Peacefull rally of support for Brcko was held today in Sarajevo. Taking part in addressing to the people, BiH President Izetbegovic said: we will accept injustice for Brcko not today, not in five years, but never. We want to go to our homes, to houses from which we were forced out. I appeal from this place to Serbs living in Brcko, to return to Sarajevo and let Bosniaks return to their homes. Brcko municipality head, Jusufovic said: we ask for justice for more than 200.000 killed Bosnians, out of which almost 200.000 Bosniaks. We ask justice for our raped mothers, sisters and daughters, for killed veterans, and invalids. From all the things there is one we do not want, we cannot and we will not allow Brcko go to the RS. Such decision would be the strongest support to the Karadjordevo agreement between Milosevic and Tudjman.
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NATO Secretary General Solana visited Brcko, along with Generals Clark, Shinseki and Ellis, meeting with Supervisor Farrand deputies and IPTF representatives, and afterwards with the head people of the Brcko multi-ethnic administration. Solana said that the joint team in Brcko has done a very good job, and that he told them that a very important decision will be made in the days to follow, and that they will have the decision to implement and to maintain the peace and order, no matter what the decision was. Brcko Mayor said he does not know what the decision will be, but it will be implemented in a complete order.
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Solana also met with the RS President Pavsic and RS Prime Minister Dodik in Banja Luka. Solana said that he asked Plavsic to keep being constructive no matter the decision. As Plavsic said, she expects that the decision will not be of such a nature to initiate new disorder in the region.
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The body of the late BiH Army General, Mustafa Hajrulahovic Talijan was transferred to Sarajevo. About thousand friends, relatives and colleagues met the plane with Hajrulahovic’s body. Hajrulahovic’s burial will be held tomorrow, and due to the religious honorable escort rally from Gazi-Husrevbeg’s Mosque to Alipasa’s Mosque, the traffic in Ferhadija and Titova streets will be closed from 13h to 15h.
3:00
CoM held a session today, discussing the implementation of the Law on CoM, but with no agreement. CoM also discussed the Memorandum of Understanding between the CoM and International Monetary Fund, and it was concluded that the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade should prepared the documents for signing as soon as possible. The text of the draft Law on Privatization was not on the agenda today. CoM Vice-chairman Tomic commented on withdrawal of the US credit, saying that Tomic has never refused anything, but because of the discordance of this contract with the Law on Trade and the Law on Foreign Debts, the conclusion was that the Ministry of Foreign Trade should prepare the text of the contract. The US Embassy announced that the US Government withdrawn the proposal with explanation that he term for commencing the agreement expired.
2:00
BiH Federation HoR adopted the draft Law on Abolishing the Law on Temporary Abandoned Apartments. The law was adopted in the form proposed by the Government and adopted by the HoR. The Law will become legislative a day after being issued in BiH Official Gazette.
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BiH Federation held a session, discussing the matter of budget. The budget was decided to be 895 million DEM.
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Serbian delegation for negotiations with Kosovo Albanians arrived to Pristina this morning, but did not hold any talks, since Albanian leaders refused to negotiate. The Belgrade TV announced this visit in last night’s news, saying that the Government of Serbia thus appeals on Albanians to negotiate.
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*Turn the Page US Special Envoy Gelbard, said that US does not support independent Kosovo. Kosovo future is within the FRY borders. In this context the US Government is ready to increase the pressure on Milosevic to make a higher level of autonomy for Kosovo Albanians. Asked if Kosovo Liberation Army is a terrorist organization, Gelbard answered that the State Department does not have it on its terrorist organizations list, but that they did terrorist acts.
2:00
HR deputy Schumacher held a press conference. The main issues were the forthcoming elections and implementation of the previous ones. Schumacher said that despite intensive mediating of OSCE and OHR, political parties in some municipalities still did not reach the agreement on joint authorities and administration. Hence, OHR and OSCE passed several obligatory decisions for some municipalities. OSCE representative said that OSCE Provisional Election Committee issued certificates for 120 out of 136 municipalities in BiH for implementation of the election results, and that the HR Westendorp and OSCE made arbitration decisions for eight municipalities.
2:00
OHR spokeswoman, Byrne said that HR Westendorp again used his authority to pass the Law on Foreign investments. Byrne said that this decision was made after several foreign investors asked for a legitimate framework in order to invest in BiH, after which the HR decided that delay of this law is unacceptable. Byrn also expressed the protest of the HR because of statements of the BiH Parliament delegation in London, in accordance to which, millions of DEM disappeared. It was said that OHR representatives who monitored international aid are assured that most of the aid was adequately used and that it could not end in the pockets of the Government officials, chiefs of Mafia and criminals, as claimed by the London delegation. Byrne added that local authorities in BiH misconduct the donations, directing the money of taxes, smuggling and otherwise, through illegal state institutions, as published in the CAFAO report.
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