Headlines
6th April 1998- French President Chirac arrives in Sarajevo this evening
- Agreement signed on establishment of a BiH railway public corporation
- Prime Minister Dodik in Pale – agreement reached on building accommodation for families of 20 fallen soldiers
- Work of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly suspended – a temporary executive board set up
- Ducic’s evenings of poetry start in Trebinje
French President Chirac is due to arrive in BiH this evening for a two-day visit to the country. Chirac is expected to meet with President Plavsic tomorrow.
0:14
The respective Prime Ministers of the RS and the BiH Federation, Dodik and Bicackic, under the auspices of the High Representative, Carlos Westendorp, signed an Agreement on the establishment of a BiH public railway corporation in Sarajevo today. The two signatories to the Agreement believed that an agreement on restoring co-operation between BiH railways and the respective railway corporations from Croatia and the FRY would be achieved shortly.
2:14
Prime Minister Dodik today visited Pale where he briefly met with Momcilo Krajisnik to discuss “operational matters”. Dodik also met with local municipal officials to discuss the status of the town, the issue of refugees, families of fallen soldiers, health care, education and local infrastructure.
3:01
RS Vice- President, Ostoja Kremenovic, met with the Head of the OSCE mission in BiH, Robert Barry, and Deputy High Representative, Hanns Schumacher, in Banja Luka today. The meeting discussed the Srebrenica arbitration decision. Barry stated that, following failed attempts to implement results from last year’s municipal elections, a decision was made to appoint a provisional municipal executive board that would be comprised of four representatives each of both the Serb and Bosniak sides, and would be chaired by an international representative. Schumacher also spoke about the obstruction of a trip by Banja Luka students to Sarajevo to attend a lecture by French President Chirac. Responding to Schumacher’s allegation, the President of the Association of Banja Luka students stated that the meeting of the Association on 1st April concluded that the Association was not in a position to send a group of students to Sarajevo, but that all those individuals wishing to travel to meet Chirac would be supported and assisted to do so. The Association described Schumacher’s statement as a sign of his “diplomatic irresponsibility”.
3:38
Serbian MPs today adopted amendments to the Referendum Law, by to which a referendum can now be held within 15 days of the day it was convened. The Serbian National Assembly is now expected to adopt a decision tomorrow on holding a referendum, whereby citizens of Serbia will be able to express their views regarding the involvement of foreign representatives in resolving the crisis in Kosovo. The Serbian Government today appealed to Kosovo Albanians to attend a dialogue scheduled for 11:00 hrs in Pristina tomorrow. A member of the Albanian negotiating team, however, stated that the Albanian side would not attend the dialogue tomorrow.
3:42
The identification of dead bodies exhumed from the Carevo Polje mass grave today resumed in Banja Luka. The RS Commission is now to continue with exhumation work in the area of Petrovac, which was recently suspended due to a mine threat.
0:48
The President of the Serb National Party in Croatia, Milan Djukic, has stated that the ground has still not been prepared for the return of Serb refugees to the country and that there is no political will in Croatia to support the return.
0:19
According to BiH Federation independent media, the Hercegovina-Neretva Canton and the Central Bosnian Canton are currently the two key hotbeds of crisis in the entity. This is because cantonal laws are only respected in Muslim municipalities, whereas the Croat ones are continuing to enforce the administrative system of the self-declared Republic of Herceg Bosnia.
1:05
The RS Football Association today met to discuss possible participation of RS football teams in the organisation of play-off competitions involving the respective football associations of the RS, BiH and Herceg Bosnia. In a written reply to UEFA today, the RS Association stated that a letter had recently been addressed by the High Representative recommending that teams representing all three football associations should be able to compete internationally. The final decision is expected to be made at a meeting of UEFA scheduled for 28/29 April in Dublin.
1:52