Brcko – HR Bildt and Brcko Supervisor Farrand officially opened the OHR North branch in Brcko. Upon their arrival, Farrand and Bildt met the Brcko authorities, representatives of international organisations and three different national and religious groups. Bildt and Farrand stressed that implementation of the Award will reflect the global implementation of the DPA, and the international community will be actively involved in the process. Farrand said that his team is strong, but everybody must put in their efforts in order to have success. He also said that he will not tolerate any obstructions – ‘the time for empty rhetoric is over. I do not wish, nor do I desire to hear from you all the reason why you cannot live together. I know about those reasons. Spare yourself the time explaining it to me again. What you need is economic growth, and you need jobs and prosperity, and if you have those things, in time you will take your place among the family nations in the rest of the world.’
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The PEC will start the process of registration of political parties from May 9 to May 15. Independent candidates will be registered from May 6 to May 19.
BiH Press reported that, after the eviction yesterday, the RS police managed to return the Muslim family from a village near Banja Luka to their home. Contrary to the routine, the RS police behaved very professionally in this case.
Sarajevo – US President’s Special Envoy, Claude Ganz, met Co-chair Silajdzic and discussed how to speed up the process of privatisation.
Washington – On proposal of the US Secretary General, Madeleine Albright, President Clinton appointed the new Special Envoy for Balkans, Mr. Robert Gilberd, to replace John Kornblum. TV BiH reported that there are not many information about this person, except that he opposes deployment of special troops for capturing war criminals in BiH and insists that the parties in BiH should deal with this problem themselves.
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Sarajevo – According to BiH Foreign Minister Prlic, who held a press conference today at the opening of the press centre for foreign media covering the Pope’s visit, everything is ready for reception of the Holy Father, and there will be absolutely no security or any other kind of problems. Canton Governor Haracic said that DM two million were spent for organising the visit, one million from the Canton and the other from the Federation. At the daily press conference at Holiday Inn, OHR Spokesman Murphy said that the Pope is coming on a mission of peace, tolerance, reconciliation, and justice, and quoted his words that “Sarajevo is the symbol of the century”.
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According to Amor Masovic, President of the State Commission for Missing Persons, the UN Human Rights Conference has complicated further the issue of exhumations, especially after the resignation of UN Special Reporter Novak, who said that he could not continue with his mandate because of lack of resources and political support. Of the foreseen USD six million for finding the missing persons, only 300 thousand have been collected. The conference has brought no progress, on the contrary, it has steadily dragged things backwards, because certain countries, in the aim of protecting their political interests, are claiming that further activities on exhumations of Bosniaks may jeopardise the peace process.
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Sarajevo – President Izetbegovic’s Special Foreign Relations Advisor, Mirza Hajric, commented the Memo of Understanding with BiH which was offered by FRY yesterday. Hajric said that Milosevic is under great pressure of US and Europe, therefore he decided to send his envoy to BiH. However, the text of the Agreement hasn’t been changed since the last time – Belgrade is requesting from BiH to withdraw its charge against FRY for genocide. The diplomatic relations between the two countries should be unconditional, and if FRY is claiming its innocence, then it has nothing to fear, with or without the trial before the court of justice in Hague.
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Summary SRT News
RS President in the BiH Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik stated that “the RS has concluded the agreement on special parallel relations with FRY, taking into consideration previous agreements signed between the Federation of Muslims and Croats with the Republic of Croatia”. Since the BiH Federation concluded a military agreement with Croatia and established confederate relations, specified Krajisnik, the RS is entitled to do likewise.“The agreement on parallel relations with FRY has been endorsed by the RS Parliament and the SDS Main Board and got a large backing by parliamentary parties in the RS. I resent that the opposition in Serbia was not wise enough to support it”, he concluded.
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On the eve of the 17th parliamentary session, Speaker of the RS National Assembly Dragan Kalinic and his deputy Miroslav Vjestica held consultations with PM Gojko Klickovic and his associates in Pale today. Economic issues will be predominant at the next parliamentary session, in particular re-estimate the of the 1996 budget and the economic policy for the current year.
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PM Gojko Klickovic assessed the talks which the RS delegation had with representatives of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington as “exceptionally valuable”. A project worth US $ 60 million has been agreed on and its realization will start soon, he explained.
PM Gojko Klickovic met with US Charge d’Affair Michael Parney in Pale today to finalize preparations for the arrival of US delegation on Monday. Return of refugees and a package of economic laws to be endorsed by the RS National Assembly were on the agenda as well. Commenting on the talks, PM Klickovic told the press that the US Administration demonstrated a high degree of understanding of the refugee problem. However, he underlined that refugees should not return to their original homes unless accommodation and employment were provided. Mr. Parney announced his visit to Sipovo to ascertain what could be done to improve living conditions in the ZOS.
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RS Deputy PM Ostoja Kremenovic and Head of Local Administration of the EU Council Ferdinand Alvareze (?) met in Pale today to review the development of local administration throughout the RS based on European standards.
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Upon his arrival to Brcko, Robert Farrand, Supervisor for Brcko, addressed citizens with an optimistic message that “they should not worry about a final arbitral decision” and that “neither Brcko nor its citizens will be endangered”, maintained the report. .
HR Carl Bildt personally attended the official opening of the Supervisor’s office. Representatives of “the former municipality Brcko from the Federation” were present as well. Farrand told the press that Brcko would become a huge construction site offering great opportunities to its citizens.
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