Headlines:
- There is no danger of dividing RS in two, President Plavsic tells “Junge Welt”
- New credit arrangements with RS in Washington
- RS Government session in Banja Luka
- UN Secretary General travels to Baghdad
An RS government delegation headed by Prime Minister Milorad Dodik reached agreement with World Bank representatives in Washington on the allocation of a $ 20 million credit to the RS. They also discussed the possibility of allocating two more credits – one of $ 33 million which would be used for balancing the RS budget, and another for $ 10 million to be directed into the RS timber industry. The RS government delegation is to hold a meeting with members of the US Congress today, while a meeting with US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is scheduled for tomorrow.
2:00
RS President Biljana Plavsic stated in an interview for the German “Junge Welt” that the chances of dividing the RS were very small at the moment thanks to the wish to co-operate and to the opening up to the world. “The RS is going to survive and economically it will very soon be in a better position than Serbia. Only Bosnian Moslems want a single and centralised Bosnia. Serbs and Croats form the majority of the population and they are against such a state. Neither Serbs nor Croats will allow the creation of a Bosnia dominated by Moslems”. According to Plavsic, RS Prime Minister Dodik is an open, direct, modern and flexible person – the right person for this political moment. Regarding the Hague Tribunal, she stated that it was unfair and unimaginable that only a Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, should go to the Hague. He was the leader of the Serbs in the same way as Izetbegovic was the Moslem leader and Mate Boban the Croat one.
2:15
Member of the B&H Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, received the Portuguese Ambassador. At the meeting Krajisnik presented his view of the current political situation in the RS and about the work of the joint bodies.
1:00
A session of the RS government, chaired by the Vice-president Ostoja Kremenovic, is being held in Banja Luka. The main issue under consideration is the working plan of the RS government, with special emphasis on the draft budget for 1998. Some personnel issues are also to be discussed.
1:20
In Lukavica, a Serb part of Sarajevo, a session of the B&H Council of Ministers was held today. The agenda contained 13 items. The most important point was the implementation of the Law on the Council of Ministers, within which the regulations and inner organisation of the ministries were discussed. The issue of the location of the joint institutions was also discussed, while the budget and the Law on budget realisation were adopted.
1:30
Deputy High Representative, Jacques Klein, visited Zvornik today, where he stated that the fact that the RS had a new government represented some kind of progress, because the new government worked in the interests of the people and was supported by the whole world. Mr Klein also visited the Medical Centre and the “Sveti Sava” Primary School in Zvornik.
1:55
The RS government issued a press release today informing the public about certain personnel changes in various RS information agencies.
0:40
Realisation of the agreement on return of SRT transmitters to the RS government is scheduled for tomorrow. Regarding the news that Momcilo Krajisnik, Member of the B&H Presidency from the RS, disagreed with the agreed procedure of this transfer, the RS Ministry of Information issued a press release stating that the Ministry energetically denies the existence of any agreement that prevents the establishment of a single system of the SRT, explaining that Mr Krajisnik could not interfere in the activities of the SRT or the Ministry of Information or in the authority of the RS government.
1:05
NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana, today hailed the improved co-operation of the RS authorities regarding the DPA implementation. “In the past few months, things have moved quickly and in the right direction, especially in the RS”, he stated at a press conference in the Hague.
0:30