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| HN Canton education workers went on strike | Ashdown imposes Law on CoM | HR imposes Law on CoM | HR imposes Law on CoM |
| Session of CoM | Rudi Cajavec workers go on strike | Armed robbery of Central Profit bank in Sarajevo | Discussion in RS NA on Budget rebalance |
| EU bans advertising of cigarettes in the press | 100,000 KM stolen from Central Profit Bank in Sarajevo | Avdija Sabanovic offers new evidence in arms smuggling case |
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| Jewish Haghada presented to the public in Sarajevo |
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| Oslobodjenje | New details about crime in Herzegovina and its sponsors – Vuksic, Soldo control flow of highly-tariff goods!? Paddy Ashdown – BiH faces bankruptcy |
| Dnevni Avaz | Talks between SDA, Party for BiH continued – Disputes over posts, Silajdzic; Ashdown imposes the law – BiH gets Ministry for Security |
| Dnevni List | High Representative for BiH Paddy Ashdown: Law on Council of Ministers imposed |
| Vecernji List | What does draft agreement on dual citizenship between Croatia and BiH bring: Dual citizens get one vote |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Strike of teachers in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton begins: All schools closed – semester ruined? |
| Glas Srpski | Alumina plant still in crisis: new developments in “Birac”; Banja Luka: 18 policemen indicted |
| Nezavisne Novine | Ashdown imposes Law on Council of Ministers; Bank robbery in Sarajevo: 100 000 KM taken away; Ivan Tomljenovic: Kalinic and Tihic should decide on RS name; Banja Luka; Families of fallen soldiers of RS embittered with the SDS, PDP and SDA coalition |
| Blic | Consultations on prime minister designate start; Former director accused for embezzling 3.9 million KM; Employees forbid director to enter ‘Cajevac’; Ivanic: Harmful imposition of the law on CoM |
Council of Ministers reform | |
| HR imposes the Law on Council of Ministers
Poll: 65% of the BiH citizens support imposition of the Law on CoM
Reactions by political parties prior to and after the imposition of the Law on CoM | High Representative Paddy Ashdown on Monday imposed the new Law on the BiH Council of Ministers in order to establish a government that will implement reforms in BiH and be a partner to the international community. “We have taken important yet measured steps to establish efficient government by protecting all people… and I hope that this will be the beginning of true commitment of the BiH authorities to reforms,” Ashdown told reporters in Sarajevo. As it has been announced, the Law on the Council of Ministers envisions the termination of the chairmanship rotation system and reduction of the issues to be decided by consensus, while the Council of Ministers will have two new ministries, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice. A special working group has prepared a draft of this document after mutual harmonization was completed last week among political parties. The Ministry for Civil Affairs and Communications will be transformed into the Ministry of Traffic and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. All ministries will have one deputy minister instead of two, and a secretary-general of the department. They will be of different ethnicity. In the law, created on the basis of the text agreed upon by parliamentary parties, Ashdown changed the name of the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Security into the Ministry of Security. It is expected that the ministry will coordinate work of the State Information Protection Agency, the State Border Service, and the cooperation with Interpol, but will not deal with the defence issues. According to Ashdown, the law, along with the reform of customs and establishment of the value-added tax, represents priority in the reforms that the new BiH authorities must implement in the coming period. “BiH authorities are facing an important task of defining powers of all state ministries. These are just empty boxes that the local authority must fill with suitable contents,” Ashdown said. (Oslobodjenje, p 6: Ministry for Security within the BiH Council of Ministers”, Dnevni Avaz, p 2, mentioned on the front page: “BiH gets Ministry for Security”, Vecernji List, front and page 2, by Dejan Jazvic, “HR yesterday imposed new Law on Council of Ministers: Government with permanent Chair and 8 Ministers”, Dnevni List, front and page 3, “High Representative for BiH Paddy Ashdown: Law on Council of Ministers imposed”, Nezavisne Novine, cover page and page 3 – headline: Ashdown imposes Law on BiH CoM, Glas Srpski, p 5: “The Law on CoM imposed – Ashdown instead of Parliament) According to an Avaz Agency poll, 65% of the BiH citizens support the imposition of the Law on BiH Council of Ministers by the High representative, Paddy Ashdown. 13% of them do not support the decision, as 22% of the questioned citizens abstained from answering the question. The poll was conducted on a random sample of 300 citizens in Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Mostar questioned by phone. The leadership of the BiH Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) supported on Monday the efforts of the OHR and parliamentary parties to provide the rational and efficient functioning of the Council of Ministers through reforms of this institution, through full observance of parity of the line-up, consensus in decision-making and the rotation of its chairmanship. The HDZ says that it will insist during inter-party talks that the chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers in the new line-up be elected from the Croat people, which would be in line with the principle of equal national representation in the BiH government institutions and its entities. (SRNA, Slobodna Dalamacija, last page, Dnevni List, p 15) The chairman of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), Mladen Ivanic, said that it would be wrong and harmful to impose a law on the Council of Ministers, because this has not been attempted in the official institutions such as the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. After the PDP’s consultations with RS President Dragan Cavic on the candidate for new prime minister, Ivanic said that there are great reservations among the RS parties about “what is reputed to be the draft law”, primarily about the question of consensus, but also reorganization of the Council of Ministers itself (SRNA, Nezavisne Novine, p 3, Blic p 7, FRY Nacional p 11). Moreover, in the statements for the BHTV 1 last night, both Ivanic and RS National Assembly Speaker Dragan Kalinic assessed Ashdown’s decision to impose the Law as wrong and damaging (Glas Srpski, p 5, Blic p 7, FRY Nacional p 11). Secretary general of the Serbian Radical Party of the Serb Republic (SRS) Ognjen Tadic called on High Representative to BiH Paddy Ashdown to abandon imposing the law on the BiH Council of Ministers, which would create an opportunity for BiH institutions to deal with this matter instead. “The SRS feels that the imposition of any law, including this one, is wrong,” Tadic told journalists in Banja Luka. (SRNA, Glas Srpski, p 5) The chairman of the executive committee of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, Nebojsa Radmanovic, considers the imposition of any law, particularly a law on the Council of Ministers of BiH, which envisages reorganization of this joint body, as unacceptable. “I think that the High Representative should not impose a decision before he has exhausted all possibilities for an agreement on this issue inside BiH,” Radmanovic told SRNA, commenting the OHR announcements that the High Representative could impose the law on Council of Ministers during the course of this week. Radmanovic said that the BiH Parliament should assume a position on this issue and once a new parliamentary majority has been formed, such law could be adopted. (SRNA, Nezavisne Novine, p 3, Blic p 7) Dnevni List (front and page 3, by Miso Relota, “We disagree with Julian Braithwaite’s assessments”) reads that the Secretary general of SDP BiH, Svetozar Pudaric, sent a letter to Ambassador Gerhard Schroembgens regarding a statement that Julian Braithwaite, Chief OHR spokesperson, gave to “Nezavisne novine” on December 2, when Braithwaite stated that “during the talks held at OHR on November 27, none of the present parties opposed the proposed text of the Law on BiH Council of Ministers”. Pudaric stresses that SDP BiH participated in the talks and supported the enactment of the Law but disagreed with a part of the proposals. According to Pudar, SDP remains in its stand that the number of Ministries should reflect the constitutional competence of BiH institutions and that the new CoM should have Ministries of Defence; Education, Science, Culture and Sport and Ministry of Labour, Employment, Healthcare and Social Policy. SDP BiH is reportedly also amazed with Braithwaite’s statement that disagreement by some parties with OHR’s proposal of the Law will be interpreted as sign “that they are against the reforms”. President of the RS Socialist Party, Petar Djokic, is surprised with the High Representative’s decision as he did not expect that Ashdown will impose the law on CoM (Glas Srpski, p 5). The daily quotes Djokic as saying: “This is a bad way for BiH, as practically we now have double judicial authority. On one hand, there are parliaments, elected by the people in democratic way and on the other, there is the High Representative who is appointed.” SDS delegate to the RS National Assembly, Borislav Bojic stated for Glas Srpski (p 5) that imposition of a law can bring no good, especially if it happens at the time when authorities are being established. Bojic said: “People do not even want to go out to elections and vote, as the international representatives decide on everything,. As this is so, the elections are a waste of time. Anything that is imposed, is against the will of citizens.” The Head of PDP Caucus to RS National Assembly, Nevenka Trifkovic, stated that through imposition of various legislation, the High Representative ignores the will of the citizens expressed at the elections (Glas Srpski, p 5). DNS delegate to RS NA, Jovan Mitrovic, stated that a form of protectorate is in place in BiH and that the protectorate should be officially declared, so that the High Representative can also take over the responsibility for possible consequences of his decisions (Glas Srpski, p 5). The SNSD leader, Milorad Dodik, expressed an opinion that those parties which were involved in negotiations are also responsible and emphasized that his party was not involved in it: “Personally, I would like to see laws passed in the Parliament, through a normal procedure. If it is impossible to find a solution, then the High Representative can impose it.”(Glas Srpski, p 5). |
International community/OHR | |
| Ashdown: BiH might face bankruptcy
Tokic’s letter to Ashdown regarding Tomac’s statement | The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, on Monday warned that BiH faces bankruptcy if its legislators do not begin urgently enacting and implementing economic reforms. “Aid is falling, debts are mounting and investment is flat,” the High Representative told an audience at the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, where the European Union and OHR launched a pamphlet on employment creation “Action for Jobs”, and the EU announced the launch of the second phase of its Quick Impact Facility, which offers financial and consulting assistance to start-up businesses. The event also honoured successful BiH entrepreneurs. “The trade deficit during the first seven months of this year was over 3 billion KM,” the High Representative noted. “We imported nearly four times more than we exported during this same period. This is clearly unsustainable.” (Oslobodjenje, p 8, mentioned on the front page: “BiH threatened by bankruptcy”, Dnevni Avaz, p 4, Dnevni List, p 5) On behalf of the initiating board for the formation of a new political party of the social-democratic orientation, Sejfudin Tokic sent a letter to the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, requesting his to use his powers and prevent activities of the political parties and individuals from foreign countries in the BiH territory. The letter was sent with regard to the recent statements by the Croatian parliaments senior official Zdravko Tomac, in which he had again stood for the establishment of the third entity in BiH. (Dnevni Avaz, p 3) |
Coalition building process/establishment of new authorities | |
| HDZ proposes candidates for the posts in the Federation, cantons
Talks on RS prime minister designate
SDA, Party for BiH continue talks on possible coalition tonight Vecernji List on possible Silajdzic’s nomination for BiH PM designate | Slobodna Dalmacija (last page, “Proposal of candidates for BiH Federation Assembly was determined”) and Dnevni List (page 15, “Chairman of BiH Council of Ministers from line of Croat people?”) carry that during its Monday session the HDZ Presidency was discussing the course of constituting of the authority bodies in the Cantons and preparations for constituting of the authority bodies at the level of BiH and entities. RS President Dragan Cavic has started consultations with political parties about the appointment of a Prime Minister designate of a new RS government. He talked yesterday with representatives of the SDS and PDP. After the consultations with the RS President, SDS president Dragan Kalinic emphasised that SDS as the strongest parliamentary party talked about the possibility of proposing a PM- designate from its own ranks. “This option definitely remains open, because this is logical and normal in all democratic countries after elections”, said Kalinic and added that “SDS proposed certain personnel solutions”, but did not wish to state any names. Kalinic added that considering the very complicated relations in the RS and different political parties with different positions, SDS is prepared to agree with the choice of RS President Dragan Cavic. Dragan Kalinic confirmed that this party is prepared to support a candidate of the PDP for PM-designate of new RS Government. Aim of SDS, as he emphasised, is to have the new entity government formed as soon as possible, in order to continue further implementation of economic and social reforms, initiated by the current Government composition. Following consultations with the RS President, Dragan Cavic, the PDP President, Mladen Ivanic, stated that the PDP would, most likely, propose a candidate as the PM-designate. Ivanic noted that the name of PM-designate would be made known after the session of the PDP Presidency, which will be held in the next couple of days. Ivanic stressed that election results and the interests of the RS must be respected in the process of establishing the new government and that the new government should have good communication with international organisations in BiH. As Ivanic said, the PDP is of the view that it is necessary to provide the majority amongst the political parties from the RS, noting that Cavic told PDP delegation that he knows for certain that the majority would be provided. Ivanic said that the offer made to the SNSD remains open, adding that the PDP supports the idea of wide coalition. (Blic p 7 headline ‘SDS offers support to PM-designate from PDP’, Vecernje Novosti p 4 headline ‘All parties would like to nominate PM-designate’, Nacional p 11 headline ‘SDS will support a PM-designate from PDP’, Nezavisne Novine, p 7, Glas Srpski, p 3) The SNSD leader, Milorad Dodik, stated that delegation of his party will meet today with RS President and propose SNSD’s candidate for the RS Prime Minister, who is supported by 35 delegates of the RS National Assembly (Nezavisne Novine, p 7). The talks between the representatives of the SDA and Party for BiH on the distribution of posts in the executive authorities will be continued today, according to SDA Vice-president Adnan Terzic. Late on Monday, the Party for BiH sent a letter to the SDA leadership specifying the post it wanted for its candidates as a condition for the possible establishment of the future coalition (Dnevni Avaz, front page, p 3, Oslobodjenje. p 3) Vecernji List (page 2, by Robert Bubalo) carries an editorial saying that there are only two obstacles standing on the way that Haris Silajdzic becomes the new state Prime Minister. These obstacles are unfinished negotiations of Silajdzic’s Party for BiH and SDA, and possibility that HDZ will more resolutely insists that Barisa Colak becomes the Prime Minister. The editorial also says that Silajdzic’s appointment to the aforementioned position is not acceptable for Croats and Serbs, since Silajdzic is a well know nationalist, who has never been hiding his intolerance towards representatives of these two peoples. VL says that Sulejman Tihic and Suada Palavric, the SDA reformers are aware of it, however, they still have to listen to the nationalists Izetbegovic and Cengic who actually pushing for Siljadzic’s appointment to the position of the Prime Minister. |
Federation BiH | |
| Hercegovacka Bank
Forests of Herceg-Bosna
HVO war invalids might block roads in protest against their position
FBiH administrative workers seek higher salaries
Appointment of new Head of FOSS | Vecernji List (front and page 42, by R. Soldo) reads that a Panel of Judges of the Cantonal Court in Mostar (CCM), with Judge Rauf Zajimovic presiding, returned the charges against Ivica Karlovic, a former CEO of Hercegovacka bank, to the Cantonal prosecution because the bill of indictment had faults in it. Karlovic’s lawyer, Marko Martinovic, says that the Prosecution has seven days to amend the charges or to withdraw them. The author of the article wonders if this case shows the ignorance of the prosecutor or whether charges had to be pressed because the Provisional Administrator for Hercegovacka bank, Toby Robinson, wanted that. Vecernji List (page 4, by m.s.) carries a reaction of Public Company “Sume Herceg-Bosne” (Forests of Herceg-Bosna) in which the company reacted to High Representative for BiH, Paddy Ashdown’s explanation why he had to remove Pero Markovic, when the HR said that he had to remove him because he could not tolerate customs, tax and other frauds and embezzlements as well as illegal export of natural resources. The company says that “for the sake of better information”, it has to inform the public that the High Representative had at his disposal a report made by an independent auditor “Inaco” from April 2002 and that the report shows that the company meets all the criteria when it comes to business operations, in particular when it comes to financial operations. The company goes on to say that it honours all the financial obligation towards the system and its employees and that the company has not exported any wood products in the last four years. Dnevni List (front and page 3) carries that the Central Association of Cantonal Associations of Croat Homeland War Invalids of the Croat Republic of Herzeg Bosnia yesterday sent warning letters to Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative, all of the Association’s Municipal Associations, all Homeland War victims and Barisa Colak, an acting HDZ President. In the letter sent to the HR, the Association demands the HR’s help so that torturing of the Croat Homeland War victims in the BiH Federation as well as depriving of the victims of their basic human rights stops. It also demands from the HR to exert pressure against the Federation Government so that the Government makes payment of funds for HVO victims and an urgent meeting with the HR. The Association also warns that in case that its problems are not urgently resolved it will start with preparations for the blockade of the road, and if it is necessary it will block the roads on Bayram. Vecernji List (page 3) carries the that persons employed in administration and judicial bodies of the BiH Federation threaten with a strike if the Federation Government does not start soon negotiations on increase of salaries with representatives of their Trade Unions. The article says that according to the current mood of the Federation Government, the chances that it starts to deal with this issue are minimal. VL concludes that, by all accounts, the new Government will have to deal with the resolving of this issue. Vecernji List (page 2, by Dejan Jazvic) carries that, according to the VL information, the current composition of the Federation Government does not intend to start the process of appointment of a new Head of the Federation Intelligence Service (FOSS) and Karlo Filipovic, the Vice President of the BiH Federation, confirmed it. Also, SDA has the same opinion on this issue and if SDA reaches an agreement with Party for BiH, SDA cadres, who are very much interested in this position, will have the main word in the election of the Head of FOSS. VL says that apart from the President and Vice President of the BiH Federation the new Head of FOSS will have to get the support of Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative. |
Republika Srpska | |
| RS NA passes the 2002 Budget rebalance
RS veterans on the RS NA inauguration
Ractions to Tihic’s initiative for change of RS name
18 Prijedor policemen case
Orao case | The RS National Assembly passed the rebalance of this year’s budget at the session held on Monday in Banja Luka (Nezavisne Novine, p 3, Glas Srpski, p 3, Oslobodjenje, last page). 44 delegates voted for, 30 against the rebalance of the budget and 5 delegates abstained from voting. The RS Association of the families of fallen soldiers, expressed its protest and dissatisfaction over the way in which the RS National Assembly was established (Nezavisne Novine, p 3, Glas Srpski, p 2). In a letter sent to all Serb parties, delegates in RS NA and the RS NA Speaker, Dragan Kalinic, the Association requests all Serb parties to reach an agreement and participate in establishment of authorities. The RS Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, commented for Nezavisne Novine (p 4) the initiative of SDA leader, Sulejman Tihic, to change the name of RS: “The initiatives to change the name of RS are nothing else but nonsense, and only a person who does not care about peace in BiH can suggest something like that.” According to Ivanic, there is no need for such requests and also, there is no ground in the constitution to request something like that. The RS Vice President, Ivan Tomljenovic, stated that an issue such as the RS name should not become a priority and that “we need to think how to get closer to European integration.” (Nezavisne Novine, p 4) Glas Srpski (cover page) reports that the Banja Luka District Prosecutor’s Office requested the Banja Luka District Court to launch an investigation against 18 Prijedor policemen who are indicted for committing war crime against civilian population and destruction of cultural monuments. The request submitted states that there is a reasonable doubt that policemen in question, on 24/25 August 1992 participated in destruction of a parish house, in which catholic priest Tomislav Matanovic lived and his parents house in Prijedor. The investigative judge, Rajko Dakic, will hear the statements of the indicted in the period between 9th and 23rd December. The RS Chief Auditor, Bosko Ceko, completed the audit of the “Orao” Institute documentation and forwarded his report to the RS Supreme Defense Council. Ceko did not want to make any comments on the contents of his report. (Blic p 7, Vecernje Novosti p 5, Dnevni Avaz, p 12) |