevo related to the liberalisation of the telecommunication market. He denied claims by certain reps from telecommunication business that the market has been liberalised. Especially commented on the recent statements by General Director of Mobilna Srpska (MOBIS), Bozidar Janackovic, who said his firm was already using the benefits of the liberalisation. Milisic said that Janackovic’s company was only partially using the advantages of the liberalisation. Oslobodjenje pg. 5 ‘The telecommunication market in BiH not liberalised’ – Milisic’s statement that when the telecommunication market in BiH was totally liberalised then the MOBIS, as well as other companies, would be in a position to offer to their users even better services. | |
| Telecom operators audit | Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 and 3 – NN learnt that the Public Sector Special Audit Service, which was established by HR Paddy Ashdown has commenced with the control of dealings and transactions at RS Telekom, BH Telekom and HPT Mostar. The aim of the investigation is to establish whether any of the three operators performed non-restricted spending of resources belonging to citizens. Milenko Tomic, Deputy Director General at the RS Telekom, confirmed that the Audit Team, led by Special Auditor, Ellen Ralph, entered the premises of the RS Telekom a couple of days ago where they were conducting the audit. Urdur Gunarsdottir, OSCE Spokesperson, told NN that the audit at public firms continues, but she did not want to speak of any investigation details. According to Dragan Mikerevic, RS PM, the audit is aimed at observing any symptom of something being wrong. “The audits of this kind will be performed at other public sector firms, such as Naphtha industry, Srpske Sume and telecommunication,” said Mikerevic. | |
| Bulldozer Commission | Avaz pg. 9 ‘Fifty propositions for more efficient business’ – statements by Bulldozer Commission Co-ordinator, Benjamin Herzberg, related to the scope of the work of the Commission. “We want reps in the parliament to be addressed by businessmen and talk about problems they have and present suggestion how to remove them. That would represent the realisation of one of the ideas that led to the establishment of the Commission and that is the communication between businessmen and politicians,” said Herzberg. He added that the other idea was to constitute the Commission as a local body that would continue the process of the reform implementation. An insert with the article entitled ‘Ashdown and Terzic in bulldozer’ – informs that HR Ashdown and CoM Chair Terzic will probably take a ride around Sarajevo in a bulldozer on Monday. The symbolic being that the Commission is starting with the practical work after they identified a set of problems businessmen needed to solve. | |
| PDHR Hays | Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 3 – an excerpt from an interview with PDHR Donald Hays, which will be fully reported in the daily on Saturday. “The revision of the Mostar Elektroprivreda should be completed by mid-next week and for the Federation probably in two weeks,” said Hays. The revisions to be conducted by the same team that conducted the first one in the RS Elektroprivreda. “My feeling is that will have equally same problems with the coming two revisions as we did with the one in the RS. Because it seems to me that in this region the conflict of interests is a very foreign concept.” | |
| DNS | Blic pg. 8 ‘There will be new affairs in the RS’ – “Last year’s affair in the RS Customs has not been solved yet, and PDHR Donald Hays has revealed another one, this time in the RS Elektroprivreda, which resulted in the loss of 166 million-KM,” Djordje Krsmanovic, a member of the DNS Main Board, told a press conference in Bijeljina. According to Krsmanovic, the responsibility for that bears the previous RS government. He further announced that the RS public would soon be informed about a new affair in the RS Telekom. | |
| SB on CIPS | Slobodna Bosna pg. 9, 10 and 11 ‘Mafia from the Federation and politicians believing that the RS is a state were against CIPS’ by Danka Savic – the announcements that the new ID card will cost 14,5 KM instead of the initially announced 10 KM has caused fresh media attacks on CIPS and re-mentioning of a number of never proved affairs related to the project. “The CIPS project that will provide BiH citizens with the identity documents of the highest European standards is being exposed to the fiercest possible criticism, accusations and brutal media lynch headed by Dnevni Avaz and its owner Fahrudin Radoncic who is opposing the CIPS because his printing firm has not been involved in the project implementation,” wrote Savic in a pretty affirmative article on the issue. | |
| BH DANI on OHR’s involvement in telecommunication issue | BH Dani op-ed by Editor-in-Chief Senad Pecanin -“Reading on how Donald Hays and the OHR by well thought campaign are preparing grounds for distribution (wholesale) of the rest of ‘BiH citizens’ family silver (read the electro-energetic and telecommunications sectors), I am not succeeding at all to resolve a dilemma: are Hays, Ashdown and other governors from OHR really so arrogant to publicly sell us senseless ideas about the issue or they are doing this just because they have for partners a bunch of amateurs and criminals in the local authorities who are, in attempt to preserve their offices, treating demands coming from the OHR as if they were coming from the God itself,” wrote Pecanin. BH Dani pg. 26 ‘The people and its treasury’ Column by Ivan Lovrenovic – “Even before the scandal related to the RS Elektroprivreda it should have become clear to the High Representative that the nationalism and the corruption-crime are the synonyms here. However, Ashdown seems to have no intention to make any serious changes in the Bosnian anti-system,” wrote Lovrenovic. | |
| DL editorial | Dnevni List pg. 2 by Valentina Rupcic – an editorial, which brings details of the results of the RS Elektroprivreda audit. “All these events confirm a negligence of the authority and following structures of the state that protect crime and robbery in so-called state companies, which are just a curtain for various political lobbies.” With regard to the audit report of Elektroprivreda of Herceg Bosna that should be published in the coming weeks it says the following. “We cannot say in advance as to what kind of a result this audit will bring, however, having in mind the whole situation in Herzegovina we still cannot believe that everything was done in a proper and regular way.” | |
Political Affairs |
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| Tihic on new FOSS Director
| Avaz pg. 2 ‘No obstacles for Kikic to be appointed as FOSS Director’ – Sulejman Tihic on the appointment of Sead Kikic as FOSS Director. “We expect the appointment to be made at the next session of the Federation government. We think the situation in the service is very critical because it has not had a director for months,” said Tihic. He further explained that the post was vacant and therefore does not fall under an agreement the ruling Federation parties reached recently with HR Ashdown. “In the agreement with the OHR we stated we will not conduct personnel removals and then appoint new people to the posts until the Law on Public Service was adopted. The agreement however does not include the vacant seats, and I emphasised that during the talks with the OHR.” | |
| CoM session | Avaz pg. 2 ‘Prepare for the arrival of BiH citizens from Sweden and Denmark’ – yesterday’s session of the CoM. Barisa Colak, Security Minister and a member of the Inter-Resource Group in charge of establishing the final price of the new ID, said the CIPS project was not discussed at the session and could not say when it would be. The CoM adopted suggestion on the agreement on border traffic and cooperation between BiH and Croatia, as well as about free trade between BiH and Bulgaria. Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘CoM on border traffic between BiH and Croatia’ – the Com requested from the State Commission for establishing borders to speed up activities related to the closing of an agreement on border traffic with Serbia and Montenegro. Dnevni List pg. 3 ‘Price of new ID was not discussed’ and Slobodna Dalmacija last page ‘A proposal of the Agreement on border traffic and cooperation between BiH and Republic of Croatia defined’ – on the session and Colak’s statement. | |
| FBiH HoP
| Avaz pg. 8 ‘Serb delegates suggesting the awarding of mandates in the Parliament to citizens’ – yesterday’s session of the Federation House of Peoples (HoR). Reps did not find a solution to the problem of filling the Serb caucus. A report presented by the Commission, which was suppose to make suggestions as to how to solve the issue, was listened to but not assessed as satisfactory. Instead, delegates agreed that the only way to resolve the problem was to make changes to the FBiH Constitution. The suggestion will therefore be forwarded to authorized institutions, meaning those who could suggest amendments to the Constitution, as well as to the OHR. Oslobodjenje pg. 8 ‘Without a solution for filling the Serb caucus’ – sixteen delegates signed a request to be forwarded to the Constitutional Court. The request refers to examining the constitutionality of three Bosniaks on leading posts in the Federation. | |
| OHR Brcko | Avaz pg. 10 ‘Ann announcement of disobedience a hostile statement’ – a comment from the OHR Brcko to the recent announcement by the ‘Ravne’ Association of citizens disobedience towards certain parts of the Brcko government. Suzana Pejcic, OHR Brcko Spokesperson, said they were sorry that private landowners at the Arizona market decided to make such a hostile statement. | |
| Commentary in Oslobodjenje | Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘East and West’ by Hamza Baksic – a commentary on the unification of Mostar. Basically saying that there would be no unification of Mostar until the ruling two parties (HDZ and SDA) show political will to realize the idea. Also, the unification, according to Baksic, will not be possible until the IC ‘clearly stands behind certain rules of the game’. | |
| Potocari donation | Avaz pg. 2 ‘From the Potocari memorial centre requests for checking the validity of donation’ – following a donation by the Herzeg-Bosna Elektroprivreda (EPHB) for the Potocari memorial, worth 50,000KM, heads of the project requested that the validity of the donation be checked before they accepted it. According to Avaz’s sources close to the Memorial Centar Main Board, this is being done to exclude the possibility that this was an attempt to buy the public trust before a revision of the EPHB was announced. | |
| Tihic with Mostar Mayor | Dnevni List pg. 1 and 3 ‘Functioning of the City Administration endangered’ – a BiH Presidency member Sulejman Tihic yesterday met with Hamdija Jahic, Mayor of Mostar, and with Zijad Hadziomerovic, Head of Mostar Old Town municipality. The discussion was focused on the current situation in Mostar, i.e. the future unification of the city. Jahic particularly referred to the difficult economic situation that Mostar and its City Administration have been facing. One of the biggest problems in Mostar lately is the decision by the Elektroprivreda BiH and Elektroprivreda Herzeg-Bosna to suspend the payment of funds into the City budget. Tihic supported efforts by the City Administration of Mostar in order for the mentioned payment to continue as otherwise the financing of even the basic functions in Mostar would be seriously jeopardized. He also said it was high time Mostar became unified. Tihic also informed his guests on the announcement of Daymler Chrysler company to open an aluminum-processing factory in Mostar. | |
| Investigation against Jelavic, Prce and Medic | Vecernji List pg. 12 ‘BiH: Investigation against Jelavic and Prce’ and Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 15 – on the information that the Sarajevo Prosecutor’s Office demanded launching of an investigation against former Croat member of the BiH Presidency Ante Jelavic and his associates Miroslav Prce and Ivan Medic due to suspicion that they were re-directing the money that Croatia was sending for HVO soldiers’ salaries for housing loans through the Hercegovacka Bank. VL pg. 1 and 3 by Zoran Kresic ‘Processes on the eve of Hercegovacka Bank sale’ – on the same issue. According to an anonymous source from the Sarajevo Prosecutor’s Office the request for launching of the investigation against Jelavic, Prce and Medic will most probably end up as the investigation since there is no legal ground for issuing of a bill of indictment. VL also says that the sale of the Hercegovacka Bank is expected and, according to the author, the processing of former Croat officials in BiH should serve as a media curtain for the robbery of the century. “It is indicative that competent Sarajevo judicial bodies continue to process the Hercegovacka Bank case and they do not deal, for instance, with the Pakistani loan amounting to 20 million KM for which it was not revealed as to where it ended up, but which will be paid off by BiH citizens.” SD carries a similar comment. “And while Hercegovacka Bank has been a topic of domestic media for three years already, it is interesting that no one from media raised the question as to where millions of dollars that came to BiH from Islamic countries ended up.” | |
| SDS on the post of the RS Finance Min. | Nezavisne Novine pg. 7 ‘The SDS does not insist on the post of the RS minister of finance’ – Milenko Stanic, a member of the SDS Steering Board, stated that the SDS would not insist on getting a post of the RS minister of finance. He said that the statement given by RS PM, Dragan Mikerevic, that the minister of finance will be a PDP member, did not comply with the initial agreement between the SDS and PDP that the finance minister should be a non-political individual. “Minister of Finance is the first associate to RS Prime Minister, and it will be a person PM chooses,” concluded Stanic. | |
| Will HR remove Vuksic? | Slobodna Bosna pg. 12 and 13 ‘Whether Ashdown will remove Vuksic following the latest exclusive story in Ljiljan’ by Mirsad Fazlic – Fazlic reminds that HR Paddy Ashdown last autumn used the leaking of the confidential information on the wartime and post-war illegal activities of Hasan Cengic and the SDA to the Sarajevo magazine Ljiljan to justify the removal of FOSS Director at the time Munir Munja Alibabic. “Alibabic has not been in the service for six months now and the confidential information are still being leaked to the public. This way, the assessment of the security situation in the Federation made last November by the FOSS was published in the latest issue of Ljiljan,” wrote Fazlic. He wonders whether Ashdown will now remove Acting FOSS Director Ivica Vuksic since it is about the same misconduct as in the case of Alibabic. | |
| SB front-page story | Slobodna Bosna pg. 1, 20, 21, 22 and 23 – an exclusive interview with former RS Interior Minister Tomo Kovac. Kovac responds to verbal attacks on him by Children’s Embassy General Secretary, Dusko Tomic, denying all of them, but also speaks openly about criminal activities during the war, war profiteers and war criminals in the RS, humanitarian convoys for Sarajevo and role played by the police in the crimes committed against Srebrenica citizens. | |
| Tomislavgrad issue | With regard to a petition against the abolishment of the Tomislavgrad Municipal Court, which was signed in Tomislavgrad, Slobodna Dalmacija on pg. 15 carried an interview with Ivan Vukadin, President of the Tomislavgrad HDZ Youth that organised the signing of the aforementioned petition. He says that they will send the petition first to HR Paddy Ashdown and then to Head of the Independent Judicial Commission.” The HR has said many times that everything he does serves the interests and welfare of people. Since we have no reason to doubt sincerity of his words we are handing over to him and his associates a document in which it is written as to what people here think, want and feel,” said Vukadin. | |
Property Affairs |
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| OHR and OSCE on property laws
| Avaz pg. 8 ‘The IC is not the one to finalize Annex 7’ – the OSCE and OHR on the implementation of property laws and its relation to the full implementation of Annex 7. Urdur Gunarsdotir, OSCE Spokeswoman, spoke on behalf of agencies involved in the PLIP project. Said the implementation of the property laws was the first and foremost step, but one of many elements that support the sustainable return. Milisic stated the IC was not the one to proclaim the finalization of the return project. | |
| Kotorsko | Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘Double standards of the IC’ – Bosniaks from Kotorsko local community, near Doboj, wrote again to reis Ceric. They wrote they were bitter and angry at the IC and HR because they implement double standards for the same issue only when it comes to the rights of Bosniaks from kotorsko. To support their claim they gave an example of Bocinja where temporary occupiers were thrown out of the houses with transporters and helicopters. Kotorsko Bosniaks think the same should be done in their case. They asked reis Ceric to do everything in his power to influence on the Bih authorities, media, the IC and OHR to undo this injustice. | |
Refugee Affairs |
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| Minority returns in Bijeljina | Dnevni List pg. 7 ‘Stop discrimination over minorities’ – a statement by OHR Spokesperson, Oleg Milisic, at a press conference yesterday. “On Tuesday, Senior Deputy High Representative Enver Gerhard Schroembgens sent a letter to Bijeljina Mayor, Dragomir Ljubojevic, calling for an immediate and verifiable change in the municipality’s unacceptable attitude towards minority returns.” According to Milisic, the municipality leadership has shown a low level of co-operation when it came to improving the position of non-Serb citizens. Blic pg. 6 ‘Obstruction on local level has to stop’; Blic pg. 8 ‘OHR warns Ljubojevic’ – In his letter, Ambassador Schroembgens pointed out that Mr Ljubojevic and his associates in the local administration have largely failed to devote required attention to a number of issues affecting returnees and their reintegration into the life of the municipality, as discussed with representatives of the international community late last year. The needs of returnees go unmet while the municipality actively devotes significant resources to encourage Serb DPs to remain. | |
The Hague Affairs |
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| Plavsic | Nacional pg. 2, Blic pg. 17, Vecernje Novosti pg. 15 – The Hague on Thursday sentenced former President of the RS Biljana Plavsic to eleven years in prison for crimes against humanity in BiH. Glas Srpski cover page, Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘Plavsic sentenced to 11 years imprisonment’ – when passing the verdict the the Chamber took into consideration several alleviating circumstances – her guilty plead and demonstration of remorse, her voluntary surrender, role she played in the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and in the fight against organised crime and corruption in the RS. Avaz pg. 1 and 3, Oslobodjenje pg. 1, 4 and 5 – the same report. Vecernji List pg. 1 and 19, Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 6 ‘11 years for Biljana Plavsic’, Dnevni List last page ‘Biljana Plavsic sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment’, Vjesnik pg. 1 and Jutarnji List pg. 7 ‘Biljana Plavsic sentenced to 11 years imprisonment’ – on the verdict. Blic pg. 17 ‘That is a personal road’ – RS Prime Minister Dragan Mikerevic said he had no comment on The Hague verdict for former RS President Biljana Plavsic. “I have no comment. I already said her surrender is a personal act,” said Mikerevic. Blic pg. 17 ‘Act of remorse’ – BiH Presidency member Sulejman Tihic said on Thursday that the ICTY verdict in the Biljana Plavsic case proved that ‘BiH was victim of an aggression and genocide’. Tihic said that the verdict did not only represent a conviction against Plavsic as a person, but that it also proved two other things. “It the RS was created on genocide, and that an aggression and a genocide were committed against BiH. Her guilty plead is a highly moral act and contributes to the establishment of the character of war in BiH,” he said. | |