Jusici – Serb policemen attacked returnees to Jusici at 11:00 today, surrounding the village. No IPTF were present at the time although members of IPTF and SFOR arrived later. Mumin Islamovic was taken to Zvornik.
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Mostar – Two out of six municipalities were established today: South-West and Old City. Croats constitute a majority of Mostar population in the South-West municipality and at today’s session of the municipal Council it was suggested that the possibility of association of the municipalities should be further discussed. Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mostar, Ivan Prskalo and Safet Orucevic, were present at this session.
In his speech, Sir.Martin Garrod emphasized that the constitution of these municipalities represents the final result of last year’s elections
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Sarajevo – A session of the CoM took place today. The most important issues discussed were the debt to the World Bank and the blockages to receiving aid and lines of credit. The BiH debt is 8 million US$ and 51% of it has already been repaid by the Federation. The RS still has not fulfilled its obligation towards the World Bank.
After the session, the Co-Chair of CoM Haris Silajdzic, said that the World Bank was not interested in which entity had failed to repay its debt. According to Mr.Bosic, this problem must be solved by negotiation with the World Bank. The deadline for the debt repayment is tomorrow. The Memorandum of Agreement with the IMF was passed at today’s session. The IMF offered a credit worth US$ 92 million.
The Delegations for the London Club and Donor’s Conference were announced today.
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Sarajevo – The Federation House of Representatives passed the Law on Privatization, today. Important features of this Law are quick privatization of small enterprises and definition of the enterprises that should be privatized under special conditions (such as PTT, Electric Supply Company, and railways). The program for privatization should be provided by the enterprise and approved by special agencies at Cantonal and Federation level.
The initiative to harmonize the RS and Federation Constitutions with the B&H Constitution was also passed at the session.
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Sarajevo – The OSCE spokesman announced the extension of the registration for local September elections to 28 June citizens residing in BiH. Mr. Robert Frowick explained a new registration procedure concerning Brcko, starting on 18 June and lasting until 12 July.
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Travnik – At the SDA press conference the spokesman Ismet Grbo praised the decision to close down He also directed the international community attention towards Zepce where there is inadequate oversight of the registration process.
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Zepce – The SDA in Zepce claimed anomalies in the registration process in Zepce, where are registering some inhabitants of Maglaj, who are of Croat nationality.
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Summary SRT News
Banja Luka – RS President Plavsic met the US Special Envoy for Implementation of the DPA, Montgomery, and discussed, among other things, the adoption of the laws on the Central Bank and customs policy, and the return of refugees. Plavsic said that she is worried that the joint institutions might do something outside of their authorities with regard to the issues of the Central Bank and customs policy, and the RS leadership is not directly involved in those discussions. However, she is aware of the situation and knows that the RS must attend the Donors’ conference in order to receive the necessary financial resources.3:00
Banja Luka – Plavsic also met the Swedish Minister for International Relations and discussed the implementation of the DPA and the Sintra Agreement. Plavsic underlined that the RS will support and implement the Sintra Declaration because it is in favour of peace. She expressed her satisfaction with regard to the Swedish active involvement in the return of refugees from Sweden to the RS. The Swedish Minister said that the RS and Sweden can establish firm co-operation only if the RS implements the DPA, and he also invited the RS to do its best and co-operate with the world.
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Banja Luka – Plavsic held a meeting with the Brcko Supervisor Farrand behind closed doors, discussing the closing down of the voters’ registration centres in Brcko. After the meeting Farrand said that the registration of voters will start again in the area next Monday, but all those who have already registered themselves must do so once more because the previous registration has been annulled.
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This evening at 20:00 hrs., RS President in the BiH Presidency, Krajisnik will have a meeting with the Head of the OSCE mission in BiH, Frowick about the voters’ registration and the new registration in Brcko.
Visegrad – Krajisnik met the local authorities of this RS town in the east and visited the graves of soldiers killed in the war, as well as the location where the local authorities will build 105 houses for accommodation of refugees who fled from Sarajevo.
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Pale – the RS Assembly Speaker, Kalinic held separate meetings with the head of the International Office for Missing Persons and the head of the ICRC Office for Missing Persons. They discussed the preparations for the upcoming meeting of the commission appointed by the US President Clinton on June 20 in Belgrade. Members of the commission will discuss the issues of missing persons and POW’s, as well as the permission for work of the exhumation expert teams. Kalinic presented a clear position of the RS that the Federation must allow the RS expert teams to visit sites and carry out the exhumations at any location where they believe they will find bodies.
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Sarajevo – CoM session – the CoM discussed how to service the external debt for which the deadline expires tomorrow. If this debt is not paid, WB will stop co-operating with the CoM. IMF offered their solution to this problem, which will be discussed at the next CoM session.
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Jusici – Three RS policemen were injured while arresting a Muslim, Mumin Islamovic, who was accused by the municipality court in Zvornik for violating peace and order. Muminovic slightly injured three policemen, whereas a group of Muslims stoned the RS police vehicle.
The Comment on the RS SDP President Dodig’s interview for Vecernje Novine – SRT criticised Dodig’s work, saying that he wants to be a supervisor of Banja Luka and quoting his statement that the situation in Banja Luka is extremely difficult. Dodig is trying to create a special opposition bloc but it seems he is not successful since none of the opposition parties want to join him. He also contradicts himself by the statement that the SDS is the key element to obstruction to the DPA, and then goes on to say that the RS fully implements the DPA. He should be ashamed of his statements, and he will not gain any extra votes at the elections by telling tales to the people from the Federation.
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