BOSNIA NEWS

SARAJEVO,Bosnia - The German President Horst Kohler pledged his country's support for Bosnia's bid for European Union membership, but warned that success for the Balkan nation depended on making the necessary reforms.

"You belong to the European family of nations.Your place is in the European Union and we will support you on your way to integration," said Koehler.

But success "would depend on the implementation of necessary reforms in line with the EU standards," Koehler added.

The German president arrived in Sarajevo yesterday for his one-day official visit to Bosnia. The meeting with members of the Bosnian Presidency was his only official meeting while in the country.

"Political stability and security are the presupposition for economic development which is necessary for Bosnia. The goal is to build a democratic, tolerant state with the values and standards of the united Europe," stressed,a member of the Bosnian Presidency,Haris Silajdzic.

Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal was an important condition for the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU, which no longer represented a problem and that this was a process that was continuing on its course, and it would continue,a member of the Bosnian Presidency Zeljko Komsic pointed out.

As a positive example of the successful implementation of reforms, he singled out the defense reform, which represents one of the key bits of evidence that EU and NATO’s standards could be established in Bosnia.

A member of the Bosnian Presidency Nebojsa Radmanovic emphasized the choice and determination of Bosnia to enter Euroatlantic integrations. He voiced hope that the Stabilization and Association Agreement would be signed by the end of the year and said that Germany’s help was certainly welcome on this course.

Thanking President Köhler for all the help Germany has given to Bosnia so far, especially in the years of implementation and stabilization of peace after the Dayton Agreement, the Bosnian Presidency members also reiterated their gratitude for the constant support for the process of Bosnia’s approaching the EU and NATO.

On this occasion, both sides jointly expressed hope that the good bilateral relations between the two countries would keep developing in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding, with continued frequent contacts on all government levels. At the end of the meeting, the Bosnian Presidency members commended the successful involvement of German soldiers in the international peace forces in Bosnia.

Bosnia last year came close to signing a stabilisation deal with the EU, seen as the first step towards membership of the 27-nation bloc. But it was delayed over stalled reforms.

Last week German diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling, the international community's outgoing top envoy in Bosnia, accused the country's leaders of having stalled the necessary reforms.

But,Schwarz-Schilling, in his role as international mediator, has been criticized over what some observers have seen as his passivity in helping Bosnia's authorities solve the country's complex political situation.

The media and the public in Bosnia have mostly given a negative assessment of the effect of the German politician in the course of the last year and a half of his term.

The Bosnian media accused him that “he slept through most of his term,” resenting him for not having used the wide authorities at his disposal.

Bosnia and Serbia remain the last of the six former Yugoslav republics with no contractual relationship with the EU.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – Bosnia has made certain progress in cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), but the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and the EU has not been signed because of the lack of political will for police reform. This was stated in Sarajevo yesterday at a plenary meeting of the Bosnian Reform Processes Monitoring. Dirk Lange, Head of the Department for Bosnia at the EC’s Directorate General for Expansion, said he is not able to give recommendations to Olli Rehn, Commissioner for Expansion for initialing and signing of the SAA because of the fact that the police reform has not yet been implemented.

Lange stated at a press conference that Commissioner Rehn is willing to come to Bosnia and initial the agreement as soon as the police reform issue is solved.

Osman Topcagic, Bosnia's Head of the Direction for European Integrations, stated that the budget has been prepared for the moment the police reform agreement is achieved.

Although some progress can be seen in the cooperation with ICTY, it has been emphasized that the practice needs to continue until all the ICTY fugitives are extradited.

The EC representatives expressed concerns over the fact that the Law on Public Radio and Television System has not been adopted.

The delegation greeted the activities of public service and emphasized that they need to continue.

Adoption of the Law of Higher Education by the Bosnian Parliament was welcomed but the commission emphasized that the BiH students are not fully using the Erasmus Mundus project.

SREBRENICA,Bosnia - The genocide in Srebrenica will be marked two days ahead of the twelfth anniversary by the opening of the Srebrenica Memorial Room in the Battery Factory opposite the Srebrenica- Potocari Memorial and Cemetery.

In a specially-designed museum-style space in the former HQ of the UN Dutch Battalion at Potocari a film and a series of personal stories will narrate the events of July 1995, when over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered following the taking of Srebrenica by the genocidal Serbian aggressor.

The idea for the Memorial Room came from Lord Ashdown, former international community's High Representative in Bosnia.It has been funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Netherlands Government and the Foundation for the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery, and created with input from the Imperial War Museum, London.

Sited opposite the Srebrenica-Potocari Cemetery, which was dedicated by the American President Clinton in 2003, the Memorial Room describes the fall of Srebrenica and the desperate efforts of Bosnians to seek protection in the UN base manned by the Dutch Battalion (Dutchbat) at Potocari.Up to 10.000 Bosnian men were subsequently murdered in nearby schools and fields by the genocidal Serbian aggressor.Thousands attempted to reach Tuzla by foot, but were slaughtered during their escape.

The Memorial Room was designed by the Sarajevo-based architectural collective “.arch“, and consists of two black towers – one presenting the film, the other containing twenty showcases.

The film was directed by British documentary maker, Leslie Woodhead, who made the award-winning two-hour documentary about the massacre, A Cry from the Grave, in collaboration with Bosnian film-maker Muhamed Mujkic, who has over the last ten years recorded the excavation of numerous mass graves for the FBIH Entity Commission for Missing Persons.

Visitors can view showcases containing the personal stories – researched by a Bosnian writer Emir Suljagic - of some of those who died. Cigarette lighters, tobacco tins, keys, photograph albums and other personal effects are among the items excavated from mass graves over the last ten years, and identified by the forensic criminologists of the International Commission for Missing Persons. These tiny fragments help tell the stories of the men and boys who perished in a variety of terrible situations.

As a part of the 12th marking of the Srebrenica genocide, a monument room was presented yesterday to the press, located in the biggest hall of the Accumulator Factory. Two black towers are situated in the room. Scenes showing the killings and exodus of Bosnian from Srebrenica will be aired in one part of the room and personal belongings of the victims will be exhibited in the other.

”The black towers will emphasize the tragedy that occurred to the Srebrenica Bosnians”, Mersed Smajlovic, Director of the Potocari Memorial Crenter said.

The project has been overseen by the Srebrenica Potocari Memorial Foundation Executive Board chaired by Beriz Belkic.

THE HAGUE,The Netherlands - The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has expressed concern to authorities in Bosnia about the circumstances surrounding the recent escape from a local jail of a Serbian war criminal serving a 20-year sentence for the rape and sexual assault of Bosnian women and girls during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia. Serbian war criminal Radovan Stanković, 38, escaped in late May from Foca prison, where he had been sentenced by the Bosnian State Court after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) referred its case against him in 2005 – then the first time ever that the Tribunal had sent a case to a national jurisdiction.

Stanković, a former member of the genocidal forces of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS), had been convicted last year of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the rape and enslavement, for his actions in Foca after the Serbian aggressor overran the Bosnian town in 1992.

The ICTY President Judge Fausto Pocar sent a letter to the Justice Minister of Bosnia, Barisa Colak, to voice concern at the failure of Bosnian authorities to report to the Tribunal on the circumstances of Stanković’s escape and the measures taken to secure his custody.

On 31 May, shortly after Serbian war criminal escaped, Judge Pocar had requested this information in a letter to Mr. Colak, but received no reply.

BUCHAREST,Romania - Romanians will be free to travel to Bosnia without a visa, only with their passports and with valid travel insurance, the Romanian Minister of the Interior and Administrative Reform, Cristian David, stated in the end of the first day of the Conference of SE European Ministers of Interior, yesterday.

Romanian nationals will be able to travel to Bosnia only with the passport and with travel insurance. The Bosnian Minister of Security, Tarik Sadovic, in turn explained how the Bosnian government ‘had cancelled’ the visas for Romanian citizens recently. “Minister David promised me that he would support us in obtaining the visa facility for Bosnian citizens. It is a concrete example of how two states should co-operate,” explained Sadovic.

The Romanian Minister David and his counterpart from Bosnia Sadovic signed yesterday a Protocol for the implementation of the Agreement between the government of Romania and the government of Bosnia on the re-admission of their respective citizens and of aliens, done in Bucharest, on October 10, 2005.

The agreement include provisions recognising the need to step up co-operation in view of preventing and combating a wide range of criminal offences such as drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings or organised crime.

SARAJEVO,Bosnia – An International Business Forum on Sustainable Economic Development and Regional Economic Cooperation was held yesterday in Sarajevo.Pane Skrbic, President of the Organizational Board opened the forum. He emphasized it is a traditional business forum of the most successful managers from the region.

”Road and Railway Communications as Factors of Regional Development” was the main topic of this year’s forum. Izet Bajrambasic, President of the SE European Transport Infrastructure Development Managing Board held a lecture on the topic.

Railway traffic has made an increase rate. The trend is expected to continue in the future. Several projects have been planned with the IC and the International Banking Sector, verified at the state and entity levels.

Izet Mehinagic, Advisor to the FBIH Entity Minister of Communications and Transport told the press that several large projects of modernization and reconstruction have been planned in the sector. The initial sum is EUR 200 million. Tenders will be announced in early October and reconstruction of railway from the border between Bosnia and Croatia via Capljina to Sarajevo will begin. The Doboj – Banja Luka railway reconstruction is planned as well, and modernization of the railroad crossing Doboj, Tuzla, Zvornik and Brcko, Tuzla, Banovici.

The Euromanager business magazine was presented at the forum. The first issue was printed in 10.000 copies and will be issued once a month.