| RT RS (19,30) |
| War in Iraq – new developments in Baghdad and Basra |
| Ivanic visits Slovenia, no progress on old saving issue |
| BiH Parliament to appoint Serb member of BiH Presidency |
| SFOR commander visits training exercise of RS Army |
| Oslobodjenje | Review of the privatisation of Aluminium and FDS |
| Dnevni Avaz | (Sarajevo Brewery major owner Hilmo Selimovic’s) Call for assassination of Radoncic (owner of Avaz) |
| Dnevni List | 21 million KM for licence perhaps not the final price: Debt of Ljubljanska bank still issue for talks on succession for Slovenia; Ashdown will offer help in fight against crime |
| Vecernji List | Ivica Rajic was hiding in Dalmatia; Eronet: Petritsch promised licence |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | The Hague fugitive was hiding in Croatia and Macedonia; Rajic to judge: I am proud for I have defended Croat people in BiH; Head of Posusje Municipality resigns after few months only |
| Glas Srpski | Debts freeze loans; A shower after the murder |
| Nezavisne Novine | Marines take Saddam’s palace; Mikelic was a link between Milosevic and officials of RS; Ivica Rajic wants to be tried in Croatia |
| Vecernje Novosti | Organisers of Zoran Djindjic’s assassination planed to create a chaos and upheaval in Serbia: they wanted their own government |
| Blic | Police involved in human trafficking; Battle for Baghdad |
| Ljiljan | Federation firms were selling weapons to Iraq? |
Economic affairs | |
| Trade Unions preparing draft law on revision of the privatisation
| Oslobodjenje front page, pg 6 ‘Revision of the privatisation of Aluminium and FDS’ – The announcements by the trade union leaders in the BiH Federation that they want revision of the privatisation and not only the post-war but also the pre-war one carried out on the basis of so called (then Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante) Markovic ‘s model have worsened relations between the worker’s representatives and the sellers of the state companies. Resad Zutic, the Director of the FBiH Privatisation Agency, says that only the post-war privatisation should be reviewed. Edhem Biber, the President of the BiH Trade Unions, however insists that all privatisation cases in which the rights of the workers have been abused have to be revised. “The state has, for example, declared the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory (FDS) its own property although the workers there have right to a share. The similar situation is in (Mostar) Aluminium,” said Biber. |
| CRA and CoM work together on the third GSM license | Oslobodjenje pg. 2 ‘CRA and CoM work together on the third GSM license’, Dnevni Avaz pg. 2 ‘State authorities decide on the price of the (third GSM) license’, FENA – The Communication Regulatory Agency (CRA) and the BiH Ministry of Transport and Communications are working together to resolve the issue of the third GSM license issuance, according to CRA Spokesperson Amela Odobasic. She told journalists on Monday that it was now up to the BiH Council of Ministers whether it would accept the recommendation of an independent consultants that the price for the license be 21 million KM. |
| Cropress on issue of third GSM licence | Vecernji List (front “Eronet: Petritsch promised licence” and page 2 “Petritsch promised Jelavic: Eronet get licence without tender”, by Z. Kresic) claims to be in possession of a letter that a former High Representative for BiH, Wolfgang Petritsch, sent to a former (removed) member of BiH Presidency, Ante Jelavic, in which Petritsch allegedly said that the “Eronet” Company was in the same position like other two mobile phone companies when it comes to receiving the licence. “Pursuant to chapter 4, Eronet will, as an operator in partly public and partly private ownership, continue working and offering services like other two operators and will not be subjected to the tender process”, reads the alleged letter. (article is accompanied with a copy of the letter albeit one cannot read it due to the size of it) Dnevni List (front and page 3, by J. T. K., “21 million KM for licence perhaps not the final price”) carries the Chair of “Eronet” Steering Board, Bozo Knezevic, as commenting on the estimation prepared by a consultant from Prague “PriceWaterHouse” according to which “Eronet” should pay 21 million KMs for the third GSM licence. Knezevic says the price is a bit dearer than the company had expected, however he says the company can and must pay it eventually. On the other hand, the daily’s source close to the BiH CoM says the pricetag of 21 million KM is not the final one because it is allegedly the CoM which will set the final price, the price being around 100 million KM. On top of that, DL says “Eronet” is in for another shock because the source says the CoM could set forth a precondition to “Eronet” that HT Mostar (Croat telecommunications) is returned 51% of “Eronet” stocks and only then “Eronet” would get the licence. Other speculation says the licence will be issued to HT Mostar so “Eronet” would have to sit behind a negotiating table with HT Mostar. DL says there is the most radical version, which is that the Bosniak and Serb ministers in the BiH CoM block the issuance of the third licence in order to protect BH Telekom and Mobilna Srpske, other two operators in BiH. |
| Kristal Bank sale issue | Nezavisne Novine, page 2, ‘RS CID investigating sale of Kristal Banka’ – Milorad Jelisavac, Head of the RS MOI CID, said that the RS MoI CID would re-interview all those, who participated in privatisation of the Banja Luka Kristal Banka. New details from audit report provided new traces for police to investigate. Jelisavac also announced that police would also investigate into privatisation of the Doboj Privredna Banka, as soon as they get the audit report. Nezavisne Novine editorial by Dragan Jerinic, ‘PDP for one EURO’ – The author is extremely critical of the PDP officials, who, at the RS NA demonstrated no respect towards common sense of the citizens, who are crystal clear with background of 1 EURO affair. Jerinic also expresses doubt that police would be able to perform an efficient and professional investigation into Kristal Banka sale, bearing in mind that Zoran Djeric, PDP official, assumes the position of the RS Interior Minister. According to the author, the Kristal Banka would represent a test to the authority institutions and a chance for them to deny speculations that they would succumb to pressures and the case would not end up before the court. RS Chief Auditor Bosko Ceko has confirmed that Banja Luka’s Kristal Bank (79 % shares) was sold for 1€ and that there were a lot of irregularities in the bank privatisation. By revising the bank privatisation, Ceko has discovered that the Government and the RS Finance Ministry did not negotiate and sign an agreement with buyer Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in line with the Law on Selling State Capital in Banks. (Blic pg. 7) |
| Kras factory: Co-owner of Mira Factory from Prijedor | Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘Sweet contract with Kras’ – The agreement on management organisation and investment structure between cookie producing factory “Mira” from Prijedor and “Kras” from Zagreb was signed in Banja Luka yesterday. The RS Prime Minister, Dragan Mikerevic, also attended the signing of the agreement. He explained that 30& ownership over Mira factory was transferred onto Kras factory, which was in complete ownership over this factory before the war. |
| FBiH Government says fulfilled Bulldozer Committee recommendations | Dnevni Avaz pg. 4 ‘Bulldozer Committee requests fulfilled’, Oslobodjenje pg. 5, FENA – A session of the BiH Federation Government held in Sarajevo on Monday was entirely dedicated to the recommendations made by the Bulldozer Committee. These recommendations are related to the necessary changes of the laws in order for the business environment to the improved. By sending the adopted proposals into the urgent parliamentary procedure, the Government fulfilled its obligations arising from the Bulldozer Committee requests. Slobodna Dalmacija (last page, by D. Pasic, “Proposals of Bulldozer Committee adopted”) and Dnevni List (page 5, by M.R., “Proposals of Bulldozer Committee adopted”) also report on the session. |
Political developments | |
| Oslobodjenje’s Sagolj on filling the vacant Serb seat in FBiH HoP
| Oslobodjenje pg. 2 In Focus editorial by Mirko Sagolj ‘Goals’ – “The BiH Federation House of Peoples has been working unconstitutionally ever since its establishment. Instead of 17 deputies as foreseen by the Constitution, there are a total of nine Serb representatives in the House,” Sagolj wrote. He reminded that, regardless of this fact, the governing political parties (SDA, HDZ, SDS) failed to verify the High Representative-imposed amendments to the Constitution at their latest session in Sarajevo. “The only remaining possibility now is that the High Representative by his decree ensure the application of the Federation Constitution,” Sagolj concluded. |
| Oslobodjenje editorial: The truth about BiH | Oslobodjenje pg. 2 Editorial by Zija Dizdarevic ‘The truth about BiH’ – “Even a superficial look at the key points of the Peace Agreement – not mentioning at all the issue of the extremely difficult economic-social situation and permanent emigration from the country of young and skilled people – shows a disappointing quality of the Dayton document implementation. The international peace mission in BiH seems to be inconsistent and even irresponsible towards their tasks here and reports only to itself,” wrote Dizdarevic. |
| Sead Avdic leaves the BiH SDU | Oslobodjenje pg. 3, mentioned on the front page ‘Sejfudin Tokic is the main culprit for division inside SDP BiH’ – Sead Avdic, now former member and senior official of the newly-established BiH Social Democratic Union (SDU), has left the party disagreeing with the policy being created by the party leadership. The SDU was established by former SDP BiH senior official including Avdic, Sejfudin Tokic, Miro Lazovic and Ivo Komsic. “Only recently I have realised that a month before the SDP BiH Congress a project of its destruction had started to be implemented. And all that was being created by Sejfudin Tokic,” Avdic told the newspaper. |
| SDA: HDZ is trying to blackmail us | Oslobodjenje pg. 5 ‘SDA: HDZ is trying to blackmail us’ – The leaderships of the SDA and HDZ headed by Sulejman Tihic and Barisa Colak failed to reach an agreement on filling the vacant offices of the FOSS Director and Deputy Director of the BiH Federation Customs Administration at their meeting in Sarajevo on Monday, learns the newspaper. Vecernji List (page 4, by M. S., “Agreement or OHR’s appointments”) learns from an OHR source if an agreement on formation of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Government is not reached between SDA and Coalition HDZ-CCD-HNZ at the highest level (NB: SDA and HDZ were to meet yesterday afternoon in Sarajevo), the OHR has its own scenario. “It is not ruled out that the OHR, should an agreement is not reached, appoint the Prime Minister and Ministers in the cantonal government”, says Vecernji List. |
| Appointment of Serb member of BiH Presidency | Vecernji List (page 2, by E. Medunjanin, “Only Paravac’s candidacy submitted”) carries the Speaker of the BiH Parliament’s House of Representatives, Sefik Dzaferovic, as saying the chamber has so far only received one candidacy for filling of the vacated seat of the Serb member of BiH Presidency, the candidacy that was submitted for Borislav Paravac. However, Dzaferovic says the parties can nominate its candidates at the very session of the chamber adding it is hard to tell whether there’ll be more candidacies. A separate article in the same papers (page 2, by bs, “PDP decides about Paravac appointment”) says SNSD will push for changes of the BiH Election Law in order to ensure that the Serb member of the Presidency becomes a person who won most number of votes behind Mirko Sarovic. In that case it would be SNSD’s Nebojsa Radmanovic. VL notes Paravac could become a new member of BiH Presidency if PDP supports him and does not nominate its candidate. Dnevni Avaz pg. 4 ‘Gligoric has small chances in race with Paravac’ – According to the newspaper, the PDP spokesman, Igor Crnadak, could not confirm whether his party would nominate Petar Kunic as its own candidate for the post as had been announced earlier. However, the RS Socialist Party has nominated Tihomir Gligoric to be counter-candidate to SDS’ Paravac. Nezavisne Novine, page 7, ‘SDS and PDP would do anything for their interests’ – Tihomir Gligoric, Vice President of the RS Socialist Party, is the candidate of this party for the position of the Serb member to BiH Presidency. He claims that the reason for his candidature was an alternative top the existing concept of nationalistic options ”who failed to achieve any good result”. He expressed belief that apart from some disputes within SDS-PDP coalition, the agreement would prevail that member of one of these two parties assumes the position. |
| Reactions to SDA initiative for peacetime constitution drafting | Nezavisne Novine, page 6, ‘SDA requests are not realistic’ – Political parties in BiH regard the SDA call to the OHR to enact peacetime constitution instead of the existing one as completely unacceptable. Sonja Pastuovic said that: “If domestic parties want to change the BiH Constitution, there are mechanisms in place to do that, but all three constitutional people must consent to that.” Dusan Stojicic, SDS Spokesperson, finds the request to be completely unacceptable. Milorad Dodik, SNSD leader, expressed the opposition of the SNSD against the imposition of the constitution. Sejfudin Tokic, SDU Vice President, also expressed opposition to any imposition of constitutional solutions, stressing that parliament majority must approve of any such alteration of the BiH Constitution. Slobodan Popovic, Vice President of the SDP of BiH Chair Board, stated that SDA requests “are strange”. HDZ officials are of the view that the BiH must enact new constitution by itself. |
| SDS’ Nikic on SDS/PDP coalition | Nezavisne Novine, page 6, ‘Nikic announces final clash between SDS and PDP’ – Cvjetin Nikic, member of the SDS Chair Board in Bijeljina, announced that at the session of the SDS Chair Board on 18 April, the SDS members from Bijeljina would demand that SDS reviews its participation in RS authority. He also advised RS PM, Dragan Mikerevic, that he cannot keep grounding his activities on “will against-the-people’s-interest”. (Blic pg. 2 headline ‘To review participation in authority’) |
Fight against organised crime; apprehension of war crime suspects | |
| High Representative’s visit to Belgrade
| Dnevni List (front and page 2, by M.R., “Ashdown will offer help in fight against crime“) carries that OHR spokesperson, Vedran Persic, confirmed yesterday that High Representative for BiH, Paddy Ashdown, goes to Belgrade today in order to offer help in the fight against organized crime, which started after the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Persic said that the HR would meet with Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Zivkovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, Goran Svilanovic, and Minister of Interior Dusan Mihajlovic. The HR will also attend a two-day Summit on Southeastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP), during which an adoption of a document called Belgrade’s Declaration is being expected. Nezavisne Novine, page 3, ‘Criminal is a regional problem’ also carries the statement. |
| Ashdown for Blic: Regional front against organized crime | “The IC has made a mistake leaving a vacuum without insisting on establishing the rule of law and fight against the crime, but it has allowed that crime sneaks into BiH, Kosovo and Serbia. The fight against organised crime is possible only at regional level and that will be the essence of my message at 6th Summit for Cooperation in South-eastern Europe in Belgrade,” High Representative Paddy Ashdown told Blic. “It is awful that a new era in the Balkans began with PM Zoran Djindjic’s assassination. I am impressed with courage and rapidity that the Belgrade authorities reacted on that”, Ashdown said. (note: the full interview will be publish in tomorrow’s Blic). (Blic pg. 3) |
| HR on apprehension of war crime indictees | Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘We will arrest all war crime suspects’ – In an interview to Beta news agency, HiRep to BiH, Paddy Ashdown, said that all war crime suspects would be arrested and sent to The Hague. Otherwise, “BiH could never be a normal and democratic state”. HiRep also denied any knowledge into whereabouts of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. |
| BOSS: “Responsibility of International Community for existence of organized crime” | Dnevni List (page 6, by D.L.) carries that the President of BOSS, Mirnes Ajanovic, believes that during the speech about the problem of organized crime and its dangers for the countries in the region, that the High Representative for BiH, Paddy Ashdown, is supposed to deliver during the Summit on Southeastern Europe Cooperation Process, the HR should inform heads of states and their Governments about the lack of the system of responsibility of the International Community bodies for the existence of organized crime in BiH. Ajanovic reminded of the alleged one-sided and ungrounded IPTF decision on the dismissal of Sarajevo Special Police members and the case of policeman Nedim Smajic, who in spite of the Court decision still suffer consequences of “illegal suspension”. |
| Dnevni Avaz: Is BiH capable of fighting crime? | Dnevni Avaz pg. 3 ‘Is BiH capable of fighting crime – There is no efficient fight against Mafia without a strong state’ – The newspaper addressed a few security and political officials with a question: Is BiH capable to fight crime? Mevludin Halilovic, the FBiH Interior Minister: “In order for our efforts to be more efficient, we need to take additional steps in unifying/coordinating police activities both in the Federation and BiH.” Niko Lozancic, FBiH President: “Only an organized authority may efficiently fight the organized crime.” Beriz Belkic, member of the Party for BiH Presidency, believes that not a single level of the authority, except the state one, had serious chances for a quality fight against organized crime. “It would be very important to strengthen SIPA (State Information and Protection Agency) and give it segments of the intelligence services. Without an organised state, the chances for success are weak, The crime is organised and has no borders contrary to our interior ministries, which are fragmented. It would be an unfair match,” said Belkic. Miro Lazovic, the President of the Social Democratic Union: “It would not be bad to think about formation of a front gathering experienced people regardless of their political orientation. It is necessary to form such the front at the state level.” Milorad Dodik, the SNSD leader: “If they were thinking seriously in BiH about the fight against the organised crime, a coordinated action would have been launched so far headed by a team from FBiH Interior Ministry and a team from RS Interior Ministry.” Zlatko Miletic, the Director of the FBiH Police Administration, commented on the issue in a separate article on the same page of Dnevni Avaz (headline: ’Coordinated effort of the criminals and the authorities can be felt in the privatisation process as well’). |
| Rajic wants to be tried in Croatia | Nezavisne Novine, page 2/also cover page, ‘Rajic wants to be tried in Croatia’ – Defence attorneys of Ivica Rajic (45), former HVO Commander, yesterday filed an appeal to the so called extradition detention of their client. One of his attorneys, Zeljko Olujic, said that Rajic is ready to appear before the Court, preferably in Croatia. Sarajevo dailies also report on the issue. With regard to the arrest of Ivica Rajic because of the crimes committed over Bosniak civilians in the Central Bosnia, Vecernji List (page 3, “Rajic received order for Stupni Dol”, “Bosniak parties welcomed arrest”, “There is no use to write press releases”, and page 13, “Rajic arrested in Dalmatia”), Dnevni List (front and page 3, “Rajic is willing to stand trial in Croatia but not in The Hague”), Slobodna Dalmacija (front and page 15, “Rajic to judge: I am proud of defending Croats in BiH”, “The Hague fugitive was hiding in Croatia and Macedonia”, “Kiseljak disturbed because of arrest: Staged process” and page 5, “We want trial in Croatia”, “While looking for Gotovina they arrested Rajic”, “We are expecting that Ivica Rajic will come to The Hague”), Jutranji List (page 7, “Police was following Rajic in Split” and page 15, “Who has been hiding Ivica Rajic for seven years?”) and Vjesnik (front page, “Defenders of The Hague indictee Rajic lodged appeal on detention”, “ICTY satisfied with Rajic’s arrest and Croatian cooperation” and page 7, “Most probably Rajic will stand trial in The Hague”, “While looking for Gotovina they arrested Rajic in central Dalmatia”) carry respective articles. VL carries that an anonymous former official of the Croat Community of Herceg Bosnia stated that that Rajic has a command on the ground of which he was ordered to attack village Stupni Dol in October 1993. |
| Investigation into the assassination of Djindjic | Nezavisne Novine, page 3/also cover page, ‘Mikelic was a link between Milosevic and officials of RS’ – According to NN source close to the intelligence structures of the RS, Borislav Mikelic, the last premier of the RS Krajina, was a link between Slobodan Milosevic and a group pof the former officials of the RS, led by Momcilo Mandic, Milovan Bjelica and Mico Stanisic. According to NN source, this group of people made fortune on trade in high-excise goods. Glas Srpski, cover page story, ‘A shower after the murder’; Nezavisne Novine, page 3, ‘Murder of Zoran Djindjic solved’ – Dusan Mihajlovic, Serbian Interior Minister, yesterday announced that the assassination of the Serbian PM, Zoran Djindjic, was solved. He explained that police detained 7567 people during, out of whom 1948 were kept in custody and 777 charges have been brought so far. According to Mihajlovic, police knows the names of all persons involved in preparing and executing the assassination of Djindjic. As on Milorad Lukovic Legija, Serbian Interior Minister said that his arrest should not dictate the abolishment of state of emergency in Serbia, adding that he may have escaped abroad. |
Affairs | |
| Chair of CoM Terzic to present idea on intelligence inspectorate
| Dnevni List (page 2, by FENA, “Forming of inspectorate of intelligence services at BiH level”) reports that FENA was told by Chair of BiH CoM’s cabinet that Chair of CoM, Adnan Terzic, will, at one of next sessions of BiH CoM, present an idea on an inspectorate at the BiH level that would supervise the work of intelligence services. Reportedly, consultations with experts in the matter are ongoing. (Dnevni Avaz pg. 2 ‘Consultations on the Inspectorate still underway’) |
| RS Army’s General Savic on espionage affair in RS | Dnevni List (last page, “RS Army Intelligence Service was acting within its framework”) carries that Chief of the RS Army Main Headquarters, Brigadier-General Cvjetko Savic, stated that the RS Intelligence Service was acting within its framework and the only question is whether there were individuals who overstepped the framework of military regulations and instructions given by the SFOR Commanders. He also said that so far there have been no information that the Army was wiretapping politicians or citizens. Savic reminded that according to the RS President, the Main Headquarters has to complete the investigation on the espionage affair by April 10, 2003. |
| Ljiljan: Federation companies were selling weapons to Iraq? | Ljiljan pgs. 23-25, announced on the front page ‘How the case of the two Iraqi citizens brought dozens of troubles for the new authorities: Two Iraqi citizens and violation of embargo’ By Sead Arslanagic – “The Vitezit and Bratsvo companies were certainly not directly selling the weapons to Iraq during the years of 2001 and 2002 since only Belgrade-based Yugoimport was licensed to do that. More precisely, then Federation Defense Minister Mijo Anic and his Deputy Ferid Buljubasic could not have bee so naïve to certify selling of the weapons to the country under UN embargo. This is however an affair that will be shaking this state following Orao. The human rights of the two Iraqi citizens (recently expelled from the country) are here just a collateral damage. Following an illegal export of arms, the Federation is trying nowadays with even more illegal export of the two Iraqi citizens,” wrote Arslanagic. |
| Ljiljan on HR decisions, Sarovic’s resignation | Ljiljan pg. 5 op-ed by Mirsad Sinanovic – “Ashdown abolished the RS Supreme Defence Council, but the RS Army remains under the command of the entity’s President. This is still far away from establishing the state defence ministry, but it represents the first step towards that establishment as well as the formation of a single BiH army,” Sinanovic wrote. Ljiljan pg. 7 ‘Double-standardised OHR’ By Sejo Omeragic – “How come that Sarovic can be even the SDS President, as Edhem Bicakcic cannot be even an ordinary SDA member?”, wonders Omeragic. |
| Law Professor Vitomir Popovic on latest Ashdown’s moves | Professor at Banja Luka’s Law Faculty Vitomir Popovic says that the latest moves of High Representative Paddy Ashdown are direct strike at the RS Constitution and at RS as an entity. “This is one of the most wantonly violations of the DPA. This time the IC did it, changing the agreement, contrary to the way in which an international contract could be changed, and that is only through the consensus of sides that participated in concluding the contract. Personally, I deem it a great pressure of the international community on the RS, but I do not think that anyone will be able to destroy the DPA and simply proclaim non-existence of the RS.” Asked to comment what could be done in order to make the RS to survive, since that a lot of things that centralised BiH had been done, Popovic says he does not believe the RS will disappear only because someone wants to centralise BiH. “I believe that all are aware of it and that will save the RS.” Speaking about subversion of the RS institutions and democratically elected officials, Popovic say that is an old recipe. “There is a formula: if the RS does not accept something, which is in the most cases contrary to the international law and the DPA, then it will not be admitted to the European integration. Some of the representatives do not hesitate to threaten publicly with the RS disappearance.” Popovic thinks that the RS has to get its place guaranteed by the DPA and that noone can return centralised BiH. Asked whether there is a possibility to have ‘Dayton 2’ that would legalise all things done to the detriment of RS, Popovic says no. “Dayton 2 has not succeeded although everything was done in order to impose it. Due to that now there are attempts to implement everything the Dayton 2 planners targeted as goals. The current agreement (DPA) is being differently (extensively) interpreted in order to achieve quite different solutions. But it will not succeed.” (Vecernje Novosti pg. 2 ‘There will be no Dayton 2’) |
| Kukic in DL on HR’s decisions: “Solution are changes in system”
| Dnevni List (page 6, by Slavo Kukic) carries an editorial saying that the decision of High Representative Paddy Ashdown to remove only Chairman of the BiH Presidency Mirko Sarovic when the Orao affair is in question is not enough. According to Kukic, RS President Dragan Cavic as well as many others should have been removed. With regard to the possible appointment of Borislav Paravac to Sarovic’s position Kukic says that there might be serious interventions because there are stories that as a war-time Mayor of Doboj he was coordinating persecution of Bosniaks from that area. Kukic also says that in his opinion the removals are not the solution for this kind of problems. He believes that it is necessary to strengthen the rules and reduce the effect and ranges of political voluntarism. The editorial says that the story that this is not in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) is not convincing. Kukic says that many aspects of the DPA have been changed and the only things that have not been changed are those that guarantee statehood of the entities: “If the goal of the latest HR’s interventions is to eliminate exactly these solutions then I do not know as to what should prevent him to abolish the things that remained of the disputable issues.” |
| VL Editorial: “False spies” | Vecernji List (page 4, by Radoslav Dodig) carries an editorial about recent espionage and Intelligence Service affairs. The editorial says that all this is big media hype and that there are no important and skillful Intelligence Service agents in BiH. The editorial also says: “Citizens of BiH sleep, walk and talk placidly. We all know what people think and for this reason wiretapping is ridiculous, expensive and unnecessary.” |
Other issues | |
| Ivanic’s visit to Slovenia
| Glas Srpski, page 3, ‘Agreement on customs’; Nezavisne Novine, page 3, ‘Customs agreement with Slovenia signed’ – During yesterday’s visit to Slovenia, the BiH delegation, led by BiH Foreign Minister, Mladen Ivanic, signed the agreement on customs with this state. Ivanic and his Slovenian counterpart, Dimitrije Rupel, concluded that these two states have good relations, stressing that numerous open issues are still left to be resolved. Sarajevo dailies, Dnevni List front and page 4, by D. L., “Debt of Ljubljanska bank still issue for talks on succession for Slovenia”, Slobodna Dalmacija, back page, by Ivan Botteri, “Foreign savings still on ice!” and Jutarnji List, page 13, HINA, “Bosnian Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic visiting Slovenia” also reported on the visit. |
| RS Housing Fund loans | Glas Srpski, cover page story, ‘Debts freeze loans’ – According to Vasilije Mitrovic, President of the Board of the war invalids, the categories of war invalids and the families of the killed soldiers do not have much use from the loans allocated by the RS Housing Fund, because majority of them are not in a position to regularly re-pay loans. According to Mitrovic, much better solution would have been if these resources were provided to municipalities across RS, which would then build apartments for the war invalids and families of killed soldiers. However, Radenko Kesar, Assistant to Director for economic affairs at RS Housing Fund, stressed that such a solution is not possible, owing to some restrictions of the IMF. |
| SDHR Schroembgens meets with delegation of World Association of BiH Diaspora | Dnevni Avaz pg. 2 ‘World Association of BiH Diaspora visits OHR – Dissatisfied with prices of passports’, FENA – A delegation of the World Association of BiH Diaspora visiting BiH met on Monday with the Senior Deputy High Representative Gerhard Enver Schroembgens. According to OHR Spokesman Vedran Persic, the delegation members expressed their concern about the media speculations that the international community wanted to bring to the close the implementation of the Dayton Agreement’s Annex 7 declaring it implemented. They thanked OHR for extending the dual-citizenship related deadline but they expressed dissatisfaction with the prices of passports. |
| US Ambassador Bond visits Mostar | Slobodna Dalmacija (page 18, by Miroslav Landeka, “American projects for BH companies”) reports that the US Ambassador to BiH, Clifford Bond, visited Mostar yesterday when he talked to Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mostar, Hamdija Jahic and Ljubo Beslic respectively. Following the meeting with Jahic and Beslic, Ambassador Bond said topics were economic co-operation and establishment of the Commission that is going to work on the future restructuring of Mostar. In that context, Ambassador Bond said the Commission should be established and start working as soon as possible. After the meeting, Ambassador Bond, accompanied with Jahic and Beslic, opened a presentation of an economic program of the US Government at Mostar’s Hotel “Ero”. (Dnevni List, front and page 11, by Valerija Coric, “Establishment of Commission for making of City Statute” and Vecernji List, page 2, by mbr, “Two million KMs of loans”) |