Kuala Lumpur – BiH CoM delegation, headed by Co-Chairs Haris Silajdzic and Boro Bosic, arrived in Kuala Lumpur for a three day official visit to Malaysia. The priority aim of this visit is strengthening of the co-operation ties between two countries on economic, and also other fields in a bid to attain the same high co-operation level in economics as already exists in politics. BiH businessmen have already been staying in Malaysia for several days presenting their colleagues with concrete projects for co-operation. During the stay of CoM delegation in Kuala Lumpur, these projects will be finalised.
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US Media – The first reactions of the American media relating to the visit of Robert Gelbard and Richard Holbrook (the former and the actual American peace envoys in BiH), did not express much satisfaction about the trip. The most serious criticism is directed to them for not obtaining a breakthrough in delivering of the war crimes indicted persons to the Hague Tribunal. It has been expected much more to be done by Holbrook. In short, he only receivedthe Serbs promises to carry out the promises they violated after having signed them. Holbrook himself declared that he was sceptical that the Serbs would obey an agreement on delivering Karadzic. The only encouraging thing is that Clinton is apparently not planing to give up and that his advisors told that he spends more time on Bosnia issue than it has been publicly admitted, informs TV correspondent her monitoring information of US Media. Instead of solving the key dangers for Bosnia unification, refugee difficulties to return to their homes and eliminating Karadzic’s influence, he spent most of his time on the Balkans discussing telephone numbers, design of the joint currency and allocation of the ambassadorial posts. Washington Post informs that Holbrook warned Milosevic that Clinton’s administration is ready to arrest Karadzic if he doesn’t go voluntary.
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Doboj – Although the number of returnees to their homes in RS entity is discouragingly small, there are examples at the local levels which encourage hopes for the earlier establishing of contacts between two entities. (Follows a lengthy peiece on a meeting more then 300 evicted persons from Kotorsko near Doboj who gathered in Mravicevo to demand faster actions to enable them to return home. They continuously fight a battle in exhausting talks with the Serbs to let them to come back to their homes).
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Sarajevo – After visiting Tuzla, Gracanica and Travnik in an anti mine campaign tour to BiH, British Princess Diana visited Sarajevo, today. Diana talked with the Mine Action Center representatives who are pleading for 60 million dollars for their activities in BiH. According to Alex Ivanko, UN Spokesman, collecting of this money was a part of Diana’s visit to BiH.
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UBSD BiH issued a statement reacting on the appearance of the posters which show the war crimes indicted suspects Tihomir Blaskic and Dario Kordic on the territory of Busovaca, Travnik and Jajce as well as of Radovan Karadzic in the major part of RS. Sejfudin Tokic, UBSD president warns that appearance of these posters is deliberate kind of campaign of HDZ and SDS to show that the extremists did not give up the ethnic cleansing politics and division of BiH.
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Zepce – The OSCE documentation has been stolen from the OSCE Office in Maglaj and Zavidovici in night of 8 August, comprising lists of residents living in those communities. During election registration in these communities were unlawfully registered more than 4.000 persons with a help of false refugee forms and police residencee confirmation.
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Summary SRT TV News
Pale – Krajisnik met the new SFOR commander, Gen. Shinseki and talked about implementation of military aspects of the DPA and reorganisation of special police forces in the RS and Federation. Krajisnik said that ‘the RS confirmed its readiness to re-establish good relations with SFOR as they were before the SFOR action in Prijedor.’ He underlined that there will be no incidents in the future, and all the problems or misunderstandings will be solved through negotiations. Krajisnik also expressed his hope that a compromise will be reached regarding special police forces as well.3:00
Kozarska Dubica – Prime Minister Klickovic met the local leadership and opened a new road from Kozarska Dubica to Moscanica. He promised that the Government will give a loan to several companies in Dubica as a support to development of economy in this RS town.
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The manager of the SDS Directorate, Vlade Vrkes warned that there will be no elections if manipulations with 15% of Brcko voters continue, that is, if the PEC does not find a positive solution to Brcko voters’ complaints. He also noted that certain elements want to melt the RS into a unitary BiH by manipulating with voters. Flash news:
Reuters reported that Holbrooke’s mission has only strengthened Krajisnik and Milosevic’s positions, saying that Holbrooke came to BiH with a request for the hand-over of those accused for war crimes, but accepted Krajisnik’s promise that he will personally do everything to prevent Karadzic from acting publicly or being involved with the RS politics. The US is afraid of capturing war criminals since it can easily turn into undesired bloodshed. DPA reported that Holbrooke’s visit passed without concrete results. In Split, Tudjman and Izetbegovic did not show even one bit of readiness for return of refugees. In Sarajevo, the Presidency and the CoM resolved minor issues, whereas in Belgrade, everything came down to promises. Neues Deutchland reported that US is stingy when financial aid is concerned, but it gladly gives expensive weapons to the Federation on the other hand.
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POWs and missing persons – SRT comment – Destiny of more than 2,000 POWs and several thousands of people who were found missing since September 1995 is still uncertain. Most of them are not at listed either by international organisations or the Federation Commission that works on this issue. Destiny of more than 1,000 Serbs who were found missing after Muslim attempts to create an Islamic state in the heart of Europe is uncertain too. Those responsible are playing games with dead bodies and unaccounted ones and nobody wants to take responsibility. Member of the RS Commission for Exchange of POWs, Ivancevic said that ‘there are people alive in both sides… We have information about their number and location, but those information are not checked yet, so they cannot be given either to the families or made public because we are still waiting for some solution. Those who would admit that they keep POWs imprisoned would sentence themselves to the Hague. We are trying to reach a compromise and we didn’t hide our concerns from Mr. Vance and Mr. Samaruga.’
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World news:
Sarajevo – Muslim independent media reported that agreement signed in Dayton between Tudjman and Izetbegovic, regarding the return of 1,000 Muslim families to Stolac, has not been implemented. With great efforts from UNHCR, SFOR, and IPTF, only 19 families have returned so far, although the agreement was signed on November 1995.
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