BiH President Izetbegovic went on a trip to Washington to receive an award for the development of democracy.
Sarajevo – CoM Co-chair, Silajdzic and the US Special Envoy, Genz signed an agreement on BiH further reconstruction worth $ 71 million [$ 52 million in donations for infrastructure and $ 19 million credit for financial institutions in BiH]. BiH Chief Administrator of the US Embassy, Parmley said that this donation clearly suggests that the US fully supports BiH multi-ethnicity and unity. After the signing ceremony, Silajdzic said that ‘we won’t be able to drag ourselves out from this crisis without the US presence as a factor of stability.’
3:00
Sarajevo – 4th session of the Federation Government – the session results were more than successful – 22, out of 23, items were solved [one was postponed for the next session]. Ministers adopted the Budget for ’97 which is DM 580 million, Law on Privatisation of Banks, the First Draft Law of Division of Disputable Municipalities in the Federation territory, Draft Law on Taxes, and some other laws and agreements. The next session will be held in Mostar on March 27.
3:00
UN Secretary-General, Annan said that, although another 186 international policemen will be sent to Brcko, the IPTF mandate will not be changed – they will stay unarmed, and won’t carry out arrests.
Sarajevo – A regular SDA presser – SDA officials expressed the SDA position with regard to the RS-FRY Agreement [international community should have put more pressure on the party signatories of the Agreement], Croatian President Tudjman’s visit to BiH, ‘actually to west Mostar’ [there was no incidents, but they condemned Tudjman for not coming to Sarajevo], and the work of Federation bodies [which has reached its climax]. They also pointed out that the RS doesn’t respect or implement the DPA. SDA officials condemned incidents that occurred in the Tomislavgrad Municipality.
3:00
BiH army celebrated an anniversary of their victory on the mountain Vlasic.
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Summary SRT News
Deputies of the FRY Council of Peoples and Council of Republics ratified the RS/FRY Agreement. President from RS in the BIH Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, expressed his content and added that a series of individual agreements will be signed shortly. “Since RS and FRY can not unify on a statehood basis, I’m happy that people from both sides of the Drina will,” said Krajisnik.2 min
Representatives of the Democratic Party of Serbia and political organization of the Zajedno Coalition did not participate at the session of both Councils. Milutin Stojkovic from the Socialist party of Serbia said that the implementation of the Agreement will considerably contribute to the overall peace process on the Balkan Peninsula. Vojislav Sesealj, Serb Radical Party, was a bit disappointed that such an Agreement wasn’t signed already couple of years ago. However, the Radicals believe that this is the first step in creating a unified Serb state. Speaker of the RS Assembly, Dragan Kalinic, thanked the Serbian and Montegrian Government for giving assistance to RS in past years and for accepting a large number of refugees.
5 min
President of RS, Biljana Plavsic, held talks in Banja Luka with representatives of the NATO Committee for Civil Issues. “We are expelled from Europe only for a short period of time. Our goal is to return to where we used to be, when many others were still not part of Europe,” said Plavsic.
1 min
Premier Gojko Klickovic is still paying an official visit to the Herzegovina Municipalities.
The vice-president of RS, Dragoljub Mirjanic, talked in Temishvar in Rumania, with representatives of the Rumanian education system on the development and promotion of science in RS and cooperation between the two countries.
40 sec
The RS delegation is to participate at the extended regional meeting of Ministers and Commissioners for refugees and DPs in Geneva. An opinion was shared with the Federation delegation to permanently solve problems of refugees in the next two years. Working document on repatriation and return to RS and the Federation in 1997 was also reviewed. Minister for refugees and DPs from RS, Ljubisa Vladusic, stated that census from April 1996 shows that 95,5% of people taking refuge in RS would like to stay.
3 min
In the sequel of a trial against perpetrators of the crimes against Serbs in the Celebici prisoner camp, the Hague Tribunal did not want to hear the testimonies of nine witnesses who were proposed by the Association of Former Prisoners, but instead, Jean Mari Calic, well known to Serbs for taking the line of the Bonn policy, was given a chance to testify. She claimed that “the war in BH was not civil war but the war waged by two states, Serbia and BH” 1 min
TV pictures of Muslim refugees in Trnopolje, in summer 1992, which were sent around the world and which marked the beginning of the anti-Serb media campaign, is a deceit, claims a German journalist Thomas Dajhman in the London monthly paper “Living Marxism”. The independent ITV asked from “Living Marxism” the withdrawal of the complete edition.
1 min