IFOR LANDCENT Transcript Dec 19, 1996

In the interest of speed transcripts of IFOR press briefings are issued in unedited format Transcript of Press Briefing held on 19 December 1996

Michael Maclay: good morning everybody. From the Office of the High Representative, I would say that we warmly welcome the establishment of a federation government in the light of yesterday’s meeting of the assembly. We very much hope that there is going to be a meeting of the parliamentary assembly by the end of the week. There’s no excuse in our view for any further slippage. We expect the assembly to be up and running both houses by Christmas and there is a strong responsibility on those participating in the discussions to see that this meeting takes place. As I say, we would hope to see it by the end of this week and urge them very strongly to ensure that this occurs. There will be a press conference here at the Holiday Inn at 12 o’clock tomorrow, where Carl Bildt will give you a few words on where we stand. And on that note I’ll pass to OSCE. David Foley: yesterday the Office of the BIH Ombudsperson notified the office of the High Representative that an eviction was going to take place in Novo Sarajevo, against rule 16, which says that the eviction should not take place until the Human Rights Chamber rules on the validity of the eviction. The case of the eviction was referred from the Ombudsperson’s office to the Human Rights Chamber. The apartment concerned is a military one. Upon notification, a representative of the office of the High Representative went to the scene. The OSCE’s liaison officer to the Ombudsperson office followed. With the pressure of the international community there, the eviction was halted yesterday, after negotiations with ABIH soldiers who agreed to postpone the eviction until Monday. On Monday also the third attempt to evict another individual from a military apartment is also scheduled to take place. The OSCE is very concerned about the failure of BIH bodies to respect the rulings of the Human Rights Chamber and the ombudsperson. These, both these institutions were created under Dayton to deal with such problems. These bodies are part of the BIH state authorities and should be respected as such. The Human Rights Commission made up of the ombudsperson and the Human Rights Chamber is the proper institution to decide whether an eviction should take place. And this decision has not yet been taken, thus the ABIH May not take action in advance of a decision by these bodies. A couple of other notes, yesterday the Swiss federal council decided to extend the stay of the Swiss headquarters support unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, better known as the yellow berets, until the end of the 1997, in order to support the OSCE mission in Bosnia with logistics. The yellow berets are deployed to Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and Mostar, during the Winter months the average strength will be around 50 Swiss army personnel. The Swiss camps in Tuzla and Bihac were recently closed and will be reopened in the Spring. Also a reminder there will be a press conference at 1 o’clock today for local media, which will be provided with full translation. Thank you. Alex Ivanko: I would like to draw your attention to a serious violation of freedom of movement by a local Bosnian Croat authorities. On Tuesday, 6 Serb males who were driving en route to Srpski Brod got lost, and drove into Donja Dubica, where they were arrested by an HVO patrol, and turned over to the local police in Odjak. They were questioned about their identities and their employment. After a few hours, two of them were released and 4 are still detained. The UN international police visited the detainees and inquired into the charges. As far as we know, the detainees were not informed of any charges and the chief of police stated, "that he received orders from higher up, to keep the detainees in custody for an exchange, a possible exchange for 2 HVO soldiers arrested in Darventa." When we discussed the issue with the high ranking chief of police of Orasje, he denied any link between the 2 HVO soldiers arrested in Darventa and these 4 Serbs. And said that these people were detained and will be charged with, and I quote "observing military barrack installations and headquarters of the Fourth Guardian Motorized Brigade." Now the UN police commissioner, Peter Fitzgerald, is taking up personally this case and will be writing today to minister Laotar, demanding the unconditional release of these 4 people. Basically they were taken as hostages for tit for tat in exchange for 2 HVO soldiers. On another matter, the commissioner would like to draw the attention of ministers Habib, Laotar, Kijac, to incidents of celebratory fire in particular, during holiday season which seem to have become common place.

While not attempting to curtail any celebrations, the obvious dangers of such a practice are clearly recognizable and could result in accidental shootings. The commissioner strongly urges the ministers to have this practice stopped in the future, starting with the holiday period around the new year. Thank you. Ariane Quentier: good morning. I have another case of eviction to report in Mostar. The 73rd case since the 1st of January 1996. The 21st case since the 22nd of October. It did happen in Kalitomistavic, which is a street which has been targeted before. It is a Bosniac couple, 65 and 63, they were not the legal tenancy right holder of the apartment, but were located in the apartment in West Mostar, at the beginning of the war, by the authorities which were at that time Bosniac Croat alike. A man. 2 men, dressed in civilian came to the apartment on the 17th, said they had ensured a temporary permission to stay in the apartment. Asked the couple to pack their things, give them time to check their belongings and the couple had to leave. They left and they are currently in East Mostar, staying with friends. Major Jan Joosten: good morning. This morning I have a series of church announcements. Tomorrow there will be a short ceremony attended by General George Joulwan, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, marking the transfer from the IFOR mandate to the SFOR mandate. The ceremony and photo opportunity will take place at Ilidza , at 11.00 hours. Media representatives who wish to attend this ceremony are expected to be at the Ilidza gate not later then 10.15. Further on, there will be an official opening of the Ustikolina bridge tomorrow at 1300. This 100-meter long bridge, which was financed by the Dutch government, is located 30 kilometers West of Gorazde. The newly restored link eliminates a long detour in crossing the Drina river. Tomorrow's inauguration cumulates a six-month effort by French engineers of the battalion du genie in MND-Southeast. Further on SFOR will be supporting the World Health Organization and UNICEF during the national polio day vaccinations. SFOR will be providing more than 160 vehicles and more than 300 personnel to take the health workers to selected immunization sites on December 20th in the federation and December 21st in the Republika Srpska. The goal is to immunize more than 220,000 children during the two-day operation. And a final reminder that there will be no 1100 press briefing here tomorrow because of the end-of-mandate ceremony at Ilidza. Instead, General Joulwan will be conducting a press briefing here, and the time is yet to be determined. That’s it. Michael Maclay: we invite your questions. Q: can you give us a clue as to when General Joulwan will do the press conference, just to give us some idea of how to plan our day, especially given that I can easily see a clash with Mr. Bildt and the TOA ceremony. Maj Joosten: I can assure you there will be no clash but the times are changing, as we speak all the time. So I rather don’t discuss that time, we’ll come back to you in a proper time. Q: and it will be in the CPIC? Maj Joosten: it will be in the CPIC. A: and there will be no clash? Maj Joosten: that’s what I said. M. Maclay: follow-up? TVN, welcome. Q: thanks. Ariane, what can you do for people from West Mostar except making lists? A. Quentier: no we are also sending reports to different national, international institutions. We are making sure that the everyone who can have an influence is aware, is not in the position to say we didn’t know. We are going very highly public on that. And we have ongoing consultation to find the best way to tackle the problem. Q: and can you help them on, concretely, more concretely? A. Quentier: what do you mean? To prevent the evictions? Q: no, but can you give them some kind of houses? A. Quentier: we are not leaving them on the street of course. But we are not in the position to, I mean we have to find for them a durable solution but we have to negotiate that with the local authorities as well. M. Maclay: as you know this goes back to the whole question of compliance, and we are disturbed by this continuing trend in Mostar, and determined to take action diplomatically, economically, using all the instruments at our disposal. But the importance of this work is that house by house, street by street, we are at least able through the good offices of UNHCR, IPTF, to get this into the public domain quickly. And we will do our best working with all these institutions and IFOR, and to prevent this. D. Foley: let me also say, I mean the OSCE is very concerned about this. We are continuing through all of our human rights people on the ground in Mostar, and our director of the regional center who is very involved in meeting with the appropriate officials there and making the strongest representations possible to them about this issue. Believe me this is not something that is being ignored in any way. All of our efforts down there are consumed by this problem. M. Maclay: can you just say which publication you are from? Q: associated press. David, who are these people that were evicted in Novo Sarajevo? What was that about? Do you know? D. Foley: I said that people weren’t evicted, there was an attempt to evict them. I don’t have all the exact details on who it is exactly that’s in the apartment. But we do know that there is a military connection here. And that this attempt to evict them is in clear violation because the case has been referred to the ombudsperson who referred it to the Human Rights Chamber. Nothing can be done until the Human Rights Chamber rules. That is in the Dayton Agreement. The Human Rights Chamber and the ombudsperson are part of the state authorities in Bosnia. And the army has to recognize them and respect that ruling. M. Maclay: it is not just about the institutions of Bosnia Herzegovina needing to establish themselves properly and act in conformity with Dayton, there is a legal principal about the right of tenure of those people who have been occupying those apartments for some time. As we understand it, and this has not been properly presented in legal terms, but priority has been given to other people in allocating this apartment. Not that is in direct defiance of the principles of the Peace Agreement. OHR produced a legal opinion last month which sets this out very clearly and gives a few suggestions for how the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be brought into line with the Peace Agreement. There is a great deal more work to be done. We can not ourselves write the legislation. But we can say there is a conflict in what seems to us discriminatory way that the authorities are proceeding at the moment and the sort of principles that are going to underpin any term legislation. Housing is a very sensitive and political question and the way the authorities are dealing with this is in direct violation of the Peace Agreement. Q: I was just trying to make clear whether this eviction has anything to do with the nationality of the people that lived there or I mean, is it something different than what is happening in Mostar? M. Maclay: this answer is that it might well, because there is indeed, there are different nationalities involved. We hope this is not some specific targeting. But it could be that that dimensions exists. We stand for non-discriminatory approach. And it relates to this broader principal of any people what ever their ethnic, or community, religious background ... They should not be thrown out on the street. Q: and just one more, if I may for Alex. Alex, having in mind that little wider mandate that you’ve got in London, can you do anything more for these people that were arrested up there in the, on the northern corridor? I mean is there anything different from before London that you can do. A. Ivanko: if there are, if we can confirm that there are violations of human rights by local police officers we can take over. If we decide to do so, we can take over the investigation. Then conduct an investigation ourselves and demand action from the local authorities with regard to such cases. Now for the time being, we still believe that we can apply pressure, to try get these Serbs released. And that is why the commissioner is writing to Laotar today trying to secure the unconditional release of these 4 Serbs. Q: thanks. M. Maclay: anyone for anymore? Thank you very much. Oh, one for the road, one for the road. Q: good morning, this is question for OHR and OSCE, I hope you aware of the statement that were made by Mrs. Plavsic and General Colic in Brcko, Monday. And about the statements that were made by Mr. Izetbegovic and Soladjic last night regarding Brcko situation. So what is your comment or can you give us more details on this please. M. Maclay: I was asked by General Colic and Madame Plavsic’s remarks that at the press conference on Tuesday, we don't think they have any impact on the judicial process that is going on at the moment. We don't think that such words contribute to a peaceful resolution of the question. But not being spokesman for Mr. Roberts Owen we are not going to take any particular position on substance and we do note that the war of worlds have been engaged from this side yesterday as well. That is not going to help. There is a judicial process which is aiming to deliver some sort of judgment in the course of February the judicial efforts are supported by obviously us and OSCE, and the contact group very explicitly earlier this week in Geneva. So that’s where the real action is. And not in newspaper headlines being traded across the IEBL. D. Foley: I would just support the position of the OHR. Q: is that all? D. Foley: well, I mean, all right. Um...this is a difficult issue and the increasingly angry rhetoric that is being exhibited is not going to help the situation and indeed it won’t really impact at all on the judicial resolution of the issue. So grandstanding in this way is not helpful, not useful, and we would encourage more moderate, thoughtful public debate in this issue. Q: do you support the arbitration activities by Mr. Roberts Owen on Brcko? The other question for IFOR, do you have any information of military movement by Serb army in Brcko area, thank you. M. Maclay: one word on the first question which is yes. D. Foley: and of course we support Robert Owen in his efforts entirely. Maj Joosten: and we are not aware of any troop movements around Brcko. No. M. Maclay: yes and no. Thank you very much.