BOSNIA NEWS

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak began a new post yesterday as the international community's high representative in Bosnia.Lajcak takes over from German diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who was supposed to be Bosnia's last international community's high representative — an ad hoc position created under the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords to ensure its provisions were implemented until local authority was re-established.

"This will be a very important time now for Bosnia," Christian Schwarz-Schilling said at a brief handover ceremony, adding that a step-by-step process is under way "and everybody has to decide how big the steps are."

Lajcak announced no plans for his term, but thanked Schwarz-Schilling and said "I will continue all the positive things and activities he started for your country."

Bosnia must establish an effective unified police force, as well as other state institutions before it can move forward in negotiating membership in the European Union.

Lajcak's main task during his 12-month tenure will be to press Bosnia's leaders to agree on key reforms demanded by the international community. "I will say one thing – I will not tolerate obstructions," Lajcak said in an interview to Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz at the weekend, explaining that Bosnia needed to start moving faster towards the European Union.

The EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on Bosnian authorities to work closely with Lajcak.

"The Commission strongly supports his priorities to stabilise the political climate and to restart the reforms to allow the conclusion of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA),' Rehn said in a statement.

The EU says it will not sign the SAA, a key step on the road to EU membership, with Bosnia until reforms are completed.

Lajcak said he would not hesitate to sack officials and impose laws if need be. Schwarz-Schilling, who held the post for 18 months, was reluctant to use these powers, hoping that local leaders would agree on key issues without outside intervention.

"The police reform and the cooperation with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) are the key issues at stake," Rehn said.

Bosnia, and its neighbour Serbia, must prove they are willing to fully cooperate with the Hague-based tribunal and arrest war crimes suspects still at large.

The two most wanted fugitives are former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Both are indicted for genocide committed against Bosnians during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

TUZLA,Bosnia – Bosnian Presidency member Zeljko Komsic visited Tuzla.The occasion for the visit was familiarizing with the details of the recent apprehension of distinguished defenders of Bosnia and Tuzla, as well as about the arrest of the former Tuzla Municipal Council Chair, Ilija Jurisic who has been incarcerated in Serbia for the past two months.

“The Bosnian citizens must not feel like hunted beasts that everybody can hunt and transfer to investigative bodies of other countries. Thus, I will send an official request to the Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office to request the extradition of Ilija Jurisic and his return to Tuzla”, said Komsic after meeting with Tuzla Municipal mayor Jasmin Imamovic.

Komsic expects the Bosnian Prosecutor’s Office to launch a procedure of determining responsibility of all those who had access to confidential data from the CIPS database and forwarded them to another country.

. Tuzla mayor Jasmin Imamovic deems that the motives of the instructed attacks on Tuzla are serious and go much deeper.

“This is obviously connected with the ongoing constitutional reforms because the nationalists that support the ethnic order of the state are not happy with the multiethnic model of Tuzla”, said mayor Imamovic.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The Bosnian Union of Metal Workers organized a Conference of SE European Unions of Metal Workers, which was held in Sarajevo. The Conference was sponsored by Catalonian government and the Union.

Bosnian,Slovenian, Croatian, Kosovo, Macedonian and Montenegrin union representatives participated.

Position of women and their rights, work place protection, social dialogue and protection of rights of employees were the topics discussed.

Declaration was signed defining the main directions in the following period, the Bosnian Union of Metal Workers announced.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The government of Norway donated funds for the activities of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).ICMP received 1.5 million Norwegian crowns (186.000 euros) for activities on identification of missing persons in Bosnia.

Since its establishment in 1996, ICMP has been helping the Bosnian authorities resolve the problem of persons gone missing during the Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia in the 1990's. With the use of contemporary scientific methods, primarily DNA analysis in identification of remains, the ICMP has helped thousands of families learn the truth about what had happened to their dearest.

To date, 9.756 persons gone missing in Bosnia have been identified through ICMP activities.

“Our work is not linked only with the past, but with the present and the future as well. I believe that facing with the horrors of the past is very important for getting on with life”, said ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger.

“ICMP could not function without the political and financial support from the generous governments and their citizens. I take this opportunity to thank the government of Norway for the significant support they have been providing to us since 2001”, added Bomberger.

The ICMP activities are also supported by the governments of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Vatican, Island, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and the EU.