| CROAT RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA (18,00 hrs) | BH TV 1 (19,00 hrs) | FED TV (19,30 hrs) |
| BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns assessments by Tomac about politics of Tudjman towards BiH | Session of the BiH Presidency is underway in Banja Luka | BiH Presidency session underway |
| EU called on President of RS Government to enable return of Croats to the entity | After repeated elections Serbia is still without president | Taxpayers in Federation own 268 million KM |
| Kofi Annan marks corruption, organised crime and political obstructions as serious problems in BiH | Ahmed Imamovic’s short movie ” 10 minutes ” awarded with FELIX | Tuzla: unemployed Tuzla doctors refuse employment in other towns |
| 84th anniversary of death of the first Vrhbosna Archbishop Josip Statler marked |
| Parents of neurological disordered children deny paediatricians’ claims on unreliable dr. Kohlov’s treatments |
| Oslobodjenje | Historical set ups by Zdravko Tomac; We are not offering a post to a party but to Silajdzic; Mikerevic appointed PM |
| Dnevni Avaz | The hardest blow to damaged SDP; Is social rebellion threatening to BiH |
| Dnevni List | Issue of establishing single municipality has been made topical again: Can Old Bridge unify Mostar and its people? |
| Vecernji List | BiH immigrants in US are looking for change of the Law on BiH Citizenship: half a million persons are loosing citizenship |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Special police units have blocked roads looking for Mijo Topic who shot a policeman on Sunday; Search after French-Solin under siege |
| Glas Srpski | RS Market Inspection closes down 36 saw mills; Belgrade – no one to vote for president |
| Nezavisne Novine | Crisis in SRS reaches its peak – SRS members take chairs out, change leaders; Radmanovic: Negotiation with SNSD just an alibi for PDP-SDS coalition |
| FRY Nacional | Elections failed, the Government falls; the Hague’s investigation against Clinton and Holbruke because of Croatian operation Storm; Dragan Mikerevic is PM designate for new RS Government |
| Blic | Mikerevic: I expect support of all progressive forces in RS; Donald Hays: Possible agreement on VAT on the state level; A bomb thrown on Doboj’s mosque; Serbs contribute the reconstruction of Bijeljina’s mosques |
Political coalitions/new government | |
| Mikerevic’s appointment
Social Democratic Union
Dzaferovic SDA’s candidate for HoR Chair
Paravac SDS’s candidate for HoR Chair
Radmanovic on coalition talks
Tihic on the BiH PM post
FBiH HoR
Conflict within SRS
Interview with Kalinic
BiH Presidency – Mesic meeting
Dual citizenship
Interview with Covic
Reactions to Tomac’s statement
Three spokespeople at the Presidency?
BiH institutions budget adopted
Social rebellion in BiH? | Avaz pg. 4 ‘The cabinet structure will depend on talks with political parties’, Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 3, Blic pg. 7 headline ‘PM designate believes in the delegates’ support’, Nacional pg. 7 headline ‘Dragan Mikerevic is PM designate’, Vecernje Novosti pg. 4 headline ‘Mikerevic succeeds Ivanic’ – Dragan Mikerevic, the newly appointed RS PM, stated that he considered the new post not a privilege, but a patriotic obligation. He could not say exactly which parties would take part in electing members of his Cabinet. Dusan Stojicic, SDS Spokesperson, stated that they expected the RS to enter the new year with the new government. As for the negotiations on establishing the executive authority between the SDS, PDPO and SNSD, Stojicic said that Dodik turned out not to have any tactics and fails to compromise. “The election of Dragan Mikerevic for the RS PM is the most deadly combination that could happen. In the current situation, the combination SDS-PDP-SDA could not promise any good to the people and Ivanic is aware of this, otherwise he would not let anyone to be the PM designate but himself. Mikerevic is, without knowing that, a cover for all criminal and Mafia-like dealings conducted in previous period,” stated Milorad Dodik. He also refused any co-operation with the new PM. He assessed that talks led by three parties with the RS President Cavic fell through because ‘the SDS defended the SDS’s position in the establishment of authority’. Dnevni List pg. 4 ‘We are expecting Mikerevic to form the RS government ASAP’ – a statement by OHR Spokesperson Oleg Milisic that OHR expects Mikerevic to establish the RS government as soon as possible, so it can start benefiting the RS citizens and focusing on the continuation of reforms. Nezavisne Novine pg. 3 ‘Mikerevic says he will follow Ivanic’s path’ – Mikerevic gave an interview to Nezavisne and stated he would follow Ivanic’s path. He stated that one of his priorities was the privatisation process. The paper also reported that the PDP, SDS and SDA supported Mikerevic. The paper says that currently Mikerevic can count with the support of the PDP, SDS, SDA, Pensioner’s Party, DPS and three deputies from the SRS. On the other side parties gathered around Dodik and SNSD – DNS, SPRS, SNP, SNS, SDP and NHI, while SBiH will make the final decision today. SNP leader Mirko Banjac said that Mikerevic would be removed first time people expressed their discontent with the difficult social situation. He said that this is just a PDP’s attempt to buy time. SPRS Vice Chairman Tihomir Gligoric said they disagreed with the nomination of Mikerevic, because Milorad Dodik was their choice. He said that after this it was quite clear that the SDS government would not work and that they decided to work together with the SDA. SPRS Chairman Petar Djokic said that SPRS would not support Mikerevic if Mikerevic requestsed SDA support in the RS NA. Glas Srpski reports that, unlike the SNSD, the SPRS is willing to talk with Mikerevic. SRS Secretary General Ognjen Tadic said that SRS would not support Dragan Mikerevic. Spokesman of the PDP Igor Crnadak said Mikerevic would provide a stable support to a new Government and would continue on the road of economic reforms started by the PDP two years ago. Crnadak said the PDP thought that leader of that party Mladen Ivanic should be appointed as minister of foreign affairs in the CoM, but added that any other post in that body would be welcomed. SDP Vice Chairman Slobodan Popovic says it is clear that the SDS and SDA formed a coalition. He said that thanks to Ivanic and Kalinic, Adil Osmanovic and Sulejman Tihic would rule the RS. According to him, SDP will not support Mikerevic. NHI also did not support the election of the new PM. SDA Secretary General Sefik Dzaferovic said that SDS would support Mikerevic if this party gets 5 ministerial posts. (Please note that all other media reported that SDA requested 4 ministerial posts.). Glas Srpski pg. 3 ‘Cavic nominates Dragan Mikerevic’ also reported on the issue. Avaz pg. 1 and 2, Oslobodjenje pg. 3 ‘Sead Avdic acting President’ – about a constituting session of the Social Democratic Union, which was held yesterday in Sarajevo in the presence of 300 people. As announced in media on Sunday (see weekend media Press Preview), Sead Avdic was appointed the Acting Party President, the Program Declaration and the Statute were adopted. It was also accepted the party would be called the Social Democratic Union (SDU BiH). “Citizens can trust that the SDU BiH would practice what we preach,” stated Avdic. Until the party Congress, planned for March 3 next year, Avdic and three vice-presidents – Ivo Komsic, Mirala Morankic and Miro Lazovic, will lead the party. Darko Ruzic will perform the post of the General Secretary. Avaz pg. 8 ‘Sefik Dzaferovic SDA’s candidate for the chairman’ – a statement by SDA Spokesperson, Elvir Hadziahmetovic that the SDA reps in the BiH HoR would nominate Sefik Dzaferovic for the Chair. Hadziahmetovic emphasised that he believed the SDA had the necessary majority for electing Dzaferovic. He added they expected support from certain RS parties as well as reformed parties from the FBiH. Glas Srpski pg. 3 – quoted SDS Spokesperson Dusan Stojcic as saying that Borislav Paravac would be SDS candidate for the BiH HoR Chair. Stojicic said that when it came to the selection of Bosniak and Croat reps, the SDS would support those candidates who had realistic chances to win. In an interview for Nezavisne Novine (pg.5), SNSD Vice Chairman Nebojsa Radmanovic said that the talks they held so far (referring to SNSD – PDP talks) were just an alibi. This way the PDP and SDS could say to RS citizens and IC representatives that they spoke with SNSD and that SNSD did not accept the PDP-SDS offer. Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 6 – Sulejman Tihic, (SDA) confirmed that he has not yet spoken to Silajdzic even though he wanted to. “There were suggestions that if Silajdzic refused the SBiH would offer another candidate. That’s out of the question. We are offering it to Silajdzic, as a man with a great experience and qualities that give him advantage over others,” said Tihic. As for the talks with the SBiH, Tihic thinks that they (SBiH) might not have an agreement within the party. Oslobodjenje pg. 6 ‘Dusanka Pecanac candidate for the Deputy Chair’ – that the new session of the FBiH HoR should take place on December 10. The daily recalls that during the last session the HoR Chairman (Ibrahimovic) and the fist Deputy (Merdzo) were elected. However, the second Deputy (suppose to be a Serb rep) has not been elected. The daily speculates that a member might come from the caucus of the Pensioners Party – by nominating Dusanka Pecanac. As for the Secretary of the HoR, the rumour is that the most serious candidate is a member of the FBiH Justice Minister – Izmir Hadziabdic. Glas Srpski pg. 3 ‘Conflict in SRS reaches its peak’, Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 and 3, Vecernje Novosti pg.7 ‘Dissatisfied took furniture’ – on the split within the Serb Radical Party (SRS). There was an extraordinary session of the party at the request of the party fraction that supports co-operation with the SDS. 82 out of 90 SRS Assembly members voted for the new SRS Chair Milenko Mihajlic. Apparently, the SRS session was only attended by the SRS fraction that supports the SDS, while Tadic, Kanjeric and Blagojevic were not present. Nezavisne Novine reports that after the appointment procedure was finished, several SRS members (those who support Mihajlica) arrived with a truck to the SRS premises in Banja Luka, where Ognjen Tadic and Zare Dimitrijevic were sitting, and took out the furniture and everything that was in the office. Ognjen Tadic accused Nikola Poplasen, the former RS President who was removed by HR in March 1999, of organising this whole thing. Nezavisne reports that it is still not clear which SRS faction is legitimate, the one led by Tadic or the other one led by Mihajlica and Brankovic. Nacional pg.7 – carries an interview with the Chairman of the RS National Assembly Dragan Kalinic. Kalinic says that his election for the chairperson of the RS Assembly is the biggest satisfaction for the SDS. He thinks that leader of the SNSD Milorad Dodik tried to prevent the formation of the RS National Assembly only because of his selfish reasons. He denies that either formally or essentially the SDS is in coalition with the SDA. He says it is important to ask why Milorad Dodik refused the SDS’s offer for an RS Alliance. According to Kalinic, Dodik tried to provoke a crisis similar to that from 1997. Dnevni List pg. 1 and 3 – members of the BiH Presidency will meet with the Croatian President Stipe Mesic in Hrvatska Kostajnica today. The daily notes that the meeting will render some important issues such as the bilateral agreement on dual citizenship between the two countries as well as implementation of election results in BiH and joint efforts to join Euro-Atlantic integration. According to Zeljana Zovko, Head of Dragan Covic’s office, the BiH Parliament must tackle the first issue by the end of the year, otherwise a great number of BiH citizens, more than 90% of Croats would lose a right to dual citizenship. DL unofficially learns that recent statements by Zdravko Tomac, Deputy Speaker of Croatian Parliament, on position of BiH Croats will also be one of the topics on the agenda. Vecernji List pg. 1 and 3 – that the Bosnian Congress, an organisation that operates from Chicago, US, organised an on-line petition in order change the BiH Law on Citizenship. According to the Law, half a million BiH citizens who currently live abroad would lose their BiH citizenship and many benefits that came along. The organisation requests ‘from all BiH authority bodies, including the Presidency, the government and the Parliament to urgently enact an appropriate law or change the current law on citizenship, in order to ensure that BiH citizens who got citizenship of other countries did not automatically lose their BiH citizenship”. The author notes that if a BiH citizen, who is also a holder of the US citizenship, decides to return to BiH, he/she would enjoy the US pension in BiH only if he/she is a BiH citizen too. Vecernji List pg. 5 – an interview with Dragan Covic, Croat member of the BiH Presidency, who says that the BiH Presidency is planning many visits and organization of various conferences in order to improve the economic situation of BiH. The basic purpose of these visits is to show that we are not only a body that sits in the office and issues press releases. We want to send a message to the world that, on the ground of its acting and its position, BiH is a country that aspires towards one modern Europe or Central Europe and not to remote Balkan that has dark sports around itself. Naturally, we cannot succeed in it if media will radiate pessimism around us.” Covic also says that the cooperation between members of the BiH Presidency is very good and they want to send a message that they can act as one person although there are three of them. Asked about the accusations about his abuse of office at that time when he and Edhem Bicakcic were heading the Federation Ministry of Finances, Covic says that he does not have time and that there is no need to comment on these accusations. Covic says that after the elections at that time, the new authority tried to accuse the previous one and that he was recognized as an important person amongst the Croat people who should be accused in order to destabilize the political acting. Covic added that he wants to be above these problems, that he does not want to be revengeful and that he wants to turn to future. Avaz pg. 5 and 7 ‘Tomac repeated his previously stated views’, Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 4/5, Dnevni List pg. 7, Vecernji List pg. 8 – reactions by FBiH officials to the most recent statement by the Vice-President of the Croatian Parliament, Zdravko Tomac, that ‘it would turn out that Tudjman was right about BiH’. Amer Kapetanovic, Spokesman at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, stated that the BiH authorities were not surprised by Tomac repeating his views, but were concerned that they have official character since Tomac perform very important posts in the Croatian Parliament. He stated they would request explanation from the Croatian Parliament President and the Croatian President Mesic. Oslobodjenje quoted Dzaferovic, Komsic and Ljubic. Sefik Dzaferovic stated that ‘it is a strange change for Tomac since he was one of the main critics of Tudjman’s regime. Ivo Komsic said that Tomac knew nothing about the contents of the constitutional amendments or the procedures for their implementation. Mariofil Ljubic said that there have always been people who were not in favour of BiH, but added that BiH has to remember what Croatia did for BiH in the past. Vjesnik pg. 3 – carried an interview with Tomac. He stated that Croatian media falsified his statements about Tudjman, and that he was only voicing his opinion. Feral Tribune (pg. 30 and 31) carries an editorial by Ivan Lovrenovic in which he offers his view why Tomac stated at Siroki Brijeg last week that the IC is unjust towards BiH Croats and why the idea of the third entity in BiH should not be ruled out. Lovrenovic says that Tomac’s behaviour follows more or less the usual trivial pattern i.e. when elections in BiH are behind us and when elections in Croatia approaching, everything turns right, and Tomac tries to reactivate some old sentiments. In that context, Lovrenovic says that the best ground for it is BiH and best sources for it are BiH Croats. Especially given the Tomac’s statement on agreement on dual citizenship between the two countries, which will render the issue of the right to vote for which Tomac claims that Croatia will solve exclusively in its interest. Vecernji List pg. 3 – the BiH Presidency does not have a spokesperson since yesterday because Boris Kujundzic, now already a former public relations officer of the Presidency, left the post at his request. VL learns that Kujundzic has a new engagement in Communication Regulatory Agency (CRA) and goes on to say that according to some announcements, the new reorganisation will abolish the office of a joint spokesperson and that each member of the Presidency would appoint his own spokesperson. Avaz pg. 8 ‘The budget for state institutions adopted’ – that the BiH Presidency held an extraordinary session in Banja Luka during which they adopted the budget for state institutions for the year 2003. “The adoption of the budget ensures the continuity of the stand-by arrangement with the IMF,” said Anto Domazet, Minister of Treasury. Avaz pg. 1 and 9 – asks whether BiH might be facing a social rebellion following the months long strikes of workers who have been left jobless after their companies were privatised. “It is at our door step,” is a warning by Edhem Biber, the President of the BiH Union. |
OHR/International Community | |
| Reactions to HR’s initiatives
PDHR Hays on VAT
OHR campaign
Refugee settlement in Glogova | Nezavisne Novine pg. 5 ‘RS economists support OHR and CAFAO measures regarding fight against grey economy’ – the daily quoted Professor Rajko Tomas from the Banja Luka School of Economics, who stated that the assessments made recently by HR and CAFAO Head were nothing new. He explained that many analyses had been conducted and that the local authorities had been warned many times that money, which belonged to public institutions, ended up in hands of criminals. “I wrote some studies about tax evasion. Our authorities did not want to take my advice, I think therefore that the IC’s help in tackling the issue would do us good,” stated Tomas. Former RS Finance Minister, Novak Kondic, said that everything that Bisic and Ivanic had been doing for the past two years did not bring expected results. “I think that High Representative is making the right decision”, said Kondic. He said that High Representative was right when he said that the fight against the crime was the most important thing in BiH. He also said that Ashdown had the right to make radical moves and that only he could include all BiH citizens into a joint front against crime and Mafia. Blic pg. 7 ‘Consent of the entities and state is needed’ – “BiH will have reformed customs and single VAT but only under the condition that they get support from the entity and state, as well as from admin people who work directly on that,” PDHR Donald Hays said. Hays emphasised that if by the end of the month a decision was made on which level VAT would be introduced, and if an agreement on structure was achieved, BiH might have VAT on state level in 2004. He did not want to speculate whether this would be decided by HR Paddy Ashdown if the above mentioned things did not happen. “That is not an OHR issue, but for domestic politicians who have to take over responsibility for the health of the country,” Hays said. “How VAT is going to look like and how it will function – that is a concept that will get the consent from the entities and state,” Hays explained. He said that VAT would replace the sales tax, and that revenues collected from it would belong to entities, and due to that it was important that money was collected and distributed on all levels (entities, municipalities, cantons). Therefore, a system that would enable that revenues collected from VAT are returned to places where they belong to must be created. “This country is facing a financial crisis. If we do not find a way out of that, if we do not introduce a joint customs, VAT and some other mechanisms then we will not be able to avoid a big catastrophe,” Hays claims. “Citizens of both entities will manage the VAT, because it will be established in the way that money will go back directly to the entities,” Hays said. Oslobodjenje pg. 5 ‘Business in my street’ – the daily informs of a very successful ‘Business in my street’ series in OHR production, which were broadcast on the FTV and RTRS. As of Monday, the series will be broadcast on 23 regional and local stations in BiH. The OHR aims to show that a good idea can be realised and how to succeed. Vecernje Novosti pg. 11 ‘Church donated the office forbade’ – OHR has stopped the construction of houses in Glogova near Bratunac. The land was given by the Orthodox Church Municipality Kravica to refugees and DPs who do not have place where to return, because their property was destroyed during the war. That same OHR on 19 April this year allowed the exchange of land between ‘Srpske Sume’ SG ‘Jasenik’ from Bratunac and Kravica’s Orthodox Church. But decision of 22 November 2002 reads that on the basis of complaints of several Bosniaks from local community Glogova, the further construction is stopped, because Glogova is too close to future refugee settlement. OHR denies itself and makes opposing decisions for the same case. |