OHR SRT News Summary, 19 March 1999 - Office of the High Representative

Headlines

Signing of a document on modification of the final Award on Brcko a result of the talks between PM Dodik and the Presiding Arbitrator Roberts Owen
Letter of the HR Carlos Westendorp – nomination of Mladen Ivanic for prime minister designate invalid
Talks on Kosmet in Paris officially ended; State Department called on the Americans to leave Yugoslavia immediately
Libya agreed to extradite its two citizens suspected of involvement in the Lockerbie scandal

After a two-day stay in Vienna, the RS PM Dodik, with his associates, arrived in Banja Luka today. Upon arrival, Dodik and the RS Minister of Justice Milan Trbojevic held a press conference in the airport building. The PM Dodik stated to journalists that the talks held in Vienna with Carlos Westendorp, Robert Gelbard and Roberts Owen resulted in a document signed by the HR CW. ” As for the decision that is called final, and it obviously is not, we have changed some details referring to the key fact, and that is the issue of the IEBL. We have also changed details pertaining to the right to military transport which was in the competence of the district authorities and this change foresees that they are not” Trbojevic stated.
5:02

Regarding today’s signing of the agreement in Vienna, the HR Carlos Westendorp sent a letter to the PM Dodik. (letter carried in whole)
2:38

The RS political-expert team led by the RS NA Speaker Petar Djokic talked in Vienna today with the international Arbitrator for Brcko Roberts Owen, defending the assembly resolution which requests the change of the Award on IEBL as well as its harmonisation with the basic DA principles.
1:07

The HR Carlos Westendorp informed the RS NA Speaker Djokic that the nomination of Mladen Ivanic for prime minister designate is invalid, since vice president Sarovic did not declare whether he was taking over the duty of the president.
1:00

The SNSD considers that the decision by the HR on proclaiming the proposal on the prime minister designate by Sarovic invalid should have never taken place, since everybody in the RS knows that the vice president, according to the Constitution, does not have such authorisations, Bastinac stated.
0:56

The SDS fully supports the prime minister designate for the composition of the new Government Mladen Ivanic, the SDS press release says. The SDS condemns the separate departure of the RS Government delegation to Vienna and stresses that this delegation is obliged to hold talks with Owen exclusively from the position of the resolution adopted by the RS NA.
1:03

The position of the HR that the nomination of Ivanic for prime minister designate is invalid is completely logical and realistic, the president of the KCDBiH caucus Safet Bico considers. It would be good that Sarovic declares himself and that the institution of the President starts functioning again, considering that it affects the work of the NA and the Government that is a caretaker until the new one is elected, Bico said.
0:45

Kosovo-related issues

Paris talks on Kosovo officially ended today, says the press release signed by Hubert Vedrine and Robin Cook. According to them, the talks are not going to be continued until Serbia accepts the agreement.
The American State Department called on all its citizens to leave the FRY immediately due to the danger from NATO air strikes
The members of the OSCE Verification Mission in Kosovo emptied the building of the mission in Pristina today; it is expected that 1,400 verifiers will leave Kosmet in the course of the night or tomorrow
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned, in a message published in Brussels, that the world organisation had primacy over NATO, which means
that the western alliance cannot undertake any military actions without the explicit approval of the UN.

10:00

The President of the FBiH Government Edhem Bicakcic today proposed offering a reward of KM 1 million to anyone who can help in catching the perpetrators of the assassination attempt on Jozo Leutar, or indicate the one who ordered it.
0:45