27 November 97, 19:30
Sarajevo – BiH President Izetbegovic and the President of European Development and Reconstruction Bank, signed an agreement on urgent reconstruction of the electricity system in BiH. Revenues of 27.5 million DEM are for the reconstruction of the BiH Electricity system and re-connecting the power lines between entities. Today’s agreement was also signed by the Federation President Soljic and the RS Co-president Mirjanic.
2:00
Sarajevo – The HoR did not hold a session today. This was explained by the HoR Chairman, Campara, who said that, again, RS representatives did not attend the session. Campara added that OHR also informed him they will not attend the session, without any further explanation. Campara said that this is one more proof of who does the obstructing of Parliamentary sessions, and this is one more delay in adopting the laws that have to be adopted, based on the Sintra declarations, and the OHR proposals.
2:00
Sarajevo – CoM Co-chairman Silajdzic addressed a letter to the BiH Parliament Assembly representatives, regarding the tendency of entities to disturb the Constitutional Authorities of the Parliament Assembly. In his letter, Silajdzic says that violation of some Constitutional decisions regarding the BiH Institution Authorities are so great that they seriously jeopardise DPA implementation. Silajdzic added that entities were still not accorded their constitutions within the BiH Constitution, although they were supposed to be within three months of the DPA. The entities kept their internal policy regarding refugees, which was also partially judged as unconstitutional by OHR.
2:00
Sarajevo – At the CoM session held today, there were two main issues – The three-day conference of the countries of the European Initiative, and the meeting in Bonn. Silajdzic said that he hopes this conference will contribute to peace in BiH and stability in the region. Silajdzic also said that most of the 18 articles, proposed by the OHR, were completed.
1:00
Sarajevo – The Federal Government held a session today. The main issue was the rights of families of deceased war veterans. Apart from this, also on the agenda was the Law on Housing, and the conclusions in regard to this, adopted at the recent Federation Forum session. The amendments on the Abolition of the Law on Abandoned real-estates were adopted.
1:30
Sarajevo – BiH President Izetbegovic received SFOR Commander Deputy Simpson in his farewell visit. Izetbegovic thanked Simpson for his contribution in the DPA implementation.
1:00
Sarajevo – UN Special Mediator for Human Rights, Rehn, was named UN Special Envoy, replacing Ambassador Eide. Rehn stressed the necessity of arresting war criminals, and resolving the fate of missing persons. She added that there will be no firmer peace before these two matters are resolved.
2:00
Vitez – The constitutive session of Vitez municipality was held today. The provisional Election Committee proposed an amendment for Vitez, along with four other municipalities in Central Bosnia, to have 31 municipality Councillors. After this amendment was adopted at the session, the President of the Council, Ahmic, resigned. The newly elected Chairman and the Co-chairman of the Council said that the priorities were the DPA implementation and the implementation of the election results.
2:00
Prijedor – The third attempt to implement the election results failed. CDU BiH members refused to attend the session because BiH was not built in the text of the allegiance.
1:00
Bugojno – OSCE Regional Head, Foley, was present at today’s discussions about the implementation of election results in Bugojno. Foley said that conversations were very useful and interesting, but, however we have not yet reached a final agreement. I hope that we will very quickly take a major step forward in the implementation of the election results and the DPA.
1:30
Reactions on the statements by Haselock and Bullivant – BiH TV reacted to Bullivant’s statement, where he said that the coverage in the BiH TV central news last night criticised OHR proposals on the Law on Housing. Bullivant stressed that the coverage produced the wrong conclusions, badly researched the subject, and it could hardly be called journalism. It is about a strategy of frightening, and we saw one more time, how the BiH media, who are far from independent, are being used for misinforming the people of this country. The General editor of the informative programme made a public announcement: Dear Mr. Bullivant, we agree with you that there is only one interpretation of the DPA. This is the High Representative’s interpretation. Last night’s broadcast was not aimed at the interpretation of the DPA. Totally opposite from your claims, we aimed to stress the necessity of resolving the housing problems to the citizens of BiH. We are sorry that you interpreted the coverage the way you did. We would kindly inform you that this is only one of a series of broadcasts on this subject that we intend to make. We also want to ask you finally to stop making heavy, groundless accusations against BiH editorial policy and permanently to keep in your mind that:
- No one manipulates us.
- We are not mis-informing the people of this country.
- We are not frightening anybody, nor will we ever.
- We offer the facts, and the public draw their own conclusions, just the way you did it.
3:00