Tesanj – Based on the decision of the Interim Municipal Council a referendum has been conducted in parts of this municipality. Citizens were asked to state their opinion on the constitution of a separate municipality Usora within its territory.
According to the 1991 consensus, of 12.000 citizens in the municipality, two-thirds are Bosniaks and the rest Croats. But citizens of Croat nationality boycotted the referendum. Franjo Bratic, President of the Municipal Council of “yet non-existent municipality Usora”, commented in the following way:”Croats did not take part in the referendum because they had already done that in April last year”. He further claimed that today’s referendum was no legally valid since it was conducted contrary to the Ministry of Justice instructions.
However, the President of the Municipal Council Tesanj was of a different opinion. On a correspondent’s question whether the referendum is in contradiction to the Ministry of Justice’s opinion that a referendum falls out of competence of the municipal council, he has responded by saying that they acted in accordance with the bill on referendum upon requests of a large number of citizens who protested against constitution of a new municipality. Reminded that the FBiH Government endorsed a draft on the new municipality, he contended that “the Government did not observe the unique criteria adopted by FBiH Parliament and that it bargained about the municipality Usora”.
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Bosanski Petrovac – Bodies of 30 Bosniaks killed in 1992 and excavated by an expert team of the Una-Sana Canton, have been buried today. SDA officials and thousands of citizens attend the funeral while local authorities proclaimed a mourning day in the area.
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Germany – Spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union, the leading German party, stated that SFOR’s mandate in BiH should be extended beyond next year. In particular, because the civilian implementation of the DPA could not progress further if the mandate was not to be extended, he maintained. Germany would welcome an extension of mandate because it has already invested considerable funds in BiH.
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Summary SRT News
The priority of the RS is reconstruction and solving of problems in the borderline municipalities. For that reason, RS Prime Minister Klickovic visited the representatives of Ribnik, Sipovo and Mrkonjic Grad municipalities, and discussed the development of economy in these areas. He also laid down the cornerstone of the Serb municipality of Ribnik and announced the start of building of the police station in this little town, as a part of the process of post-war reconstruction of the RS. Klickovic said that Ribnik is the youngest Serb municipality and a lot of rebuilding will be necessary in order to provide accommodation for all the Serbs who used to live there. “This shall prove that this region has always been Serb and will remain so”.3:00
The Hague Tribunal’s treatment of two Bosniaks and a Croat, indicted for war crimes committed in the prison camp of Celebici near Konjic, has shown to be less severe than in the cases of Serbs indicted for the same crimes, which proves that this organisation is merely political, and not a legal one. The Hague has indicted 74 individuals so far, and for every indicted Serb commander of a camp, Article 5 of the Court Statute was quoted, which means a charge for violation of international conventions, genocide, and crime against humanity. However, this was not the case for the Celebici camp commander, Zdravko Vicica, although at least 18 Serbs were killed and several hundreds tortured during the time he was in charge of the camp. There is a large number of witnesses who can confirm this, and the Tribunal is aware of that.
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German journalist Thomas Deichmann is fully behind his article which proves that the shot of skinny and hungry Muslims in the Trnopolje camp is a pure visual forgery. He protested against the Belgrade press agency BETA and the newspaper Nasa Borba, which deny what was written in Deichmann’s article in the London magazine LM about the alleged concentration camp in Trnopolje.
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Croatia – A week after the municipal elections, it is certain that Croat parties will be dominant in the structures of authority in the Srem-Baranja region since they have won in 18 out of 29 municipalities. The elections in Croatia were simply dirty, Neues Deutschland reported, noticing that election scams against the Serbs were allowed in general terms.
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Prijedor – During her visit to the RS, Margit Savovic, President of the FRY Commission for Co-operation with UNICEF, visited the refugee centre in Trnopolje and the hospital in Prijedor. The aim of the visit was to get acquainted with the problems and needs of the children, Savovic said. She gave presents to children without parents for the upcoming Orthodox Easter.
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World News:
Criminals involved in white slavery and arms and drug dealing are using the Muslim-Croat Federation as a launch pad for their activities throughout Europe, DPA reported. Untrained policemen and the chaotic political situation make the Federation a fertile ground for criminals, gangs, and international organised crime. The Federation has become a market for illegal sale of arms from West Europe, and even SFOR cannot resist taking part in this profitable business.
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