SFOR Transcript 14 Sept. 1997

Transcript: Joint Press Conference 14 September 1997, 1100 Hours Coalition Press Information Centre Holiday Inn, Sarajevo

David Foley, OSCE: Good Morning. Let me first of all introduce my interpreter today; a very distinguished gentleman her is. I'd like you to meet Professor Ridjanovic. We are well into the second and last day of polling. Turnout yesterday was good, with many polling stations showing over 50% turnout. Today will undoubtedly be as busy or even more busy than yesterday. The OSCE Election Staff have been working throughout the night to adapt to the problems that we have encountered since voting began. The complexity of this process is daunting, and there are of course individual problems at single polling stations, and each has to be addressed, but in such a way that this does not create wider problems. No doubt many of you in the audience have spent much of your time in the field yesterday, and have visited several different polling stations, and you will have no doubt chosen to visit the most contentious areas, and the places where you though you were most likely to find problems. In most of those areas you will have seen everything proceeding smoothly, but you will also have seen some of the difficulties that we are working against. I can only commend the superb efforts and accomplishments of the OSCE Election staff. Now the latest news: First of all, the 2 polling stations in Usora that were closed yesterday have opened today. That leaves only three of the 2,229 polling stations closed, all in Zepce, where eight out of eleven stations are open. The OSCE is taking urgent action this morning to get those stations open, and I will try to get you an update on this at this afternoon's press conference at 4:00 PM. In Brcko, Ambassador Frowick has sent the OSCE Director of Elections to the scene to ensure that this most difficult area has all the attention it needs to continue the process as smoothly as possible. Voting is now going ahead in all the polling stations in Brcko, and measures have been put in place to correct the problems that were identified yesterday when the Bosnian-Serbs attempted to manipulate the voting process by providing Brcko ballot papers to current Brcko residents who were registered to vote for their 1991 municipality. All voters who cast ballots at that station will have to vote again today. All the ballots cast yesterday have been sealed and are under OSCE control along with the polling station records. The Mayor of Brcko-RS went on the local radio about an hour ago and urged everyone to vote. In Mostar, all the polling stations are open, and we are expecting a busy day at the polling stations in East Mostar. The turnout was much lower in East Mostar than in West Mostar because of the delayed opening of some of the East Mostar polling stations yesterday. Also in Mostar, last night a Bosniak and a Croat member of the Joint Mostar police force were assaulted by a group of drunken young Croat men. The Croat policeman evidently came to the aid of his Bosniak colleague who was being provoked by the drunk men. The only connection to the elections is that the two policemen were standing outside an anonymous building where ballots were being guarded by an International Supervisor. Now in Drvar. Senior OSCE Election Officers have been on the scene all night, and arrangements are being made to ensure that Bosnian-Serbs who are legitimately registered to vote in Drvar will be able to do so. As you will recall the OSCE yesterday strongly protested the slow pace of work by the Bosnian-Croat staff in the polling stations that are processing the Bosnian-Serb voters. You should also be aware that the OSCE has confirmed that there are significant problems with much of the documentation that is being provided by the Bosnian-Serbs who have arrived to cast ballots. Some have been presenting Identification documents written in pencil and without photographs. We have seen Voter Registration Receipts that have been altered, including changing the polling station that was originally on the receipt from Banja Luka to Drvar. Of course such voters can not vote in Drvar, but may only vote where they were originally registered to do so. There is a major effort underway to resolve the difficulties in Drvar, and I will continue to update you on this. I've just been informed that a second absentee polling station has now opened in Drvar about 30 minutes ago. I'll take you questions.

(Colin Woodard - Christian Science Monitor) Q: David, about the candidates which were previously stricken from the list in Prijedor and Bosanski Brod, who yesterday were reinstated to the lists; a reading of Article 142 would seem to indicate that this previous decision by the Election Appeal Sub-Commission is final end can not be appealed or changed. The question is how has it changed or what is the OSCE's interpretation of this? David Foley, OSCE: The Election Appeal Sub-Commission is exactly that; a sub-commission of the Provisional Election Commission. All of the powers of the Provisional Election Commission, remain with the Provisional Election Commission, always. They can choose to allow the sub-commission to exercise those powers as appropriate and as written in the rules and regulation, but it is a sub-commission of the Provisional Election Commission at all times. (Colin Woodard - Christian Science Monitor) Q: Doesn't that seem to undermine the validity of its decisions when they're overturned, for perhaps political or negotiatory reasons? David Foley, OSCE: I think everyone in Bosnia-Herzegovina understands that the Election Appeal Sub-Commission has taken very strong action during this year. About 50 candidates have been removed from the list, including about 30 from Republika Srpska, and the Provisional Election Commission Chairman, Ambassador Frowick, has decided that it is appropriate in his view to return two of those candidates to the electoral process. No, I don't agree that this calls into question the credibility of the Election Appeal Sub-Commission. It is firmly established. (Ricardo Estarriol - Barcelona) Q: Do you know approximately the number of voters which has crossed the boundaries of Republika Srpska and the Federation yesterday? David Foley, OSCE: No, I'm sorry, I don't have any information on that. All I know is that original number who registered who potentially could correctly cross to vote, was about 35,000. (Mark Laity - BBC) Q: On the question of Drvar, you said that there the RS voters are also at fault. Were the Bosnian Croat election officials justified in going slow because of the problems, or was it deliberate manipulation? David Foley, OSCE: You will recall yesterday when I mentioned that one of the reasons given for the slow pace of the processing of voters, was that the Bosnian Croat local election staff could not read Cyrillic. Yes, they are responsible for the go-slow approach. However, there are also significant problems with the Bosnian Serb approach to the issues. It would seem that we have sort of two problems running together in one of the most contentious areas, which is in many ways not surprising. (Mark Laity - BBC) Q: Do you think that you're going to be able to complete the Drvar voting today, and other contentious areas in Bosnia as well, such as Glamoc, Bosanski Brod, and Pertrovac? Are they having any problems there? David Foley, OSCE: I have no specific reports of problems in those areas. With regard to Drvar, we believe that we are taking the appropriate steps that will ensure an appropriate resolution. It is, of course, our hope that all voting be completed by 7 p.m. this evening. I would very much encourage everyone in the country to vote immediately and not wait until this afternoon. I'm not saying they should bring a blanket and a pillow with them if they go out at 6 o'clock to vote, but it's a thought. (Karen Coleman - BBC): David, have you any idea how many people have registered to vote in their old municipalities? Have you got those figures? David Foley, OSCE: About 89% of the 2.5 million registered voters, and these numbers come from an unofficial analysis, appear to have registered in their 1991 municipality. That means that they've registered to cast their ballot for the municipality, though they can cast their ballot where they are now living by absentee ballot. (Karen Coleman - BBC) Q: So that means that the municipalities, the ethnic breakup of the pre ware municipalities will be reestablished, because the majority of people are actually voting in their pre war municipalities? David Foley, OSCE: I'm to assume that you meant to say the ethnic breakdown of the municipalities as opposed to the ethnic breakup of the municipalities. Again, this unofficial analysis seems to indicate that about 96% of the people in the Federation have registered to vote for their 1991 municipality. About 80% are registered to vote, in the Republika Srpska, for their 1991 municipality. Let me just make another comment. We have had some problems at individual polling stations. One in Rogatica, and one near Voce. These are polling stations along the recommended priority routes for voters traveling from the Federation. The OSCE has been intensively involved in correcting this problem and ensuring that persons turned away yesterday, because of technical problems, will vote today. OSCE human rights monitors have been closely involved in this effort. A bus for the Rogatica polling station was scheduled to leave at 11 o'clock from Sarajevo, and I believe it had about 25 persons on board who had problems yesterday. Another bus is leaving shortly for Foca. Q: David, I just wanted to follow up on that earlier question. 89% of the voters have registered to vote in their 1991 areas. Of this, what percentage are actual absentee votes? David Foley, OSCE: The vast majority of people who are voting for their 1991 municipality are, of course, voting by absentee ballot. If you're talking about how many people are actually registering to vote, and voting where they now live in their 1991 municipality, I will go back and review the details of that to get you an exact percentage. I have a number in my head, but I don't want to give it unless it's for sure. (Guy Dinmore - Financial Times) Q: I don't really understand the motivation behind busing refugees across the IEBL to vote. For example, the women from Tuzla who yesterday took buses to a quarry miles outside Zvornik. Since they could have cast their votes in absentee ballots, what was the whole purpose behind these sort of exercises? David Foley, OSCE: The Dayton Agreement, Annex III, states that people have the right to do this. They have the right to cast their ballot in the municipality where they lived in 1991. We think it's an important point as well that people should be able to exercise freedom of movement. It's called for in the Dayton Agreement. It is up to the parties to provide the safe and secure environment for people to exercise freedom of movement. These elections provide an opportunity to push that along a bit faster than we've seen in the past two years. We all wish we could push it a lot faster. (Guy Dinmore - Financial Times) Q: Just to follow up with a technical question, who chose, for example, the quarry outside Zvornik as a location for the polling station? Was that the OSCE or the local election commission? David Foley, OSCE: You may recall that last year there were complaints that polling stations had been established in areas where there were allegations that war crimes had been committed, prison camps had been established, and other problems. The OSCE viewed that very, very seriously. When we established polling stations this year, the list was widely distributed to ensure that this problem was not repeated. This was an obvious lesson learned from last year. It was made clear before the voter registration process even began that the voters would vote in their municipality where they lived in 1991. They should not expect to be taken to the center of their village or town where they lived in 1991. It was on May 1st or 2nd, and I'm sure many of the people in the room will remember the 'hargy-pargy' we got into at the time. (Lucky Latal - AP) Q: Could you tell us, what was the reason that led Ambassador Frowick to deem appropriate to reinstall those two candidates? The second question is how many people were involved in this manipulation attempt in Brcko? How many people voted there in that polling station? How many votes were bad ones? David Foley, OSCE: On your second question first, in Brcko, this is not the largest polling station there. It is not much more than 1,000 votes that are in question at this time. The problem was that it's a twin station where both people who are voting as absentees, and voting for the municipality, are present. I think that I gave some explanation of the decision with regard to the two candidates yesterday. I expect Ambassador Frowick to be here later this evening for a press conference. You'll have the opportunity to ask him directly. However, he made the decision as Chairman of the Provisional Election Commission. He felt that it was appropriate and it assisted in maintaining the momentum required to actually arrive here at the point we are with successful elections and all there is. (Lucky Latal - AP) Q: Just to follow up on the second question in Brcko; how many of those 1,000 votes were involved in this manipulation attempt? David Foley, OSCE: A small percentage. I don't have the exact numbers. (Colin Soloway - US News) Q: On the question of the reinstatement of the candidate in Prijedor and in Bosanski Brod, you said that this decision by Ambassador Frowick succeeded in maintaining the momentum of the getting to the election. Doesn't this send a message to the parties, that if you are not happy with the conditions going into the elections, you can simply threaten a boycott, you can make deals and then break them at the last minute, and essentially hold the process hostage until you get something that you want out of it? Doesn't this send a dangerous message for future elections? David Foley, OSCE: No, I don't think it sends that message, nor do I think that the message it sends is dangerous. I think the strength of the Election Appeal Sub-Commission has been demonstrated sufficiently this year, and I don't believe this is going to suddenly make anybody think that they can ignore the rules. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll see you at 4 o'clock this afternoon. Thank you very much.