| CROAT RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA (18,00 hrs) | BH TV 1 (19,00 hrs) | FED TV (19,30 hrs) | RT RS (19,30) |
| Nikolic for Def. Minister | VAT still on hold | Sarajevo health institutions | Customs and VAT |
| Bobetko case | ‘Etas’ company strike | 19 Sarajevo policemen | Bond supports OHR |
| US – Iraq | Powell addresses UN SC | Milosevic’s trial | ‘Soko’ for help to OHR |
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| Snow storm in Europe | Markale massacre ann. | RS Elektroptivreda |
| Oslobodjenje | The truth about Repovci will become known in 10 days; 9th anniversary of Markale massacre – Sarajevo bloody Sunday; Franciscans involved in illegal enriching; SBS – 432 ‘holes’ at the border; Veteran’s flats to powerful individuals |
| Dnevni Avaz | Bosniak can not be Federation PM; Sad memory of Markale; The price of IDs has to remain 10 KM; Jones – priority is to arrest Karadzic; The arbitrage of ‘Aluminij’ to commence |
| Dnevni List | Commerce Bank did not want to block account of Stanic Meat Industry; General Bobetko is not going to The Hague |
| Vecernji List | A disco and garage destroyed in Citluk – bombs drop, police silent; Protests by workers over the sale of the RS ‘Elektroprivreda’ |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Head of the Federation Secret Service usurped salaries of 50 agents; 27 foreign investors in the entire Federation |
| Glas Srpski | Trebinje – vandals detained; Cold weather in RS again: The snow stronger than utility workers; A tax for additional problems |
| Nezavisne Novine | US Secretary of State presents evidence before the UN Security Council – Powel: Iraq hides arms for mass destruction; Serb Sarajevo – ‘Soko’ co-op members in protest again; RS Public Prosecutor, Jovan Spaic – privatisation of Privredna Bank Doboj being checked; Julian Braithwaite, OHR Spokesman – money is being illegally extracted from RS Elektroprivreda; Sarajevo Cantonal Court – investigation of Covic, Grabovac and Bicakcic continues |
| Blic | Mladen Ivanic – lawsuit against FRY is not in BiH interest; Djeric – there will be personnel changes in the RS Interior Ministry; Dragan Cavic – reforms yes, but not to the detriment of Srpska; Sonja Pastuovic – 100,000 workers will not remain jobless |
Political Affairs | |
| Bosniak cannot be FBiH PM?
| Avaz pg. 1 and 2 by F. Mandal and H. Orahovac– the biggest story in the daily reporting that after Amir Jaganjac was appointed by the HJPC for president of the FBiH Supreme Court, a Bosniak could not be appointed Federation PM. According to lawyer Kasim Trnka the FBiH Constitution, Amendment 49, regulates the distribution of key posts in the Federation government. Paragraph 2 of the mentioned Amendment specifies that members of the same constituent people cannot assume two leading posts. Strong reaction by Sulejman Tihic. “President of the HJPC Jan Erik Oja informed me that they would carry out the appointment and I expressed my disapproval due to national inequality of Bosniaks in judiciary.” According to Tihic, this is the case of total distrust to Bosniaks. “This is an attempt to also influence further representation of Bosniaks in executive positions, primarily in the case of the Federation PM,” said Tihic. Four inserts with the article. First ‘In RS all leading positions held by Serbs’ – another statement by Tihic. He pointed out that in the RS all leading posts – president, PM, RS NA chairman, public prosecutor, presidents of the supreme and constitutional courts – are held by people of Serb nationality. “HJPC does not care about that.” Second insert ‘Jurcevic and Ahmici’ – again Tihic. He pointed out that Marinko Jurcevic has been appointed the Chief State Prosecutor. “He was the prosecutor in charge at the time Ahmici crime was committed in 1993. He did nothing then to process the war crime,” said Tihic. The third insert ‘Has Oja breached the Constitution’ – poses the question of whether Jan Erik Oja breached the FBiH Constitution by appointing President of the FBiH Supreme Court before the FBiH PM was appointed. The article carries Oja’s statement that FBiH PM has not yet been appointed, and that the HJPC appointed to the FBiH Supreme Court top duty the best candidate they had. The fourth insert ‘Who are the judges of the FBiH Supreme Court’ – lists names of the newly appointed federation supreme Court judges. Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘The FBiH Supreme Court judges appointed’ – a relatively short article just informing of the appointment and listing names of the new judges. |
| SDA | Avaz pg. 4 ‘Candidates for the ministries of defence and finances disputable’ – on yesterday’s informal meeting (it took place in a Zenica café) among Chairman of the FBiH HoR Muhamed Ibrahimovic, candidate for the FBiH PM Ahmet Hadzipasic and SDA caucus representative at the HoR Semsudin Mehmedovic. They apparently talked about today’s session of the HoR where the new FBiH government should be appointed. Asked whether he had any information on the OHR vetting process, Hadzipasic stated he spoke about it with the Federation President Lozancic, but he did not have any new information either. Unofficially, the only disputable candidates are for the ministries of defence and finances. Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘Expose ready, waiting for the approval’ – carried a statement Hadzipasic gave to FENA news agency. He said he prepared an expose to present to the FBiH HoR. Again, he repeated he had no new information on the OHR vetting process. |
| FBiH HoP
| Avaz pg. 8 ‘The change of the Constitution takes a long time’ – the Commission for the Federation HoP is in charge of suggesting solution to resolve the issue of filling the HoP Serb caucus. Slavko Matic, Chairman of the FBiH HoP, could not say which option they would suggest, but said that the one that involved the changes to the Federation Constitution would take too long. |
| Mostar | Avaz pg. 8 ‘The IC is the only one capable of preventing the division of Mostar’ – President of the City SBiH Council, Safet Omerovic, said a platform for the unification of Mostar, which was devised by his party, was now in the hands of the IC. “Only they have the mechanisms and power to stop the divisions,” said Omerovic. OHR Mostar recently confirmed they received the SBiH’s platform for Mostar unification, but refused to comment on it. |
| State Service Agency | Avaz pg. 8 ‘A ceremony marking the beginning of the work of the Agency for State Service’ – a ceremony to be held today and will be opened by the Agency Director Jakob Finci. CoM Chair Terzic, HR Ashdown and Chief of the EC delegation, Amb. Humphreys should address the participants. |
| HDZ | Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘Miroslav Nikolic candidate for the FBiH defence Minister’ – another report taken from FENA agency. A source from the HDZ confirmed for the agency that they would officially put forward their third candidate for the Federaion Defence Ministry – Miroslav Nikolic. |
| Reaction to Law on Ministries | Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘The BiH Syndicate against the Law’ – the Union of independent trade unions of BiH is surprised with the provisions of the new Law on Ministries and other administrative institutions of BiH. As announced in the Union’s release, the Union expects the House of Peoples of BiH Parliamentary Assembly not to accept this proposal of the CoM and leave BiH without important institutions. The SDP BiH is aware of the importance of the Draft Law on Ministries and other administrative institutions, which was accepted yesterday by the House of Representatives, but it is of the opinion that certain authorisations are not properly distributed. |
| Cavic in FRY lawsuit and reforms | President of the RS Dragan Cavic told BN TV on Tuesday evening that the decision of the Internal Court of Justice in The Hague, which declared itself competent in the case of the BiH lawsuit against Yugoslavia, had important repercussions for the RS and the Dayton peace process, since the lawsuit partially aims to support the premise that the RS was created in a manner unacceptable internationally. “The lawsuit says that the peace agreement verified the RS, which had been created by force. We in the RS have a clear stand on the lawsuit, as indicated in the past year during the debate in the Council of Ministers and the BiH Parliament on the adoption of the budget and funds earmarked for the lawsuit, which is something all Bosniak parties insisted on,” Cavic said. He pointed out that this was Bosniak lawsuit against Yugoslavia, and that the RS could not accept it as an official BiH matter. “The lawsuit before the International Court of Justice is not a reflection of the BiH institutions in which Serbs participate, but of a political group; therefore the question is whether it could have legal validity before the court,” Cavic said. “It is in the interest of everyone in BiH to find solutions which will safeguard its internal stability, and I believe that forced centralisation will not be conducive to stability,” Cavic said. He told BN TV that it is the interest of all that BiH enters processes of stabilisation with the EU and the International Trade Organisation. “We are aware that in order to prepare for these three strategic processes we have to implement new reforms and establish state organisation just as other countries have done, but we want to define clearly our national position in BiH and not to go beyond the BiH Constitution’s framework,” Cavic emphasised. Blic pg. 2 ‘Reforms yes, but not to the detriment of RS’. |
| Interview with Ivanic | Blic pg. 2 ‘Lawsuit against FRY is not in BiH interest’ – “The last decision of the International Court of Justice does not have any repercussions on the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s role in BiH, since there is no agreement on the lawsuit by the BiH Presidency, the only place where foreign policy of BiH is defined,” BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Mladen Ivanic told Blic. Ivanic said that as a politician he ‘considers the Court’s decision as an unfinished issue’, but he ‘eliminated the possibility of endangering relations between Belgrade and Sarajevo’. “That is not in BiH interest. The relations between ministries and competent institutions have to be directed toward cooperation, they have to be improved, and not to deal with such issues,” Ivanic said. He said that the Dayton’s concept was the only possible concept for the country at the moment, adding that every single day ‘proves that the Dayton BiH is possible, it could be efficient, but that means consent, and not bigotry’. “Every bigotry causes damage to BiH. I think that the basic principles of BiH order within the Dayton’s Constitution should not be changed for a long time, because that would be very dangerous and detrimental to BiH,” Ivanic said. Speaking about a single customs and VAT on the state level, Ivanic expressed both his optimism and pessimism. “If there is less political bigotry and more readiness for a dialogue in order to find a solution, and I am convinced that the RS institutions will show readiness, then I am an optimist. I am a pessimist if views of one side are insisted on, even if that side is OHR,” Ivanic said. Ivanic said that the introduction of VAT should not be misused in sense to leave entities without control of revenues collected there. He said that VAT should be introduced in a way that ‘there is one rate on BiH level, one procedure, one system of accounting, so that enterprises do not have any differences which has not been the case so far’. “These days the RS will present its proposal of the VAT organisation, which will fully be in line with the EU standards”, Ivanic said, reminding that ‘it was necessary to secure full respect of BiH order, and the fact that it was composed of two entities’. Commenting on the Brussels’ conference’s conclusions, Ivanic said that ‘our goals and tasks are always attempte to be imposed to BiH Persidency via conferences’. “It is high time that the IC asks itself where the end is to requests for changing the current BiH order, against will and consent of its people,” Ivanic estimated. |
| Benes on Law on Ministries | Dnevni list pg. 14 ‘Support to private business’ – quotes Avis Benes, OHR Spokesperson, as saying the HR welcomes adoption of the Law on Ministries, which represents a significant milestone in the establishment of the efficient state government. According to her, the HR has also welcomed the decisions on the rationalization and reorganization of state institutions, and urged the House of Peoples to also adopt this Law as soon as possible. The OHR has expressed its support to the Business Incubator Project, which was yesterday officially opened by the City of Mostar and the EC. As the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton government has not yet been formed, the OSCE underlined the desire to meet new cantonal ministers in order to discuss with them the issues that are under the OSCE’s jurisdiction. The OSCE therefore stressed the need for the Cantonal government to be urgently formed and to pass sustainable budget, as well as to give priority to the interest of the citizens over party misunderstandings. |
| SD on Croats in BiH | Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 15 by Petar Milos – reads that every year Catholic priests, during blessing of houses, collect data on number of Catholics living in BiH, and since majority of Catholics are Croats, the latest figures apparently show that the number of Croats in BiH has dramatically decreasing. In that context, the author says the Croats’ return to the RS is very poor and criticizes the DPA for allowing the Serbs to have an entity with a Serb name, insignia, laws, media, schools…”Whilst the majority of Bosniak leaders do not mind the RS with Srebrenica in it much, because they count on repairing ‘the damage’ in the Federation through the policy of majorization and demography, in the meantime the Croats see the Dayton as the conspiracy and framework for disappearing of Croats in BiH. But every complaint by them (Croats) was qualified by the IC as a separatist attempt to divide BiH. As if the state has not been divided already. Or perhaps the authors of the Dayton think the division into two is not a division,” says Milos. |
Economic Affairs | |
| Businessmen supporting HR
| Avaz pg. 3 ‘The trade deficit in 2003 will reach an alarming seven billion KM’ – according to the entity agency statistics, the BiH trade deficit that HR Ashdown has been warning about for days could reach seven billion KM. The article states that local businessmen, unlike local politicians, gave their support to HR requesting the stimulating of export. The article goes on to list the names of some of the businessmen who made remarks on the issue, and also made proposition as to what could be done to improve the situation. |
| Bond on customs and VAT | Avaz pg. 2 ‘Europe will not accept BiH without single economic space’ – US Amb. Clifford Bond was in Banja Luka yesterday where he attended a presentation of the US Commerce Chamber. He emphasized that the common interest of local businessmen was to remove obstacles that burden their businesses, which is something that Bulldozer Commission, amongst others, could help them with. He also addressed the issue of the VAT and single customs introduction. He said that businessmen have to convince politicians that Europe will not accept BiH without a single economic space. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘Politicians hinder privatisation’, Glas Srpski pg. 2 ‘Test for authorities’ – Bond yesterday stated in Banja Luka that the privatisation process is a litmus test for the authorities and their readiness to enable business people to develop economy. Added however that big, strategic companies in BiH were still in the hands of the state. ‘Companies and their political allies resist reorganisation instead of welcoming the foreign capital and experience. New amendments to the Law on Privatisation will make the RS Elektroprivreda and other companies interesting for foreign investors. The RS government must remove all the obstacles to the privatisation immediately and support the establishment of the Energy Regulatory Agency at the state level so that it can play much more active role in the Power III project and take over its responsibilities.’ During his visit to Banja Luka, Bond also met with RS Prime Minister, Dragan Mikerevic. Addressing the press afterwards, Bond said that through the economic reforms and introduction of VAT all obstacles for BiH joining EU would be removed. Blic pg. 2 ‘Support to the course of reforms’. |
| Mikerevic – Hays | Oslobodjenje pg. 5 ‘Mikerevic giving in to Hays?’ – that OHR assessed yesterday as progressive the talks that PDHR Donald Hays was holding with RS officials. According to OHR Spokesperson, Oleg Milisic, the talks have not been finished yet, and the OHR did not want to talk of any details. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Milisic. The daily recalls HR Ashdown saying on Monday that the principles will have to be agreed by Monday, February 19. Then it switches back to Milisic’s statement that OHR was satisfied that RS PM Dragan Mikerevic was advocating for the European standards after meeting with Hays. A day before hays met with Mikerevic, the daily received an official position of the RS government on the issue saying they were in favour of the European standards, but with certain modifications. Apparently, the modifications were to be made to satisfy the needs of a complex BiH structure and its constitutional principles. The RS government actually approves the introduction of VAT, but only if the money goes to the respective entity where a buyer purchased goods. In the last paragraph, the daily poses a question of whether the RS government has backed from these initial views. Avaz pg. 4 ‘Hays talked in Banja Luka about the forming of an expert commission’ – reported that Mikerevic said that next week they would establish an expert commission that would devise a strategy for the reform of customs and taxes. He further said the commission would include members from the entities, BiH CoM, IMF and EC. Dnevni List pg. 9 ‘VAT will come to life in year and half’ – PDHR Hays stated that it would require a year and a half for VAT to come to life in practice and that ‘a single tax rate and the application create less space for various abuses and machinations than if there were more systems, which would require calculation and payment at many locations’. PDHR Hays also promised that the IC would help with its expertise and logistics during the introduction of VAT and unified customs administration, stressing that the operations will be carried out transparently. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘VAT in two years’- ‘The VAT will be introduced within a two-year deadline if all necessary conditions for its introduction are met within that period,’ Mikerevic said. PDHR Hays stated that progress was achieved and that the talks would continue. Glas Srpski also reports on Hays’ visit, on page 2 with the headline ‘Budgetary independence’. Blic pg. 2 ‘VAT and the customs await experts’ – Hays said an agreement on the formation of the commission was another step forward, but added that there was lot more to be done before the commission was formed. |
| Braithwaite on Mikerevic’s statement | Avaz pg. 4 ‘A lot still to be done on the introduction of VAT’ – Julian Braithwaite, OHR Spokesperson, reacted to yesterday’s statement by RS PM Dragan Mikerevic by saying that significant progress has been made in the course of the talks, but a lot is yet to be done. “I welcome the commitment of PM Mikerevic to introduce European standards in this area, as specified by European Commission Chris Patten in his latter on January 21 this year to BiH officials. There is however a lot to talk about before staring the technical realisation,” said Braithwaite. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘VAT in two years’ – ‘It is good of course that Mikerevic said that RS was in favour of the introduction of VAT and single customs. However, we need more progress, we need a definition of principles for the commission, which will implement the reforms in practice. Mikerevic said he would participate in the commission and the OHR view was that before the commission starts with its work, the principles had to be decided.’ |
| Bisic on VAT | Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘Bisic: two ways to VAT’ – commenting on the international community’s pressure on the RS authorities to introduce single customs and VAT at the state level, Director of the RS Tax Administration, Milica Bisic, stated that the process would lead towards the centralisation of BiH and cause significant political reactions. Bisic told a press conference in Banja Luka that there were two ways to achieve the establishment of the single tax administration – through thorough and detailed negotiations or through the imposition of the Law by the High Representative. Glas Srpski pg. 3 ‘A tax for additional problems’ – Bisic said it was better to put more effort now to overcome technical problems than to apply the centralisation and face the same problems every year. ‘The problem of the introduction of VAT is of a political nature, the experts cannot talk about it if there is no political consensus.’ Nacional pg. 11 ‘Law on BiH level, and collection to be entities’ job’; Blic pg. 6 ‘Imposition is possible’; Vecernje Novosti pg. 13 ‘How to divide tax?’ – Bisic said that she did not believe the information that PDHR Donald Hays came on Tuesday to Banja Luka with OHR’s last offer to RS reps for the establishment of a single RS Tax Administration. |
| PDP | Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘The PDP requests the RS National Assembly to convene’- the PDP requested yesterday the holding of an extra ordinary session of the RS National Assembly, at which the RS NA should take a stand on the introduction of single customs and VAT at the state level. |
| OHR on RS ‘Elektroprivreda’ | Nezavisne Novine pg. 5 ‘Julian Braithwaite, Chief OHR Spokesman: money is being illegally extracted from RS Elektroprivreda’ – an interview with the Chief OHR Spokesman, Julian Braithwaite with a focus on the privatisation of the RS ‘Elektroprivreda’ and VAT. Braithwaite said that at this moment, he could not comment on details of a report on RS ‘Elektroprivreda’. He said that it was clear that the RS Elektroprivreda was not managed in the interest of the RS citizens, but in the interest of politicians. “It is also obvious that RS ‘Elektroprivreda’ is not managed efficiently and economically, thus certain amounts of money gets lost. There are parallel structures within the RS ‘Elektroprivreda’, which are not transparent and which obviously extract the money from the system. It is not clear for which purposes the money is extracted and that causes concerns. The only way to ensure that this company, which represents a great natural resource, works profitably and attract foreign investors is through the privatisation and principles of the market, not politics.” Commenting of the introduction of VAT, Braithwaite said it was a very important reform for both entities. “It is necessary to convince both entities, especially the RS, that the revenues collected through customs and VAT are theirs. That is an income that is guaranteed and which they will receive automatically. We want to ensure authorities and RS citizens as well that these reforms would guarantee the income. Through these reforms, money will end up in the hands of citizens, not in the hands of criminals.” |
| RS ‘Elektroptivreda’ – protests | Nezavisne Novine pg. 5 ‘Protests of electricians continue’- few hundred employees of the Elektro Bijeljina steam power plant and mine Ugljevik yesterday protested against the privatisation of the RS ‘Elektroprivreda’. Chairman of the Trade Union of energy workers, Branko Djurdjevic, said the World Bank was not trying to help the RS with the money it wanted to invest into the Power III project but that it just opened a way for itself to take over the ‘Elektroprivreda’. The World Bank yesterday announced that it had been trying for three years to support the implementation of the Power III project which was prepared and developed upon the request of local authorities and supported by the latest three governments of the RS. Glas Srpski, pg. 4 ‘Energy in hands of politics’ by R. Kupresak wonders whether the full privatisation of Elektroprivreda is an economic issue or a political one. The author also asks how realistic it is to expect that the price of the energy would be much lower after the privatisation and claims quite the opposite. He supports his claim by Fihtner study (?), which says the price will increase for some 120 %. |
| Aluminij | Dnevni Avaz pg. 1 and 5 – the World Bank officials on Wednesday decided to start preparations for the arbitration process in case of the Mostar-based Aluminum company’s ownership structure soon. “As soon as the new government (FBiH) and the Aluminium representatives sign an agreement on the arbitration, which is expected to be completed by the end of March, the WB will engage the Hague-based Permanent Arbitration Tribunal to launch the process,” Avaz was told in the WB Mission to BiH. According to the newspaper’s sources, the entire process might last from six to 24 months depending on the level of cooperation amongst the parties involved in the arbitration. Oslobodjenje pg. 8 ‘The owner of the Aluminum will be known following the arbitration’ – quotes Head of the WB Mission to BiH Joseph Ingram as saying that once the arbitration decision is made it should be binding for all parties. “The representatives of the FBiH government and the Aluminum, Alija Behmen and Mijo Brajkovic, signed (committed themselves) they would honor the outcome of the arbitration,” Ingram said. Dnevni list pg. 14 ‘Future of BiH lies in development of economy’ and Slobodna Dalmacija back page ‘BiH has a future only if there are investments into its economy’ – both reports from FENA agency. Head of the EC Delegation in BiH, Michael Humphreys, and Mijo Brajkovic, CEO of ‘Aluminij’, during their yesterday’s meeting in Mostar talked about the current state of BiH economy with a special emphasis on the situation in ‘Aluminij’, i.e. the international arbitration. They also talked about the modernization and the perspectives of the factory. According to ‘Aluminij’s’ press release, the two agreed that the future of this country lied in economy investments only. |
| Pastuovic on privatisation | Blic pg. 6 ‘There will be new jobs’, Nacional pg. 11 ‘Ashdown welcomes the adoption of Law on Ministries’ – “In both entities the effect of privatisation of strategic enterprises is not negative for employees, and number of 100,000 workers that would stay without job is exaggerated and originates from the Trade Union,” Sonja Pastuovic, OHR Banja Luka Spokesperson, told a press conference. She added that at the beginning the privatisation would result in the loss of jobs, but from a long-term perspective it would secure new jobs. Pastuovic said that HR Paddy Ashdown welcomed the adoption of Law on Ministries. |
CIPS | |
| Terzic
| Avaz pg. 1 and 9 – Adnan Terzic, CoM Chair, refused to comment on the latest request by Zlatko Lagumdzija. “ I am forced to view Lagumdzija equally as any other MP who has the right to request certain information from the CoM, and we are here to provide certain answers,” said Terzic. He added that he personally thought the state had to take over the responsibility for its mistakes and repair them without causing any damage to BiH citizens. “In that respect, I think the price of IDs has to remain to the initially-established 10 KM without further questioning of the project implementation, which has much broader meaning than simple replacement of personal documents,” said Terzic. An insert ‘Lagumdzija sounds weird’ – a statement by BiH Minister of Civil Affairs, Safet Halilovic, that questions asked by Lagumdzija at the last HoR session were rather weird considering that he was one of the people who was, from the beginning, well-informed of the project, and that many things related to the same were actually connected to him. |
| Obstructions from the RS and Herzeg-Bosna
| Avaz pg. 9 ‘Obstructions from the RS and parts of former Herzeg-Bosna’ – according to this daily, the CIPS project and all necessary preparations related to have so far been made by ‘BH Post’ only. The RS posts and Croatian posts in Mostar have not done so giving different explanations for it. Regardless of the current debates over the price of the new ID, Avaz warns that currently we are witnessing a political blow from the RS and parts of former Herzeg-Bosna in relation to the CIPS rpoject. Obviously, reads the article, certain groups are definitely not happy with the centralization of database on BiH citizens. Therefore, the issue that opens up is the responsibility of the CIPS Directorate, headed by Mirko Skrbic, because they allowed for the realization of one of the most important projects to actually take place only in a part of the federation. The daily goes on to claim that the CIPS Directorate persistently tries to cover up the problem although they already had discussions about it. |
| Survey | Avaz pg. 3 another survey related to the CIPS project. This time they asked whether people want an investigation to be conducted into the case. 76% said yes, 5% said no and 19% abstained. |
Education Affairs | |
| VL on education reforms | Vecernji list pg. 3 ‘Symbols became offensive too’ by P. Zelenika – alleges that, after having made a tour of school buildings and after the talks with teachers, pupils and their parents, particularly returnees, OSCE staff has drafted a ‘List of tentatively offensive names of schools and objects/symbols’. According to VL, new instructions, that may cause dissatisfaction of all the three peoples in BiH, might be delivered to all the Education ministries soon. According to the OSCE data, school buildings and their yards are full of symbols, which ‘offend the pupils of other ethnicities’. The daily alleges that a school in Capljina will have to give its name up and that the mentioned OSCE list is awaiting its verification. Afterwards, an order may be issued to remove from schools all the symbols by which members of various confessions, cultures and peoples in BiH differ. The daily concludes that stories on diversity of religions and cultures, which peoples in BiH should take pride in, are not trendy at the moment. |
Police Affairs | |
| FOSS
| Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 15 by Antonio Karamatic – 50-odd non-deployed agents of former SNS (NB: former Croat Intelligence Service in BiH) accuse former Head of the SNS and current Head of the FOSS (Federation Intelligence Service), Ivica Vuksic, of illegally usurping salaries amassing to 350.000 KM. Allegedly, during the time of the Croat self-rule the SNS was not financed from the Federation budget but from other sources. After the Alliance got in power and installed Vuksic as the SNS Head, which was followed by payment of budget money for overdue salaries, Vuksic refused to pay out 1,500 KM (i.e. three salaries to agents stating that salaries were ‘paid out during the Croat self-rule’). According to agents, the money (350.000 KM) was not returned to the budget, and therefore there is a grounded suspicion the money was misused by Vuksic and other senior officials who are today employees of the FOSS. The agents say the competent institutions have been informed of this and if the issue is not solved soon, they would turn to HR Paddy Ashdown for help. |
| Two explosions in Citluk | Vecernji List pg. 1, 2 and 3, Dnevni List pg. 1 and 31, and Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 1 and 16 – two explosion took place in the Citluk area in a space of one hour on Tuesday night. The first one, around 20.00 hrs, went off in front of ‘GP’ disco, the second one, an hour later, went off in front of a garage ‘Tehnicki Pregled’. According to VL, this is the first post-war incident of this sort in the Citluk area and the daily goes on to say that the Police has not solved other bomb attacks, which took place in Siroki Brijeg, Ljubuski and Mostar in the past few years. In that context, VL says the situation contributes to creation of psychosis of general insecurity among the citizenry. Moreover, VL carries a statement by Spokesperson of the Federation Ministry of Interior, Nedzad Vejzagic, as saying that the Ministry has certain information on bomb attacks in Herzegovina. “We will present details on security situation before the BiH Parliament and in the annual report for the media,” says Vejzagic. |
International Community Affairs | |
| Solana on Balkans | Dnevni List pg. 8 by M.R. ‘European perspective of the Balkans-reality’ – EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, said that that the picture in the Balkans has ‘dramatically improved’ in the last decade. “It is of great importance that we keep the issue of the integration of the Balkans into the EU high on the list of our priorities and to send strong messages, which will confirm that the European vocation of the Balkans is a reality,” says Solana. Solana commented on the EUPM.“It is a signal for BiH that it has entered a new phase of the peace implementation, in which democracy and professional police are key levers for peaceful and stable BiH”. |