OHR BiH TV News Summary, 28 February 1999

Despite many verbal warnings that NATO will severely reply to possible Serbian offensives in Kosovo, today’s reports show that attacks and accumulations of Yugoslav Army continued in north Kosovo, RTV BiH said. Yugoslav authorities halted eight OSCE vehicles today at the Yugoslav-Macedonian border, OSCE spokesperson said. Shelling and fighting continued in north of Kosovo today. ‘ Brcko Supervisor Farrand held a press conference, speaking about arbitration decision for the future of this town. Farrand said that this decision should be final, and its possible making should be accepted by all concerned parties, for foreign investments for Brcko economy revival will depend on responsible approach to the decision, RTV BiH anchor reported. Asked by journalists whether this decision will be final, Farrand said “final” is a hard word, but that the time is for the final decision.
2:00

US Embassy made an announcement and praised decision from the recent Presidency session to establish the working group, which will present the plan on return of 6000 refugees to their homes in Mostar, Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
1:30

Croatian President Tudjman’s advisor, Pasalic said that decision of the Federation Parliament to exclude from the agenda ratification of the Agreement on Special Relations actually means refusal of this ratification. Pasalic said that Croatian Government is concerned because this could bring the Peace Implementation process under the question, that is, it could cease the Washington and Dayton agreements implementation.
1:30

Turkish press reported a part of Kurdish leader Ocalan confession that Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Romania and Iran were supporting Kurdish People’s Party. Ocalan said that FRY was providing Kurds with weapons.
1:00

The EBU Special Envoy Riva visited RTV BiH, meeting with RTV BiH management and discussing its development, current situation and future co-operation with “Eurovision”. In his interview, given to RTV BiH, Riva said he is satisfied with the RTV BiH programme and its development. Regarding the RTV BiH reconstruction, Riva said he hopes the process should be speeded in the future.
1:30

RTV BiH and the “Sodaso” detergent Company from Tuzla signed the annual contract on co-operation.
1:00

Mostar television “Erotel” submitted request for broadcasting license to the IMC. The request regards for TV and two radio programmes in Croatian language. The IMC financially sanctioned Croatian Radio-Station Mostar, due to violation of the code on impartial and ethic programme editing. RS Channel “S” was also sanctioned due to non-compliance with IMC requests and TV “Sveti Djordje” from Banja Luka was also financially sanctioned. Radio “Srpsko Sarajevo” was warned due to their mistakes, as well as TV “BN” from Bijeljina and Radio “Vlasenica” while NTV 99 was warned for improper presentation of the data on business of the Sarajevo Education Task Force.
1:30