| RADIO HERCEG-BOSNA (18,00 hrs) | TV PINK (18,00 hrs) | BHT 1 (19,00 hrs) |
| Cardinal Puljic in | Regional News | Del Ponte on Mladic |
| Jovic on apprehension of PIFWCs | Lelek arrested in Visegrad | Mladic’s house in |
| Del Ponte meets HR in Sarajevo | Del Ponte visits Sarajevo | Lugonja arrested? |
| ‘Napredak’ scholarships awarded | Bas-Backer sent letter to Dodik | Detention to Mladic’s aids |
| NTV Hayat (19,00 hrs) | FTV (19,30 hrs) | RTRS (19,30 hrs) |
| Carla Del Ponte visited Sarajevo | Lelek arrested in Visegrad | Lelek arrested in Visegrad |
| War crime suspect arrested | Mladic’s house in | Regional News |
| Serbian MoI searches for Mladic | Del Ponte in Sarajevo | Del Ponte visits Sarajevo |
| Conf. on truth in post-conflict period | Mandic to be trailed for war crimes? | Conference on war crimes in SA |
| Oslobodjenje | Del Ponte still doesn’t know where is Karadzic |
| Dnevni Avaz | [Del Ponte] Mladic in |
| Dnevni List | [Del Ponte] I did not forget Karadzic |
| Vecernji List | Croatia-related headline |
| Nezavisne Novine | [Del Ponte] I have no objections on cooperation with BiH |
| Glas Srpske | Giant wakes up slowly [RS Minister in Brod Refinery] |
War crimes | |
| Chief ICTY Prosecutor meets HR: Serb authorities could arrest Mladic, but want him to surrender; Mladic to be in Hague by May 11?; Karadzic not forgotten, EUFOR/NATO’s assistance expected in locating him
| BHT 1by Damir Simic – The ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte on Friday met the High Representative to BiH Christian Schwarz Schilling in |
| Conference on establishing truth in Western Balkans: BiH Presidency member Jovic criticised for single-sided approach to war victims; Jovic: ICTY closed its doors, and nobody is to be held responsible for crimes against Croats
| FTV by Zeljko Tica – The conference on “Establishing Truth in a Post-conflict Period: Initiatives and Perspectives in the Western Balkans” was held in |
| Serbian MoI carries out a number of raids in search of Mladic, arrests suspected aides; Del Ponte: just another show for public
| Hayatby Sabina Sisic – Two more persons suspected of helping ICTY indictee Ratko Mladic have been arrested on Friday in |
| NN op-ed on search after Mladic: is it real this time?
| Nezavisne novine pg 7 ‘Search after Mladic’ op-ed by Dragan Risojevic – “Following the suspension of the talks with Brussels, the Serbian Government has no other choice but to throw itself into search after most wanted ICTY fugitives… Concluding from intensity of current activities, it seems that the search is real this time,” reads the editorial. It concludes that the option according to which Serbian authorities do know where is Mladic but protect him is very unlikely, especially having in mind difficult situation in the country and huge pressure from the IC. |
| SIPA arrests police officer in Visegrad under war crimes suspicion; Bakira Hasecic: this is not single case which makes it clear why RS rejects police reform
| FTV by Sanja Bagaric – Zeljko Lelek, certified police officer working at Visegrad Police Station, was arrested by the SIPA members in cooperation by the Visegrad Public Security Centre on Friday morning under suspicion of committing the war crimes. During the action, two apartments have been raided and SIPA members have gathered some evidence. SIPA acted upon the order of BiH Prosecutor’s Office and its spokesman Admir Katica confirmed the arrestee was handed to BiH Prosecution for further proceeding. Bakira Hasecic, Head of Association “Women, victims of war”, commented this Association had been requesting from the BIH Prosecution for the past five year to arrest Lelek. “The saddest thing is that we, the victims, are forced to track the war crime indictees ad collect the evidence on their involvement. Lelek is not the only certified police officer in RS that has committed war crimes but nevertheless performs his police duties. Now, it is evident why the smaller BIH Entity refuses the police reform,” noted Hasecic. FTV concludes critically wondering who certifies war crimes suspects to work in the police and similar institutions. Hayatalso reported noting that it is possible to find on the internet numerous testimonies accusing Lelek of crimes against Bosniak civilians, especially in organizing rapes and tortured in Visegrad. BHT 1 also reported with Hasecic’s statement. |
| OHR demands RS Govt to locate Avdo Palic’s body remains, FBiH Govt to fulfil obligation on sufferings of Serbs in
| PINK, BHT1, Hayat, FTV, RTRS, Oslobodjenje pg 3 ‘Dodik to engage in Palic case’, Dnevni Avaz pg 10 ‘OHR warns Dodik’, Glas Srpske pg 3 ‘No delays in Palic case’, Nezavisne novine pg 3 ‘Government must located colonel Palic’s remains’, Dnevni list pg 4 ‘Immediately act in Palic case’ – Following his meeting in Banja Luka on 3 May with RS Prime Minister Dodik, during which the case of missing BiH army colonel from Zepa Avdo Palic was discussed, Senior Deputy HR Peter Bas-Backer has written to Dodik reiterating that the RS Government must act without delay on fulfilling the mandate of the RS Government Commission on Palic, and locate the remains [which are most probably located in Han Pijesak region] and hand them over to the family. SDHR noted that despite the promises, the RS Government failed to act. He also concluded that FBiH Government is also expected to follow up on Human Rights Chamber decisions, such as the one on the missing Serbs from |
Constitutional changes, other political issues | |
| German NGOs organize conference on const. changes bringing together both opponents and supports of amendments: Lagumdzija: two blocks created; SBiH announces their own platform on issue
| FTV by Aleksandar Markovic – The two-day conference on constitutional changes organised by Friedrich Ebert, Konrad Adenauer, Friedrich Naumann, and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, was commenced in |
| Const. Changes conference: German ambassador argues failure in const. reform leads to failures of other reforms
| Nezavisne novine pg 9 “Fialure of constitutional changes lead to failure of other reforms” by M. Cubro – Addressing the conference on the constitutional changes, the German Ambassador to BiH, Arne von Kittlitz, argued that the failure of the constitutional reform leads to failure of other related reforms in process: “For instance, we have problems with reforms of police, public broadcasting system and allocation of revenues.” He added the talks must be continued immediately after the elections, or even before them. Dnevni list pg 5 ‘Discussion in difficult conditions of pre-election campaigns’ – Ambassador added that the key role “in failure of the constitutional changes was played by the irrational critics, which opens a question of whether the country is capable of reforms in this composition.” |
| Cardinal Puljic in
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| Int with HDZ leader Covic: Party expects 60% of Croat votes at elections; Those who criticized HDZ before, now praise it
| Oslobodjenje supplement ‘Pogled’ pgs 4-5 ‘If Croats in BiH are constituent, than they cannot be anybody’s Diaspora’ by Aldijana Omeragic – In an interview to daily, the HDZ leader Dragan Covic was asked to comment how he interprets the fact he was the only signatory of the constitutional changes who received support letter from the EC head of delegation in BiH, Michael Humphreys,to which he answered that he “only did things for well-being of BiH” while some other in the Parliament “want to keep the international representatives at any cost to have them to decide on their behalf.” As for the objections by HDZ 1990 MPs whoa argued the proposed amendments did not address issues of Croats, Covic said that he had originally wanted the amendments to address more of such issues but underlined that at the end they were not a solution to the problem, but certainly a way to reach that solution. Covic – who objects entity vote in the parliament – said the proposed amendments included what was possible to compromise at the time, adding he believes that entity would eventually be abolished. Asked whether the party has been weakened, Covic acknowledge some losses of votes due over to |
| Oslobodjenje op-ed: Due to const. reform failure, nothing new at upcoming elections, just loss of money
| Oslobodjenje pg 9 ‘Money loss!’ op-ed by Mirko Sagolj – Commenting upcoming general elections to be held on 1 October, author says that nothing much should be expected, as there would be no significant political changes. “Authorities will again be taken by nationalistic and political tradesmen,” says Sagolj who is also very critical of SBiH, SDU and BOSS for rejecting constitutional reforms. Noting that in the RS regardless of who wins same mentality is to remain at power, author argues situation is something more complex in FBiH as the main battle is to be between SDA, HDZ, |
| BiH Foreign Minister Ivanic meets Russian counterpart to discuss political and economic relations, relations with ICTY
| RTRS – BiH Foreign Minister, Mladen Ivanic, met the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, in |
| BiH and EU commence relaxation of visa regime negotiations on 30 May | BHT 1 by Martina Martinovic – BHT 1 has found out that the price for EU visas will not be increased for BIH. EC’s spokesperson Frane Maroevic confirmed that price for EU visas will not be increased only for “countries with EU perspective which refers to BIH”. In a month, BIH will enter the negotiations on liberalisation of the visa regime. Dnevni Avaz pg 5 ‘Negotiations on visa regime to commence’ – DA learns the exact date of these negotiations is 30 May. Deputy Head of EC Commission in BIH, Renzo Daviddi, told DA that the first round would concentrate on liberating regime for certain groups of people, including students, businessmen, etc. Also, some countries will start issuing their visas to BiH citizens for free. |
Police reform | |
| EC, OHR call on adoption of police reform
| Hayat – Head of the EC delegation to BiH Michael Humphreys reiterated once again that the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with European Union will not be stopped because of the slowdown in the police reform process; however, he added that the |
| EU’s Javier Solana:
| Dnevni Avaz pg 5 ‘By rejecting police reform, RS sends bad signal’ by S. Numanovic – In a statement to DA, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Javier Solana, stated that the failure of the RS to adopt the Police Reform Directorate’a opinion adopted on Wednesday is regretful and sends bad signal. He says the opinion “is just a first step in implementing one of three EU principles on police reform” adding the “police reform is a key condition for Stabilization and Association process”. Solana also says that the method of work and decision-making in the |
| VL int with
| Vecernji list pg 6 ‘NO to organization of police on entity level’ by Dejan Jazvic – In an interview to VL, the Chair of the Reform Directorate Steering Board, Vinko Dumancic, said that the Board has adopted the opinion instead of the decision on future police structure in an effort to make the stance closer to the RS officials. Asked what would happen at the next session of the |
| CoM Chair Terzic rejects agreed police issues to again discuss at level of political parties
| Oslobodjenje pg 2 ‘Negotiations on police restructuring are finished’ by Az. Kalamujic – The Chair of the BIH Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic, on Friday confirmed that the talks on the police reform among political parties had been completed, and the Police Reform Directorate should now be let to complete its job. Terzic commented the calls of some RS politicians to return the discussion at the level of political parties adding that only things that could be discussed in this level are those things which were not addressed before, including “seat of Agency, institution and educational institutions.” Inset ‘US to cool down their relations with Dodik?’ – Daily says that the HR Christian Schwarz-Schilling will sent harsh warning to RS PM Milorad Dodik because of efforts to obstruct police reform. It also learns unofficially that US could cool down its relations with Dodik for the same reason. |
| DEPOS’ Svetlana Cenic: Police reform back to the beginning
| Nezavisne novine pg 6 ‘Economic recovery tops list of priorities’ by V. Popovic – In a short interview to NN, former RS Finance Minister and member of Democratic Movement of Srpska [DEPOS], Svetala Cenic, says the party would focus on the issues related to economy. Inset ‘Police reform on the beginning’ – Commenting the course of the police reform, Cenic – who was the member of the RS negotiating team last year – underlined solution must be find through consensus and added that “unfortunately things got back to the beginning”: “Negotiations with EU could be halted because of the police reform and I am afraid this would happen is there is no progress some time soon.” |
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| GS op-ed: reforms go around in vicious circles, RS PM Dodik was right to react | Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Reforms in words’ op-ed by Pantelija Matavulj – Author refers to the news on two currently most spoken reforms in BiH – constitutional and police – wondering whether all developments only makes us spin around in “vicious circle”. However, he did note that RS PM Milorad Dodik, timely send the letter to the members of the Police Reform Directorate Steering Board reminding that the decision must be brought by consensus. Everything else, says Matavulj, would mean that the solution is imposed. He is also critical of the statement by the |
Economy | |
| RS Special Prosecutor to fight organized crime appointed
| BHT 1 by Zoran Sarenac – Milan Tegeltija has been appointed as the RS Chief Special Prosecutor whose main task would be to fight corruption cases outside of competencies of the state or entity prosecutor in accordance with the RS law on prevention of the organized crime and grave economic crimes, which went into effect on Friday. RS Chief Prosecutor Amor Bukic presented Tegeltija at the press conference stating that the he would be authorized to conduct separate investigation and file charges. Tegeltija stressed that this is a demanding task but he expects the first results very soon. “Those innocent have nothing to fear. For this prosecution there are no those privileged and untouchable regardless of their financial powers. The criminals are the only opposition to RS Special Prosecution” noted Tegeltija. PINK – Bukic welcomed establishment of the RS Special Prosecution and said it would not be not be a competition to the RS Prosecution and District Prosecutions. According to Bukic, trials will be held before the Special Department of District Court. RS Special Prosecution should start working in two months. In the meantime, Tegeltija is supposed to appoint his deputy and six prosecutors. RTRS, Glas Srpske pg 2 ‘Criminals only opposition’, mentioned on cover – Bukic underlined that Special Prosecution would not be a parallel structure to current judiciary. Oslobodjenje pg 2 ‘There will be no those privileged and untouchables’, Nezavisne novine pg 5 ‘Tegeltija is Chief Special Prosecutor’, mentioned on cover – also reported. |
| RS Energy Minister Jelic: Buyer of Oil Refinery Brod to be known in 15 days, privatisation in 2 months | RTRS by Vid Blagojevic- Milan Jelic, RS Minister of Economy, Energy and Development announced privatizations of “Oil refinery Brod” and “Oil refinery Modrica”. Jelic visited Brod Refinery on Friday and met with representatives of Syndicate informing them that the RS Government dissociated itself from earlier possible strategic partner Israeli company “Alon”. Glas Srpske cover splash story ‘Giant wakes up slowly’ by B. Teofilovic – Jelic announced that the buyer would be known in about 15 days, while its status is to be entirely solved within 60 days. PINK, Oslobodjenje pg 6 ‘Potential buyer to be known in mid-May’, Nezavisne novine pg 4 ‘Oil refinery would be sold in two months’ – He noted talks with several European and world companies are undergoing, but rejected to identify them. |