Headlines
- The High Representative reiterated accusations against the leadership of the SRT Pale Studio;
- The Vice-President of the RS, who is also Rector of Banja Luka University, received a delegation from the British Company, connected with education
- The Chinese President visits the United States for the first time in the past 12 years.
The RS Vice President and the Rector of Banja Luka University, Dragoljub Mirjanic, spoke today in Banja Luka to Tom Ryan, representative of the British Company engaged in education, about assistance related to the modernisation of school supplies and equipment, which are necessary for the normal functioning of schools and colleges.
This company has been present in the Former Yugoslavia for about 20 years. Its current aim is to establish co-operation with the universities in RS, firstly with Banja Luka University. The first exchange of students, school supplies assistance, etc, are some of the issues that future co-operation will be based on.
Institutions here have committed themselves to draw up lists of priorities (school supplies and equipment) within 30 days. One part of it will be financed by international organisations, the other will be covered by the assistance intended for education in RS, and the third part will be financed through credits that the state will pay. Nedo Sevo, assistant of the RS Minister of Interior, and the director of the Ministry of Interior’s Educational Centre attended the meeting.
1min. 40sec.
Carlos Westendorp, the High Representative for civilian implementation of the DA, today reiterated accusations against the SRT Pale Studio relating to the removal of vital equipment from the transmitter site in Veliki Zep, the BETA reports.
The High Representative said in his statement that editorial staff from Pale were responsible for the sabotage in the Veliki Zep transmitter site, and that on Saturday, 18 October, SFOR troops took over the transmitter. However, technicians manning the transmitter had earlier taken away all the equipment and had, thus, made it impossible for the Banja Luka studio to transmit their programmes. BETA further quoted the statement as follows: The OHR and SFOR are working together to make up for the damage and thus make broadcasting by the Banja Luka studio possible again. The OHR will continue to co-operate with OSCE in order to ensure that all the political parties that will participate at the forthcoming parliamentary elections would be equally represented in SRT programmes.
1 min
The President of the Serb Cultural Centre in Subotica (a town in the North of Serbia), Milan Marodic, has today given a statement to SRNA saying that the Serb people in the RS could only overcome the political plots that have been imposed on them by returning to the initial roots of their culture and spirituality. However, Marodic said, RS leaders that are being praised by some and, on the other hand, also accused by others, held the same views as at the beginning of the war. They never disagreed on the necessity to defend the endangered Serb people in BH, or to preserve the values of their culture, spirituality and civilization.
34 sec.
The President of the Serb National Council in Croatia, Milorad Pupavac, who is also the President of the Independent Serb Democratic Party, in an interview given to the Rijeka-based Novi List newspaper today stated that confidence could not be restored between the Serb and the Croat people in Croatia by any means, unless refugees and DPs started to return eventually.
Pupavac added that the progress that had been made during the last few months, when Serb refugees and DPs started to return to Croatia, and Croat refugees to Eastern Slavonia, must now be reinforced .
“The return process could become more efficient if the process of resolving property issues would be speeded up and also if financial resources needed for the reconstruction of refugees’ houses, the infrastructure and economy could be provided”.
38 sec.
The OSCE Regional Office in Banja Luka today confirmed that 170 political parties and independent candidates had applied to run in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the RS scheduled for 23 November. However, this does not seem to be the final number of political parties and independent candidates that will participate in the elections, since the OSCE commission in charge of regulating participation applications is yet to verify their regularity. 55 political parties from the RS, along with 25 political parties from the BH Federation and 10 coalitions, took part in the recently held local elections in BH.
35 sec.
The election campaign, that, according to OSCE information, will see presentations of 170 political parties, independent candidates and coalitions, is to begin in the RS next week. 82 independent candidates, 25 new and 11 old political parties have registered in the area of responsibility of the OSCE Regional Office in Banja Luka alone, which actually covers almost half of the RS total electorate.
The well-organized election machinery, that will involve several hundred international monitors, has already done a great deal of work. Considerable financial resources, needed for political parties and independent candidates that will participate at the elections, have been provided by international donors. IPTF and SFOR are also preparing for their role in the election process. What will make the forthcoming elections, which many consider as being of key importance in terms of the current constitutional and political crisis in the RS, special is the fact that all of the political parties and coalitions that will certainly have the leading role during the elections have decided to run independently and have selected extremely competent people to top their lists of candidates. However, the fact that almost two thirds of the applications have been filed by independent candidates indicates that many of them see this as an election adventure that will, eventually, help them grab some foreign money, rather than as an opportunity to fight for their place in the RS Parliament through a democratic struggle.
1 min. 37 sec.
The municipality of Ribnik has today seen the establishment of one more political party, the RS Serb National Union – Biljana Plavsic. The constitutive session of the Serb National Union that was, amongst others, attended by Ostoja Knezevic, the Vice President of the Party, Vlado Tomic, a member of the SNS Main Board, and Djuradj Banjac, the Vice President of the SNS Local Board in Banja Luka, appointed Momcilo Mitrovic as the President of the SNS Local Board in Ribnik, and Drago Pevac as his Deputy. The SNS Local Board in Ribnik will consist of 19 members.
35 sec.
The former Commander of the 9th Brdska Muslim Brigade, Razim Delalic, today told the Croat media that he was prepared to appear before the Hague Tribunal as a witness in the case to investigate crimes that had been committed by Muslim troops against Croat civilians in the valley of the Neretva River. Delalic specified that the crimes against Croat civilians had taken place at the village of Grabovica, which sits in the valley of the Neretva River, in September 1993. Delalic went on to accuse several former Muslim officers of doing nothing to prevent the crimes and also of refusing to disclose them afterwards.
36 sec.