Sarajevo – Sarajevo is host for one of the greatest music happenings in the region ever. Irish music band U2 gathered tens of thousands of young people at their concert tonight. Considering that BiH came out of the war just recently, this event represents not only a musical and cultural event, but also a political one. U2 frontman Bono Vox expressed his gratitude for lending the city to U2. He also hopes that U2 will treat the city much better than the rest of the world during the war. BiH President Izetbegovic received U2 members. At the occasion, Vox conveyed William Butler’s autobiography book to Izetbegovic as a present from U2. Izetbegovic expressed his hopes that the concert would fulfil the expectations of the band and of the public as well. Vox characterised Izetbegovic as a nice and kind person, repeating his words that BiH is a place where Islam and Christianity meet, and that it is the point of BiH itself.
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Sarajevo – Izetbegovic received UK Foreign Affairs Political Director deputy Rikkets and UK Ambassador Crawford. The subjects of conversation were the Sintra deadlines, media, elections etc.
Izetbegovic also received Indonesian delegation led by Indonesian Ambassador Hasan-Abdul-Hodz-Djelili. The delegation informed Izetbegovic about building of the mosque in Sarajevo, financed by Indonesian government.
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New York – BiH Foreign Affairs delegation led by Prlic and his deputies Zivalj and Bozanic are at the UN General Assembly. Their meetings with Turkish FA Minister and US Special Envoy Gelbard resulted in Turkish support for the DPA implementation, and an offer of US assistance in training of future BiH ambassadors. Prlic said that Turkey offered political and economic aid to all three sides in BiH. Prlic also said that Gelbard informed him about FRY President Milosevic’s readiness to recognise the State of BiH.
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Strasbourg – BiH delegation led by Federal Prime Minister Bicakcic participated in the work of the 4th European Council session. An ad hoc committee formed by the EC took part in supervising the elections to ensure that the elections were carried out in the correct manner. EC also considered a BiH delegation proposition that BiH should become permanent member of the EC.
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Mostar – At the regular press conference of the IC representatives, the main subject was the recent car-bomb explosion in Mostar, and its unanimous condemnation. Regional OHR chief Sir Garrod said that premature statements of some Bosniak and Croat officials had worsened the matter even further, and appealed to all to remain calm until the investigation was completed. UN spokesman in Mostar Moore condemned this unreasonable and cowardly act, but also refused to give any comment about the investigation results. Moore added that the IPTF commissar’s deputy had received additional guarantees by Canton Minister that their people would co-operate with IPTF on all levels.
Canton Police Minister deputy Dziho said that the talks on the joint investigation ceased because all sides had their own opinion of what a joint investigation actually is. This matter was also discussed at the meeting between the BiH officials and US Ambassador Kauzlarich, who supported the efforts for the joint investigation. Despite it all, Kauzlarich asked to proceed with Joint Police Forces establishment. Soon after, a meeting with IPTF representatives was held in the presence of Sir Garrod who said that only a few procedural problems had appeared and that he hoped both sides would overcome it within 24 hours. Dziho said that the main problem is Canton Police Minister Coric’s refusal to accept the Federation Minister’s decision on joint investigation.
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Sarajevo – The Croatian Embassy in Sarajevo refuted the announcement of BiH Foreign Affairs which reacted to the statements of Croat officials in BiH about the bomb explosion in Mostar. Croatian Embassy said that the announcement expressed the attitude of the Bosniak people only, which is in opposite to that of the BiH FA Ministry establishment. We point to the fact of one-sided political authority misuse, especially when it comes to the BiH FA Ministry. We also consider this announcement to be an attempt of mitigating some statements of BiH high officials who rushed to blame the Croats for the explosion in Mostar.
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Sarajevo – UN spokesman Ivanko said that the Her/Ner Canton Police Minister Coric will present the proposition for investigation of the recent terrorist act in Mostar. Ivanko said that this would be a joint investigation of Bosniak and Croat policemen, supervised by IPTF.
- Ivanko said that the newly named chief of police in Prnjavor pledged his allegiance to RS President Plavsic, and that the current situation in Prnjavor is rather calm.
- SFOR spokesman Riley said that the soldiers from multinational divisions Southwest and North have been allocated to the Prnjavor area in order to assist to IPTF. Riley said that SFOR has some indications that a military intervention might be expected. For all of this, SFOR allocated it’s soldiers and established check-points on the roads in order to supervise the situation.
- Ivanko said that IPTF has been informed about a heavy explosion in Doboj this morning.
Flash news – Ministry of Internal Affairs, loyal to Plavsic, formally took the authority over the police precinct in Prijedor.
- RS President Plavsic will arrive in Belgrade tomorrow at the invitation of FRY President Milosevic.
- Russian FA Minister Hrimakov guaranteed to US President Clinton that Russia would not oppose a suggestion to hold parliamentary elections in RS. Hrimakov said that Moscow supports the Bosnian Serbs who are progressive, and not the hard-liners.
- Turkish President Demirel said that Turkey would strongly support the independence and unity of BiH Federation. In his visit to Croatia, Demirel appealed to the Croatian Assembly to support the DPA implementation in BiH.
Brcko – Waiting for the election results, the displaced Brcko citizens are negotiating with Brcko authorities about the refugee return in this town. It was agreed to proceed with houses reparation which actually means that all the conditions for refugee return have been created. Refugee ID’s replacement was also agreed.
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Sarajevo – Federation Co-President Ganic addressed a letter to OSCE Ambassador Frowick, ICHR Westendorp, his deputy Klein, and Brcko supervisor Farrand, warning that the mistakes made by OSCE, in the election process in Brcko, might result in incorrect and unfair election results.
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