BOSNIA NEWS

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The President of Germany Horst Köhler will pay an official visit to Bosnia today,July 5.This is the second time that a German president is visiting Bosnia, said German Ambassador to Bosnia Michael Schmunk.

The German President will be greeted at the International Airport Sarajevo by the Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj and German Ambassador Michael Schmunk.

President Köhler is planned to meet with the members of the Bosnian Presidency.

In Rajlovac, the German President will meet with the soldiers of the German contingent of EUFOR.

The German President will be accompanied by his wife Eva Luise-Köhler.

The German first lady is planned to visit the social and humanitarian organizations and institutions in Sarajevo, such as the Association of Citizens suffering from Morbus Crohn and Colitis Ulcerosis as well as the International Commission on Missing Persons - ICMP.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – The camp of the victims of genocide – Srebrenica, which was formed on April 16 in Sarajevo, has been closed, and the tents and all other equipment will be removed by the end of the week.

The President of the Initiative Board for Special Status of Srebrenica Camil Durakovic told a press conference that although Board has decided the terminate the camp due to disappointment in the international community and local politicians, the tenants of the camp are nevertheless leaving with their heads raised high.

According to him, the Initiative board has officially become a non-government organization registered as the Association of Victims of Genocide in Srebrenica with residence in this town.

Durakovic reiterated that the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly was the last instance addressed by the victims of genocide with a request for issuing the first instance legal decision and give legitimacy for returning the town under jurisdiction of the Bosnian State, which Srebrenica had before the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and genocide.

He added that the Initiative has nevertheless produced a positive consequence seen in the appointment of Special Envoy Clifford Bond, which “will bring good things to Srebrenica, together with adoption of the State Law on Memorial Center and various budgetary allocations at state and entity levels”.

“We can lift our heads in satisfaction and state that we are closing this camp with dignity, because we have started things moving finally”, said Durakovic.

He stressed that majority of the last tenants of the camp have decided, by their own will, not to return Srebrenica, but that they would seek their fate in other cities.

“I only don’t know for whom the economy will be developed. If other issues in Srebrenica are not resolved and if we do not work on the truth with the citizens, and if the councilors continue leaving sessions of the Municipal Assembly because genocide is subject of debate, than I think that those investments and development of Srebrenica would not bring anybody any good”, said Durakovic.

“I think that we have proven that this was not a political initiative, but that we are the victims of genocide, and unfortunately, we will have to use those arguments to fight for our rights in the future”, underlined Durakovic.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The Bosnian Minister of Justice, Barisa Colak, and the Bosnian State Chief Prosecutor, Marinko Jurcevic, met with the Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Ms. Kathryne Bomberger during a visit to the headquarters of ICMP, located in Sarajevo.

During their visit, they had an opportunity to discuss a variety of issues, including the initiative of the Bosnian State Prosecutor to establish the Bosnian State Forensics Institute, ICMP said.

“Over the years, the ICMP has provided training for young people in Bosnia to work as forensic anthropologists and archeologists. They have provided this training to ensure that Bosnia has a sustainable process in place for locating, recovering and identifying persons missing from the conflicts. A state forensics institute would provide the forum for these experts to carry out their work in the years to come,” said Minister Colak during the meeting.

It is estimated that around 30,000 people went missing during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia and out of that number 13,500 are still missing. The largest number of the missing, around 10,000, have not yet been located and exhumed. By creating the Missing Persons Institute (MPI), a sustainable state-level structure, Bosnia is taking an important step forward in addressing the issue of the missing.

“Now that the MPI is functioning, it is important to have a state-level forensics institute in place that can work in parallel with MPI and hand in hand with the Bosnian State Court,” said Jurcevic.

“Each mass grave is the scene of a crime and it is important that excavations continue to be undertaken in accordance with best practice procedures and that records are stored in a central location,” he added.

Resolving the fate of missing persons remains to be the major human rights issue facing Bosnia today. Confronting the horrors of the past is not only important to relatives search for their missing, but also for society, which having addressed the events of the war can more easily face the future. Since November 2001, ICMP has assisted Bosnia in locating, recovering and identifying almost 10,000 missing persons,ICMP said.

JAHORINA,Bosnia – The Bosnian Armed Forces dispose with approx. 35.000 tons of ammunition, of which most is in an unstable state, and over 100.000 pieces of small (small caliber) arms, which must be destroyed, was stated at the two-day workshop “Situation in the sector of arms and ammunition in Bosnia”, organized by the Bosnian State Commission for Defense and Security, OSCE Mission to Bosnia and UNDP.

The said quantities of arms and ammunition are stored in 23 different locations in Bosnia, instead of being stored in the total of “seven perspective locations” (five for ammunition and two for arms), as envisaged by the new order of the Bosnian Army.

These are the issues that the participants of the workshop focused on in an attempt to identity the manners and possibilities for resolving the arms surplus that is a burden on the security situation in Bosnia.

Head of the Department for Security Cooperation within the OSCE Mission to Bosnia Major General Christian Milotat urged the relevant Bosnian and international institutions to act in a timely and coordinated manner.

General Milotat underlined the need for ensuring speedy transfer of military property from the entity level towards the Bosnian Defense Ministry in line with Paragraph 74 of the Bosnian Law on Defense, and indicated the need for redefining the mandate of international organizations in view of destroying surplus arms.

According to the OSCE official, the establishment of an optimal security environment is in function of Bosnia's development.

The Chairman of the Bosnian State Commission for Defense and Security Branko Zrno declared that resolving of the problem of surplus arms in Bosnia is a central security problem of the country, underling the preparedness for maximal engagement of this body in the sector.

He stressed that Bosnia possesses the capacities for destroying unstable ammunition and surplus arms, reiterating that activities are already in progress in Vogosca, Banja Luka and Doboj, and that with additional investments, the necessary capacities could also be put in place in Vitez, Travnik and Bugojno.

Head of UNDP’s Arms and Ammunition Control Project in Bosnia Amna Bebic said that over 95.000 pieces of light arms and over 6.000 tons of ammunition have been destroyed in Bosnia so far.

The UNDP project worth US$ 11, 5 million envisages activities on eliminating the surpluses of arms and ammunition in Bosnia in the four-year period 2005-2009.

The said data does not include information that refers to the arms in illegal possession of citizens, which refers to 16, 5 percent of the total Bosnia's population, according to UNDP estimations.

Participants of the workshop in Jahorina were also welcomed by EUFOR Commander Rear admiral Hans Jochen Wilthauer and UNDP Resident Representative in Bosnia Christine McNab.

SREBRENICA,Bosnia – NERDA agency supported by the EU recently signed the agreement with the Swedish government for the support of the small and medium enterprises development in North-East Bosnia.

”The project will last for three years. All the local communities will receive software equipment; persons in charge of the activities for selection of enterprises will be determined. Companies with the best conditions for a long-term period development will have the best chances of winning a donation” Senad Subasic, NERDA Agency president said.

According to him, sectors for agro-industrial production, as well as meat production, cattle raising and forest industry will be further developed in Srebrenica.