| CROAT RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA (18:00 hrs) | BH TV 1 (19:00 hrs) | RT RS (19:30 hrs) |
| World Bank on 5c | Heats in Europe | BL refugees |
| US on EU peace mission | Electric supplies | Fish pestilence in Srbac |
| Jakarta update | Refugee centres | Gadzic’s resignation |
| Middle East update | Hiroshima | Israel |
Due to technical problems, BORAM was not able to provide the FTV headlines only – see below for the FTV summary.
Oslobodjenje | HDZ wants to attempting to controvert negotiation on the highway with Bosmal?; Orucevic – Mostar rules by people without a vision; Crni Vrh near Zvornik – terrifying picture of crime; |
| Dnevni Avaz | Terzic – some are attempting to shake the highway project; Doko instead of Gadzic; Explosive in the house of Selimovic; Bombs in front of a lawyer’s office; An explosive found in ‘Palma’ |
| Dnevni List | Werner Wnendt – members of steering boards have to be professional and responsible; Can FBiH government carry out a ‘political revenge’ |
| Vecernji List | The drought increased the price of bread and water in BiH; Croatian waters caused disaster in Herzegovina |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Stipe Mesic – Gotovina will chose to talk with The Hague; Sindicic – I wanted to buy BP Bank |
| Glas Srpski | Three tons of fish died |
| Nezavisne Novine | Personnel of ‘Zitopreprada’ from Bihac commenced with a hunger strike; First personnel change at the BiH CoM – Adnan Terzic accepted resignation by Mila Gadzic; All collective centres in Banjaluka disbanded |
| Blic | Four Moldavian women for 500 KM each; Unnecessary fear of earthquakes; Collective centres dismissed |
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| Political Affairs |
| Gadzic resigns | CRHB at 18:00 hrs by Zana Djoko – BiH Foreign Trade and Economy Relations Minister, Mila Gadzic, submitted her resignation, as she accepted appointment at the Central Bank Governing Board.The CoM Chair Cabinet confirmed the info. Advisor to CoM Chairman, Bakir Sadovic, also said that candidate for this ministerial position is Dragan Doko, whose information has been submitted to the Office of the High Representative for a regular check up. It is expected the OHR would on Wednesday already voice its view in regard to Doko’s candidacy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, has accepted the resignation, and appointed a new candidate for the ministerial position – Dragan Doko. FTV at 19:30 hrs by Dzenana Zolota – New candidate for her position is Dragan Doko, an HDZ member, and his appointment may take place during a session of the BiH Parliament on Thursday. RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Stjepan Zlikovac – The OHR has not yet received the necessary documentation to start a vetting procedure for the new candidate. Blic pg. 7 ‘Minister of Foreign Trade resigns’ – reported on the issue. Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 and 3 ‘Adnan Terzic accepted resignation by Mila Gadzic’, Glas Srpske pg. 2 ‘Resignation of Mila Gadzic’. Avaz pg. 1 and 2. |
| DL and SD on Doko | Dnevni List pg. 5 ‘Patch in career – privatisation of Bregava’ – unofficially learns that an HDZ candidate to replace Mila Gadzic in the office of BiH Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations is Darko Doko. According to DL’s sources, Doko was involved is a suspicious privatisation of the highly profitable Capljina-based company ‘Bregava’. Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 6 ‘Dragan Doko is Terzic’s candidate’ – Chair of the BiH Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, nominated Doko for the post. According to SD, this comes as a surprise since he was not mentioned in any combination to take the office. Furthermore, SD says that anonymous sources in the HDZ BiH told the daily that Doko was an SDP and Niko Lozancic’s candidate. In that context, SD says the HDZ people are wondering why would Lozancic who is ‘a strong HDZ man’, participate in the candidacy of an SDP candidate.
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| Hadzipasic – Wnendt | CRHB at 18:00 hrs – FBiH Prime Minister, Ahmet Hadzipasic, on Wednesday met with the newly appointment Senior Deputy High Representative Werner Wnendt.Among other things, they discussed the recent decision by the FBiH government to dismiss members of the steering boards in a number of state owned companies in the Federation. “The decision to dismiss the boards of the public companies has not been brought in injudicious way, but after the FBiH government expressed its dissatisfaction with the work of these structures during the past few sessions. The aim of this decision was a stronger and more quality approach by the FBiH government to the work of state owned companies. The work of these boards is best witnessed by the fact that the FBiH government was only in this mandate provided with the periodical and final budget reports. Temporary management boards should give more information on the current work of the companies and conduct a competition for the appointment of the boards members with a mandate of four years,” said Hadzipasic at the meeting. The Prime Minister also said that all documents related to the decision would be forwarded to Ombudsmen, and that the possible procedural misdoings would be corrected. SDHR Wnedt stressed the importance to speed up the reforms in BiH to enable the country to catch up with other candidate states for joining the EU. Dnevni List pg. 1 and 3 – FBIH PM Hadzipasic said the decision on the dismissals of steering boards in public companies was not a harsh one, but was taken after the FBiH government expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the steering boards during its past sessions. He added that only this composition of the FBiH government got the balance sheets that speak about the work of the steering boards. “Temporary steering boards have to provide more information about the current business operations of the companies, and carry out procedures pertaining to vacancies for the appointment of members of the steering boards for a period of four years abiding by the criteria of expertise and professionalism,” said PM Hadzipasic. He added that the Ombudsmen would be given the complete documentation related to the issue. SDHR Wnendt stressed the need for speeding up of reforms also underlining that the interest of the world and Europe is to have BiH as a stable state that will assume its place and responsibility in the global processes. Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘Appoint experts and professionals in steering boards’ and Avaz pg. 2 ‘The decision on dismissals in steering boards was not made suddenly’. |
| DL editorial on steering boards | Dnevni List pg. 1 and 3 – brings a chronology of events surrounding the removal of steering and supervisory boards in the Federation following the decision by the FBiH government. The author says the conduct of the FBiH government was unbecoming because what can one say about the government that takes a decision without checking the state laws first. The author also notes that the FBiH government is yet to respond to Ombudsmen’s requests, which triggers the author to say that the FBiH government and PM Ahmet Hadzipasic are playing a dangerous game of non-compliance with the Ombudsmen and a failure to observe the High Representative’s decision. Finally, the author says if one takes into account reports from a session of the FBiH government held some two to three months ago, when business operations of the public companies were deemed as good, one has to ask why sudden removals of all steering boards. “If we keep on playing a game of removals and ‘revenge’, this country will never move forward,” reads the daily.
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| VL editorial | Vecernji List pg. 2 by Dejan Jazvic ‘Economic evidence against steering boards’ – says the issue is very simple: the Alliance for changes installed its people and now the SDA and HDZ want to have their people at those key positions. VL goes on to say that the High Representative for BiH is overlooking one important factor in the whole picture, which is that the economic arguments are speaking in favour of removals of the Alliance’s steering boards. In this context, the author questions the professionalism and expertise of steering boards in profitable public companies saying it would be very hard even for kids from kindergarten to create loses in companies such as the HT Mostar or BH Telecom, which have no competition on the market.
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| Initiative by Bosniak caucus in RS | RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Biljana Knezevic – Bosniak caucus at the RS Council of Peoples expects an initiative on the modification of the RS symbols to be in a parliamentary procedure soon.Otherwise, the caucus will collect the 3,000 signatures for a petition. The initiative includes the modification of the Law on Flag, Coat of Arms and Hymn of the RS. According to a Bosniakdelegate in the RS Council of Peoples, Sead Cirkin, this will only mean harmonizing of the Law with the BiH Constitution, which ensured the constituency for all BiH peoples. |
| SNSD on the initiative | RTRS at 19:30 hrs – the SNSD reacted to the initiative for changing the flag, coat of arms and hymn of the RS saying that this was an attempt of leading parties in the RS to divert people’s attention from the essential problems in the RS. It is also said that starting the discussion on this issue had been timed in the period of a great crisis in the RS.
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| Bosniak ministers to leave HNK govt? | Dnevni List pg. 7 ‘Bosniak ministers are leaving the government?’ – DL learnt from source close to the SDA Board of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) that Bosniak ministers were considering the possibility of withdrawing from the HNK government. DL says that the Party for BiH (SBiH) also advocates this possibility claiming that it is pointless for Bosniak ministers participate in the work of this government. As an example for these claims, the SBiH states the way in which the proposal of the cantonal Constitution was passed. The SBiH wonders what is the purpose of their participation in the work of the government when they can be outvoted on every issue. DL says that unlike the SBiH that publicly expressed its stand, the SDA is still restrained with regard to this issue when media are in question. DL says that the SDA demands that the Book of Rules or Law on work of the Government define that each government’s decision gets majority of at least one minister from the line of all three constituent peoples in order to become valid. DL adds that they did not manage to get an official SDA stand on this issue, however, the aforementioned sources claim that the SDA will soon announce their departure from the HNK government if their proposal is not adopted. |
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| Mostar Re-structuring |
| Brkic | Dnevni List pg. 5 ‘The OHR will continue with consultations until end August’ – a statement by OHR Spokesperson, Mario Brkic. “Following his visit to Mostar, the High Representative for BiH has decided that the consultations would continue until the end of this month and then he will decide about what steps the OHR will take to move the Mostar process forward. What is clear is that in order to prepare for the local elections in October next year, the issue of Mostar’s status will have to be resolved by the turn of the year. Adhering to the eight principles, which are in line with the European standards, whatever the solution is at the end one thing is clear, nobody will have a reason to fear of being outvoted.” Oslobodjenje pg. 4 ‘Consultations on Mostar until the end of August’.
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| Mostar associations of refugees | Dnevni List pg. 8 ‘Postponing the solution for Mostar extends its agony’ – the Co-ordination Board of Returnees’ Associations in Mostar, which gathers returnees from line of all three constituent peoples, is planning to send a memo to HR Paddy Ashdown to request an urgent solving of the Mostar restructuring in accordance with his principles. Returnees say they are unhappy with the (last) visit by the HR to Mostar because a solution for the city has been again postponed. “Your stalling of solution of organizational set-up of Mostar as a normal city is contributing to its dying and we fear that, eventually, Mostar will become a terminal patient when your final therapy (decision) is already late and without an effect,” say the Mostar returnees.
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| SD editorial | Slobodna Dalmacija pg. 15 by Zoran Zekic ‘Mostar again in hands of German diplomat’ – the author says that even after the last visit by the HR to Mostar and talks with people involved in the Mostar restructuring, the status quo is still on in Mostar adding that it had been expected HR Ashdown would have solved some dilemmas when it came to the normal functioning of the city. However, according to the author, everything has been postponed for a few weeks. The author goes on to say that at the moment members of the Mostar Commission do not know whether to continue with the work or they are destined to wait three more weeks when HR Ashdown will voice his opinion regarding the Statute. Finally, the author notes that HR Ashdown involved his new Senior Deputy High Representative, Werner Wnendt, into the process thus passing on a ‘hot potato’ to his hands as soon as Wnendt got to BiH. |
| Orucevic | Oslobodjenje pg. 1, 4 and 5 – an interview with former Mostar Mayor Safet Orucevic. Asked who was responsible for the current situation of divisions in Mostar, Orucevic replied ‘several incapable local politicians who made bad moves and the IC as some of their members made terrible mistakes that were fatal for the progress’. He further said that the real cause behind the current events in Mostar lies primarily in the fact that the HDZ had tried for years to turn the city into the capital of the third entity. “The western part of the city was the strategic concept of the HDZ, and they had continued to build it as their ‘capital’. They have been doing it continuously while the city was ruled by fascism of the worst sort. We resisted and prevented the realization of the plan. Therefore, I think this is yet another attempt by the Herzegovina fraction to end that process, but with new methods and a new strategy. They are not interested in fair Mostar, it’s either theirs or divided. They further have an advantage of the fact that a part of the SDA has a fraction ready to preserve national territories and they have been obviously supplementing each other.” |
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| Economic Affairs |
| Ingram on 5c corridor | CRHB at 18:00 hrs – CRHB at 18:00 hrs – Director of the World Bank in BiH, Joseph Ingram, objected the ‘Bosmal’ company drafting the feasibility study on the 5c corridor in BiH, and thought the job should be awarded with a construction contract.” In case ‘Bosmal’ drafts a feasibility study and than gets the job of constructing the corridor, I think that would be a problem not only for the World Bank but also for the entire donors community. It will become questionable whether the BiH government was serious enough in its readiness to seriously manage public means,” said Ingram. He also said that the World Bank believed that an independent international institution should devise a feasibility study. |
| Terzic on 5c | Avaz pg. 1 and 5 – an interview for the daily, CoM Chair Terzic reacted to the above statement by Ingram. “Upon taking my post of the CoM Chair I promoted the principle of strictly obeying European standards. I will not back on that principle. I would like if some people form the IC also stood by such principles, and not implement double standards.” As an example of double standards, Terzic gave an example of the Eronet in case of which it was it was acceptable to pay the company to conduct the value of the third operator. He added everyone said the move was legal and no one spoke of conflict of interests, including IC reps. “That principle does not to seem to apply now.” Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘If the CRA is donating Eronet, then Bosmal can pay its study’ – Terzic guarantees that the BiH CoM will, as it has done so far, be transparent in its work and in the course protect interests of this country.
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| HDZ wants to controvert negotiations with ‘Bosmal’ | Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 6 – Filip Andric, a rep at the BiH HoR, proposed changes to the Law on Concessions in BiH, which would allow concessions to be awarded only via international tender. According to Andric, the changes to the mentioned law would remove the possibility of awarding concessions without conducting a public competition for concessions. Momcilo Novakovic, an SDS rep, agreed that amendments to the Law were necessary, but personally would not support the initiative to consider this via an urgent procedure. Jozo Krizanovic, an SDP rep, also thinks the changes are necessary to the law. Jelina Djurkovic, a PDP rep, believes the amendments would prevent all sorts of misdeed and her opinion is shared by Tihomir Gligoric (SPRS). Beriz Belkic, an SBiH rep, said he would not support the initiative as no opinion on the issue had been given by the CoM and the Law itself only started to be implemented. Seada Palavric (SDA) said she did not think their reps would support the initiative and added she would make such suggestion to all SDA reps. She also said the current solutions were better. Terzic told the daily that there was obviously a connection between some parts of the HDZ and ideas promoted in BiH by Croatian PM Racan. Added each rep had the right to propose changes to the law, but the question was whether it would be adopted. Avaz pg. 4 ‘My initiative is not a result of accepting the Bosmal offer’ – “The significance of the change is to eliminate the impossibility for other interested parties to apply for a concession. Because if someone uses the self-initiative to apply for a concession the existing law, in a way, leaves the opportunity to complete a job without previously giving a chance to anyone else to participate in the contest.” |
| Hadipasic on BiH Elektroprivreda and steering boards | BHTV at 19:00 hrs by Duska Jurisic – FBiH Prime Minister Ahmed Hadzipasic does not think the modification of an agreement between the Elektroprivreda BiH and ‘Debis’ will produce any negative context for foreign investors.“Today I have received a letter from the German ambassador in which he is stating his gratitude to the FBiH government and FBiH Prime Minister for their efforts to keep BiH’s status amongst foreign investors and international organizations,” said Hadzipasic. Even though the HR has already expressed his doubts regarding the Federation government’s decision on the dismissal of steering boards in public companies, Hadzipasic stands by his decision. “We will clear up the law foundation of the decision and reconsider the proceedings of the decision for possible omissions, and if we discover any mistake, it is easy to annul the decision.” BiH Ombudsmen have received this controversial decision on Wednesday. It will take several days to examine the material. |
| Parallelism in the work of boards | FTV at 19:30 hrs by Halid Rifatbegovic – two steering boards of the Banovići Coal Mine have been working simultaneously in the past four days. This is the result of the recent decision by the Federation government on the dismissals of the steering boards. Director of the Banovići mines, Kadrija Modric, stressed there were only two mines in BiH with a positive balance and Banovići was one of them. Modrić also said that a decree on the replacement was submitted without a regular procedure. Prime Minister Hadzipasic gave an explanation. ”All existing boards should continue to work as normal until the decision was published in the Official Gazette…I have not heard for any parallelism in the work of the boards.” |
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| Education Affairs |
| Education in FBiH | CRHB at 18:00 hrs by Zana Rebo – the education reforms were subject of a meeting held on Wednesday between FBiH Education Minister, Zijad Pasic, cantonal education ministers and directors of the BiH educational-pedagogical bureaus. According to the Law on Primary and Secondary Education in BiH, only two days are left for the signing of an agreement on a joint core of the educational plans and programs. Pasic said that this should not present a difficulty in the implementation stage. “Deadlines for the implementation are short,” said the Minister adding that it was possible that the implementation of the new Law would start beginning of the new school year. BHTV at 19:00 hrs by Sanita Lisica – the new reform of the educational system will not produce a common syllabus for the entire BiH, however, the syllabus will have a joint core. According to Pasic, the syllabus will be proportionate to educational standards. The entity ministers will sign a contract on joint cores on Friday. FTV at 19:30 hrs by Indira Karic – consultations on education reforms held on Bjelašnica. It was concluded that an agreement on a single curriculum should be signed on August 8. In the next 10 days the entity ministers are supposed to develop them and send them to schools by August 20. OSCE representative, Claude Kiefer, warned if there was no agreement the HR would make a final decision. |
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| Social Affairs |
| Pastuovic on BL health workers’ protests | CRHB at 18:00 hrs – commenting protests by workers of the Banja Luka Clinical Centre held on Tuesday, Spokeswoman for the OHR Banja Luka, Sonja Pastuovic, said that the difficulties of health workers were direct consequence of a corrupted and insufficient system. The OHR believes that the only way to improve the situation in the health sector was to reform the entire system in the RS. RTRS at 19:30 by Branka Kukalj – within a piece on the property laws in Prijedor, the RTRS also carried a statement by Pastuovic saying that the changes would not take place overnight, but without a reform they would not take place at all. Glas Srpske pg. 3 ‘Prijedor as an example’ – Pastuovic stated that the plight by health workers was a result of a corrupted and dysfunctional system of revenue collection. Also reported in Oslobodjenje pg. 8 ‘Corruption the reason behind troubles in health sector’. |
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| International Community Affairs |
| US on EU forces taking over in BiH | CRHB at 18:00 hrs – the US believes that the summer 2004 is too early for the EU to take over the peace operations in BiH. Therefore, US officials blocked further NATO actions related to the issue during a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO and EU, and they referred to war criminals and security reasons.
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| Property Affairs |
| Survey of property claims in Kotorsko | FTV at 19:30 hrs – a Surveying Commission started to mark parcels claimed by Bosniaks in Kotorsko near Doboj. That land was given to Serbs for the housing construction. The Commission is supposed to complete its survey in 60 days and then the court will make a decision. Four owners could not show their property, but the court decided a geodesy survey to be done for 32 plaintiffs. Additional problems arise from the fact that the land was nationalized in 1962 and was given to collective farms and owners were paid some money for it. |
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| Media Affairs |
| Braithwaite on freedom of media | Nezavisne Novine pg. 8 ‘Inadmissible pressure of political parties on media’ – OHR Chief Spokesperson, Julian Braithwaite,yesterday stated that any form of pressure on media was inadmissible. “The OHR expects from political parties to respect the independent media.” He also added that the courts would deal any legal lawsuit against Nezavisne Novine.
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