Sarajevo – regular CoM session – ministers discussed two laws [Diplomatic Immunity and Foreign Trade Policy] from the QSP and adopted the Law on Diplomatic Immunity. Co-chair Bosic said that adoption of the second law went rather smoothly up until the Article 2 which is related to the special relations of the entities with other countries such as FRY and Croatia. Co-chair Silajdzic thinks that this part of the Law must be decided upon and adopted at the state [BiH] level and has nothing to do with the CoM.
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Sarajevo – representatives of the Federation House of Peoples held a meeting to discuss the agenda and date of the next assembly session. It was decided that both Houses and the Federation Government will hold a meeting with regard to future work of the three Federal bodies. The joint meeting will be held on March 17.
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Prime Minister of the Federation, Bicakcic, will discuss the BiH current situation with US officials in the next few days. He will also meet WB and USAID representatives and discuss financial support to BiH to put it back on its own feet.
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Mostar – with regard to the current Mostar situation and refusal of Mostar Mayor Prskalo to attend the meeting with his Deputy Orucevic and Sir Martin Garrod, Mr. Orucevic said for BiH TV today that nobody is mentioning the IPTF report [on the 10 Feb. incident] and murderers in Mostar anymore, but some sleeping policemen and other irrelevant things are pointed out to be the priority subjects of discussion. ‘We are at the cross-roads now. Either we’ll go forward or we won’t meet anymore.’, Orucevic said. International organisations held a regular presser in Mostar today. The current situation with local media was the main subject of discussion. OSCE pointed out that Croat media are the one that report unconfirmed information. Therefore, their expert team which in charge of freedom of media will have to deal with this matter more seriously. Sir Martin Garrod said that the international community did not give up an independent commission report on the Mostar incident [which occurred a month ago], and that the founding of the joint police in Mostar is of the great importance.
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Srebrenica – With regard to the day of the Srebrenica municipality an organisation ‘The Women of Srebrenica’ sent letters to all European and other countries, as well as to the international community and UN members asking them to find their dearest ones because they want to know the truth 20 months after the occurrence of the Srebrenica tragedy.
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OHR spokesman Murphy said that only the BiH Parliament can ratify the RS-FRY agreement on Special Parallel Relations. He also said that HR Bildt consulted all the creators of the agreement. However, the FRY Parliament urgently adopted the agreement today, whereas the RS Parliament will discuss it at its next session.
Sarajevo – the Federation Army Commander, General Delic, Co-chair Silajdzic, deputy Defence Minister Mahmuljin, and other army officers held a meeting to discuss the reorganisation of the air forces, since the Federation army is taking control over BiH air space from SFOR.
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Summary SRT News
In Pale, the RS government accepted the draft law on ratification of the special parallel agreement between the RS and FRY. Premier Gojko Klickovic emphasized that relations with the FRY are indispensable because of economic and other interests. The RS Government formed an HQ for building a Bijeljina-Samac railroad, Gojko Klickovic being named a president of this HQ.3 min
The implementation of the DPA was discussed today at the meeting between the President from RS in the Presidency of BIH, Momcilo Krajinsik, and the HR, Carl Bildt. Special focus was on the Central Bank, currency and functioning of the BIH Joint Institutions. President Krajisnik presented stands of the Serb side with regard to these issues. Krajisnik said that RS is interested in establishing the Central Bank and other Joint Institutions as soon as possible.
2 min
Premier Gojko Klickovic met with representatives of the World Bank. By 17 April, when Donor countries are due to allocate $1,4 billion for the reconstruction of BIH, certain conditions must be met. “The RS did its utmost to prevent further postponements of the Donors conference. This means we have been actively participating in adopting five systematic laws of the Dayton Bosnia. However, certain work remained unfinished pertaining to the Central Bank. I must add though, that we are committed to full co-operation there and will try to get it done in the next ten days,” said Klickovic after the meeting.
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Premier Gojko Klickovic also chaired the first session of the Committee for the Reconstruction and Development. This body is tasked to direct the global policy of reconstrucion in RS.
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The delegation of the Council of Europe, led by Human Rights and Legal experts, visited Pale and held talks with the RS Minster of Justice, Branko Petric, with the Minister of Information, Svjetlana Siljegovic, and with representatives of the RS Constitutional Court. Among other issues, conditions for accepting BIH in the Council of Europe were discussed.
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In Sarajevo, CoM of BIH convened a session. Ministers spend most of their time on reviewing the draft Law on Foreign Trade. Different opinions emerged on special economic relations with neighboring countries. “We raised this issue and it remains to be seen what the special economic relations with the FRY and Croatia will be. In our opinion this is a constitutional subject-matter. Tomorrow, additional consultations will go ahead on this issue and then on Thursday we will try to get it off the agenda. The Law on Foreign Trade will then be forwarded to the BIH Assembly,” said Bosic. Second CoM Co-Chair, Haris Silajdzic, believes that special relations of both entities with the neighboring countries, foreseen by the DPA, are not a subject of the Foreign Trade Law. The draft Law on Immunity was unanimously adopted today.
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