CPIC/Media Conferences
1. The following attended the regular Press Conference held at the CPIC at 1130 hours on Thursday 13 June 2002:
| Agency | Spokesperson | Topic |
| a. OHR | Julian Braithwaite |
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| b. OSCE | Urdur Gunnarsdottir |
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| c. UNMIBH | Stefo Lehmann |
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| d SFOR | Major Scott Lundy |
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2. Thirty members of the media and three television crews attended the conference.
3. A transcript of the questions and answers is attached.
C MinckCol (FR A),Chief Media Operations and Plans
Julian Braithwaite – OHR
Thank you all for coming. I’ve got one statement to make.
The Board of Principals meets every week. I want to explain what the Board of Principals is. The Board of Principals is chaired by the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, and it includes the heads or the deputy heads of the leading international institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They meet every week and they discuss issues that are relevant to all the different international organisations here, at the most senior level, and they agree on ways forward and look ahead and discuss issues that are coming up.
Today, one of the issues that was discussed was the Grabovac/Vraca affair and I have the conclusions from that meeting which are available. I will just go through them. These are conclusions of the Board of Principals as a whole, and they go as follows:
We would like to make our position clear on the issue of ministerial responsibility.
We believe that if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to become a successful democracy, it will increasingly have to adopt the standards of other European democracies.
One of those standards is the principal of ministerial responsibility. In a mature democracy, ministers take political responsibility for the actions or inactions of their ministries. When their ministries are implicated in a major scandal, particularly a major abuse of public funds, they are expected to resign. Such resignations are not necessarily seen as an admission of guilt. Indeed, they are often seen as brave and honourable political acts.
Establishing European standards in this country is a process and will take time. The process was begun under the previous High Representative and we believe it should continue with Ministers of Finance. They are a special case for two reasons. They are the guardians of the people’s money. They are also the principal contacts for the International Financial Institutions and donors. The ability of this country to appeal for assistance depends on their credibility and integrity.
The International Community is committed to helping the people of this country fight crime and corruption. To succeed, we need the active assistance of all those responsible in this country, particularly Ministers of Finance.
Urdur Gunnarsdottir – OSCE
I have more points than Julian, but they’re probably shorter.
Today, Ambassador Robert M. Beecroft is hosting a meeting of Heads of OSCE Missions in the region, regarding returns of refugees. They will discuss specific initiatives to facilitate and increase returns in the region.
Ambassador Beecroft will then be travelling to Herzegovina, meeting with local political, cultural and business leaders and the successor generation: that is young people as he has made it clear on numerous occasions that more attention needs to be given to the future of this country. Beecroft’s visit starts in Trebinje tomorrow morning Friday, followed by Siroki Brijeg on Monday and Mostar on Tuesday. Any further information you can get at our press office here or down in Mostar.
Finally on a subject that you have heard a lot about and will hear in the coming weeks and months, elections. Again, a reminder for those who have not registered to do so before June 20. It should be clear to everyone by now that citizens who are already registered do not need to amend their registration details unless:
· They change their personal details;
· They change their place of permanent residence;
· They change their address within the municipality of their residence; or
· They return from abroad where they previously registered to vote by mail.
On that issue, we want in particular to urge those that have returned to their pre-war homes to update their registration. It is not to establish a new registration but to update it. According to the Election Commission, most displaced persons are still registered to vote in their 1991 municipality by absentee ballot from another temporary municipality.
Voters who return to their permanent municipality must change their registration to indicate that they will be voting in person and not by absentee ballot. Few returnees have done so. So we urge them to update and correct their registration. There is a week to go.
Stefo Lehmann – UNMIBH
I will start by referring to the Secretary General Kofi Annan’s report. You are aware that the report was issued this week on the work of the UN Mission here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are copies available outside.
The Secretary General with his report informed the Security Council of the Mission’s significant achievements since his last report which was issued in November 2001. These achievements include:
· The commencement of the final phase of police certification; (as you are aware the police until now have been provisionally authorised)
· The Systems Analysis Project which will accredit police administrations meeting the standards of democratic policing and the accreditation, in fact, of the Brcko District police administration;
· The expansion of the State Border Service and its success in reducing illegal immigration;
· Improved inter-entity and regional police co-operation; and
· The unification of the Mostar City police.
He informed the Security Council that two important projects require additional support.
The Police Commissioner’s project in the Federation: he called on the Federation Government to establish a permanent Police Commissioner’s position by passing the necessary Law on Internal Affairs without further delays.
The Secretary General also urged the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide adequate funding to the State Border Service. He informed the Council that UNMIBH here had completed preparations for the full State Border Service deployment by September of this year, however, the State has not allocated sufficient funding from its 2002 budget.
Separately, the Secretary General reported that the proportion of minority police officers in the country has increased. Currently, 15.5 percent of police officers in the Federation are so-called minorities’ police officers, this number is up from 11.3 percent in November 2001. In the Republika Srpska the percentage of minority officers increased from 3.2 to 4.9 percent again from November.
Now, these numbers are still small, but this is a process that will take many years. The important issue is that the mechanisms for recruiting minorities have been created and they are being transferred to the local authorities. Supervising this process will be an important role for the follow on European Union mission.
The Secretary General was deeply disappointed, however, that the Federation Government has failed to respect its written promises to provide salary incentives to minority police officers in Srebrenica. Not only will this discourage officers from returning to Srebrenica, it is leading to the resignation of the officers that are currently serving there. After years of effort on the part of the UN Mission a promise in written form by the Federation Government that they would supplement the salaries, this has not happened. So we are now risking the departure of the six police officers that are currently working there.
In conclusion, the Secretary General recommended to the Security Council that they extend UN’s Mission here at an authorised strength of 1,600 monitors. This will be reduced after the 5 October elections to 460 monitors. The mandate will end, as you know, the extension that he is recommending is until 31 December 2002. During this time, UNMIBH will closely co-ordinate with the European Union and the Office of the High Representative in order to ensure a seamless transition of responsibilities from the IPTF to the European Union Police Mission.
The fourth part of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina campaign, which you are familiar with, ‘Your Police Serving You’ will start this Saturday, 15 June 2002. This part of the campaign has been developed to raise public awareness about the type of security citizens should expect from the police when they repossess their property and when they return to their pre-war homes.
The campaign will involve TV and radio ads, billboards around the country, thousands of leaflets, which will be distributed to the citizens. Leaflets are available on the tables outside and we will now view a TV ad. (Advertisement was screened.)
The fourth campaign, as you know, follows the one on traffic laws about rights of citizens when they are stopped by the police. Domestic violence – a very successful campaign – basically the first time this issue was raised publicly, in fact, many hot lines were created as a result, many hot lines were created as a result and many NGOs were established as a result of this campaign. Finally the third campaign was the rights and responsibilities of the police and citizens during police detention and custody.
A ceremony on the occasion of the graduation of the police refresher course will be held at the Police Academy tomorrow, June 14, in Vraca. 31 officers successfully completed the fifth Refresher Course for Former Police Officers. These are former police officers who have been retrained and will then return to their areas of origin. It will also be the first official visit to the Academy by the IPTF Commissioner, Sven Frederiksen. He will address the ceremony and deliver diplomas to the graduates. The ceremony will begin at about 1000 hours.
A media advisory inviting you will be issued later today.
Finally, this is improvised but you may be familiar with the decision that was taken by the Minister of Interior in Canton 7 to suspend six employees of the Ministry as a result of the disappearance of a confiscated vehicle. The vehicle was being held at the Minister of Interior and six people were suspended as a result. This really indicates incredible progress with Mostar Police. Under the divided Ministry, as you know, this would never have occurred. We had two chains of command. The Croat leadership would never have disciplined the Croat police officers, the Bosniaks likewise. Under the united police administration this appears to be changing. This shows increased transparency and increased accountability. On behalf the Special Representative of the Secretary General Klein and Commissioner Frederiksen we would rally like to commend the decision taken by the Minister of Interior, the Deputy Minister of Interior and the Police Commissioner in that Canton to suspend these officers pending a full investigation.
Major Scott Lundy – SFOR
The United Kingdom’s Band of the Royal Corps of Signals will perform a free public concert in Sarajevo on Saturday, 15 June 2002. The event will begin at 1500 hours at Trg Oslobodjenja and the concert will last about one hour.
Major General Anthony Palmer, the Deputy Commander SFOR Operations, and Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Army Music has said, “They are one of the best bands in the British Army and have performed many concerts all over the world. It is appropriate, since SFOR is here to serve the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that the band should also play its part. We hope as many people as possible will come along to support them.”
The band will play a wide selection of music ranging from traditional military marches to popular classical music and movie soundtracks such as the ‘Theme from James Bond’.
All members of the press are welcome to attend.
Questions and Answers
Q Viola Gienger / Cox newspapers – What kind of research or other testing do the international organisations do to test the effectiveness of ads that are launched? And also to test the effectiveness of ads before they re launched?
A UNMIBH – Very good question. What I know about these ads, we are keeping the PR companies in business here. Truthfully, besides these four ads, we have not that much experience in these types of campaigns. I believe OSCE has much more experience than we do. (Laughter.)
A OSCE – We have, at least not to my knowledge, been testing scientifically afterwards the result but we try to get some of whether we have been successful or not. In some cases it is obvious we do not need to as in the case of the Military Initiative we had late last year about lowering the military expenditure. It was obvious as you see what is happening now, 10,000 soldiers are being demobilised. That is a direct result. In other cases we try, we have a very wide field, 24 press offices, and we try to have the people estimate the result for us.
A UNMIBH – Concretely, if you look at the numbers that I mentioned today for example on minority police representation, the numbers just from November in the Federation we have 15.5 percent minorities and in November it was 11.3. But that is certainly a result of the campaign that we have conducted around the country. The domestic violence campaign because of that campaign we had many hot lines being established around the country independently of the UN and certainly women’s groups were created as a result of that.
A SFOR – We do pre-test, we do focus groups all with the view toward determining that what we have is going to be something that will succeed in getting the message through and overcome any cultural or linguistic barriers that we might otherwise not be aware of. In terms of monitoring or tracking the results, we do occasionally do post-advertisement campaign analysis. I do not have the advertising jargon for that, but we do go into communities and see whether or not they have actually seen a particular ad and what their opinions are of it. So we do conduct some post-advertisement monitoring.
A UNMIBH – We have the co-ordinator of our campaigns, Leigh Robinson, who may have more.
A Leigh Robinson / UNMIBH – As campaign manger for UNMIBH I can perhaps answer this question. We actually utilise both the official surveys of Office of the High Representative and SFOR to gain pre- and post-campaign analysis before we determine what is going to happen with the next campaign and to determine what impact we have had on the last campaign.
Q Viola Gienger / Cox newspapers – Do you specifically ask about the ads, whether people had seen them, what do they think of them, has it changed their behaviour?
A Leigh Robinson UNMIBH – Yes, we do. The Office of the High Representative and SFOR that determines our post-campaign analysis is exactly requesting and asking those questions of the people on the street.
Q Aida Cerkez-Robinson / AP – The reduction of IPTF staff was announced. I heard the number 460, is that true?
A UNMIBH – Yes, we will maintain a level of 1,600 until after the October elections and then from October until the end of December there will be a reduction to 460. Many of those officers will be from European countries and they will probably move into the European Union follow on mission.
Q Aida Cerkez-Robinson / AP – Having in mind what you have listed there, you had a big list of what the UN is doing and de-authorising. 460 people is that going to be enough to maintain the pace?
A UNMIBH – Yes, it will be enough because the higher level of professionalism attained by the local police, the lower the number of international police monitors are required. We believe that the professionalism has increased to a certain point, which would now only require approximately 500 police officers. There is no reason anymore to have 1,600 police officers monitoring the work of the local police. They have achieved large gains, they have been trained, they have been equipped, they have been registered, their backgrounds have been checked, work needs to be done. Certainly the European Union has to preserve the accomplishments of the UN but certainly 460 will suffice for that.
Q Aida Cerkez-Robinson / AP – This process of reviewing their backgrounds has that been completed?
A UNMIBH – No, that is ongoing.
Q Aida Cerkez-Robinson / AP – But you are going to finish that part?
A UNMIBH – That has been on going for a while.
Q Viola Gienger / Cox newspapers – I am stuck on the ads. How much money do each of the organisations spend on these kind of promotional campaigns, for example, do you know how much was spent during the fiscal last year?
A OSCE – I do not have the figure in my head, I will have to get back to you.