BOSNIA NEWS

SREBRENICA,Bosnia - 48 skeletons have been exhumed from two mass graves in Bosnia believed to contain the genocide victims from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica , a judicial official said yesterday.

Four complete and 44 incomplete skeletons were uncovered in one mass grave in the Zeleni Jadar area, 15km south of Srebrenica,Jasna Subotic,spokeswoman for the local prosecutor’s office, said.

The remains were found crushed and compressed - suggesting that the bodies might have been interred elsewhere, then exhumed and re-buried by the genocidal Serbian aggressor with the use of bulldozers in a bid to conceal their fate.

“The remains are so badly damaged that it is even possible that they have been reburied twice,” Subotic said, adding that forensic experts had also collected two bags of small bone fragments.

Earlier this week, a smaller mass grave - near the Potocari memorial cemetery where more than 2,400 identified genocide victims from Srebrenica lie buried - was found, with five remains plus several detached bones, the spokeswoman said.

The genocidal Serbian aggressor overran the UN-protected Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica near the border between Bosnia and Serbia and summarily killed up to 10,000 Bosnian men and boys,near the end of the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

It was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, and has been deemed by the UN war crimes tribunal and the International Court of Justice to have constituted genocide.

Wartime leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia - Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic have both been indicted by the UN tribunal in connection with the genocide in Bosnia, but have yet to be caught and sent for trial in The Hague.

Thousands of the genocide victims from Srebrenica have been exhumed from about 60 mass graves in the vicinity of the town, with more than 2,500 of them having been identified by DNA analysis,so far.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - In an official ceremony held in the Bosnian National and University Library , H.E. David Hutchings, Ambassador of Canada to Bosnia, presented the Director of the Bosnian National and University Library Mr. Ismet Ovcina with books donated by Canadian publishers to this institution.

This project was initiated by the Canadian Embassy in Bosnia, with the aim of contributing to the re-stocking of the Bosnian National and University Library . Books were donated by 45 English-language and 22 French-language publishing houses, who were warmly thanked by the Canadian Ambassador during his speech. These publications will greatly benefit not only students, but a wider audience in Bosnia as well.

In a speech to guests, Ambassador Hutchings thanked the City of Sarajevo and its mayor, Ms. Semiha Borovac, for giving permission for the ceremony to take place in the Bosnian National and University Library. The Centre Andre Malraux was also thanked for allowing the event to be held during the exhibition by the artist Safet Zec, organised as part of the Eighth European Literary Gatherings as was the Music Academy of Sarajevo for the concert given during the evening by some of its students.

The Bosnian National and University Library lost an estimated 2 million volumes, among them 155,000 rare books, unique archival collections, 478 manuscripts,which were destroyed by the genocidal Serbian aggressor at the beginning of the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.Ambassador Hutchings expressed the hope that this monument will soon be wholly reconstructed.

Mr. Ismet Ovcina, Director of the Bosnian National and University Library, thanked the Canadian Embassy and Canadian publishers for the books donated, and expressed the hope that this initiative by the Canadian Embassy will provide the impetus for other institutions to assist and support the Library and its employees to continue their work in the fields of culture, education and science for the good of BH society as a whole, Canadian Embassy said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Belgium will support Bosnia on its way to EU and NATO membership. This was stated in Sarajevo after a meeting between the Bosnian Parliament’s HOR Speaker Beriz Belkic, the Belgian non-residential Ambassador to Bosnia Phillippe Nieuwenhuys and the Belgian Director for the West Balkans Thomas Antoine.

At the same time, friendly Belgium will make sure that the country receives enough of attention from the international community.

The Bosnian Parliament’s HOR Speaker Beriz Belkic also talked with Belgian officials about the Bosnian constitutional reforms.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Representatives of seven top Bosnian cultural institutions again warned that financial and status position of those bodies is alarming and that not a single monetary transaction has been made on their accounts for the past 6 months.

As stated at a press conference , these institutions will be doomed unless the Bosnian government solves their monetary issues at the next session, today,June 28.

The newly-appointed Bosnian government has not yet discussed the problem of solving the institutions’ legal status. According to the Bosnian Constitution, these institutions were founded by the state, hence the founder is to act in accordance to that.

That is a sign of not respecting the Dayton peace Agreement which proscribes continuity of Bosnia's legal regulations.In that sense, Director of Library for Blind Persons Sakib Pleh said that OHR should participate in the problem solving process, for Dayton Agreement is being breeched.

Meliha Husedzinovic, Director of the Bosnian Art Gallery, emphasized the problem of distribution of funds.

They also stated that the Bosnian Minister of Civil Affairs is asking the institutions to apply for funds and the national cultural institutions oppose that.