OHR SRT News Summary, 18 March 1999

Headlines

• RS delegation left for Vienna for additional consultations with the Arbitrator Roberts Owen on Brcko
• Kosovo Shquiptars signed the agreement in Paris; Serbian delegation against the imposition of a solution
• Various reactions to the proposal regarding the new prime minister designate recorded even today
• Assassination attempt on Leutar has deepened the crisis between federal partners

An RS delegation left today for the Austrian capital to meet with the Presiding Arbitrator of the international tribunal for Brcko Roberts Owen in order to receive additional interpretation on the final decision on the legal and political establishment of this area. The Presiding Arbitrator will be asked to change the final decision and bring it in line with basic Dayton principles.
1:24

The RS PM Milorad Dodik left with associates for Vienna today in order to have official talks with the Presiding Arbitrator in the arbitration procedure on the disputable portion in the IEBL area of Brcko, Roberts Owen. The main request of the Government delegation will be securing of clear and firm guarantees by the Arbitrator Owen that the arbitration award on Brcko will preserve the territorial continuity of the RS in compliance with Dayton.
0:36

The Brcko mayor Borko Reljic announced that the delegation of the NA political-expert commission, at tomorrow’s meeting in Vienna, would request the arbitration award on Brcko to be brought in line with the DA and the constitutions of the RS and BiH.
0:52

Kosovo-related news

• 45 minutes ago, a four-member Shquiptar delegation led by Ibrahim Rugova and Hashim Thaqi signed the peace agreement in Paris.
• On behalf of the IC, the agreement was signed by the American mediator Christopher Hill and the EU mediator Wolfgang Petritsch. The Russian mediator did not put his signature to this agreement.
• The Serbian state delegation met today with the three mediators and conveyed its firm position that an agreement could be reached only by a dialogue and not by the imposition of unacceptable, unjust and detrimental solutions for all those who want peace and stability in Kosmet, Tanjug reports.
• The leading military commanders of the Pentagon warned today that NATO air strikes conducted in the framework of the pressure against the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic to accept the peace agreement might have a serious impact on Americans, Beta reports.
• Talks on a political solution of the problem in Kosmet will be suspended for a few days, European diplomatic sources claim in Paris.

The regular press conference held today by the SPRS included discussion on the new prime minister designate and the election of the new government. The new republic government should be formed as soon as possible in order to overcome the deep political crisis in the RS, Igor Radojicic stated. Radojicic also talked about relations within the Sloga coalition, stressing that the differences and discrepancies, which are increasingly evident, could be overcome only by a dialogue. He went on to say that the SPRS is still a member of the Sloga and, as he said, no one can expel it from the coalition. Radojicic denied reports from some media that the socialists had joined the coalition with the SDS and SRS.
1:11

The Executive Board of the SNSD was in session last evening, when Nenad Bastinac stated for the SRT: “.. The EB considers that the best concept is still the one offered by the Sloga coalition. We also consider that the prime minister designate was not proposed in a constitutional manner, since Sarovic did not take over the duty of the President… At the moment, we cannot even accept to be included in the Government of a prime minister designate proposed in that way, or to support such a Government. The SNSD will no longer take part in consultations regarding the prime minister designate until the issue of the President is resolved.
1:20