Headlines
- RS delegation departed for Vienna to attend a Brcko arbitration conference
- Serbs and Kosovo Albanians, at a peace conference in Paris, accepted 10 principles by the Contact Group for the next three years
- Mass served for victims of Ustashi crimes at the Memorial Grave of Drakulic
- Jordanian King Hussein passed away
An RS delegation led by Vice-President, Mirko Sarovic, has today departed for Vienna to attend a Brcko arbitration conference that will be taking place from 8 until 16 February. Shortly before their departure, members of the delegation met with the President of the BiH Presidency, Zivko Radisic, and RS President Poplasen. After the meeting, Radisic told the press that the arbitration decision should be in line with what had originally been written down in the DA, with no further revisions. Saying that the final decision should, however, not be to the detriment of any of the three constitutive nations in BiH, Radisic added that the RS had in the past year employed considerable efforts to implement provisions contained in the additional Brcko Arbitration decision. President Poplasen, on his part, said that: “We have concluded that there is not a single reason for the town of Brcko not to remain a part of the RS. Our reasons are not only of an economic and political nature, but they also derive from what was written down in the DA. What has happened in the town since the signing of the DA in Paris certainly justifies such a decision …. and any different decision would be in violation of documents signed and would jeopardise the survival of the RS”. Sarovic told the press that the RS delegation would not succumb to any pressure or blackmail but would rather work to present facts.
3:25
The BiH Federation Vice-President, Ejub Ganic, at a press conference held before his departure for Vienna today, stated that any further delay of the Brcko arbitration decision would lead to new waves of refugees fleeing from the town. “The BiH Federation requests the Arbitration Tribunal to make a good decision that will be in the interest of all nations that see BiH as their state and that plan to spend their future in it” .
0:33
Referring to statements by participants in negotiations currently ongoing between the Serb and the Kosovo Albanian delegations in Rambouillet, the BETA new agency has reported that the two sides have today accepted 10 principles implying that the Serb side would continue to control the area of Kosovo for at least another three years.
0:17
(other Kosovo-related news)
4:25
The Sarajevo-based “Oslobodjenje” daily newspaper has today carried an article saying that the OHR have embarked on a full implementation of all aspects of conclusions made at the Madrid conference. According to Alexandra Stiglmayer, the Spokesperson for the HR, the Madrid Declaration foresees a number of reforms in the respective fields of the economy, judiciary, media, military, election law, strengthening of joint institutions and admittance of BiH into the Council of Europe.
0:34
According to reports by the Sarajevo media today, following the election of the new BiH CoM, representatives of opposition parties at the BiH PA House of Representatives have started an initiative to question a possible conflict of functions in the legislative and executive authority bodies, including those of Haris Silajdzic, Jadranko Prlic and others.
0:51
The RS Ministry of Traffic and Communications has released a statement saying that SFOR is planning to conduct routine technical inspections of several SFOR bridges in the RS in the course of February. These, amongst others, include the bridge in Gradiska which will be closed for traffic between 13:30 hrs and 15:30 hrs on 9 February and the Landrum Bridge on the road between BL and Jajce which will be closed for traffic on 10 February, between 9:00 hrs and 11:00 hrs.
1:27
(A topical report on the Commission for property claims by refugees and DPs and its work) The Commission which has been established to help people re-establish their rights pertaining to their pre-war property has, so far, received over 121,000 property claims pertaining to property throughout BiH and has made decisions on over 29,000 of those. For the time being the Commission’s priority is to work to collect necessary deeds on property claimed rather than to help implement its decisions. Claims may be submitted at one of the six offices of the Commission located in BiH, through UNHCR in the FRY and Montenegro and also through offices in Berlin and Norway for refugees and DPs living abroad. The Commission expects to register another 300,000 claims this year and plans to strengthen its services aimed at providing property-related information to reconstruction agencies funded by the EC. The deadline for submitting property claims at one of the three offices of the Commission in Serbia is 4 April and is not expected to be extended, whereas in the RS it has been set to expire on 6 June.
3:42
Military expenditure of states formed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia is expected to amount to about DM 4.4 billion this year. Just as a comparison, the former Yugoslavia planned to provide DM 3.7 billion from its federal budget to be spent on defence and military activities in 1989, which was less than 5% of its national gross product. The BiH Federation military budget for this year is about DM 480 million, which could likely increase by another DM 200 million that Croatia has been planning to provide to fund the HVO. The amount of DM 480 million does not include funds to be provided under the “Train and Equip Programme” this year. Another comparison, the planned military budget of the RS for this year is about DM 99.5 million.
03:02