BiH Presidency held a session today. The Presidency approved opening of the US Diplomatic Offices in Banja Luka and Mostar, opening of the British Diplomatic Office in Banja Luka, and opening of Poland General Consular Section. The Presidency also determined BiH FA Minister Prlic to sign the agreement on establishing the Coucil for Cooperation between BiH and Croatia.
2:00
CoM members held a session in Sarajevo. Verification of the CoM law implementation was postponed again. This delay was the reason to open a discussion about resignations of all ministers and their deputies. As said by CoM Co-chairman Silajdzic, this was a proposal by HR deputy Schumacher to discuss the implementation of this law at the next session.
2:00
Silajdzic addressed a letter to HR Westendorp, in which he demands him to protect the legislature and statehood in the privatisation process in BiH. Silajdzic also asked from Prime Ministers, Bicakcic and Dodik to take steps within their authority to cease the privatisation and capitalisation, while all the documents in this regard are revisited.
1:00
Russian FA Minister visited Banja Luka, meeting with the RS President Plavsic and the Prime Minister Dodik. Primakov said that Russia is ready to take more activities in BiH, and also expressed Russian standpoint regarding Kosovo, saying that solution for the crisis must be found within Serbia and Yugoslavia. Primakov also said that refugee return is one of the main problems and that everything should be done for the return of those who wish to, the second measure is compensation and the third, exchange of property.
2:00
British democratic leader Ashdown began his testifies before the Hague Tribunal. Ashdown said that on May 6 1996, he had a dinner with Croatian delegation, led by Tudjman on the occasion of 50 years anniversary of winning over fascism. He asked Tudjman then what the former Yugoslavia areas will look like in 10 years. Tudjman then drew an outlined picture of Bosnia on a menu, splitting it in half with an “S” curve, and saying that everything on the West side will be in Croatia, and everything on the East will be in Serbia. Tudjman then said that there would be no Bosnia and that Moslems will be insignificant part of the Croatian Federation, besides, Moslems are only Croats and Serbs, too weak to resist Turks. Ashdown also said he was shocked with strength of racists quotes in Tudjman’s approach to Moslems, and that Tudjman mentioned Izetbegovic the same night, calling him fundamentalist and an Algerian in Bosnia.
2:30
Predrag Kostic, indicted for war crimes and a guard of the “Omarska” camp, was arrested yesterday in Northern Italy by Carabinieri.
0:30
Tension in Kosovo grows each now and then. Today, a group of Serbian civilians attacked peaceful Albanian demonstrators and international reporters. Police intervened hence preventing the bloodshed. After Albanian, a new protest was held, organised by Serbian Students Associations.
2:00
Exhumations continued at the Balinovac locality. According to Masovic, 19 more bodies were exhumed today, including two minors, one of which is a several moths old baby. 71 bodies were exhumed so far. (BiH TV brought yesterday’s footage with the presence of HR deputy Klein).
2:00
Federation Government held a session in Mostar, determining the fore draft of the Law on Federal Reserves, and accepted the fore draft of the Federation Criminal Law, as well as the fore draft of the Law on Criminal Procedure.
2:00
Swiss Minister of Justice and Police, Kohler visited BiH today. Kohler informed Silajdzic about current refugee situation in Switzerland and the plans for return of BiH refugees.
1:30
BiH TV made a public announcement with demand to speed up the transformation of the BiH TV. At the Main Board session, held with the presence of OHR representative Kameda, and the President of the BiH Independent Syndicate, Hrle, it was stressed that the RTV BiH should remain unified, multi-national and non-party oriented.
1:00