Transcript of the International Agencies’ Joint Press Conference
OHR
Arguments for streamlining bureaucracy are about joining Europe, saving public money, and delivering better services to citizens.
The Principal Deputy High Representative, Larry Butler, is speaking today at a conference in Munich on the Economic Challenges and Regional Implications of the Dayton Process.
In his speech, Ambassador Butler notes that “the constitutional evolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is beginning to be directed by circumstances that five years ago few would have hoped could have been achieved by now. Efforts to modernise the system of administration and government and make it more cost efficient are being undertaken in the context of European integration and in the context of BiH’s needs as a normal European state. The arguments that are now advanced for streamlining the expensive and inefficient multilayered bureaucracy are not about changing Dayton per se. They are about joining Europe, saving public money, and delivering better services to citizens.”
Ambassador Butler will tell his audience of international parliamentarians and policymakers that although the Euro-integration process has been stalled due to problems related to police reform and the establishment of a single Public Broadcasting System, “as soon as we have resolved these political obstacles – and there is a consensus among the relevant stakeholders to do this by the tenth anniversary of Dayton, backed by near universal public support for getting the accession process back on track – we can focus again on implementing economic reforms that will deliver benefits to citizens so that citizens can experience the benefits even before the tangible milestones of European integration have been passed.”
Ambassador Butler will also point out that reforms only be effective if they are treated as a single package – one won’t work without the others. “Judicial reform and tackling organized crime came late in the reconstruction process – and the grizzly consequences of this, in terms of endemic corruption and widespread public cynicism, testify to the fact that you have to deal with all the elements in the package.”
I have brought along local-language copies of the speech.
OSCE
OSCE to launch Access to Justice Campaign tomorrow
Ambassador Douglas Davidson, Head of OSCE Mission to BiH, will hold a press conference to launch the “Access to Justice” campaign, established in co-operation with Vasa Prava, tomorrow, Wednesday, 22 June at 11:30, in Sarajevo at the Media Centre, Kolodvorska 3.
Ambassador Davidson will take the opportunity to draw attention to the promotion and protection of human rights in BiH, particularly from a citizen’s point of view.
It is well known that individuals have human rights, but how does that translate into everyday life? What does that mean for the average citizen?
The OSCE Mission and Vasa Prava have produced seven brochures that are aimed to assist BiH citizens understand how to access certain social benefits. Among the topics the brochures address are: How to access utility reconnections if you are a returnee? How to obtain information from a public institution? What are the procedures to initiate inheritance benefits?
How to access renovation and reconstruction assistance?
Human rights starts from the simple ability of being able to access rights. The OSCE Mission to BiH and Vasa Prava are committed to helping citizens understand the social remedies that are available to them.
All journalists are invited to attend the press conference, tomorrow, on 22 June, at 11:30 hrs, at Media Centre, Kolodvorska 3, in Sarajevo .
Ambassador Davidson met with Presidency member Ivo Miro Jovic today
Ambassador Douglas Davidson, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina , met with BiH Presidency member Ivo Miro Jovic, today. Ambassador Davidson used the opportunity to discuss thestatus of the Mission ‘s main programmes in the areas of human rights, democratisation, education, public administration and defence reform.
The Ambassador reiterated the OSCE to BiH’s commitment to supporting to BiH institutions and its co-operation with its citizenship.
EUPM
No statement.
ICMP
Good morning from the International Commission on Missing Persons. My name is Doune Porter, and I’m the head of Communications at ICMP. This is ICMP’s first visit to the international organizations’ press conference at OHR – and as you can see, we have brought a familiar face with us. Vedran Persic joined ICMP at the beginning of May.
We have come today because we would like to give you an update on the progress of identifications of Srebrenica victims in the final weeks before the tenth anniversary of the 1995 fall of Srebrenica.
Many of you will have seen our recent press release, in which we announced we had identified 2000 Srebrenica victims. Our figures are updated weekly, and as of the 17 of June, 2032 victims were identified.
I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify the role of ICMP in the identification of Srebrenica victims. Because of the large number of victims, ICMP actually has a greater role in identifying Srebrenica victims than in other parts of the country. Ordinarily, after DNA ‘identification’, ICMP submits its DNA matching reports to local court-appointed pathologists, who compare ante-mortem and post-mortem data of the remains identified by DNA and who then make the official identification of the individual. In the case of victims of the 1995 fall of Srebrenica, however, ICMP’s forensic pathologist, Dr. Rifat Kesetovic, is also a court-appointed pathologist, and he makes the final identifications.
ICMP anticipates that there will be approximately 550 bodies identified and ready for burial at the Potocari cemetery on July 11. We are working hard to identify as many victims as possible as quickly as possible so they can be buried at the tenth anniversary ceremony.
There have already been 1441 burials of Srebrenica victims – most of them at the Potocari Cemetery . ICMP has identified a further 539 bodies, so far, and those bodies will be ready for burial on July 11. The first group of 350 bodies has already been moved from ICMP’s Podrinje Identification Project in Tuzla to Gradska groblja Visoko, the company that will prepare the bodies for burial. Other bodies will be transferred in the coming days.
There are also about 60 cases of individuals that have been identified but whose families have decided they would like to wait before burial. These are cases where the bodies are not complete, but where we believe further body parts will be found, or where the families have decided to wait for other missing family members to be found so that they can be buried together.
EUFOR
No statement
NATO
No statement.
Questions and Answers:
Journalist:
One question for Mr. Chappell and Mr. Cockburn: Reading the press today I noticed that you stated that the incidents in Čapljina and Manjača are incomparable. How is it possible that they cannot be compared with each other? The conscripts of the Army of Republica Srpska took an oath to Republica Srpska, which is an integral part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in Čapljina the national anthem of a foreign country was played.
Frank Cockburn, EUFOR:
In relation to the conscript ceremony at Čapljina at the present moment time we’ve got nothing to add, the situation is under review and the position will be made clear later today when a press statement will be issued. Thank you.
Derek Chappell, NATO:
I’d like to add something, as I was present at Čapljina on Friday. The incidents on the 16th of April by the VRS conscripts were a very crude breach of law and military procedure. They required an effective response and that response has been provided. By contrast the ceremony that we saw on Friday was dignified and formal. The flag and the anthem of BiH were respected, there were no national assembles, no inflammatory speeches. So there are marked differences in the two ceremonies. The question of whether or not it was appropriate or legal for the anthem to be played is a legal question and that is the subject of legal advice that we were taking and that will be the subject of the report that we will receive. But I think it’s important to point out that the ceremony on Friday is not comparable to what we saw on the 16th of April.
Journalist:
For NATO and EUFOR: I wasn’t here last week so I apologize if you were asked this question already, but a British newspaper carried a report last week about alleged letters from Radovan Karadžić to his wife that according to the report was seized by people who had been chasing him for years. Now it could be NATO, EUFOR or maybe Hague Investigators, so I’m asking these two organizations if you have any knowledge of such documents and if you could share them with public and not just to certain media. Thank you.
Derek Chappell, NATO:
On behalf of NATO I have been present on a number of search and seizure operations which have been conducted against support networks that allow Mr. Karadžić and Mr. Mladić to remain at large, and we have seized numerous items that we examined at camp Butmir. It is certainly not our practice to publicly disclose confidential material. I do not know if those letters are genuine. I have no information as to how they were published in the English newspaper.