Los Angeles Times reported that US president Clinton was informed on existence of BiH secret service which is closely related to Iran. Therefore, US tried to cut off a connection pressuring BiH Government to replace deputy defence Minister Cengic, the papers report. However, the US Government spokesman denied it, whereas BiH Presidency rejected existence of any other secret service but the AID.
Brod village near Brcko – SFOR meeting – representatives of both entities agreed to respect and implement the Arbitration decision on Brcko without further conditioning. Brcko citizens association released a Resolution of Return which says that Brcko people will return to the town no matter what. They requested protection of culture values of the town, protection of private property and returnees from Tuzla Canton and the Federation Government.
2:00
Protocol news: President Izetbegovic and Presidency member Zubak met a delegation of the Council of Europe, and talked about relations between BiH and the Council, possibility that BiH becomes a full member of the Council, and freedom of media and expression. Izetbegovic said that those who should face the Hague Tribunal push the breaks of implementation of the joint institutions. BiH Foreign Ministry members met the Council delegation and talked about BiH request to become its full member.
2:00
Gajevi – four recently built Bosniak houses were destroyed last night. After they signed the agreement in Zvornik, the RS police accompanied by SFOR should guard Bosniak houses in the villages located in ZOS. Bosniaks who work on constructions do not stay overnight in the RS entity, which gives extremists a chance to destroy their work. BiH TV requests from the international community to do its best if not in protection the Bosniaks rights than for its own purposes if it doesn’t want to lose its dignity.
2:00
Stolac – two Bosniak houses were burned down yesterday as a result of Croat extremists obstruction of the pilot-project. Giving his comment regarding this incident, UNHCR spokesman Janowsky said that Bosniaks will return to Stolac even if all the houses are destroyed. Federation Ministry of Refugee plans to make another attempt of return on February 14.
1:00
Mostar – deputy mayor Orucevic and president of the city administration Jahic sent a letter to SFOR and asked the international community and the Federation Government to do something in order to prevent incidents that increased in Mostar lately.
1:00
Jahorina – 4th RS assembly session – the most problematic issue of today’s session was location of the seat of Government. SDS representatives and Kalinic himself insisted on Sarajevo to be the RS capitol and in relation to that the only possible location for the Government. On the other hand, RS opposition parties insisted on Banja Luka. TV BiH noticed that SDS was dominating over all other parties present at the session. They also decided on establishing of 22 ministries, including the RS Foreign ministry and ministry of foreign trade and economy. The Federation parties did not agreed on that item emphasising that those are ministries which should be established only at the state level.
3:00
Sarajevo – BiH Federation Government – regarding yesterday’s Croat ministers decision to abandon the session, prime minister Bicakcic said that Croats obstruct implementation of the Federation Forum agreements as well as the Federation process itself. The opposition parties such as SDP, Liberal Party and UBSD think that the session could be compared to those held just before the war in BiH. Government will break apart until the Federation stops functioning as a duo-partite system, because those two parties are not interested in implementation of the Washington agreement.
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Summary SRT News
In Pale, a session of the RS Assembly started today. There are 24 items on the agenda. Deputies examined first three items and shared the most different views while discussing the residence of the RS Government. The law on the RS Government was adopted, rejecting the amendment of the opposition to have temporary residence in Banja Luka. The second law adopted was the law on ministries. In principals, the orientation plan for the work of the Government for this year was agreed upon as well. President Biljana Plavsic and president from the BIH Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik were attending the meeting as guests. The session will continue tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m.7 min
President from RS in the BIH Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik met today in Pale the OSCE political director, Vladimir Kuznecov, with whom he exchanged views on the current political and economic situation in the Dayton B-H and the up-coming municipal elections. During the day, Krajisnik also met with two diplomats from countries with ignominious role in the overall plot against the Serb people in the past war. We speak about Turkish and Croatian ambassadors.
1 min
In the meeting with the Turkish ambassador Krajisnik learned that the “equip and train” program is there to protect Muslims and not to qualify the Federation army for an aggression. Krajisnik later met with Darinko Bago, Croatian ambassador and discussed possibilities of economical co-operation, Serbs from Slavonija and other issues.
3 min
WASHINGTON – In their preparations for the continuation of the arbitration process over the inter-entity boundary line in the area of Brcko, convened for the next week in Brussels, the RS state delegation in Washington continued is talks with US officials. The US Congress and Government officials in charge of foreign affairs heard RS positions why Brcko must remain a part of RS, as is precisely provided for in the Dayton Agreement.
3 min
LOPARE – The secretary of the Lopare municipality, Ranko Todorovic, confirmed that SFOR and IPTF prevented the Expert Team of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs from investigation into the last night’s two explosions in the village of Milosavci. “Last night between 19:00 and 20:00hrs, two detonations were heard in the Serb village of Milosavci, in the area of Gajevi, and Serb Police, SFOR and IPTF representatives arrived at the venue immediately after detonations were heard, but the Expert Team was not allowed to carry out an investigation”, stated Todorovic.
2 min