BOSNIA NEWS

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Haris Silajdzic,a member of the Bosian Presidency sent a letter to Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, expressing hope that the UN will face the responsibilities and will not fail to fulfill the duty of ensuring international and legal obligations towards Bosnia again.

Silajdzic’s letter followed after the one sent June 18 2007. In that letter, he and another member of the Bosnian Presidency,Zeljko Komsic, asked the UN’s assistance in annulling the results of genocide in Bosnia.

The Bosnian Presidency members Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic said they based their claim on the verdict in February at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands. The U.N.'s highest court pronounced Serbia guilty of failing to prevent genocide in Bosnia.

The International Court of Justice found Serbia responsible for breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention since it failed to prevent the genocide in Bosnia and punish all persons involved in it,but acquitted Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide in Bosnia.

However,the International Court of Justice found that the illegal forces of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS and RS police) did commit genocide during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Silajdzic and Komsic requested the United Nations to help in resolving the status quo by not recognizing Bosnia's division into two entities, particularly the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "the RS" since its existence is a consequence of wartime ethnic cleansing and genocide.

In their letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,the members of the Bosnian Presidency,Komšić and Silajdžić demanded from the United Nations to urgently use its authority in order to “eliminate the results of the genocide committed in Bosnia, and make room for the modification of Constitutional and other reforms in Bosnia.”

The UN responded to the letter and stated that “the UN Secretary General does not intend to give any kind of a response to the letter, since it was not signed by all the three Bosnian Presidency members”.

In this month’s letter, Silajdzic reminded the UN Secretary General that the intention of the previous letter was to draw attention to the international obligations the International Community has towards Bosnia. He reminded that those obligations arise from the international customary law, which states that no country may recognize the situation which resulted from a heavy breech of the peremptory norm, which includes the crime of genocide, nor it may offer support or aid in sustaining such a situation.

As stated, those obligations exist independently of any other letter emphasizing them and must be implemented regardless of whether or not someone has already drawn attention to them; regardless of whether or not a letter was signed by two or three or, as is the case, one Bosnian Presidency member.

The entire International Community carries the burden of implementing those obligations and an efficient country is not even obliged to formally send a demand for implementation of those obligations. They cannot be ignored through formalities, Silajdzic said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The international community's High Representative and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, has welcomed the adoption of the Bosnian Higher Education Law by the Bosnian Parliament yesterday. Bosnia’s Higher Education Law enables student mobility and means that the Bosnian diplomas will be recognised within the European Higher Education Area.

“This is the best possible news for more than 100,000 students and staff of this country’s higher education institutions,” the international community's High Representative and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia said.

“I am pleased to see the responsibility shown by political leaders and parties in taking measures for the future of the all citizens of this country.”

The Bosnian state-level Framework Law on Higher Education is both a European Partnership requirement and a Council of Europe post-accession obligation. Its adoption creates a legislative framework for reforming higher education in line with the principles of both the Bologna Process and the requirements of the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

“This law has created a sound legal foundation for ongoing improvements in Higher Education in Bosnia.Implementation of the law is now important, and needs to commence as soon as possible,” Lajcak said.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - Brigadier General Vincenzo Coppola, Head of EU Police Mission to Bosnia (EUPM), stated in Brcko that there will be no withdrawal from the police reform. He added that in September the international community's High Representative and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia will initiate a debate on this extremely important issue and EUPM will be fully supportive of that.

Coppola said that Brcko District police will follow a status of other local police forces in Bosnia, which in his opinion, should be under a Bosnian national police institution.

He did not have any objections to operation of the district police and said that generally, Bosnia's police is doing a good job.

“Of course, everything can be improved and I hope that through projects established here by the EC we will be able to get technical equipment of better quality and surely have better operation of the police”, stated Coppola.

Expressing his content with this visit, Deputy Chief of the Brcko District Police Fahrudin Selimovic said that they have also discussed certain activities related to the operation of the Police Steering Board within the following period.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement with the municipality of Novo Sarajevo in Bosnia, marking a joint commitment to improve the local business-enabling environment. Novo Sarajevo is the first municipality to be included in the subnational competitiveness project in Bosnia.

“Our activities with IFC complement our development plan. We hope to reduce the administrative burden for doing business and attract new companies to our municipality,” said Nedžad Koldžo, Head of the municipality of Novo Sarajevo.

Improving the business environment by simplifying administrative procedures and providing better services will help reduce the cost and risk of doing business, improving the competitiveness of local municipalities and attracting more foreign direct investment.

“By helping municipalities simplify their procedures, we hope to develop a more favorable business environment and stimulate the development of Bosnia’s private sector,” said Philip Condon, Head of IFC Advisory Services in Southern Europe.

According to Margo Thomas, IFC Business Enabling Environment Manager and FIAS Program Coordinator, the subnational competitiveness project is designed to streamline business formalities and inspections procedures. This will help increase the transparency and quality of business regulations and reduce costs—important factors in improving competitiveness.