- SDP to initiate constitutional changes in the Federation
- Bosnia demands that Croatia ratifies agreement on major port
- BiH will sue Croatia with Energy Charter
- Dnevni List : Jelavic, Prce and Curcic appear before Investigative Judge of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo – Anic as Pontius Pilatus
- Dnevni List : Muhamed Besic, advisor with machine gun
- Key Alliance meeting about Halilovic affair and distribution of directorial posts postponed until Friday
- Alliance invites BOSS into coalition to cover for the possible loss of the BPS
- Faruk Balijagic, attorney of suspects in Leutar case and Sefer Halilovic, announces bringing of true culprits before court
- Crown Prince Alexandar and his wife visit Banja Luka and join Patron Saint celebrations
- RS President: No constitutional changes in BiH without the consent of the RS
- RS Prime Minister: Yugoslavia no longer finances the RS Army
- RS Liaison office reportedly submits case against Serb suspect to Hague
- Dnevni Avaz : Interview with Robert Beecroft, the Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH – Elections will not be postponed
- Slobodna Dalmacija : Jean-Pierre Bercot, the Head of the OHR in Mostar: Progress in Mostar an encouragement for the whole of BiH
- Vecernji List: Ambassador Bercot comes to his first press conference without bodyguards
- Peter Nicholl, governor of the BiH Central Bank: Currency reserves finally in the banks
- Dnevni List : Mate Granic, a former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Croatia – Petritsch, you are taking steps backwards!
- Dnevni Avaz : Halilovic and Mandate
- Oslobodjenje : Making over the Vampire
- Dnevni List : Alliance’s Russian roulette
- Dnevni List : How interesting is BiH to international donors? – Building BiH with country’s own resources
- Slobodna Dalmacija : Big comeback – Silajdzic wants to be the Bosniak Messiah
Headlines in leading BiH news papers
BiH State-related Issues
SDP to initiate constitutional changes in the Federation
Fena reports that the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Hercegovina [SDP] is to table a motion in the Federation Parliament in order to bring the constitution of this entity in line with the decision of the BiH Constitutional Court about the constituent status of peoples throughout the whole territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina. This position was adopted at the session of the SDP presidency held late Tuesday night in Sarajevo. An agreement had been reached that the decision by the Constitutional Court should be fully and immediately implemented. “That was the main reason why it was necessary to change the entities’ constitutions. The SDP has already prepared a draft version of the new constitution of the BiH Federation,” the deputy chairman of this party, Ivo Komsic, said at a news conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday. He added that there is a great danger in the discussion about the same changes in the RS Constitution and the attitude of the International Community. “We are already used to the fact that the International Community arbitrate between radical positions. We are warning all of those who will take part in this discussion that we will not accept the arbitrating of this sort, that is, the search for the geometrical middle of two radical positions,” stressed Komsic, adding that the SDP will not give up insisting on identical solutions in both entity constitutions.
Bosnia demands that Croatia ratifies agreement on major port
SRNA news agency quotes the spokesman for the BiH Foreign Ministry, Amer Kapetanovic, as saying that Bosnia-Hercegovina has fulfilled all its obligations concerning the agreement on the port of Ploce which, as he said, was also confirmed by the Inter-state Council for Cooperation between BiH and Croatia. “We are willing to discuss details, but before this Croatia has to ratify the agreement,” said Kapetanovic. The BiH side will support a discussion of amendments to this agreement, but only after the Croatian Assembly has ratified it, said Kapetanovic, adding that diplomatic contacts between the two countries are continuing on how the matter of Ploce port is to be resolved.
BiH will sue Croatia with Energy Charter
Following the decision of the Ministry of Traffic and Communications of the Republic of Croatia to ban the transport of oil and oil products by tank lorries and to allow transport of the same by pipelines and railway, Assistant Minister of the Foreign Trade of BiH, Seadeta Ceric, said that BiH is not unlike Croatia a member of the WTO and announced that BiH would start litigation with the Energy Charter. Ms. Ceric is of opinion that the Croatian Government’s decision is discriminatory because the oil could be transported by tank lorries to BiH from Rijeka but not from Slovenia and Hungary adding that Croatia wants to impose monopoly in the oil business, reads Jutarnji List.
Federation
Dnevni List: Jelavic, Prce and Curcic appear before Investigative Judge of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo – Anic as Pontius Pilatus
Dnevni List reports on the testimony that the Federation Minister Mijo Anic gave in the Sarajevo Cantonal Court case against Ante Jelavic, Miroslav Prce and Dragan Curcic, who are charged with undermining the military and defensive capacities of the Federation of BiH.
Anic said he was not familiar with the “earlier actions and agreements with the international community about a temporary discharge of around two thirds of the armed forces due to the difficult financial situation, or anything that preceded these decisions.”
He also said he is not a military expert and cannot declare his view of the consequences of the decision on the HVO functioning in the interim period, which served as the basis for the charges against the three.
Josip Muselimovic, the leader of Jelavic’s defense council, told Dnevni List that they will send another letter to the Croat Presidency Member Jozo Krizanovic, the Federation Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor’s Office and request them to have what he called a rigged trial either halted or exempted from the jurisdiction of the locally incompetent court.
Dnevni List: Muhamed Besic, advisor with machine gun
Muhamed Besic, a former Minister of the Interior of the Federation of BiH, famous for his statement that if only he had the authorization, he would have some journalists placed before a firing squad, is supposed to become an advisor to the Federation Prime Minister Alija Behmen.
An anonymous senior Federation official told Dnevni List that this would be a sort of compensation for the resignation he was forced to submit after having been exposed to pressures from the party that had appointed him to the ministerial position in the first place.
Halilovic Affair
Key Alliance meeting about Halilovic affair and distribution of directorial posts postponed until Friday
Oslobodjenje reports that the key meeting of the Alliance leadership, during which the recent requests of the BPS (Bosnian Patriotic Party) for more favourable apportioning of directorial post of large companies in Sarajevo canton and the return of Sefer Halilovic to the post of the Federation Minister of Refugees and Social Politics were to be discussed, was postponed until Friday. The daily notes that the Alliance members would like to resolve all the outstanding issues before the Co-ordination meeting and just formally announce the decisions on Friday. However, there is still fear that the BPS, if its demands are not met, may leave the ruling coalition thereby endangering its majority in the Federation Parliament.
Alliance invites BOSS into coalition to cover for the possible loss of the BPS
Dnevni Avaz reported on Wednesday that several Alliance leaders have invited the BOSS (Bosnian Party) to join the ruling coalition in order to retain the majority in the Federation Parliament if the BPS decides to leave. Although officials failed yesterday to confirm this information, the BOSS president, Mirnes Ajanovic, told the daily late last night that the Alliance indeed offered the post in the Energoinvest Board of Managers to a BOSS cadre in exchange for the party’s support to the coalition. Although several senior Alliance officials said yesterday that they would welcome the BOSS, the party, in a statement for the press, rejected any possibility of joining the coalition.
Faruk Balijagic, attorney of suspects in Leutar case and Sefer Halilovic, announces bringing of true culprits before court: Leutar and Halilovic cases rigged in same kitchen
Slobodna Dalmacija carries an interview with Faruk Balijagic, an attorney who defends Sefer Halilovic in The Hague and a member of the Defence team (together with Josip Muselimovic and Mario Bogdanovic) that represents General Ivan Andabak in the Leutar case.
Speaking about the Leutar case, Balijagic said that from the point of the material truth, the indictment against Andabak is legally ungrounded and represents one in a series of politically rigged indictments. Speaking about the Jacque Paul Klein’s involvement in the case, Balijagic said that Klein’s engagement contributed to raising of the indictments where the suspects have not been allowed to present their cases and prove their innocence adding that the case would be re-started and that the justice would be done when the indictees were set free.
Speaking about the Halilovic case Balijagic said: “This is the first time, and the public should know it, I go public with the datum that it was Sefer Halilovic who reported the Grabovica crimes to the ICTY, because his previous reports submitted to Alija Izetbegovic and Rasim Delic did not bring any results. So back in 1996, just a few months after the war stopped, the retired general and Bosniak dissident Sefer Halilovic submitted a criminal report to the ICTY and that’s when the investigation about the crimes in Grabovica started”.
When asked as to how it happened that Halilovic got indicted Balijagic says: “The investigation was conducted by the then investigator of the ICTY, an experienced French policeman Redsiz. The moment Redsiz’s investigation looked as if it might identify other people that could be accused for the crimes in Grabovica, enter the chaos in the ICTY. The Prosecutor at the time, Richard Goldstein, was heavily influenced by Vasvija Vidovic, who was at the time the Bosniak liaison officer to the ICTY. Goldstein made Redsiz conduct the investigation through persons suggested by Vasvija Vidovic, but Redsiz persisted that the investigation should be conducted independently. After a meeting with Nedzad Ugljen, Deputy Director of the AID who was later killed , upon detecting a terrorist camp at Pogorelica, he reacted instinctively saying that Ugljen ought to be arrested because of the obstruction of the investigation in the Grabovica case. But after these events Redsiz left the ICTY and the case was assigned to people who were fed (with information) to indict Sefer Halilovic”.
Republika Srpska
Crown Prince Alexandar and his wife visit Banja Luka and join Patron Saint celebrations
High-ranking officials of the RS leadership received in Banja Luka on Wednesday His Highness Crown Prince Aleksandar (descendent of the former Yugoslav crown prince) and his wife Princess Katarina, in honour of Republic Day and RS patron saint celebrations. They discussed the current situation in the RS and in Serbia. RS President Mirko Sarovic expressed his pleasure that the Karadjordjevic’s attended the RS patron saint celebrations, saying that “they graced the celebrations with their presence”. Crown Prince Aleksandar wished the RS to “remain safe, prosperous and peaceful through the blossoming of democracy and the tradition of our history and civilisation”. “My wife and I are very pleased to be able to celebrate the RS patron saint day with you and that we are able to share all our happiness and expectations that the people of the Republika Srpska will see all its noblest hopes come true”, he told journalists.
RS President: No constitutional changes in BiH without the consent of the RS
Speaking at a ceremony on January 8 on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the RS, President Mirko Sarovic said that there will be no changes to the internal structure of BiH without the consent of the RS, referring to attempts to change the entity’s status. He stressed that the RS would make changes to the entity constitution and that it would find solutions leading towards the abolition of discrimination, towards equal representation of all nations and general equality.
Referring to the recent and ever getting louder voices suggesting different structure of the BiH state, Sarovic said it is paradoxical that those who supported the Dayton Agreement in 1995 are now those demanding that it is changed, and added that “fuelling the campaign claiming that the RS is a genocidal creation and that it should be abolished is nothing but a fresh call for disaster and opening of old wounds”.
“There will be no changes to the Dayton Agreement without the RS’s consent. No changes to the internal structure will be made without consent from all sides within Bosnia-Hercegovina,” said Sarovic. He added that there was a clear difference between the war and post-war period in the past 10 years of the RS’s existence. “The Dayton Agreement is the key result of the war period, with which we gained international recognition thanks to our strength, unity of our aims and our determination,” said Sarovic, recalling that the entity was created in 1992. He said that the RS was at the beginning, and not at the end of its path. “I believe in the RS and in its future. In the spirit of patriotism, character , common sense and a joint wish for progress, together we can unite our aims in order to make the RS permanent and great and to make peace, dignity and freedom enduring qualities for all men,” said Sarovic, SRNA quoted in an extensive report.
RS Prime Minister: Yugoslavia no longer finances the RS Army
RS Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic said on Wednesday that the FRY is not financing the Army of the RS [VRS]. “I think that all those involved in this know that very well, and I think that this will also be confirmed by the OSCE which, together with the supreme auditor, has launched a probe into the financial accounts of the Defence Ministry and the VRS,” Ivanic said in a statement for the BBC, and reports BETA news agency. This was his answer to the question whether “this kind of aid from Belgrade still exists”, since “further US financial aid to Belgrade this year has been made conditional on the cessation of Yugoslav financial aid to the VRS, in addition to other things”.
“I think that all of this is being mystified to a far greater extent than necessary, and I think that such mystification is sometimes quite contrary to our interests, because in this area an agreement was reached that was presented both to the OSCE and the public in a thorough and transparent manner,” Ivanic said.
RS Liaison office reportedly submits case against Serb suspect to Hague
ONASA news agency reported, quoting anonymous sources close to the RS government, that the RS bureau for relations with The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) has submitted to the tribunal a case against a Serb war crimes suspect in Prijedor. If true, this would be the first case in which RS bodies have accused a Serb of war crimes. After examining the evidence, ICTY will decide whether or not to bring the indictment or issue an approval to the entity to carry out the trial before a local court. The adviser to the RS Prime Minister for relations with ICTY, Sinisa Djordjevic, did not deny the information, but said he could not give any details on the case.
International Community
Dnevni Avaz: Interview with Robert Beecroft, the Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH – Elections will not be postponed
“I do not see reasons to have the upcoming elections postponed. According to BiH Constitution, the elections for the Presidency members are supposed to be held this year. There are no reasons to have special elections for the Presidency and other bodies. That would cost too much and we, the OSCE, won’t and do not intend to fund it. Recently we had a meeting with the treasury minister Anto Domazet and members of Election Commission, and we informed them that we would help them to collect the money for elections, on the state as well as on the entity level, and from the foreign donors too.” This was said by the Head of OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Rober M. Beecroft, at the beginning of interview for Dnevni Avaz.
There is not much money for the elections. Some officials from the Council of Ministers claim that.
Yes, they say so. But, they must try to secure as much money as possible within BiH. After that, foreign donors come on the scene. I hope that your country won’t have to take loans, and that the money could be provided from local sources and from foreign donors. We are talking about 11 million DEM.
According to our calculations, it will be necessary to provide four DEM per voter inside BiH to fund the elections, and six to seven DEM per voter abroad. It is much cheaper then the cost of elections in majority of other countries.
Why?
One of the reasons is the fact that there will be no heavy presence of foreign supervisors this time. Of course, there will be observers from OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Our role will be to ensure to have free and fair elections. October 5 is our goal.
Why October 5?
Because the elections must be on the first Saturday in October, according to Elections Law, unless it is some religious holiday. In that case, elections would be prolonged until next Saturday.
Just recently the SDS Congress was held. What is your view on that event?
SDS has serious problems in their relations with the international community, people in BiH and even with the Bosnian Serbs. They have to decide which way would they chose if they still want to have direct and indirect connections with the war criminals, some of them are of worst kind, or would they chose to open up for programs that are in accordance with European parties.
Looking at the facts right now, SDS is an anachronism. Just the same as any other ethnically orientated party. They are just talking about changes. I am interested in results.
It seems that there are no results?
No, at least not enough. But now the rhetoric is changing. I want to see different actions which will follow this new rhetoric.
Will you speak with the leaders of SDS soon?
Yes, off course. I do not know when exactly, but I will surely talk to them.
You have complained recently about the lack of co-operation with the RS Minister for refugees and displaced people Mico Milic. Is there any progress with it?
I was away for three weeks. Before I went away, I had had a feeling that Micic needed some more time in order to see whether the slow progress from the beginning of December will continue.
Political and Moral Reasons
Regarding the position of Sefer Halilovic, Law doesn’t prevent him to perform some official duties, although he was indicted. But, I would say that there are certain political, as well as moral, reasons that Halilovic should consider when deciding as to whether to continue to work in the Federation government.
Slobodna Dalmacija: Jean-Pierre Bercot, the Head of the OHR in Mostar: Progress in Mostar an encouragement for the whole of BiH
By M. Landeka, full translation provided by Mostar office
If we can make it work here, the citizens of Mostar would prove that tolerance, democracy and reason have prevailed, and that they again can continue to be proud of their city and themselves, stated Jean-Pierre Bercot, the new Head of the OHR Mostar, at the regular press conference of the international organizations in Mostar. He added that further progress in Mostar would be stimulating for the entire country.
Bercot said that progress must continue in the future and stressed that he is especially encouraged by the fact that the process of dismantling parallel structures is successfully ongoing in Mostar and the region.
“There is no other option but for Herzegovina and BiH to become a prosperous and democratic country that will join the European institutions,” stated Ambassador Bercot.
He also pointed to encouraging steps forward, stressing returns and the Property Law implementation, which altogether gives substance for moderate optimism.
“Mostar obviously has people who have the capability and determination to lead their city towards normalization and unification,” stated Bercot while talking about the situation in Mostar, adding that this trend must continue.
UNMIBH Spokesperson Kirsten Haupt condemned the attack on the house of Izet Capin, a Bosniak returnee in Trebinje, and said that the UN Mission expects that those responsible will be brought to justice. She said the attack was aimed against a prominent person in the Bosniak returnee community in Trebinje.
In answer to the question about the explosive device thrown on the building of the Public Company ‘Sume Herceg-Bosne,’ which happened on January 1, Spokesperson Haupt said she expects the police to clarify the case, and the Head of the OHR in Mostar Bercot added that he condemns any act of making a political statement in a violent way.
Spokesperson Haupt informed the journalists that the project “One City, One Police” in Mostar is developing well and that police chiefs have been appointed and operative measures undertaken for unification of the former six police administrations in Mostar into a single city police.
Who is the new Head of OHR
Jean-Pierre Bercot has been in the French diplomatic service since 1985, he is a graduate officer at a military academy and has performed diplomatic duties in Beirut, Bogota, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana, among other places. He also performed the duty of Senior Counsellor in charge of the Department of Political Affairs with the Mission of France to the United Nations in New York.
Vecernji List: Ambassador Bercot comes to his first press conference without bodyguards
By Z. K., full translation provided by Mostar office
The newly appointed Head of the OHR South, Jean-Pierre Bercot stated that the OHR would not be changing the guidelines of its mandate in BiH, whose future he only sees in a community of European countries.
“Clearly, there is no other option but for this country to become a prosperous and democratic one that will join the European community,” stated Bercot in the Wednesday press conference in Mostar at which he, unlike his British predecessor, appeared without “two armed observers” that Colin Munro always kept close at hand ever since the Hercegovacka Banka case in April last year.
Bercot, who says it is an honor to be the first French diplomat leading the OHR Mostar, does not think the international administration policy towards BiH will change significantly because the European countries (especially once the British diplomat Paddy Ashdown arrives) are taking over more responsibility from the Americans in the Dayton’s creation. At his first press conference, he condemned the bomb attack on the building of the Public Company “Sume Herceg-Bosne.”
“The OHR condemns vandalism, as well as all those who use such means for making a political statement, if that would be the case with this attack,” stated Ambassador Bercot, adding that there have been seven similar attacks in the last few years.
Peter Nicholl, governor of the BiH Central Bank: Currency reserves finally in the banks
Currency reserves of the Central Bank of BiH amounted to 2.66 billion convertible marks on 31 December, Peter Nicholl, governor of the Bank said on Wednesday at a press conference held in Sarajevo, report ONASA and Jutarnje Novine. At the end of September currency reserves amounted to 1.235 billion convertible marks, and in the last quarter of the previous year they were increased by 1.4 billion marks. ” The currency reserves still existed in BiH , but they were not in the bank system. The fact that the funds are now in banks should have a positive effect on the economic development. We expect that the sum of the currency reserves will be reduced because the people have possibility to get euro notes, but exchange for euro will not be large,” Nicholl said.
Dnevni List: Mate Granic, a former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Croatia suggests to Wolfgang Petritsch – Petritsch, you are taking steps backwards!
Mate Granic, the President of the Democratic Center and a former Croatian Foreign Minister stated yesterday that the High Representative’s Draft Amendment to the RS Constitution is a “big step backwards.”
“That means that the BiH Constitutional Court Decision on the constituency of all three peoples throughout BiH is not being implemented. He added that the Croatian Government does not have a policy active enough and does not have a defined policy towards BiH,” which, in Granic’s words, is detrimental to the overall Croat(ian) interests.
Editorials
Dnevni Avaz: Halilovic and Mandate
By Sead Numanovic
In the main op-ed column in Dnevni Avaz, Sead Numanovic writes that the ruling Alliance is perhaps in the most serious crisis since its creation, after the indicted Bosnian general, Sefer Halilovic, expressed desire to return to the post of the Federation Minister of Refugees and Social Politics. While SDP leaders vaguely comment on the issue, only the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, openly objects to the idea of Halilovic coming back to the important ministerial position. He believes it to be inappropriate that a person indicted by The Hague Tribunal takes care of refugees and returnees, some of whom were the victims of the crimes Halilovic allegedly committed or tolerated.
Halilovic, on his part, insists that he is innocent, that he is a victim of a greater conspiracy, and believes that he could be freed even before the start of the trial.
In addition, the obvious conflict between the BPS and the Alliance clearly illustrates the relationship between the so-called “small” and “large” parties in the coalition in which the demands of the BPS are a mere tip of the iceberg of the dispute and frustration of the authority still more concerned with the mundane matters then the economy and social problems, investments and the creation of new jobs.
In BiH, this man is a victim of one precedent. He should not be a minister, nor hold any other public post. If this does occur, however, the present authorities in the RS would get a green light to engage a number of people who should have been placed behind the Scheveningen bars a long time ago.
Instead of walking around with The Hague mortgage on his head and returning people to their homes…, instead of risking exposure of some of victims of aggression to numerous humiliations, he should conserve his energy and work on preparing the best possible defense. His position in The Hague is indisputable. The chances to prove his innocence are greater as the days go by.
On the political scene in the country, Halilovic’s BPS marks the increasing popularity. With a principled attitude and by walking away from the post, both Halilovic and the BPS would score one more point in the public. For, the career of a politician is not made up of only one (ministerial) mandate.
Oslobodjenje: Making over the Vampire
By Gojko Beric
Wolfgang Petritsch is right: What do we need the House of Peoples for in the RS, when only Serbs live there
I don’t quite understand why the angry gods of the ruling Alliance strike thunder and lightening upon Wolfgang Petritsch. Is it just because the man believes that the famous House of Peoples is not necessary in the RS, and that one small but stronger commission is sufficient to protect the national interests of the Bosniaks and Croats living there? Unlike the verbal assassins of the High Representative who fill the columns and pages of the main Sarajevo papers on a daily basis, I, for example, believe that this gentleman is absolutely right this time. His thinking is natural and logical: gentleman and comrades, why to have a House of Peoples there where only Serbs live? Really, why wasting time and money on some obsolete deputies’ debates in places where other nations, save the Serb one, cannot even exist, in accordance with the fascist project of the RS in its authentic version. Why making over the vampire?
Republika Srpska as a project of the Pale group does not make any sense if it contains even a smallest nucleus of multiethnicity. Karadzic’s followers will always be able to recognize this danger, and defending their own consistency, ask the question: why did we then, brother Serbs, die, why did we steal, rape, burn and drive balijas (derogatory for Muslims) and ustashas to their extinction? Besides, if those Balkan nazis did not so vehemently despise the multiethnicity, they would not have created the Republika Srpska. That creation, thus, loses its reason d’etre based on the genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s been six years since the end of the war, and the ruling authority of this entity continues defending its criminal past.
Still, there is no one there who could exclaim: The emperor is naked! Banja Luka media mumble here and there about this horrible thing called “constituent status of all three peoples”, but all in the manner of a cat circling about a hot meal. ….In essence, the commentary insists on the thesis that the national equality of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats was the cause of the war against BiH.
The article further argues that, after the acceptance of the new constitutional amendments, the RS, “in the formed promised by the SDS, will no longer be”. The People, concludes the commentary, has been cheated, for Karadzic’s party did not deliver on its promises. …What is defeating in all this is the fact that the Serb people in BiH ultimately wanted the RS, in the shape Karadzic promised. ….
Had the International Community arrested Karadzic and Mladic and radically break all resistance to the return of refugees, the RS itself would have probably issued a proclamation of its abolishment, for that name would no longer have any meaning.
Unfortunately, this has not happened. That is why, the oak tree and war criminals are the only goods the RS can export at this time.
Dnevni List: Alliance’s Russian roulette
Written by Vesna Leto
Dnevni List carries an editorial about the testimony of the Federation Defense Minister Mijo Anic in the case against Ante Jelavic, Miroslav Prce and Dragan Curcic before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo. Although many were impatient to hear what he had to say, the impatience eventually turned out to have been much ado about nothing. The article reads that Anic washed his hands of it all as if he forgot the text that the Alliance offered him, but it is uncertain if he forgot a threat or an announcement that Komsic is contending for his position. The author says Russian roulette if the favorite game of the Alliance, but she believes they will eventually face the final, fatal round when all rigged trials, games behind the scenes and double standards will turn to be fatal for them.
Dnevni List: How interesting is BiH to international donors? – Building BiH with country’s own resources
By Zana Rebo
A fact is that the budget of the BiH institutions will have to be based on donations for a long time to come. The total amount of donations at the state level was around 31.9 million Marks last year. Most of this amount was allocated to the State Border Service and as return assistance. The year of 2001 showed how interesting BiH was to international donors since that was supposed to be the year of return, but no radical progress was noted. There were some minority returns, but refugees are still living far from their homes, some of them even in tents. Srecko Latan, the World Bank Spokesperson, stated that international donors are no longer interested in BiH and that the international community does not count on international donations, which the domestic authorities should be aware of as well.
The author concludes that it is about time BiH turned to its own production and resources because that is the message from the world that we should finally accept.
Slobodna Dalmacija: Big comeback – Silajdzic wants to be the Bosniak Messiah
Slobodna Dalmacija carries an article about the situation within the Party for BiH, which reads that the party is divided into moderates (led by Beriz Belkic) and radicals (led by Safet Halilovic and former Mayor of Mostar Safet Orucevic). The daily reads that the Party for BiH has wanted to introduce the Bosniaks-dominated Federation and State of BiH and that the project was going well until Silajdzic suddenly left the party. “In order to secure economic basis for its project, the Party for BiH installed two of its people as Chairs of Steering Boards in the Elektroprivreda BiH (Enver Kreso) and PTT BiH (Edin Batlak, a close associate of Safet Orucevic’s and former Deputy Head of Economic Department for the City of Mostar). What took the Party for BiH off the course was the departure of its leader Haris Silajdzic, who leaves the position after being pressured by the IC for his role in bringing mujahedeens to BiH and alleged links to arms smuggling for the Albanian rebels in Macedonia. We must remind you that the former Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of BiH, Muhamed Besic, who was nominated by the Party for BiH, was “elbowed” from the post when he got too close to solving these two cases”, reads Slobodna Dalmacija. The article is concluded by an assessment that Silajdzic might, despite his role in the aforementioned actions which resulted in Americans suggesting him to leave the politics, return to political life and get back at the helm of the Party for BiH in order to save the unity within the party thus promoting himself into a Bosniak Messiah, who, as it turns out to be, comes back because others could not lead politics without him, reads Slobodna Dalmacija.
Headlines in major dailies across BiH
Headlines in Sarajevo dailies:
- Oslobodjenje : “Illegal Arms Trade in BiH – Cengic and Ademovic are in charge of the trafficking chain” and “Klein – Ill Children get an elevator from the UN”
- Dnevni Avaz : “Robert Beecroft – Elections will not be postponed!”
- Jutarnje Novine : “Peter Nicholl – 5 billion DM from BiH returned to BiH”
Headlines in Banja Luka dailies:
- Glas Srpski: “Every Fifth In Accordance with the Law” (RS Education Ministry explains that out of 25 faculties and four academies in Banja Luka and Srpsko Sarajevo) only five fulfill legal obligation to have two thirds of full-time employed professors”; “Slobodan Milosevic Before The Hague Tribunal”; “Sarovic – Future Greater than the Past”
- Nezavisne Novine: “I vanic, Kalinic, Cavic and Sarovic – Church Ignored Patrons Day of Republika Srpska”
Headlines in Mostar daily:
Dnevni List: “Trial of Ante Jelavic; Ivo Komsic : Alliance could go down because of Sefer Halilovic”