OHR SRT News Summary, 15 April 1998 - Office of the High Representative

Headlines

RS NA special session did not take place today in Doboj due to lack of quorum
High Representative Carlos Westendorp: The RS NA Speaker should not schedule the special session
RS President and Prime Minister spoke in separate meetings to the Norwegian Foreign Minister

The HR to B&H Carlos Westendorp stated that the IC was giving a full support to the Government, that the promised aid to the RS was on its way and that the IC saw the future of the RS in prosperity.
The HR spoke today in BL to the RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik about the situation in the RS, return of refugees, new license plates, etc. Assessing that talks passed in the atmosphere of understanding the RS Prime Minister Dodik stressed that in the forthcoming period the Government would intensify the implementation of the DA.
Commenting on the special session of the RS NA that did not take place due to lack of quorum the HR said for the SRT:
“As far as I know there was no session held in Doboj today but the gathering of some parties. If the RS NA Speaker wants to schedule the session he needs the consent of the majority of parties which he did not have in this very case. I think that democracy has its rules and they have to be respected.”
The HR spoke to the RS President Biljana Plavsic. The meeting was held without presence of the press.
3:40

The RS NA session scheduled for today in Doboj did not take place due to lack of quorum. Only 34 deputies from the Serb Democratic Party and the Serb Radical Party attended the session, while deputies of the Serb National Alliance, the Socialist Party of RS, the Independent Social-Democrats and the Coalition for Bosnia failed to attend it.
The RS NA Speaker D. Kalinic presented the agenda consisting of two items only. After the session he spoke of the necessity for the new agreement of the parliamentary parties about he form, place and the way of holding the next session of the Parliament.
3:50

Aleksa Buha and Nikola Poplasen assessed at the press conference held after the session that non-attendance by the deputies of the Serb National Alliance, the Socialist Party of RS and the Coalition for Bosnia was a disrespect of the elementary principles and obligations.
0:45

The president of the Socialist Party of RS Zivko Radisic informed the press that he had sent a letter to the RS President, Prime Minister and the RS NA Speaker:
Dear Presidents,
The RS is again facing great temptations. The events follow one another, and we are not managing to consolidate our internal unity and stability. The behaviors regarding the special session of the National Assembly scheduled for today and tomorrow are very indicative. The internal schisms keep deepening. Parliamentary and other parties have started the electoral campaign and the struggle for prestige detrimental to the national and political unity and overall efficiency in the work. All of this, as well as other circumstances, favor the International Community to strengthen its pressure on the RS and to advocate more obviously the B&H unitarization, derogating the entities role and deviating from the genuine provisions of the DA. Due to all of this, the fear and concern are being increased…
is said in the letter.
3:50

His Holiness Serb Patriarch Pavle will host the RS President and Prime Minister tomorrow in Belgrade.
0:20

The RS President spoke to the Norwegian Foreign Minister about the refugee return, especially of the ones who are supposed to return to the Croatia, the Dayton implementation, humanitarian aid and the September elections. The President warned the Norwegian diplomat of the danger that the imposing of the sanction to the FRY could bring to the RS and the refugees who would in that case flee to the RS.

The RS Prime Minister spoke to the Norwegian diplomat about the DA implementation and economic recovery of the RS.
4:00

In the week of the Easter the RS President received a group of children, refugees and children of deceased solders of the VRS who live in Misin Han near Banjaluka. The President gave them the gifts for the Easter.
0:30

The co-president of the CoM of B&H Boro Bosic hosted today in Pale the UK Ambassador to B&H Charles Crawford.
0:30

The RS Defense Minister Manojlo Milovanovic assessed that the DA did not foresee the construction of the military range in Glamoc and that it represented a violation of the Dayton. “As far as I know nobody from the military structures of the RS gave the green light to this range construction,” Milovanovic stressed and added that the range in Glamoc was supposed to be built on the Serb owned land and reminded of the fact that the IC insisted on the refugee return and wondered where Serb returnees would return to if their land was converted into the military range.
1:40

The RS State Commission announced the names of three more people exhumed from the Tresnjice site near Petrovac.
0:30

The UN High Commissioner Sadako Ogata visited Mrkonjic Grad and Sipovo today. The Commissioner expressed the readiness to help the citizens in these towns.
0:45

A meeting of the representatives of the Associations of DP’s and refugees was held in Prijedor under the auspices of the Association of refugees and DPs of B&H. The representatives of the Associations of refugees and DPs expelled from western Krajina municipalities from both the RS and Federation discussed the return of the ones who wish to return. The local authorities of Sanski Most and Prijedor and the IC representatives attended the meeting.
1:30