Banja Luka – RS President Plavsic met US Ambassador Kauzlarich and discussed the forthcoming elections in the RS, reorganisation and professionalism of the RS police, political crisis in the RS and media issues. Plavsic said that the agreement on the RS police had been finally reached, adding that this issue will require a lot of investment. Kauzlarich underlined that the IC seriously takes into consideration the holding of the forthcoming elections, which will be under OSCE supervision.
2:00
Trebinje – The RS Government, headed by Prime Minister Klickovic, visited a construction site where, before the war, former Yugoslav companies started construction of three large power plants on the Trebisnjica river, and a tunnel that leads to the site. Now the RS was collecting 4 million dinars to carry out preparations for construction. Klickovic visited workers in the tunnel (the tunnel was consecrated by Orthodox priests), and underlined that the construction must not stop despite the lack of money. The project will be partially financed by foreign investors, the Government, and RS bank crediting. $20 million will be required in order to finish the construction of the whole project.
3:00
Pale – The CoM Co-chair Bosic met the Russian Envoy, Gerasimov, and discussed the situation in the RS and CoM activities. Gerasimov said that the crisis can be overcome through the forthcoming elections. He underlined that the CoM must implement the Sintra Declaration, and Bosic said that the CoM has already agreed on opening of airports, telecommunication system, the CoM Official Gazette, and will agree on the Law on Citizenship and Passports, and the Law on the CoM soon. He expressed his hope that the Contact Group will not complain about RS representatives of the CoM at their next session.
3:00
Gradiska – opening of the bridge – Croatian Minister of Transport, Luzavac, the CoM Minister of Civil Affairs and Communications, Albijanic, and OHR Principle Deputy, Klein, signed an Annex of the Agreement on opening one of four borders between the RS, Federation and Croatia. The RS Minister of Transport, Lajic, refused to sign it because the RS was not mentioned in the heading of the Agreement. No visas will be necessary for citizens from both sides who are crossing the bridge. (There was no video footage for this news).
2:00
Flash news:
The OSCE HQ decided at their session that they will send a team of supervisors to monitor the elections in the RS. Russian media reported that Plavsic signed the Belgrade agreement because she has probably lost at the local elections so she needs another chance.
German media said that the Belgrade agreement will stabilise the current situation in the RS.
OSCE representatives said that the final local election results will be announced on Tuesday next week at the latest.
3:00
Pale – Head of the SDS Directorate, Vlado Vrkes, met a representative of the OSCE regional office in Sokolac to discuss the SDS complaints regarding the local elections. SDS complained that 3,000 Serbs from Brcko could not vote, whereas the same number of Muslims without regular documents were allowed to vote. A similar situation occurred in Srebrenica and some other smaller towns in the RS. Vrkes expressed the hope that PEC and OSCE will consider their complaint.
3:00
Brcko – in accordance with the agreement on opening offices for issuing RS ID’s to citizens from the Federation, the RS police opened an office in Brod and issued 30 ID’s to Muslims whose names were approved by Supervisor Farrand. An SRT journalist talked to one of Muslims (Fadil Ribic) who accepted the RS ID, reminding him that he must respect the RS law if he wants to live there. Fadil said that he would do anything just to return to his home and to die there. The process of issuing ID’s was carried out without any difficulties. Supervisor Farrand visited the improvised office and congratulated the RS police and authorities for carrying out their duties as planned.
3:00
Summary SRT TV News Banja Luka
Headlines
- American diplomat elite in Banja Luka.
- The final results of the local elections by the middle of the week
- Dayton BiH as a multiethnic country has no chance, is the assessment of the former American State Secretary, Henry Kissinger
- The bridge on the Sava river near Gradiska opened
- Mining of the already shaken mosque in Tomislavgrad further weakens Muslim-Croatian relations
Top stories
American diplomat elite in Banja Luka todayAll the meetings with foreign diplomats and politicians were concerned with the exchange of views on the current situation in our country, preparations for the forthcoming elections, freedom of media, the reorganisation of the police and on the general renovation of the RS.
The American Ambassador in Sarajevo, Kauzlarich, officials of the World Bank, Portman and O’Salivun, and the Head of the OSCE mission in BiH, Frowick, were in Banski dvor today.
Plavsic talked with Christian Portman and O’Salivun about economic problems and the economic recovery process of the RS in Banja Luka today. They discussed serious projects, the realisation of which would improve the quality of life of our people. Portman said they have two projects for the time being but that doesn’t mean that there will be no more projects in the future. These two projects are in the areas of transport and education.
The forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in the RS, the agreement signed in Belgrade and the reorganisation of the police were the subjects of today’s talk between Plavsic and Kauzlarich. While in Banja Luka, Kauzlarich also visited the Vice President of the RS, Dragoljub Mirjanic, with whom he talked about expanding inter-university co-operation between the RS and the USA.
Plavsic talked with Frowick. The forthcoming November elections and the conclusions of the recently held Belgrade meeting were the centre of attention.
6 min. 55 sec.
Dayton BiH as a multi-ethnic country
The Belgrade meeting and the agreement signed on that occasion are still the center of attention of the international public. The common denominator of all of the reactions is that the agreement opens a new page in the development of democracy in our country and puts an end to further escalation of the conflict.
What attracted our attention was a very interesting view of the situation from the former American State Secretary, Henry Kissinger, who is considered to be very knowledgeable about the Balkan situation. American policy towards BiH is at a turning point, which is confirmed by the different statements and assessments of local officials, who are discussing BiH almost every day, and the future military engagement of the USA. In the local respectful newspapers the question being raised more and more frequently is: Does the official Washington view lead to the right policy towards BiH? The same question is raised by Henry Kissinger. He says that the Americans had not considered BiH comprehensively and the real reasons for the war, as well as the reasons for the current tense situation in the RS.
The Bosnian war broke out due to the misunderstanding of the West and its attempt to experiment with a multi-ethnic country, which is settled by people who are divided by religion and who are afraid to be dominated by another ethnic group, says Kissinger.
2 min. 40 sec.
Election Results
The spokesman for OSCE in Sarajevo stated today for the Agency Flash that the final results of the local elections will be published partially on September 30th and on October 1st and 2nd .
35 sec.
The bridge in Gradiska
The first of a few border crossings to Croatia is open today on the river Sava in Gradiska. Today’s event represents the beginning of the building of new relations with our surroundings. Before the bridge was solemnly opened, the signing of the annex of the agreement on the determination of the border crossings took place. The agreement was signed by Zeljko Luzavec, Minister in the Croatia Government, Spasoje Albijanic from the Council of the Ministers in BiH, while Nedeljko Lajic, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, refused to sign the agreement.
Jacques Klein, who attended the ceremony, said that the agreement is valid without the signature of the Serb representative. According to international law, it is necessary only for Croatia and BiH to sign the agreement in order to make it valid.
There was another important event in Gradiska today. Vice President Mirjanic opened the automatic telephone exchange, with 550 connections in Masici. This was financed by the joint financial means of Telecommunications of the RS and the inhabitants of Masici, Romanovci, Miljanici and Jazovci.
3 min. 50 sec.