BosNet Digest V5 #47 / Jan. 31, 1996

From: Davor <[email protected]>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

CONTENTS

[01] Bosnian Assemblies Met Tuesday

The Bosnian republic and federal assemblies met in Sarajevo on Tuesday to appoint the republic and federal Governments. Incoming Republic Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic was expected to present his Government's program.

Prior to the meeting Bosnian opposition parties announced they would insist on putting on the agenda the issue of a republic Government law adopted at the last assembly session and the reasons why outgoing Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic has given up the mandate to head this Government.

At the last session the republic Government announced that it will have prepared an amnesty bill for Tuesday's session. The federal assembly was supposed to discuss a defense law.

[02] Bosnian Government Adopts Draft Law On Amnesty

The Bosnian Government Monday evening adopted a draft on amnesty, which the Bosnian Assembly should enforce as a law at its session on Tuesday, said a statement issued by the Ministry for Education, Science, Culture and Sports.

According to the statement, the draft is in accordance with the Bosnian peace accords. At its last session on Jan. 8, the assembly adopted a declaration on amnesty after an initiative by the Bosnian Presidency.

The amnesty refers to all members of paramilitary forces in Bosnia who have not committed war crimes and to all Bosnian Army deserters.

[03] Srebrov To Represent SPO In Bosnia Elections

Vladimir Srebrov, a Serb writer from Sarajevo recently released from a Bosnian Serb prison, will participate as the head of a Serb opposition party, the Serb Renewal Movement (SPO), in the forthcoming elections in the Bosnian Federation.

The SPO is the first Serb party which made public its intention to participate in the elections out of Serb-held territory in Bosnia, because all other Serb parties want to participate exclusively in the Serb entity. The estimate is that as many as 200,000 Serbs live in the Bosnian Federation.

[04] UBSD Sharply Criticizes Work Of Bosnian Republic Assembly

A Bosnian opposition party, the Union of Bosnian Social Democrats (UBSD), Tuesday sharply criticized the work of the Republic Assembly, saying the Bosnian Government first had some of its ministers, proposed by one of the two ruling Bosnian parties, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), and only then its prime minister.

UBSD Vice-President Sejfudin Tokic said his party, which is a member of the coordinating group of five opposition parties, will launch an initiative for the establishment of a government in the shadow," whose task will be to respond to real and essential issues concerning the political life of the country.

Commenting on public statements by officials of the other ruling Bosnian party, the Democratic Action Party (SDA), that it is them who will win the forthcoming elections in Bosnia, Tokic said "the same words, same arguments and the same atmosphere were coming from what was then known as the CK (central committee of the communist party) before he elections of 1991. Apparently, Tokic said, that CK and today's SDA are "separated from life and everyday problems of the common people."

[05] OSCE Names Provisional Election Commission For Bosnia

The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Federal Councillor of Switzerland Flavio Cotti, Tuesday announced the composition of the Provisional Election Commission (PEC) for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At a press conference held in Sarajevo, Cotti said the members of the PEC are:

- Ambassador Robert Frowick, the head of the OSCE mission to Bosnia, who is also the head of the PEC under the Bosnia peace accords;

- Sir Kenneth Scott of the United Kingdom, the deputy chairman of the commission;

- Prof. Dr. Kasim Begic as the representative of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina;

- Slobodan Kovac as the representative of the Bosnian Serb republic;

- Mate Tadic as the representative of the Bosnian Federation who is also the current justice minister in the Bosnian Government;

- Ambassador Michael Steiner of Germany who is the deputy to U.N. High Representative Carl Bildt in charge of implementing the civilian part of the peace accords;

- John Reid, elections expert from Canada.

According to Cotti, who visited Sarajevo together with Danish and Hungarian foreign ministers, Niels Helveg Petersen and Laszlo Kovacs, the interested parties in Bosnia will also have non-voting deputies in the commission: Radivoje Duvnjak of the Serb republic, Ana Jaksic of the Bosnian Federation and Hilmo Palic of the Republic of Bosnia- Herzegovina.

The PEC will, among other things, determine voter registration procedures, make certain that the structures and institutional framework for elections are in place, guarantee compliance with electoral rules and regulations, ensure that action is taken to remedy any violation of the peace accords and accredit observers of the elections.

[06] Rehn To Visit Srebrenica In Next Seven Days

U.N. human rights investigator Elizabeth Rehn is to visit Srebrenica, scene of some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war, during a week-long trip to the former Yugoslavia beginning on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

A U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Rehn, a former Finnish defense minister, will travel first to the Macedonian capital of Skopje. On Friday, she will fly to the Croatian capital Zagreb and then visit Velika Kladusa in northwest Bosnia. Rehn will move on to Sarajevo on Saturday and visit Srebrenica, the former Moslem enclave in eastern Bosnia captured by the Serbs in July, next day. It was the fall of Srebrenica and the nearly enclave of Zepa which led to the protest resignation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Rehn's predecessor as "special rapporteur" to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

From Srebrenica, Rehn will travel to the Bosnian government city of Tuzla and then to Pale, the Bosnian Serb stronghold.

[07] UN Looking For Goldstone's Successor

The United Nations has begun the search for a successor to Richard Goldstone as chief prosecutor of the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Reuters quoted a spokesman for Goldstone as saying on Tuesday. Goldstone planned to step down later this year, having indicated when he was appointed in July 1994 that he would stay in the job for 18-24 months, spokesman Christian Chartier said. He intends to return to native South Africa to take up his seat in the country's constitutional court.

Chartier said Goldstone's successor would be appointed by the U.N. Security Council at the nomination of U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, adding that Goldstone and Boutros-Ghali had already begun discussing possible candidates.

Goldstone has not yet taken a firm decision about when he will return to South Africa and will stay on as U.N. war crimes prosecutor until his successor is appointed, Chartier added.

[08] Posavina Residents Reiterate Demands To Return To Their Homes

The association of expelled people from Bosnian Posavina in northern Bosnia said on Tuesday it does not accept any "humane" resettlement offered in western and eastern Slavonia of Croatia, and in towns of western Bosnia, and insisted on returning to their homes.

In a 15-point letter to the domestic and world public, the association said it totally supports peace and the establishment of a lasting cease-fire. It also supports IFOR in undertaking activities within its mandate to ensure a safe and unlimited circulation of people and goods, which is the necessary precondition for the return of refugees and expelled people.

"We wish to participate in, and become party to the adjustment of inter-ethnic separation lines, even in a possible exchange of other territories for the territory of the Bosnian Posavina, all in accordance with the peace accords on Bosnia," said the 15-point letter by the Slavonski Brod- based association. The letter was signed by its president Ivo Krizanovic.

[09] Tuzla Theater To Give First Play This Year

The Tuzla National Theater will Wednesday perform its first play of the season, modern tragicomedy "Julius Caesar" by Ivo Bresan directed by Nijaz Alispahic.

At a press conference held in Tuzla, Alispahic and theater director Eldin Tabukcic said this is the first of six plays scheduled for 1996, and also the first play after the war in Bosnia officially ended in December. They added the play was prepared in only 45 days regardless of difficult working