10 December 97, 19:30
At the Bonn conference, the main conclusions were that the Law on BiH Flag must be adopted by the end of the year; BiH Parliament must adopt the laws on CoM, citizenship and passports; all remaining para-state institutions must be dissolved immediately; all the countries in the World must recognise BiH passport by June 1 next year; from May 1 1998, the visas for Croatia must be abolished for the citizens of RS; the deadline for common registration plates is January 1 1998; the new BiH currency must be printed over the next ten days; by March 31 1998 the Commission for public enterprises must be established; RS must immediately cease the privatisation process. German FA Minister Kinkel said that all the obstructers will be punished with economic and political sanctions. The PIC Steering Board fully supported the HR mandate re-affirmation, in accordance with the DPA. The BiH delegation’s standpoint could be described as suppressed optimism, since the final document did not include all the BiH proposals. The FRY and RS delegations abandoned the session after the problem of Kosovo was raised. HR Westendorp expressed his satisfaction with the achieved consensus of the IC regarding the engagement of troops in BiH. Westendorp also praised the progress achieved in the Presidency last night, regarding the laws on citizenship, passports and CoM. Kinkel expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the departure of the Serb representatives from the conference. UK FA Minister Cook said that today’s discussions were very constructive but also dreary. The French criticised the FRY delegation which abandoned the session refusing to sign the final declaration. FRY delegation Head Vucicevic said that his delegation will not sign the declaration because it contains parts about Kosovo.
6:00
Succession Committee session was held in Brussels today. Applying the Bonn model, the FRY delegation refused to signed the draft agreement, made by Sir Arthur Watts. This draft covers the option that all the property which is currently in the countries of former Yugoslavia remain in their ownership, and everything that is abroad will be divided by the principle of proportions. The ‘cure’ for this refusal is extension of the sanctions towards Belgrade for another year, and as it was confirmed, Sir Arthur Watts’ memorandum will become valid on March 31 next year, regardless of whether Belgrade likes it or not.
1:30
The House of Representatives session continued today in Sarajevo. The main subject was the allocation of the aid money for the reconstruction of BiH. Federal Prime-minister Bicakcic reported about the amounts of money received and realised so far. HDZ representatives were proving that areas resided in by Croat majority were given very small amounts, or in some places even nothing. As the second issue, the Law on Water Infrastructure was adopted, as well as the Law on IDs. The draft Law on Housing was, which covers the return of refugees in their pre-war apartments also discussed, and Bicakcic said that this law has to be brought by entities, but the law was not adopted. The Law on Abolishing the Law on Temporary Abandoned Apartments was also discussed, but soon withdrawn from the discussion.
2:30
An attempt of arrest of an indicted war criminal Miroslav Bralo, who tried to surrender voluntarily to the NATO troops was reported today by the Washington Post. Bralo has been on the Hague lists since 1996, and after July 14 this year, he decided to surrender, by reporting himself to a NATO troops checkpoint, saying he was willing to testify against an indicted Blaskic. However, the Dutch soldiers did not want to arrest him, because his name was not on their list of indictees, so they only took his name and address. It came out that he was no the ICTY secret lists, but no one wanted to go for him afterwards. The ICTY representative from Sarajevo however went to his home by himself, but did not find anyone.
1:30
The Experts Team for Collecting Evidence on Missing Srebrenicans addressed the press with two appeals. One appealed was directed to the authorities, regarding the room for allocation of more than 1150 bodies. The other appeal was addressed to the families of missing persons, to help with identification.
1:30
UN Special Envoy, Eide addressed the public regarding the 50-year anniversary of the UN Human Rights Convention. Eide said that the UN mission in BiH will take more engagement in the next year, regarding cases of Human Rights violation. He also announced that the UN will commence restructuring the legislature system in BiH in the next year, as well as restructuring the police. OHR Human Rights dept announced that some of the current laws in BiH entities are not fully accorded with the Human Rights Convention.
1:30