Pale – RS Government held a session today, to discuss the current political situation in RS. With regard to this, the Government brought criminal charges against RS President Plavsic, and newly named State officials Neskovic, Ceramic and Sutilovic, for the attempted Coup d’etat, and violation of the RS Constitution.
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Pale – RS Prime-Minister Klickovic met OSCE Ambassador Kuznjecov in order to discuss the forthcoming local elections. Klickovic pointed out the irregularities that are still to be corrected by September 13-14. As said by Klickovic, those irregularities refer to voters lists, unsolved citizens’ appeals in Brcko and the change in election rules for counting votes. Klickovic also said that this was a preliminary meeting before tomorrow’s meeting with OSCE Ambassador Frowick.
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Belgrade – FRY President Milosevic and Yugoslav Army HQ Commander Gen. Perisic held separate meetings with US Special Envoy for Military Affairs, Pardew, and NATO South Commander Gen. Clark. The subject of the conversations was the DPA implementation. Gen. Clark said that SFOR is obliged to provide safety conditions for the election process on Sep. 13-14. Clark also said that SFOR would continue to supervise military activities in accordance with Annex 1 of the DPA. He also added that if necessary, force would be used against any side that might try to obstruct SFOR’s mandate. Clark also said that he has been assured by Milosevic that there was no FRY Army presence in RS. At the meeting with Pardew, the main subject concerned the “Equip and Train” programme, and Pardew informed on the amount of weaponry arriving in BiH.
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Brcko – SFOR troops retreated from the Brcko bridge, leaving it under RS MUP control. Internal Affairs Minister deputy Borovcanin and local SFOR commander Grange visited the bridge afterwards.
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World media reports – Swiss Government authorities refuted claims that Karadzic owns an account in some of the Swiss banks. This is the first official refusal of such a claim.
- France Press reported that US Special Envoy Gelbard expressed the possibility of judging Karadzic, who is indicted of alleged war crimes, on RS territory. After his meeting with UK Foreign Affairs Minister Cook, Gelbard said that the possibilities were open for the location of the trial, it was only important to have war criminals in front of the court.
- Parisian Le Monde refers to Belgrade officials’ comments that Plavsic’s behaviour is irresponsible, and her support by SFOR unacceptable. In the same text, Le Monde regretfully announced that the TV tower Udrigovo had been given back to Serbs. Le Monde also released groundless claims that RS media are a powerful propaganda machinery.
- Austrian press paid a lot of attention to FRY President Milosevic’s statement, after a meeting with HR Westendorp, in which it was said that global elections in RS are the only way of solving the current crisis. A lot of space was also occupied by Westendorp’s statement that the local elections must be carried out at any rate.
- NATO HQ announced that the Contact Group will consider the current situation in RS at tomorrow’s meeting in Brussels.
- Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung published an article about Croatian crimes against the Serbs from Krajina, thus questioning the history of war in that area. Frankfurter daily released the full testimony of Croat war criminal Bajramovic, about hundreds of killed Serb civilians in Krajina.
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Sabac (FRY) – Municipality board of SDS party in Sabac supported the legitimate institutions of the RS, and expressed it’s gratitude to the people of Bijeljina, Lopare and Ugljevik for their courage in the attempt to set TV tower Udrigovo free from SFOR troops.
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Prnjavor – SDS party municipality board of Prnjavor also supported the legitimate institutions of the State, but also warned of the new eventual attacks against the SDS party and it’s leadership. It was also said that Prnjavor never wanted anything else but to respect the legal institutions of the State. The newly named Police head, Ceramic was accused of slander about imagined malversations of legal Prnjavor authorities.
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Banja Luka – BL Mayor, Cuk and local Election Committee president Boskovic talked with UN observer Pitkannen about the forthcoming elections in BL. Cuk said that he hopes for the elections to be correctly conducted, unlike last year, when sacks with votes were coming to certain municipalities even a month after the elections.
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Belgrade – Serb Radical Party (SRS) President Seselj assessed that the current political crisis in RS may be solved only by Presidential and Parliament elections. Seselj underlined that this is the opinion of SRS, SPS and SDS parties, while Plavsic and the US are against this solution.
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Banja Luka – People’s Party of RS President, Brdjanin informed journalists today that Plavsic has formed the Information Council. He explained that the council was supposed to support journalists and without editorial policy. However, his next sentence was a threat to “Glas Srpski” journalists. He threatened with a meeting campaign if nothing changes in order to cease relations with Pale. Brdjanin added this threat to “his list of democratic measures for breaking the RS”. He appealed to managers of firms and enterprises to support Plavsic, for they can not be seated on two chairs.
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SRT news comment – On this occasion, we will present you an article from pro-Moslem newspaper “Lliljan”. A part of the text that we will publish is at the same time an open letter to OSCE Media Committee.
“Even if it is hard for Bosnians to admit the existence of the Serb entity, called Republic and even more Srpska, these days they may be relieved, looking at what’s going on down there. Finally, the prime aim and the strategy of the Serb entity creators can be understood. Thus, they wanted to put the Serbs, infected by Karadzic’s, or more likely, the Great-Serbian virus of fascism, into quarantine, in order to apply the therapy of virus removal. An operation of the malignant virus removal from the Serb national tissue has just begun. SFOR has previously prepared the operation room and put a scalpel into Plavsic’s hands. We can’t tell if the Serb entity is going to crumble, but SDS probably will. The same is with the question of whether the conflict will occur between Serbs, especially the Army and the Police. Also, whether the DPA will be revisited in order to create a new sort of Vance-Owen plan that supports the cantonisation of BiH. As for the Bosniaks, especially from Sarajevo, who were the greatest victims of Pale’s bloodthirsty lobby, they are watching more SRT evening news than BiH news nowadays. Surely, Bosniaks do not hide their satisfaction with SRT whining over the fate of it’s country. Their journalists, with their pulp-rage, weak and trivial comments are trying to save their sweet dream about their fascist little state. Professional Journalists never had a job in SRNA; they’re only TV announcers, for it has all been served for them to read by some 20 UDBA members. Two of their doyen righteously went into the other world. Djogo was strangled by his brothers from Serbia, while Guzina was caught by cancer. The last Guzina appearance on TV was the best image of his state, fallen ill from an incurable carcinoma. Maybe SRNA will now be divided as well, between Pale and Banja Luka. It would have been even more interesting. The current inner-Serb barking could go on forever. It could be stopped only by a mortar-shell. And when we are bored of SRNA barking, since it is all they have to do anyway, we can always switch to CNN.”
The article was signed by Nedzad Lahic.
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Summary SRT TV News Banja Luka
The RS President, Biljana Plavsic hosted the Italian Ambassador in BiH in Banja Luka today As we find , the topic of this meeting was the actual political situation in RS, and some other issues related to the implementation of the DA. 30 sec.The American troops of SFOR withdrew from the Sava river bridge in Brcko last night. “The police of RS took over the control”. Last night, the members of SFOR abandoned their main check-point in the center of Brcko- the bridge which links Croatia with RS. For the time being soldiers of RS are present on the bridge. The first sergeant Bryan Smith from the SFOR base in Brcko said that that movement was a new strategic distribution of check-points in Brcko. On the occasion of SFOR’s withdrawal, Supervisor Robert Farrand stated: “The control of border is given to the police and authorities of RS. That is what the people demanded in recent events, on last Thursday.”. He also said that the people should relax and that “SFOR’s withdrawal from the bridge did not mean an announcement of invasion from Croatia”.
1 min 30 sec
President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic spoke in Belgrade to the commander of NATO forces in Europe. Milosevic and General Clark exchanged the information and their views about actual implementation of the Peace Agreement in BiH, and discussed the role of the international forces. General Clark warned that SFOR would not tolerate the attacks against the soldiers. It was said that in the previous period there had been a good cooperation between citizens of RS, authorities of RS and SFOR, and that the crisis in RS must not endanger that cooperation. Milosevic emphasized that the problem which existed in the process of realization of commitments assumed by SFOR should be solved by political means, i.e. by agreements and mutual understanding, that excluded use of threats and force.
1 min
President of the RS Government, Gojko Klickovic spoke today at Pale to the OSCE Ambassador, Vladimir Kuznjecov. After the meeting, Klickovic stated that he had pointed out some mistakes that OSCE had made in regard to the lists of voters, unresolved appeals of citizens of Brcko, etc. Klickovic expressed his hope that the mistakes would be eliminated the day after by the technical teams of RS and OSCE.
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Other domestic current events:
- President Plavsic hosted the representatives of the Trade Union of mining and metallurgy of RS, and the representatives of the Ljubija mine. The representatives of the Trade Union informed the President about difficulties and problems in the metallurgy and mining in RS. It was emphasized that the initiation of production was of the crucial interest for RS. President Plavsic expressed understanding for the problems in that branch of industry, which, as she said, was neglected, and promised that she would help resolution of problems in the Ljubija mine.
1 min 20 sec - The rector of the Banja Luka University, Prof. Sc. Dragoljub Mirjanic hosted today in Banja Luka a delegation from Switzerland. The subject of the meeting was the cultural cooperation between two universities. The representative of the Swiss Embassy gave a concrete proposal – a scholarship for postgraduate studies for one student of the BL University.
1 min 30 sec - It is not certain yet when the school year in RS will start. The Trade Union of teachers still insists on its previous demands.
2 min 30 sec - The representatives of the World Bank showed the readiness to invest 5 million DM in the production capacities of the Lignosper enterprise from Novi Grad.
3 min 20 sec