BiH parliamentary House of Representatives adopted the draft bill on the 1999 budget. The session, which is to continue tomorrow, also adopted the government’s programme of work with majority vote.
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The RS Parliament adopted the Intelligence Law, following a debate behind closed doors. It was agreed that the Intelligence and Secret Service head be appointed by the Government, but with President’s consent. TV BiH next labelled as “important” the adoption of the Law on Construction Land. The law prevents local authorities from allocating the land, privately owned by either refugees or religious institutions, to other persons or institutions free of charge.
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Supreme NATO Commander for Europe, General Wesley Clark and the High Representative told a press conference in Sarajevo today that they expect the BiH Presidency to publicize, as soon as possible, their plan on reciprocal return of 6,000 refugee families. The plan was originally supposed to be publicized on February 28.
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SFOR will have no role to play in case of eventual NATO bombing of Serbia, General Clark told a press conference in Brcko today. TV BiH emphasized his statement saying that BiH is a different country (from Serbia), burdened with different problems.
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The international news bloc opened with Kosovo-related news – the bloc included three brief reports. The first reported that the Yugoslav Army was continuing the offensive along the border with Albania and Macedonia, thus forcing thousands of ethnic Albanians out of their homes. Unspecified agency reports were used as a source for this statement. Simultaneously, Special Envoys Hill and Petrich were again presented with the Yugoslav authorities’ intolerant views (Yugoslavia keeps on rejecting the possibility of NATO presence in the troubled province). The third report focused on the OSCE Head of Mission, Vollebaek’s meeting with Rugova in Pristina. According to the statement from the meeting, Albanians are carefully reviewing the peace proposal.
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The newscast ended with two brief pieces of information – Hungarian Airlines, Malev, introduced the line between Sarajevo and Budapest; secondly, the establishment of railway cargo traffic between BH and Serbia is expected to happen next week.
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