| BH TV 1 (19:00 hrs) | FED TV (19:30 hrs) | RT RS (19:30) |
| Reg. cooperation summit | Indictment against FRY | Gacko power plant probs. |
| Croat Association ‘Danica’ | Border crossings | Bulldozer initiative results |
| Capljina farmers’ threat | Israel conflicts | New conflict in Middle East |
| Israel conflict |
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Due to reception problems, the Herzeg-Bosna bulletin was not recorded.
| Oslobodjenje | Pope is coming to the people, not the authorities; Dizdarevic – the Agreement with the US has no justification; Bond and Vrbosic visited the Mir village |
| Dnevni Avaz | Veteran’s pensions up to 1,700 KM; Tihic – we will not give up the law suit against FRY; Bond and Vrbosic cleaned houses of returnees; SBiH on the establishment of the HNK govt – the Serb caucus should give a name for a minister; Ismailovski rented a receiver to the Eronet; |
| Dnevni List | Be people who trust in word that God gave us; Paddy Ashdown is disclosing scandal in the HNK government; Adnan Terzic – tangible results of the Bulldozer process have been demanded |
| Vecernji List | Pope in Rijeka – seriously reconsider the issues of housing, employment, divorce and non-working Sunday; Stone from Old Bridge for mosques |
| Slobodna Dalmacija | Pope called on young people to be people of bliss |
| Glas Srpske | Property of the Orthodox Church in Sarajevo – not returning what has been taken away; Final hour for smugglers |
| Nezavisne Novine | 54 persons in prison due to economic crime cases; ERS Union on how the private frims destroyed RiTE ‘Gacko’ – in debts with a blessing of the authorities |
| Blic | Census slows down joining to the EU; Mladen Ivanic – BiH and RS could fulfil all requests for the Partnership |
Political Affairs | |
| UNDP survey
| BHTV at 19:00 hrs by Mirela Cosic – the UNDP will hold a press conference today, and announce the results of the first comprehensive survey on the effectiveness of the public administration. High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, is going to open the conference with the question ‘can BiH afford its government’. In his interview, given to the BHTV1 15 days ago, Ashdown said the following. “I’ll tell you something, two thirds of all the taxes BiH citizens pay are spent on the administration and only one third on other expenses. It means that BiH pays more on authorities than the US. We cannot afford to spend that much on politicians”. RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Zeljka Dragicevic – HR Ashdown thinks Bosnia-Herzegovina has an outdated, irresponsible and ineffective administration. It also has too many employees, cannot pay its workers and does not serve the citizens. Ashdown is to speak about the state service work tomorrow at a UNDP organized conference in Sarajevo. Avaz pg. 2 ‘BiH spending 64% of the national income spent on politicians and administration’ – also on today’s press conference where UNDP will present results of their survey on the civil administration and that HR would attend the conf. Dnevni List pg. 1 and 5 – the HR will point out ‘a true scandal in this country’s governments’, particularly in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, where doctors, teachers and others are desperately trying to do their jobs and are not paid their salaries, while politicians get paid, but do not do their jobs. |
| Dizdarevic on the Agreement with the US | BHTV at 19:00 hrs by FENA – Head of the Helsinki Committee in BiH, Srdjan Dizdarevic, gave an interview to FENA agency, and commented on the signing of the bilateral non-extradition Agreement with the US. He says it is an act free of any legal, political and moral justification. Legally, BiH, as a signer of the Rome Statute, supports the existence of the ICC, and politically the EU has determined stands that candidates for the membership are supposed to respect when signing such agreements. Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 5 – also carried the interview. Dizdarevic thinks that the signing of the Agreement represents a flagrant breach of earlier taken international obligations. As for the issue of 19 Sarajevo special police forces members, he stated that the UN refused to review the case, which tells us that the vanity of the IC is stronger then proclaimed principles. On the issue of the return process, Dizdarevic stated that the absence of the political understanding that the return is the key to everything and a main condition for stabilizing and normalizing the situation in the country was very worrying. Dnevni List pg. 8 ‘Vanity of the IC stronger than proclaimed principles’ – Dizdarevic believes that BiH’s consent to sign the bilateral Agreement on the exemption of the US citizens from the International Criminal Court jurisdiction is an act deprived of every valid, legal, political and moral justification. “Signing of this Agreement is an example of obvious violation of commitments that were taken over previously.” |
| Omerovic on HNK govt
| Avaz pg. 1 and 4 – the agreement on the establishment of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) government still has not been reached between the HDZ and SDA, despite the fact that the HR issued a deadline by Wednesday this week. Safet Omerovic, President of the SBiH cantonal council in the HNK, stated that his party agreed that a Serb rep be nominated by the Serb caucus. The daily claims that Deputy cantonal PM in technical mandate, Miroslav Coric, stated that if the SDA did not want to form the government then they would do that with the SBiH, HDZ and other Croat parties. |
| SDA and HNK govt
| Jutarnje Novine‘It is possible for the SDA not to participate in the authority’ – the SDA Presidency is going to hold today an emergency session during which the stands that this party will take regarding the issue of the Herzegovina-Neretva cantonal government will be discussed. “The basic principle that the SDA follows in the process of forming of the authority is that none party has majority. The party will have to pass some decision during the session and this means that it is possible that we decide that the SDA does not participate in the forming of the authority in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton… We are willing to reach a compromises when they are possible, however, if the agreement is damaging, first of all, for Bosniak and Serb people and then for the SDA credibility, than it is very difficult to reach the compromise,” stated SDA Vice President, Elmir Jahic. |
| Interview with Raguz
| Vecernji List pg. 11 – an interview with Deputy Chairman of the BiH House of Representatives Martin Raguz. With regard to the draft Law on Primary and Secondary Education that the HoR adopted last week, Raguz said that this Law incorporated all-important guidelines for the protection of Croat language and cultural interests. “We can say that our basic demands for correction of the offered Law were adopted. Crucial amendments that refer to the use of language, religious instructions, specifying of competent authority bodies in the education system etc. were adopted.” With regard to the Agreement with the US, Raguz said the following. “It should be said that we have not applied all EU guidelines for signing the Agreement with the US. Now, in bilateral negotiations with the EU, we have to make a distinction between the two things, that is, the specific position of BiH and the true goal to become a part of the European family.” |
| Mostar city council session | Oslobodjenje pg. 4 ‘Declaring position on eight Ashdown’s priorities’ – the Mostar City Council to hold a session today where the most interesting agenda point will be a report on the work of the Commission for the Devising Mostar City Statute. Milan Jovicic, Vice-President of the Mostar City Council, stated that they expected a serious discussion on the issue of the Commission, which was requested to take a position on eight principles set out as priorities by the HR. |
| Interview with Djokic | Nezavisne Novine pg. 6 ‘Mafia structures founded during the war times still exist’ – Petar Djokic, President of the Republika Srpska Socialist Party, is of the view that the Republika Srpska authority has a poltroon approach towards the international community. He also stresses that because of the people with the war past, the Republika Srpska authority is silently approving the centralisation of the Republika Srpska institutions and their inclusion into state level institutions. “There will be less and less Republika Srpska as long as the SDS, PDP and SDA are on reign. The relevant people in authority management have serious problems with war past and fear of responsibility.” |
| Interview with Ivanic | Blic pg. 2 & 3 ‘BiH has not change for better its bad image in the world’ – “The biggest problem of BiH is still its bad image in the international frames. When someone mentions BiH the first impression is instability, conflicts, political dilemmas, which makes difficult for foreign capital income and economic progress. That has to be changed,” Mladen Ivanic, BiH Foreign Minister, told Blic. He says that some political options, mostly Bosniaks, insist on further centralisation, constitutional changes, which creates instability of legal system and again makes difficult for foreign investors. “When it comes to political problems in the Republika Srpska, I would say that this entity is under pressure of reducing roles and transferring competences to the state level. We have the requests for changing the Constitution and for another international conference on BiH. People have to understand that BiH is not interesting anymore for international institutions and that no one serious in the world thinks about an international conference on BiH because this country is strategically and politically solved for the international institutions and it is up to us to agree and solve problems,” Ivanic says. Speaking about tax and customs reforms in BiH, Ivanic says that he has not changed his previous stands, but solutions will be different. He says that at the beginning it was foreseen that all revenues from VAT would come to one account, firstly to pay all outside obligations toward joint institutions and then according to some formulas the rest of revenues would be divided to the entities. “That will not be a solution, but distribution of revenues will be according to the principle of final consumer. That part will belong to an entity. When it comes to the customs, principle of place of importer will be used – if the Republika Srpska is the importer then excises and customs duties go to that entity.” Speaking about defence system’s reform, Ivanic says that the aim of BiH and Republika Srpska is to become a part of the Partnership for Peace. “The requests are not too big and can be fulfilled. They include the strengthening of a body we already have, the Standing Committee for Military Issues, and formation of a joint command that will have competences for three key issues already harmonised – in the case of aggression on BiH, natural disasters and peace missions. For me that is acceptable, but entities’ ministries of defence and armies HQs must stay. That is logical, rational and real and satisfies the interests and needs of NATO and BiH Constitution.” |
Economic Affairs | |
| Gacko power plant losses
| RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Biljana Bokic – according to the report of the working group on the RS Elektroprivreda, the primary cause of losses and debts of the Gacko power plant, amounting to 100 million KM, are suspicious business arrangements. The Union asked the company in 1999 to explain reasons for hiring outside contractors, how were they paid and how much did the company owe them. However, the management replied only that the Union should not interfere with the business policy. The Union claims the Gacko power plant could’ve replaced its old machinery for the amount of money paid to outside contractors – companies which were, according to some sources, in general owned by former RS officials or former Gacko power plant and mine directors. |
| Hidrogradnja | RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Zeljka Dragicevic – the ‘Hidrogradnja’ company from Serb Sarajevo announced today that the Gacko power plant never recognized a debt of about 13 million KM to this company. The RS government used this as an argument for withdrawing approval for the privatisation of ‘Hidrogradnja’. |
| Bulldozer Commission | RTRS at 19:30 hrs by Vanja Filipovic – the establishment of the Bulldozer Commission initiated for the first time wider economic development in BiH. The Commission was established in November 2002. About 500 BiH businessmen identified about 50 obstacles to economic development, foreign investment and new jobs in BiH. 187 identified problems were presented to the entities and sent for a parliamentary procedure. Still, some businessmen are not satisfied over some reforms not being used in practice and some missed deadlines. “I can understand impatience of our businessmen, but what is most important is that there’s will at all level of BiH to make the changes,” RS President, Dragan Mikerevic, said. The OHR is satisfied with the results the Bulldozer initiative has achieved so far. “The dialogue was the most important issue in the whole bulldozer process. In the first part, dialogue was achieved between the businessmen and politicians. In that situation, the OHR was only a factor which brought them together,” said OHR Spokesperson, Vedran Persic. |
| RS privatisation of commercial spaces | RTRS at 19:30 by Vesna Cibic – the RS is due to start the process of privatisation of the commercial spaces, such as business buildings, spaces and garages. According to the RS government, the legal framework for this process should be in place by the end of this month. Despite this, there are doubts that there will be space for the embezzlements. The RS government says that this privatisation is due to bring funds into housing fund, which will represents an initial accumulation for solving citizen’s housing problems. |
| DL on the Bulldozer
| Dnevni List pg. 1 and 6 – the High Representative’s Bulldozer process started with its second phase. DL says that thanks to the Bulldozer process the economy took priority over politics in the agendas of the state and political bodies. DL goes on to say that nevertheless these obvious efforts and progresses are being exhausted in the creation of a general framework for the economy and business and some concrete and encouraging signs are missing. According to the daily, 10 far-reaching reform measures and moves should be promoted during this phase and they should be concrete and their results tangible. In the conclusion it reads that the advantage of the Bulldozer process over all other similar campaigns is, first of all, the fact that all relevant factors are present there, namely BiH businessmen, experts from the area of economy, all local governments and representatives of the IC. |
| Economic crime cases | Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 & 3 ‘54 persons are serving sentence for economic crime’ – 54 persons are serving sentences for economic crime at prisons across the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This information was obtained from the ministries in charge in two BiH entities. Out of this figure, four persons are serving sentences in the Republika Srpska, whilst the rest is serving the sentence in the FBiH. Ahmo Elezovic from the Criminal Sanctions Sector at the FBiH Ministry of Justice says that the percentage of those convicted for economic crime in this BiH entity never has never exceeded 1% of the total number of the convicts. According to him, ‘the number of those convicted for economic crime varies because the convicts sometimes just serve the sentence of two to three months and then leave’. |
| RS Elektroprivreda | Nezavisne Novine pg. 1 & 5 ‘In debts with the blessing of the authority’ – Branko Djurdjevic, President of the RS Elektroprivreda Union, claims that private firms could not have engaged in digging coal, barren soil and facility maintenance of Mine and Thermal Power Plant (RiTe) ‘Gacko’ without the knowledge of the authority officials. He stressed that four big damages occurred at the RiTe Gacko over the past couple of years during which nobody responded and reacted at all. |
| Mikerevic on the RS economic policy | Nezavisne Novine pg. 4 ‘The government will not change its course on economy’ – Dragan Mikerevic, Republika Srpska Prime Minister, firmly claims that the Republika Srpska government will continue with the same economic policy regardless of the fact whether the RS NA supports or not the document on bases of the economic policy. On Friday session, MP’s did not support the government’s document on the bases for economic policy for this year. Mikerevic is of the view that the reason for non-adoption of the document is the fact that an insufficient number of MP’s attended the session during the voting. Milorad Dodik, SNSD President, stresses that non-adoption of such an important document means that the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska does not any longer trust the Republika Srpska government. Therefore, the government should resign. |
Police Affairs | |
| Donation for the BiH SBS | FTV at 19:30 hrs by Mirza Sadikovic – 50 million KM have been donated for the construction of some 10-border crossings in BiH. Funds are provided by the EU, World Bank and the Federation budget. Even so, opinions are opposite. Does BiH need such an investments for border crossings? Director of the Federation Customs Administration, Zelimir Rebac, says a country must have a control over borders in order to be respected. Later on, when accepted by the EU, borders can become irrelevant. |
Media Affairs | |
| DL on FTV
| Referring to the request by Mate Bandur, an HDZ-HNZ-CCD Deputy in the FBiH Parliament, made at the latest FBiH HoP session, that this House should be submitted the national structure of all employees in all the media, particularly at the FTV and its correspondent offices in Mostar, Tuzla, Zenica, Bihac etc., Dnevni List (pg. 3 ‘Establish the national structure of FTV employees’ by Miso Relota) declines the claims by Bosniak intellectuals and media that Bosniaks are subjected to croatisation via FTV as unfounded. Relota says that Croat(ian) expressions can be heard at the FTV every now and then only, which is not sufficient to satisfy the interests of Croats in BiH. That is why it is necessary for BiH Croats to have news program of their own, as there is a realistic danger of younger generations of Croats to start speaking some unnatural mixture of languages. It is necessary to find the best way, but not a radical one, of how Croats could get what they are guaranteed by the Constitution. Relota also finds it important to get the good quality, accurate and objective information from the field – unless one’s intention is to present a people in BiH as Satan-like. The article again reminds of poor media coverage of Herzegovina, adding that things at both the FTV & RTV RS will have to be changed and that the BHTV should be built on the constitutional equality principle. |
Visits | |
| Pope’s visit
| BHTV at 19:00 hrs by Marina Boskovic – fra Petar Andjelovic, Guardian of the St. Anto Monastery in Sarajevo, on Sunday addressed the Circle 99, Association of Intellectuals. He said Pope was coming on 22 June to visit all the people in BiH despite their ethnicity or religion. “Pope is not visiting political authorities that invited him, since that would mean his approval of the current political situation. If Pope’s message on peace and reconciliation is to be understood properly, we can all have benefit from his visit,” said Andjelovic. Oslobodjenje pg. 1 and 7 – during his opening speech at the Circle 99 Sunday session, fra Andjelovic said that Pope was coming for the people of BiH and not the BiH authorities or the local Church hierarchies. FTV at 19:30 hrs by Ognjen Blagojevic – “If Pope’s message on peace and reconciliation is to be understood properly, we can all benefit from his visit,” said fra Andjelovic. The statement was also reported in Avaz on pg. 4 ‘Pope coming to BiH for ordinary people’. |
Education Affairs | |
| A strike in Livno Canton
| FTV at 19:30 hrs by Bosiljka Stipic – as of tomorrow, all secondary and elementary schools in the Livno Canton are on general strike. Negotiations with the cantonal government have failed and teachers’ demands have not been fulfilled. Syndicates demand the signing of a collective contract and the payment of all delayed salaries and benefits. |
Fight against Crime | |
| DL on the US ‘black list’
| Dnevni List pg. 5 ‘Bond: If BiH authorities believe that parallel action is necessary then they should take it by themselves’ – none of the BiH authority representatives have reacted even after a few days passed following the issuing of the US ‘black list’. BiH Minister of Justice, Slobodan Kovac, stated that he received the aforementioned list only a few days ago. Kovac also said that he did not know the reasons due to which these persons were on the list since no explanation had been given with the names. “BiH Security Minister, Barisa Colak, received the same list. The two of us have already agreed to think of some activities that should be made in the coming period.” The US Ambassador, Clifford Bond, stated that it was not his responsibility to tell the BiH authorities what should be done when the aforementioned list was in question. He claims that the US cannot give more explanation about the persons from the list because this is about internal American acting. Head of the EC delegation in BiH, Michael Humphreys, said that he could not say what activities they were taking when the EU list was in question. He added that, among other things, they would also pay attention to financial transactions. |
| Spiric on the ‘black list’ | Dnevni List pg. 5 ‘Authorities unready to sanction criminals’ and Vecernji List pg. 8 ‘The BiH authorities on list of persons to who entrance to USA was banned’ – a senior SNSD official, Nikola Spiric, stated that he regretted the fact that the BiH authorities could not get the list that the US government published by themselves. Spiric added that he also regretted that the BiH authorities were not ready to react even after they received the list. “It is about high-ranked people who are suspected of crime and corruption or of giving financial support to war crime suspects. This means that this authority shows an absolute incapability to cope with something that represents a problem in BiH -which is crime and corruption at a higher level.” |