On the eve of a meeting with officials of the State Department and the Ministry of Defense in Washington, President of the BiH Presidency Alija Izetbegovic pointed out in his statement that BiH is particularly interested to see that the issue of delay in the implementation of the civilian aspect of the Dayton Agreement be resolved. “In some segments, even after 14 months, we are still marking time. That is extremely dangerous. This is what I intend to remind my American hosts of, having no reservation about their readiness to have the agreement implemented in full”.
2,00
Co-Chair of the BiH CoM, Haris Silajdzic, left Islamabad and continued his journey to Cairo where he will spend two days on the invitation of the Egyptian Prime Minister.
2,00
Ambassador Michael Steiner, the HR Principal Deputy, sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, underscoring the unjust verdict of the Croat court in Mostar in the trial against the three Croat policemen indicted for their implication in the 10 February incident. The UN Security Council will insist that the court takes into consideration the accusations disclosed in IPTF reports on this incident, maintains the report.
0,30
UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Elizabeth Rhen, expressed her discontent with the verdict passed on the Croat policemen after 45 minutes of hearing, and without witnesses’ testimonies. She qualified the verdict as “bizarre”.
0,30
Elizabeth Rhen met Fatima Leho, Governor of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in Mostar today. After the meeting, Ms Rhen gave a statement to the effect that problems concerning Mostar and the Canton had been reviewed which resulted in an identical opinion that “efforts should be made not only in the reconstruction of cities, but in reconciliation of their citizens as well”.
1,00
Vice President of the BiH Federation, Ejup Ganic, and German coordinator, Harold Fogel, held talks on the repatriation of 320,000 Bosnian refugees and necessary coordination between the two states. On this occasion again, the global position of the Federation and its resources to shelter refugees was pointed out.
0,30
Almost 6,000 Bosniaks from the municipality of Kiseljak have been requesting in vain to return to their homes. At today’s meeting of the Alliance of Refugees and DPs, it was ascertained that promises of the international organizations had never been fulfilled and that the federal partners failed to reach an agreement. Thus, a phased plan for return of refugees has been adopted, and the Alliance will not wait for UNHCR and relevant ministries to submit their plans.
2,00
Along with intensive activities related to the announced arrival of the Holy See to Sarajevo, Carl Bildt appealed to all relevant authorities to complete the formation of the city administration and government before the Pope’s visit. Itinerary of the Holy Father’s visit has been disclosed.
1,00
Member of the state presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, stated for Pristina radio: “Each of us will make effort to build one brick in the building called the unity of Serb people and if we are unanimous and unified , one day we will have a Serb state”.
0,15
Summary SRT News
Banja Luka – RS President Plavsic met Baroness Linda Chalker with the UK ODA, to discuss UK help to the RS people. After the meeting, Plavsic said that the UK and Baroness have been supporting the RS people from the very beginning. Plavsic and Chalker also talked about the current situation, and Plavsic said that the UK should prevent another ‘explosion’ of the Balkans. UK Ambassador to BiH, Charles Crawford also attended the meeting.3:00
Pale – President of the BiH Presidency, Krajisnik met the Finnish Ambassador to BiH to discuss the joint institutions, Central Bank, the local elections in BiH, and the current situation in the RS and Federation.
Pale – German Ambassador to BiH, Preisinger paid a farewell visit to President of the BiH Presidency, Krajisnik. After the meeting, Krajisnik said that they had established extremely good relations since the Ambassador had come to BiH, and asked Preisinger to remember the RS people for the good they had done.
2:00
SFOR command asked the Muslim and Serb army to restrain from arming their troops. This issue was also discussed and agreed at the latest joint military meeting in Ilidza SFOR HQ on last Friday.
The US University professor, Robin said that the Hague Tribunal is a non-existent court which doesn’t have any jurisdiction to indict, detain and punish.
Pale – RS Minister of Transport, Lajic met WB representative Vazur to discuss future donations for the RS reconstruction. Lajic said the RS offered different projects worth $ 25 million and expects to receive a reply from the US in next few days. The RS will receive resources through its separate bank account which will probably be opened in Austria.
2:00
Banja Luka – The trial against Muslim leader Izetbegovic was continued with the hearing of another 6 witnesses.
3:00
World News: Muslim media is occupied with an idea about BiH being divided in to three parts. President of the Republican Party from the Federation, Kljujic expressed his doubts with regard to the survival of the Federation. He said that the Washington Agreement was never accepted either by SDA or HDZ party extremists. At the same time, the Society of Expelled Muslims from Stolac and Capljina complained to Special Envoy for Human Rights, Rehn, saying that none of the expelled Muslims had returned to any of those towns, whereas Capljina and Prozor are under Croat control. President of the LBO [political party from the Federation], Muhamed Filipovic stated to a Muslim radio Sarajevo that BiH could never be unified again. ‘Whether we want to admit it or not, BiH was divided in half by the DPA.’ According to him, SDA party leaders do not offer anything which could prove that we are heading towards a unified BiH.
4:00