Headlines
- House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly established
- General Krstic to appear before the Hague Tribunal on Monday
- New incident on the border between the FRY and Albania
- British-French summit ended adopting a declaration on Defence in Europe
The constitutive session of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly House of Peoples took place in Sarajevo today, unanimously electing a new leadership of the Council. The session also verified 14 of the 15 total mandates of the House. The only disputable mandate was that of one Croat member of this joint body whose mandate has been cancelled by the HR on the grounds of disrespect for the will of the voters. After having consultations with the Deputy Director of the OHR Political Department, Neithart Hoefer-Wissing, a decision was made to verify four of the five Croat mandates within the House of Peoples with the fifth one to be verified at its next session after a re-election of the Croat member. The session also unanimously elected its Presidency, with a Croat, Vladimir Soljic, to be its Chairman during the first eight months.
0:53
The Hague Tribunal released a statement today stating that General Krstic would be heard before this court next Monday. After meeting in Sokolac last night, the Speaker of the RS Parliament, Petar Djokic, and the Commander of the RS Army 5th Corps, Major-General, Svetozar Andric, assessed that the arrest of General Krstic had primarily been designed to de-stabilise the RS on the eve of the Madrid conference.
0:35
The Russian Foreign Ministry today sharply warned all those involved in the international peace mission in BiH that the problem of war crime indictees must be resolved in direct cooperation between all parties involved and the Hague Tribunal. A statement released by the Ministry stressed that the regularity of sealed indictments by the Hague Tribunal was rather dubious. The statement went on to express the hope that all those involved in resolving the war crime indictees issue would act cautiously, avoiding steps that could aggravate the situation and lead to dire consequences for the constitution of the peace process.
1:25
According to a statement made by a Pentagon official, the arrest of General Krstic represented the continuation of efforts aimed at bringing all those indicted on war crimes in Bosnia to justice. BETA reported that in commenting on the question related to the fact that General Krstic had, obviously, been trapped and then arrested and if SFOR was going to become more active on war crime indictees’ arrests, the Pentagon official responded that the main principles of the policy on war criminals’ arrests had not changed.
0:56
The defence lawyer for General Krstic, Nenad Petrusic, stated that he was going to request the Hague Tribunal to provide a detailed medical report on injuries incurred by the defendant Krstic during his arrest. According to Tanjug, General Krstic told his defence lawyer that he had been rudely harassed and ill-treated during the arrest.
0:23
The SNS today condemned in the sharpest terms possible the arrest of Serb General Krstic and expressed concerns regarding his health. The SNS went on to appeal to the Hague Tribunal to make sure that General Krstic had appropriate medical protection and treatment at the Hague, especially in the light of the tragic fates of Serb indictees held in the Hague cells. The SNS also claimed that the position of the RS at the forthcoming Madrid conference would be negative as a result of inadequate and unrealistic activities by the SDS and the SRS, including attempts by the prime minister designate, Dragan Kalinic, to delay the formation of the new Government. Claiming that Belgrade clearly played an important role in efforts to de-stabilise the RS, the SNS said that the decision cancelling payment operations was a political decision meant to discredit the work of the current RS Government.
2:18
The Deputy-President of the SDS Presidency, Dragan Cavic, at a press conference in BL today, assessed that SFOR had again overstepped their mandate by arresting General Krstic. As an aggravating circumstance related to the arrest, Cavic stressed that it had taken place on the eve of the conference in Madrid, and added that the SDS fully supported conclusions made by the RS NA and the RS Supreme Defence Council on the matter. Referring to the work of the RS NA, Cavic stressed that the passage of the Law on Cessation of Application of the Law on Use of Abandoned Property foresaw solutions providing for protection of rights of refugees and DPs. Cavic said that the HR had stressed that the application of the newly passed law would not result in people being thrown out on the street. Cavic went on to criticise SRT for claiming that the SDS accused the HR of being responsible for issuing credit cards to the former RS President, Biljana Plavsic, in an interview with the HR that was aired yesterday evening.
1:42
Lawyers defending Hague Tribunal indictees held a press conference in BL today. The conference focused on the position and the way in which war crime indictees are to be apprehended and taken to the Hague Tribunal cells. The conference stressed that the arrest of General Kratsic had proven that no means were forbidden in such actions by SFOR and that there would certainly be more similar arrests. According to Toma Fila, one of the defence lawyers, the problem about war crime indictee arrests was that of the interpretation of the word cooperation to be offered by local authorities and whether it only involved legal assistance or, also, included actions to extradite the indicted.
1:59
(Kosovo-related news)
6:14
The BiH Presidency, at its next session scheduled for 8th December, is expected to appoint new members to the BiH Council of Ministers for a period of two years. Regarding some requests as regards the structure of the Council, Deputy High Representative Hanns Schumacher recently stated that the new CoM should be elected in line with the old scheme with only the duration of co-chairmen’s rotations to change.
0:46
A regular international press conference took place in BL today, Alun Roberts, the UN IPTF Spokesperson, stated that while an agreement on the reorganisation of the police force in the Federation Canton 10 had been signed as early as in April, its implementation had still not started. Roberts also informed the press about the respective meetings between the UN SR SG, Elizabeth Rehn, and Poplasen and Dodik the day before.
1:25
The Brcko Supervisor, Robert Farrand, today suspended all decisions made at a session of the illegally established Municipal Assembly of the Croat municipality of Ravne Brcko held on 1st December, on the grounds that the MA had been established in violation of his instruction of 11th November banning replacements of those Croat counsellors who decided to change their political party for New Croat Initiative.
0:27
(Federation-related news)
1:36.