SFOR Transcript May 5, 1997

In the interest of speed transcripts of SFOR press briefings are issued in unedited format Transcript of the Press Conference held on 5 May 1997

Alex Ivanko: good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First I would like to start with the incidents in Drvar that some of you reported over the weekend. Over the weekend, 25 houses were torched in Drvar. We also understand that another 25 house have been partially dismantled and look as if they were being planned to be set on fire. The United Nation's mission is appalled and outraged by the torching of these houses and since in the opinion of the United Nations international police it is not exactly clear that the police are willing to investigate this incident in a professional manner, the UN international police will conduct its own investigation. The reason we came to this conclusion is the fact that one of our monitors saw a suspicious car standing just outside a number of houses which were burning and then the car sped off. We informed the local police about this incident. The local police did stop the car, but the driver in the car was allowed to go without the car or him being checked for any evidence. That is why we will conduct our own investigation into this incident in Drvar. Also, on Friday, there was a report in the RS media about talks conducted between Dragan Kijac's Minister of Interior and the IPTF Commissioner with regard to the incident in Brcko. And I quote from the RS media: "the talks focused on the recent incident in Brcko caused by a sudden and unannounced BH citizens to Brcko." I would like to clarify that this was not a sudden and unannounced visit; this visit was announced on the 23rd of April by the SDP. It was also announced to the IPTF and all the other international organizations and to the RS police who acknowledged receiving a letter announcing the visit, so the RS media is being a little economic with the truth here. That's all I have-Kris? Kris Janowski: for those who don't know me, my name is Kris Janowski and I am the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We would like to join the United Nation's mission in Bosnia in denouncing the destruction of property in Drvar, which is a sole destruction of property under those circumstances, pure and unadulterated barbarity. Drvar, unfortunately, is becoming one of the black spots on the map of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thank you. Maj. Evans: good morning everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Maj. Dominic Evans and I'm the SFOR spokesman. I have a few items for you this morning: in the area of operations, SFOR inspected a total of 38 weapons storage sites over the weekend, 14 ABIH, 11 HVO and 13 VRS. In addition, SFOR monitored 44 training and movement activities, 18 ABIH, 11 HBO, and 15 VRS. Also, 15 mine-clearing operations were conducted by the entity armies and monitored by SFOR. Yesterday, an SFOR photoreconnaissance drone, on a routine mission, landed without incident near the town of Oborina. The drone had taken off as planned but landed short of its destination of Camp Ortijes. The landing was initiated by the drone's security system after carrying out most of its photo reconnaissance mission. There was no material damage to either the drone or the surrounding area. The drone was discovered by the local police and brought to the attention of the SFOR troops in the area, for which we are very grateful. None of the entity armies were involved in the incident. On a separate point, a soldier was injured yesterday morning when a smoke grenade was accidentally set off in his barracks in MND-North. The soldier suffered serious smoke inhalation injuries and we expect that he will be medevaced back to Norway. The incident is under investigation. On Sunday morning, a Bosnian civilian was killed after stepping on an anti-personnel mine in Doboj, in MND-North. SFOR personnel were immediately dispatched to render assistance, but the man died before SFOR personnel arrived. SFOR only reports incidents in which it has a direct involvement. However, we are aware that this sort of tragic incident is one of many that occur in Bosnia-Herzegovina each month. It reminds us again of the terrible legacy left behind by the war that raged here for so many years. The mines, in simple terms, must be removed, and the entities must do more about it. That's all I have for you-thank you.

David Foley: good morning. Since we have so many visitors today, my name is David Foley. I am the spokesman for the Organization of Security and Cooperation mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. First of all, with regard to Drvar, the OSCE condemns the destruction of the homes in Drvar in the strongest terms possible. We simply run out of adjectives sometimes. I would also note that in the last couple weeks I've briefed you a number of times about the mayor of Drvar's refusal to comply with the media expert commission's decision requiring him to broadcast, personally, an apology for statements made earlier which were in violation of the PEC guidelines and they were untrue. There is serious concern about this issue in Drvar and I would simply note that the mayor of Drvar could, for his continued refusal to comply with Media Experts Commission decisions, have the case immediately referred to the Election Appeals Sub-Commission who could recommend-well, it is in their power to recommend, in addition to a number of other solutions-striking of the mayor of Drvar, and in fact, others, from the party candidate list in that municipality. No decision has been taken as of yet on how to address the mayor's ongoing refusal to comply with the MEC decision. With regard to the Brcko stoning incident: we note also the statement by the Republika Srpska Interior Minister, Mr. Kijac saying that he wasn't informed about the visit-we are certain that he is very embarrassed by the obvious incompetence of his subordinates and perhaps in the future, if he needs additional support in being informed about these things, we'll be happy to look into how we can help him with that. Now. Today is May 5th. It is the beginning of voter registration; it's a six-week campaign that's conducted at 420 voter registration centers around Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have a number of voter registration centers here in Sarajevo. I visited one this morning. Where I watched people register to vote. In fact, there was someone standing outside the door at 8:00 when it opened. Voter registration centers are open from 8:00 to 12:00 and then from 3:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 six days a week for the next six weeks. I would only point out and ask all media, particularly here in Bosnia and Herzegovina to make it very clear to all of the citizens that if you do not register, you will not be able to vote. Voter registration is easy and takes only a few moments. The voter registration process in the country seems to be going ahead well. Obviously there will be some difficulties, some technical problems, etcetera, we anticipate them and we are prepared to respond and address those problems immediately. The elections which this registration process is part of, are the most complex elections ever attempted anywhere. Combined with that is the fact that this is the most comprehensive international supervision of any elections ever conducted anywhere. Putting those two things together, you can see that this is a difficult process indeed. I would also point out that Mrs. Susanna Agnelli who is the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, the Danish Foreign Minister Mr. Niels Helveg Petersen is in Sarajevo today, and will be meeting along with the OSCE Secretary General Jean-Carlo Arigona with President Izetbegovic this afternoon and there may be a press opportunity a little after 1:00 at the presidency if you wanted to speak to her. That's all I have-thank you. Alex Ivanko: questions? Lucky. Q: yeah, Alex or Kris, could you give us a little bit of more contacts about the Drvar incident, like for example, whether there was any refugee visit or return planned and this was supposed to prevent it? Kris Janowski: we didn't have any information about any imminent planned visits by refugees or displaced people. But Drvar has been an ongoing problem. We, as you know, have a bus running to Duvar from Banja Luka and the passengers on that bus have been systematically harassed by the Croats in Drvar. The passengers have mostly been Serbs trying to go back to Drvar and have a look at their houses, so this bus line is probably the most harassed of our 11 bus lines of all. So there is an ongoing problem, it's not the first burning of houses. Alex Ivanko: I can only add that we're extremely disappointed by a lack of action by the local police since the issue of Duvar and the harassment of the Serb minority and burning down of houses was mentioned in meetings with President Zubak and also minister Prlic. Q: when you say harassed bus lines, you mean stonings? Could you explain? Kris Janowski: well, it wasn't actually the stoning of the bus. The passengers would just get off the bus and try and go and have a look at their homes, would be sort of chased away or told to go or they'll get beaten up or something will happen to them. This happened several times. We have been told also by the Duvar authorities that our bus was provocative and illegal and god knows what which of course is the kind of argument that we refuse to accept so they are, the authorities in Duvar, they're uncomfortable about the bus going there and I think it would be nave to assume that the authorities have know knowledge of or do not support the kind of, you know, the burning of the houses, or if they do not actively support it, the condone it, which essentially comes up to the same. And for those of you who don't know, the back ground on Drvar: Drvar is a town which was virtually all Serb before the war and now there are a handful of Serbs left. Q: do we happen to know how many people now live in Drvar? Kris Janowski: as far as I know, 60 Serbs are still resident in Drvar. If you give me a call later I might have a table with these figures. Q: Alex, you were criticizing the local police. What do you think they didn't do? Alex Ivanko: well, first of all, the issue of these burnings have been raised. On a number of occasions, we expected them to do something to try to prevent such acts but they have failed to do so. And for example, on Saturday, we even put it out the suspect who we believe may have been involved in torching some of the houses and they didn't check the suspect for any evidence, didn't check his car for example, for empty cans of petrol or whatever, didn't check for foot prints in the area. And that is why we believe that the police are at least unwilling to investigate these incidents. They were also late in providing us with their incident reports. Q: do you know what exactly happened when the houses were being attacked or went on fire? Did the local police arrive on the scene very shortly after, or do you know what the sequence of events is there? Alex Ivanko: as far as I know, the local police together with IPTF arrived after the 25 houses were torched. I understand that gasoline was used to torch these houses. I also understand that 25 houses looked as if they were being prepared to be set on fire were in a certain way dismantled. That's all I have. Q: Kris, would I understand last week from what Arian said, there was an UNHCR initiative to take displaced Croats who are living in Drvar to Kakanj and there have been some visits arranged. Will the burning of the houses have any impact on this program or Kris Janowski: well I-actually, ah- Q: --the idea of being at their own houses that they wouldn't- Kris Janowski: well, actually, uh, I know that there was a, uh, that we had a plan like this. I'm not sure whether this actually happened. We're also planning a bus line out of Drvar to a place in the Croat controlled part of the Federation but I'd have talk to you later today to tell you. The burning of the houses: whether that would affect something like this-possibly. This can lead to more hostility. However, a possible bus line, a possible contract will be between Drvar, which the Federation and some other place in the Federation, so no Republika Srpska area would be involved, so I'm sure that would actually affect the possible visit by Croats from Drvar in another area of the Federation. Alex Ivanko: any other questions? Q: I have a question for Dave. David Foley: yes? Q: how long has it been since the mayor of Drvar was told that he had to make his public apology? David Foley: sorry, I don't have the exact details when the MEC decision was taken; if you contact my office later I'll be happy to give that stuff and I'll make sure I bring it by tomorrow for the briefing, give you full details. With the press conference at 9:00 am this morning, I've been a rather busy boy, so Alex Ivanko: any other questions before we go to them? Q: yeah, since we're on the subject of the MEC decisions, has there been any movement on any of the decisions MEC has made specifically on the Zvornic, on the television camera that was supposed to be returned? And if so, when do you plan to force TV Zvornik to broadcast TV TPK? David Foley: sorry, Colum, you weren't here last week. On Friday morning, the camera was returned to the OSCE. The prosecutor complied fully with the request, though he did not do so as quickly as we would have liked and I simply made the point at that time-i issued a press release that compliance with MEC decisions must be immediate and unconditional. And again, that is something that the mayor of Drvar is not in compliance with. Q: any movement on the issue in Kupres? In Kupres, and uh, I think there's another town where the SDA David Foley: the SDA in Kupres, the last I've heard, is that they have yet to issue the press release for retracting their earlier one and apologize and the MEC will be looking at that as well this week. Alex Ivanko: any other-Dan? Anybody else, except dan? Dan. Ok.. Go. Q: Kris, the Srpska authorities attitude towards the refugees moving back to Drvar --in the past, there's been a lot of talk that the Srpska authorities in the (indiscernible) are basically in cahoots and agreement that Drvar should remain Croat controlled and sort of a swap of territory. Do you find that Drvar refugees, when they try to ask the UNHCR for help are alone, that they're not supported by the Pale authorities in their demands? Kris Janowski: well, in general, I don't think there is any support by Republika Srpska authorities for Serbs currently in Republika Srpska to go anywhere but Republika Srpska. Their policy seems to be the policy of ethnic separation so they do not support any return to the Federation by any Serbs whatsoever and that probably applies to Drvar. So yes, people who are trying to go back to their homes in the Federation are not supported by the Republika Srpska government, as a rule. Alex Ivanko: Chris-in the back. Q: Dave-freedom of movement: I've had a quick look through these election regulations but I can't actually-and it May just be that I haven't found it-but there doesn't seem to be a mechanism for establishing freedom of movement, for deciding whether or not it exists. I understand under Dayton that freedom of movement is one of the pre-conditions for elections. So I'm just wondering, is there a sort of time when the OSCE has to look around and say, "right, do we have freedom of movement, or don't we have it? And if we do have it, fine. If we don't: problem." David Foley: with regard to the powers of the OSCE in assisting the parties in creating those conditions that you referred to-and I wouldn't describe them as preconditions per say, that's not the language of the Dayton Agreement. The OSCE does not have the lead on freedom of movement of movement, as you know, as we do on many other areas, for example, freedom of media, freedom of expression, freedom of association, creating a neutral political environment. We work with our other partners in the international community on this issue and I think that addresses the first part of your question. Secondly, with regard to a timeline, or deadline for a decision on whether or not the conditions as you described them exist, it think there's-again I would refer you back you to the Dayton Agreement. There's a misconception that's persisted for a very long time as to what it is the OSCE certifies. The Dayton Agreement is extremely clear about this and explicitly states there, if you look in Annex Three, that the OSCE has to certify whether elections can be effective under current social conditions. We do not certify whether elections are free, fair, and democratic, etcetera. So the declaration would come addressing that responsibility laid on us by Dayton. Certainly, we are dissatisfied with current existing conditions in many areas of those preconditions. Freedom of movement is not the least. It is essential that we see improvement in freedom of movement and a lot of other areas as well, and the OSCE has launched a large number of initiatives. We are working very hard ourselves and with our partners on all of those issues. Alex Ivanko: Lucky? Q: yeah, two questions. First, Kris and Alex, judging by the extent of arson in such a short period of time, would you say that it's been orchestrated or what? And a question for Dave, that I unfortunately did not have time to ask Ambassador Frowick this morning: the municipal elections have been post-poned twice so far. I mean, what had changed since to make you so firm standing on the position that you should have it in September? Alex Ivanko: well, one needs more proof and more information to say if these arson attacks were orchestrated. One can definitely say today that the local authorities failed to prevent these attacks and are not doing much to try to find the perpetrators. Kris Janowski: and it doesn't seem to be a normal spontaneous activity for the citizens of the town to burn houses on a Saturday night. David Foley: I'm going to find it very difficult to follow on for that. With regard to the previous postponements of the municipal elections: there's actually two-well, maybe three, we'll talk about it for a moment. First of all, the municipal elections were to have been held as part of the other six levels of elections that were held September 14th last year. They were postponed for two main reasons: one, because of the complexity of this issue and then the obviously short time frame that the OSCE had last year to organize the elections, it raised, frankly, insurmountable problems. The other part of that decision was the nature of municipal elections could-you know, the contentiousness, the emotional impact, the fact that many people see this as fighting the war again in some ways-could have destabilized the entire process. So the decision was taken by Ambassador Frowick in August to postpone it. Now. We to hold the elections in November, but the Republika Srpska reneged on their agreement to support that process, so we were forced to postpone again. We then hoped to hold the municipal elections in July of this year, however, various countries in the international community failed to support our plan. Now: why will they not be postponed again? We have full support and cooperation of the parties here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also have the full support and cooperation of the international community as expressed in the OSCE permanent council where a unanimous decision was taken to fully support the process. Also, a unanimous decision in the peace implementation steering board as well. So, we have everybody here and we have everybody outside on board now to go forward. In each of the previous two postponements after the General elections, that was not the case. Alex Ivanko: Colum, last question. Q: Dave, there's been some talk in RS, some speculation that at some point Biljana Plavsic may move to dissolve the parliament and call new elections there. If this takes case, will OSCE be involved in monitoring or helping run the elections for national assembly in Republika Srpska? David Foley: this is the first that I have heard of this, so I'm gonna be fairly cautious in my remarks. The Dayton Agreement specifically says that the OSCE should supervise the preparation and conduct of these elections. If they were to call new elections for the Republika Srpska national assembly, is what your question is, under the existing mandate which we have signed by parties, including Mrs. Biljana Plavsic, the President of Republika Srpska, we would not be in a position to supervise. Certainly whether the OSCE would undertake a monitoring effort, fine. However, let me point out again, since I've haven't heard about this before, such an arrangement or agreement perhaps could be reached with the OSCE at the request of Republika Srpska. But again, news to me. Alex Ivanko: thank you, ladies and gentlemen, see you tomorrow.