Banja Luka – ‘US will support all relevant political factors that implement the DPA. We also expect development of privatisation, not only in the RS, but in the Croat-Muslim Entity,’ the US Ambassador to BiH, Kauzlarich, said after the meeting with Plavsic. Apart from the talks about the DPA implementation, Plavsic and Kauzlarich discussed the holding of the parliamentary elections and democratisation of media. The US Government is still intensively interested in the destiny of the DPA in BiH, which is the main impression of today’s meeting between the US Ambassador and the RS President. Kauzlarich also underlined that OSCE needs to supervise the RS elections. Since he paid a lot of attention to media in the RS, Kauzlarich visited SRT and established contacts with journalists.
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Lukavica – The CoM session – The CoM adopted a Draft Law on the Law on CoM, which will be finally adopted after the Parliament discuss it at its session. The Law on Passports will be adopted after the Serb side make some smaller corrections, whereas the Law on Citizenship was not adopted because, according to CoM Co-chair Bosic, it still remained unclear whether BiH citizens can also have FRY citizenship. They also made decisions on credits and special receipts, and established a Commission for Succession within the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
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Flash News:
Former US Envoy Holbrooke said that he believes that Washington would not give away its obligations in BiH. He underlined that he fully supports the SFOR action on the seizure of the SRT transmitters. I am convinced, after I spoke with many US officials, that the US will be in favour of the DPA, said Holbrooke at the Conference on BiH organised by Radio Free Europe. However, Holbrooke did not want to speculate on the US role once SFOR leaves BiH. At the same time, US Secretary, Albright said that the US will continue both its political and economic support to BiH, it will consider the extension of the SFOR mandate here. British Ambassador to BiH, Crawford, said that one of the most important struggles in BiH is the struggle against the fascist option, and therefore, Crawford believes, we have the Hague Tribunal. The situation would be normal if this region was cleaned from fascists.
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Knezevo – The Serb National Union Party was established in Knezevo today. 178 members elected a municipality board and a board of 35 members. Warmly welcomed at the conference room full of her supporters, President of the party, Plavsic, talked about the current situation in the RS, and attempts to overcome the crisis. She especially focused on the issues of crime and corruption which have brought the RS people to misery. She expressed hope that they will successfully reach their goal, and that the democratic processes will bear fruit.
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Banja Luka – press conferences of three Serb parties – The Serb Patriotic Party (SPP) expressed satisfaction with the local elections results. The Democratic Patriotic Party (DPP) also expressed its satisfaction with the results, and said that the Law on Electoral Units was unacceptable because it unfairly regulates a number of deputies within electoral units. The People’s Party said that they are against the holding of presidential elections, because the RS President made certain changes in the RS. They suggested that all political parties should establish two blocks for the parliamentary elections. All three parties discussed HR Westendorp’s letter addressed to Krajisnik regarding the taking over control of SRT Pale by OHR since Pale did not respect certain conditions. Solution should be found which is in line with the DPA and Belgrade Agreement, and no-one has the right to modify and interpret the DPA as they like it. The letter came as a result of certain responsible people’s behaviour who wanted to provoke the IC.
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Kotor Varos – local SDS session – SDS members adopted several conclusions and sent them to the SDS HQ, such as urgent holding of the SDS assembly session at which they should explain why SDS and the RS created such a bad conditions for its members, urgently elect a new membership, urgently elect the President of SDS, that SDS is getting weaker in municipalities where it used to be very well accepted, etc. These conclusions were fully supported also at a meeting in Mrakovac yesterday, where SDS members discussed the current situation in SDS.
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London Times reported that 10 Bosnian Croats surrendered themselves to the Hague pressure from after Croatian President Tudjman. Tudjman only cares to receive IMF credits. However, the paper also said that this event will be used for crueller pressure on the RS to do the same. Those Croats will either get a less severe sentence or be released. In the Croat-Muslim conflict in Central BiH in ’93, Muslims defeated Croats and evicted Croat population, which will probably be used when describing Croats as victims of ethnic cleansing.
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