OHR SRT News Summary, 30 August 1999 - Office of the High Representative

Headlines

The RS Minister of Education Nenad Suzic says that salaries for July will be paid to teachers by the end of the week;
Nikola Poplasen requested Dodik and Djokic to give their opinion on dissolution of the RS NA;
The negotiations on road blockade postponed;

ICTY Spokesman Jim Landale said that General Talic would be indicted tomorrow. Landale said that the trial would start in a month, after the prosecution and defence had prepared their case. Genera Talic will be represented by Vladimir Petrovic, a lawyer from Belgrade.

On the occasion of the strike announced by elementary and secondary school teachers, Dodik and the RS Minister of Education, Nenad Suzic talked to principals of the elementary and secondary schools in Banja Luka. Dodik says that the salaries for July will be paid to the teachers by the end of the week as well as the additional 100 KMs which will be paid in the next 10-15 days. Dodik said that the school year should start on 1st of September and that the most principals are against the strike. Suzic said that teachers who intend to go on strike would not be paid according to the law on strikes.

Nikola Poplasen, dismissed from his post by High Representative, addressed a letter to Djokic and Dodik demanding they give their opinions on dissolution of the RS NA by 3rd of September. Poplasen said that the RS NA had broken its constitutional function according to which a new government should be elected after the constitution of the parliament. During the mandate of this Government the integrity of the RS had been brought into question (Brcko Award and Boundary Treaty in Kostajnica). These two decisions were against the DPA and the RS NA tolerated these activities of the Government without good reason, said Poplasen.

Reactions on Poplasen’s letter

Dodik said that Poplasen misused the seal of the RS President. Everybody knows that Poplasen is no longer the RS President and the RS Government will keep that in mind and take care of it, said Dodik.

Plavsic said that Poplasen is not the RS President and that he has been misusing his position. “Coalition “Sloga” held a meeting today but we did not discuss the letter sent by Poplasen”, said Plavsic.

Dragan Kalinic (SDS) said that SDS has no any comments on Poplasen’s letter to Dodik and Djokic. “SDS leadership has not been informed yet about Poplasen’s request and SDS is going to give their statement at a later stage”, said Kalinic.

Predrag Lazarevic (Serbian Coalition for the RS) supported Poplasen’s request and added that the situation was ripe for dissolution of the RS NA.

OHR Spokesman Fergusson assessed Poplasen’s request as illegal adding that Poplasen had become an ordinary citizen after he was dismissed from the post of RS President by High Rep on 5th of March this year. Since he has been an ordinary citizen he is not eligible to talk about dissolution of the RS NA.

The RS Minister of Information said at a press conference that the process of uniting the media continues in BiH. There is a accelerated effort to create the Public Transmitting Corporation stressing the $20-30 million as possible foreign investment into the Corporation. According to Vasic the RS Government standpoint is clear: the consistent implementation of the DPA, without accelerated and non-realistic centralisation of the media. Commenting on possible IMC successors, Vasic hinted at the establishment of a local agency, which would also lead to centralisation of the media in BiH, and the Ministry of Information strongly opposes it. Vasic commented on the financing of media in BiH as well: “For instance, ONASA is financed by the IC and, in return ONASA covers the entire BiH and their services are in Bosnian and Croatian language. It is time for the IC to go public with details about all investment in media in BiH and to say how much money and in which media houses in BiH they invested”, Vasic said.

Simon Haselock says that the RS Minister of Information, Rajko Vasic is not competent to talk about the constitutionality of the Public Transmitting Corporation, since he is a journalist not a lawyer who deals with legal issues. Reacting on Vasic’s interview in “Glas Srpski”, Haselock stressed that the issues pertaining to establishment of the Public Transmitting Corporation are under the jurisdiction of the BiH Constitutional Court.