16 September 97, 19:30
Sarajevo/Lukavica – Separate sessions of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the House of Peoples (HoP) of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly were held today. The contracts between BiH and the World bank were ratified by both bodies of the Parliament. The first contract refers to US$39 million for transportation renewal, while the other one for the amount of $11 million is for the education programme. The Law on the official BiH Gazette was also unanimously adopted. Also, the chairmen of the following commissions were elected: Legal Rights and Constitution; International and Foreign Affairs; Customs and Foreign Trade; Budget and Finances; Human Rights and Refugee Asylum; Transportation and Communications; and Administration Matters. The commissions were elected for both bodies of the Parliament.
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Sarajevo – The HoR session adopted the Law on Changes and Supplements of the Law on Customs. This law repeals the customary exemptions for refugees, returnees and members of the BiH Army. The Law on Salary Taxes was also adopted. HoR Chairman Kreso reminded participants of HR Westendorp’s letter which refers to the draft Law on telecommunications. In his letter, Westendorp said that this draft contained many matters that were not within the BiH regulations framework. However, this law was also adopted. HoR also adopted the working programme of the Commission for investigating donation misuse.
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Sarajevo – OSCE spokesman Foley announced that OSCE Ambassador Frowick has repealed the EASC decision to declare the Pale SDS election list as invalid. Foley explained that Frowick repealed the EASC decision because it jeopardised the safety of IC personnel in RS, and also because of his belief that similar rallies such as those in Banja Luka and Brcko might happen again. Foley added that the EASC decision had been made because of Karadzic’s obvious influence on the SDS party, but that Frowick, despite this act, did not change the opinion about Karadzic. Frowick himself explained his decision saying that the EASC decision had been brought only a day after the elections, and with no consideration for the safety of IC supervisors in RS. Frowick added that his decision was supported by US Ambassador Kauzlarich, and US Special Envoy Gelbard, as well as the all IC representatives in BiH. Frowick also said that the decision had been brought in order to protect the elections integrity, and to assure the progress in election results implementation. Frowick also discussed the agreement between OSCE, HDZ Mostar and Croatian President Tudjman, concerning the elections in Mostar. Frowick expressed his concern that some HDZ leaders were trying to obstruct the implementation of the agreement.
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Mostar – OHR Chief for Mostar Garrod also discussed this agreement, clearly saying that the concept of joint Croat municipalities project in Mostar was abandoned. OSCE chief for Mostar Joseph refused to publish any election results today, saying that they were still incomplete.
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Sarajevo – The HDZ party election board addressed a protest letter to Frowick and EASC Supreme Judge Finn Lynghjem for, as claimed, irregularities of voters records in polling centre 057A999 in the Drvar municipality. The letter claims that many of the voters in this polling centre voted without proper personal documents and without personal registry numbers, and some also signed as students from Belgrade.
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Jajce – HDZ municipality election board addressed a protest letter to Frowick in regard to registration of voters in absence who were not on the election lists in 1991. The announcement further said that Croat voters were disabled to vote, and that the gentlemen from the OSCE refused to acknowledge their protest.
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Travnik – 28 673 persons voted, out of 34 125 registered. The largest amount of votes was won by the Coalition for Democratic and United BiH(CDUBH), followed by HDZ and SDP.
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Konjic – According to unofficial results, the CDUBH won 41.8% votes, Bosnian Patriot’s Party 33.6%, SDP 10.7%, and HDZ 5.7%.
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Sarajevo – HDZ for BiH asked for the resignation of HDZ President Rajic for, as said, some catastrophic acts and mistakes done just before the Mostar elections. Objections were also addressed to the HDZ election board because of unsatisfactory results of the elections. Zagreb is also unsatisfied with BiH HDZ, because of some mistakes and the bad rating of HDZ in Mostar.
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Sarajevo – The Alternative Ministry Council (AMC) presented the unofficial results of the elections. According to their results, the Joint List and SDP won more votes in Tuzla and some other municipalities than the last year. AMC representative Ivankovic expressed his satisfaction with the success of the Independent Social Democrats in Srbac and Laktasi, as well as with the failure of the SDS party in Bosanska Krajina.
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Sarajevo – The Helsinki Human Rights Commission announced that the elections in BiH were not held in democratic and fair conditions, which was proven by the limited freedom of movement, disabling the opposition parties, unequal media approach and the presence of war criminals. HHRC accused leading parties of threatening people and disabling the refugees from voting.
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Bihac – After finishing the exhumation, the identification of 87 Bosniak victims from “Bezdan” mass grave began today. About 100 relatives and friends of the victims came to look for their closest ones in white plastic bags, remains of clothes, shoes, buttons. Nine victims were identified today.
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Sarajevo – On the occasion of U2, the Irish music band concert, the meeting of the organisation board was held today, chaired by BiH President Izetbegovic. Present at the meeting were: CoM Co-chairman Silajdzic, Federal Prime-Minister Bicakcic, Refugee Minister Kadic, Sarajevo Canton Prime-Minister Dahic and U2 manager Clinger. OSCE Ambassador Frowick was also present as well as the representatives of OHR, SFOR and IPTF. It was agreed that this concert is a World-important manifestation that will show Sarajevo at it’s best.
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