BOSNIA NEWS

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The US Ambassador to Bosnia Douglas McElhaney stated that the divisions between political parties in Bosnia will be discussed at the PIC meeting next week.

”If one is to review all the PIC sessions in the past 2 years, one would see that they mostly dealt with the distribution of authorities to the hands of domestic institutions. However, my government is Washington is concerned about the rhetoric and lack of progress in the pasr year. This rethoric is absolutely unacceptable”, Ambassador McElhaney said.

He added that Bosnia's politicians have been taking such a negative stance, which was discussed at meetings with Silajdzic and Dodik in Washington.

”Do I need to ask if it is good for a group of people to characterize themselves rasistically?”, he warned.

Commenting the constitutional changes, the US Ambassador emphasized that the constitutional changes package is still on the desk. It was almost adopted by the Bosnian Parliament at a point.

”Most of the people say that they want the package as the basis for further talks. But start with the talks already”, McElhaney said.

He congratulated the parties for everything they have achieved but added that the time has come to pass the voting decisions on the package.

The fact is that there have been some statements given at the Council of Europe and the European Parliament that the package is imperfect or insufficient, in spite of the fact that all the EU governments publicly supported the process of constitutional changes. McElhaney wants cooperation with the Council of Europe, the Venetian Commission and the European Parliament, for “we are stronger together and we can end the process together”.

McElhaney also said that he wants the parties to discuss the package soon.

”We need to focus on the result. The result is on the table. We either take it or remove it off of the table”, Ambassador emphasized.

He sees no reason why the change in police structure would be focused against anyone. A better-financed, better-organized and capable police will give to people, not take away,he said.

McElhaney has been involved in the process from the very beginning and is of the opinion that there is only one issue – local level police. One of the negotiating sides in Washington wanted more, the other less.

He compared the police and defense reforms. People used to say at the time that they will lose something, but now everyone agrees that joint armed forces are a good thing.

”I often see soldiers wearing the same uniform, having the same superior. They all have the Bosnian Coat of Arms on one side and emblem on the other. However, when they work together, and we know that from Iraq, it means nothing. In time, when people realize the benefits of such police, such an issue will no longer be of importance”, Ambassador said.

McElhaney, a member of the Srebrenica – Potocari foundation stated that his country took a great interest in the foundation.

”We have done that because we think that the families of brutally murdered genocide victims have a right to go back”, he said and emphasized that creating normal living conditions in Srebrenica is now a priority.

That is not simple, but the Ambassador announced to continue working until the problem is solved.

He wants the people to return to Srebrenica but warns that it is not possible without employment and trust into police forces. In that context, meetings are to be held with the Bosnian Ministry of Justice.

The only way to change the situation in Srebrenica is to make people feel that there is a perspective for them. That is why the American businessmen visited Srebrenica.

He added that it is easy to criticize the international community without doing anything. McElhaney is of the opinion that Srebrenica can be made an area of special interest, but sees no way of it becoming a special administrative district.

”According to the Dayton Agreement, Srebrenica is where it is. Those who want to change that, need to make their proposals at the constitutional changes meetings”, Ambassador said.

There is a huge moral price in Srebrenica. On the one hand, those are the victims of genocide and the perpetrators who need to live with what they had done for the rest of their lives on the other.

”We will arrest the worst perpetrators and extradite them to the ICTY. We need to do everything to improve living conditions of the returnees”, The US Ambassador to Bosnia Douglas McElhaney said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - Hungary supports Bosnia's progress towards Euro- Atlantic integrations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz said in Sarajevo yesterday, beginning a two-day visit to Bosnia.

At a meeting with the Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister Sven Alkalaj, Goncz also said Hungary was willing to assist Bosnia in all fields important for the country's faster integration into European Union and NATO.

The two ministers also said Bosnia and Hungary should improve economic cooperation, with the priorities in food production, timber and tourism. The two countries would soon sign agreements on evasion of double taxation, social insurance and traffic.

While in Sarajevo, Goncz also met with members of the Bosnian State Presidency and the Prime Minister Nikola Spiric.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia - Bruised but in good spirits, a group of American pilgrims who were injured in a bus accident this week continued their trip to a Catholic shrine in southern Bosnia yesterday, praying for two passengers who remain hospitalized in Sarajevo.

The bus carrying the 34 Americans to the Medjugorje shrine collided with a truck on a wet road Monday evening 12 miles south of Sarajevo, plunged down a ravine, and ended up sideways in a shallow river.

"My husband was buried under the bus. My three children were unharmed. I climbed out and people stopped their cars jumped out and formed a chain, pulling us one by one up the hill," said Elisabeth Meier of Hartland, Wisconsin (USA).

Twenty-seven passengers were injured. Meier's husband, Andy, remains in critical condition due to a spinal injury. The Rev. Rick Wendell, associate pastor at Holy Angels Parish of West Bend, Wisconsin, also remains hospitalized for multiple fractures that are not life-threatening.

"Andy is paralyzed," his wife said. "But we keep praying and we want everybody at home to pray for him."

Their three children - Sam, 14, Madeleine, 12, and Frank, 4, - proceeded yesterday with the group to a Catholic shrine the southern Bosnian town of Medjugorje,while Elisabeth Meier stayed in Sarajevo to be with her husband.

"He wanted us to come here. It's a tribute to him that the kids are going," she added.

Medjugorje has drawn millions of pilgrims since 1981, when six children said they began seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary.The Medjugorje apparition has not been officially recognized by the Catholic Church.

Most of the injured Americans were released a day after the accident and stayed in a nearby hotel. The group praised hospital staff, saying doctors and nurses did everything they could and even collected clothes for the group whose luggage got soaked with diesel fuel in the crash. The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo provided direct phone connections so they could call home.

"I want to win a lottery and give it all to the Kosevo hospital," said Ann Casper, 73, of West Bend. Despite a fracture in her neck and a cast that does not allow her to move her head, she decided to travel to Medjugorje yesterday.

"People took good care of us here. We were even visited by the head of the Muslim community in Bosnia and his wife. They were great, they brought us flowers," said Jessie Hietpas, 56, of Little Chute, Wisconsin.

Many Bosnians still feel very grateful to the United States for initiating a military intervention in 1995 that ended the Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia and lifted the siege of Sarajevo.

"We had no clue they like Americans here so much, but later it was explained to us that we helped them more than anyone else during the war," Hietpas said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The adoption of two long overdue education laws by the Bosnian Parliament represents a step forward in a field that is critical to the future of the country and in particular the younger generation, the international community in Bosnia announced.

This was stated yesterday in a joint announcement made by the OHR, OSCE Mission to Bosnia, EC Delegation in Bosnia and the World Bank, on the occasion of adoption of the Law on Higher Education in Bosnia and on the Agency for Preschool and High School Education.

The state-level Higher Education Law and the Laws on an Agency for Pre-Primary and Secondary Education will open up considerable opportunities to raise the quality of education across Bosnia.

The Higher Education Law will enable improved mobility of students and professors as well as recognition of higher education diplomas and degrees within the EU Higher Education Area. It should increase employment opportunities for graduates in Bosnia and encourage universities to work in a more open, transparent and efficient way.

"I did not even know that a tender was opened. The latest report of the Bosnian expert team was not accepted by the Bosnian government, as we intended to solve the problem of borders with Croatia with this agreement," Poljasevic said.

Bosnia and Croatia have been searching for a compromise for years on the subject of building a bridge connecting the Croatian mainland with the Peljesac peninsula, thus connecting two southern territories that are divided by a 14-kilometre (9-mile) stretch of Bosnian coast.

Croatia wants to build the bridge, but Bosnia has protested, saying it would prevent large ships from entering Bosnia's only port in the city of Neum, thus blocking Bosnia's access to the sea. Croatia hopes the bridge would allow its citizens to reach their country's southernmost areas without crossing Bosnian borders.

"Obviously, we cannot forbid Croatia to build the bridge, but likewise they cannot prevent us from having free access to the sea," Poljasevic underlined.

Kemal Karkin, the head of the Bosnian expert team, said that Bosnia never gave the go-ahead for the building of the bridge.

"On the expert level, we agreed that the bridge must not be under 55 metres in height, and the span should not be less than 200 metres, but this was never approved by the Bosnian Council of Ministers. As far as I know, studies on the effects a bridge would have on the ecology of the region have not been finished at all," Karkin said.

The Croatian Roads company, which launched the tender, said that bidding for the project, estimated to cost about 260 million euros, would open on August 28,2007.

NEUM,Bosnia - Croatia's act of opening the tender for building the Peljesac bridge,a bridge that is to connect two southern Croatian territories, without signing a protocol with Bosnia, is a "one-sided act of the Republic of Croatia",the Bosnian Deputy Communications and Traffic Minister Veselin Poljasevic said.

"I did not even know that a tender was opened. The latest report of the Bosnian expert team was not accepted by the Bosnian government, as we intended to solve the problem of borders with Croatia with this agreement," Poljasevic said.

Bosnia and Croatia have been searching for a compromise for years on the subject of building a bridge connecting the Croatian mainland with the Peljesac peninsula, thus connecting two southern territories that are divided by a stretch of the Bosnian coast.

Croatia wants to build the bridge, but Bosnia has protested, saying it would prevent large ships from entering its only port in the city of Neum, thus blocking Bosnia's access to the sea. Croatia hopes the bridge would allow its citizens to reach their country's southernmost areas without crossing the Bosnian borders.

"Obviously, we cannot forbid Croatia to build the bridge, but likewise they cannot prevent us from having free access to the sea," Poljasevic underlined.

Kemal Karkin, the head of the Bosnian expert team, said that Bosnia never gave the go-ahead for the building of the bridge.

"On the expert level, we agreed that the bridge must not be under 55 metres in height, and the span should not be less than 200 metres, but this was never approved by the Bosnian Council of Ministers. As far as I know, studies on the effects a bridge would have on the ecology of the region have not been finished at all," Karkin said.

The Croatian Roads company, which launched the tender, said that bidding for the project, estimated to cost about 260 million euros, would open on August 28,2007.