As reported, Dusan Tadic was ruled to be guilty on 11 charges by the UN war crimes court in The Hague. The trial will result in a sentence that is to be brought at a separate hearing on July 1.
The House of Representatives of the Federation Parliament was reported to be in session today. Upon a several-hour long debate, it was agreed that the draft laws on split municipalities and the formation and organizing new ones had to be approached as soon as the following day. Premier Bicakcic came up with a compromise solution regarding the disputable Usora municipality, but no agreement was reached, and a new debate on the issue will follow up next Wednesday In the course of the session, the police organs, on the grounds of information by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, apprehended Mr. Ibrahim Djedovic, Deputy of the Democratic People’s Community, the former Assistant Defence Minister and Police Chief in the so-called Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia. The event caused further confronting of views this time in relation to the immunity rights of the deputies. During the evening, report on the apprehension that took place in front of the building where the session had been ongoing was presented by the Immunity Commission.
The BH radio reported on the postponement of the sessions of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the BiH Assembly for Friday, May 9, as agreed at the OHR premises in Sarajevo today, Subject to the result of the tomorrow’s session of the BiH CoM (in Lukavica), the postponement is to enable the bodies to include in their agendas certain draft laws from the quick re-start package. Except from the above mentioned items, the Friday meetings will also raise the questions of credits and BiH deputies’ status.
According to the statement of the OHR Spokesperson Colum Murphy, the decision on holding municipal elections in Brcko will be brought in the two days to come. After numerous controversies on whether Brcko should be a single electoral unit or divided into several districts, the representatives of the international community in BiH sought the opinion of Arbiter for Brcko Roberts Owen.
On another issue, I was ascertained that Supervisor Farrand would bring decision related to taking necessary measures against perpetrators of the Brcko incident, dated May 1.
The German Foreign Minister and Mr. Van der Broek, the EU Commissioner in charge of foreign affairs are expected to pay an official visit to BiH tomorrow. The visit is aimed at settling the issue of repatriation of the BiH refugees and promotion of the cooperation in the field.
As estimated in the Regional Centre for the registration of voters, the registration in the area of Herzegovina-Neretva canton is reported to be ongoing with no difficulties. The whole of the process in monitored by the international supervisors.
Ambassador Robert Frowick sent a letter of invitation to the members of the List for United Mostar, informing on a meeting scheduled to take place in Sarajevo tomorrow. The initiative was incited by a previous letter the members of the “List” addressed to Ambassador Frowick, informing him on withdrawing their representatives from the municipal electoral commissions. The arriving delegation will be headed by Co-Mayor Safet Orucevic.
Expert team, headed by the President of the BiH Commission for Search after the Mission Persons, Mr. Amor Masovic, commenced its work on the exhumation of the bodies from the mass grave in the Kljuc municipality of Prhovo. Apart from this one, the exhumations on additional 20 individual graves will be continued tomorrow.
In two separate meetings, Co-President of the BiH CoM, Dr. Haris Silajdzic, met with the Ambassadors of the Republics of Italy and Germany. During the talks with his Italian collocutor, Dr. Silajdzic was drawn attention towards the need of having the two countries’ relations deepened and intensified in the fields of economics and joint efforts on the world’s market.
Summary SRT News
Banja Luka– RS President Biljana Plavsic held talks with NATO Commander for Southern Europe Gen. George Joulwan on the military situation in the region and issues related to economic development. After the meeting, the RS President told the press that the focus of discussion was on military aspects of the DPA but that modalities for economic developments were also on the agenda. The talks encompassed issues related to the process of demining and armament control as well.2’00”
Pale– RS President in the BiH Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, with his associates received US Charge d’Affaires Michael Parmley today. The collocutors discussed the upcoming Donors Conference and the Central Bank. Deputy Foreign Minister in the CoM, Dragan Bozanic, commented on the meeting saying that the problem of the Central Bank had re-emerged again because the Muslim side imposed the issue. He maintained that an earlier agreement on the Central Bank existed, but added that the CoM was working at an accelerated pace to reach a new agreement on the issue. Bozanic referred to the case of Dusan Tadic, who was declared guilty for war crimes by the ICTY. According to Bozanic, Tadic’s case was most likely a case of a mistaken identity. The Deputy Foreign Minister announced that both the Croat and Serb side are interested in having their representatives at the ICTY since the Muslim side already has its representative at the Hague Tribunal.
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Banja Luka – RS President Biljana Plavsic and Vice President Dragoljub Mirjanic are holding consultations with members of the SDS Main Board, deputies of the RS National Assembly and top officials of the Banja Luka municipality. The participants are reviewing the current political and economic situation in the RS, maintained the report .
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VRS Anniversary – On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the VRS Army – May 12, VRS Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Pero Colic offered his congratulations to all VRS officers and soldiers.
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Banja Luka – At a press conference NATO Commander Gen. Joulwan stated that SFOR is tasked with providing the freedom to express democratic will at the forthcoming elections and with reducing the quantities of weapons in the RS and the FBH. In addition, Gen. Joulwan pointed to the importance of confidence building measures and the relation of this with free communication, opening of airport for civilian transportation and repair of bridges on the Sava river.
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The Hague – The UN War Crime Tribunal found Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb guilty on 11 charges, mainly for crimes against humanity and persecution. The sentence will be passed on July 1. Tadic’s attorney announced that he would wait before filing a complaint against the verdict, claiming that he already had a sufficient number of witnesses to refute the charges.