SFOR Transcript 4 August 1998

Transcript: Joint Press Conference 4 August 1998, 1130 Hours Coalition Press Information Centre Tito Barracks

Rida Attarashany, OHR: Good morning. Starting off with a press release from the OHR which I will read to you and full copies our available outside on the table for collection later. High Representative Imposes Laws on Courts in Mostar. The High Representative Carlos Westendorp has decided to impose the "Law on the Courts of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton" and the "Law on the Court of the Central Zone of the City of Mostar." The two laws went into effect yesterday. The High Representative's move came as a reaction to the failure of the Herzegovina-Neretva authorities to implement his "Decision on the Establishment of Municipal Courts in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton" of May 6, 1998. The Law of the Courts recognizes the right to a court of each municipality in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, including the six Mostar municipalities. The ethnic composition of the judges at each court shall reflect the results of the 1991 census in the municipalities or the territory that newly created municipalities cover, respectively. The national structure of the senior judges staff at the Central Zone Court, shall reflect the overall natural structure of the population in the entire city of Mostar based on the 1991 census. The High Representative welcomes the fact that Mostar has now a court system. He has asked the authorities to fully implement the laws by no later than November 15. The High Representative also stressed the need to recruit people for the new jobs across the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another point, is a reminder today being August 1, that means two months left for filing claims with the housing authorities for the tenancy rights lost during the war period. All those who do not register and file there claims by that date will lose the opportunity of reclaiming there tenancy rights. That's all from OHR.

LT CDR Sheena Thomson, SFOR: Good morning everybody. A couple of points from SFOR. We are aware of two recent reports in the press which criticizes the role of SFOR's support of the return of refugees to their pre-war homes. Our position on this matter is clear, SFOR supports the UNHCR, the IPTF and the OHR with the coordinated return of refugees. Our primary mission is to contribute towards the secure environment necessary for all returns and we are continually monitoring the situation on the ground and taking action as appropriate. The return of all displaced persons who wish to return to their pre-war homes is key to the successful implementation of Dayton. SFOR's commitment to the safe return of refugees is of paramount importance within our operations and any suggestion that we are biased towards any individual group in a particular area is simply untrue. SFOR's approach to the return of refugees is even handed, as it is with all our activities in Bosnia Herzegovina. Secondly, yesterday around 350 troops and 100 vehicles forming the new Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU) arrived at Butmir, in Sarajevo. Tomorrow they will begin their certification training which will last for two weeks. There will be a press opportunity prior to the unit becoming fully operational later this month and we will keep you informed on when and where this will be. The MSU's deployment demonstrates SFOR's continued commitment to the consolidation the peace process in Bosnia Herzegovina. Thank you. That's all from SFOR. Alexander Ivanko, UNMIBH: A couple of points. Believe it or not, finally, there was a worth while arrest conducted in Drvar by the local police. They actually conducted a operation and caught a Croat male trying to torch a house, this happened yesterday. During interviews with the local police which were in the presence of UN Human Rights Officers this individual has confessed to nine arsons in the Drvar areas since the summer of 1997 and he stated that the reason he was torching houses was to prevent Serbs from returning back to Drvar. So this is very welcomed and good news. Good job by the local police and we will be monitoring very closely their handling of this case. Also we have outside for you copies of the disciplinary proceedings against Jajce Police Officers arising from the incidents of August 1997 which gives you a blow by blow account of the disciplinary proceedings in Vitez. That's all I have. Nicole Szulc, OSCE: Good morning everybody. A couple of points from the OSCE. The OSCE has noticed over the past few days that several media houses have been inaccurately reporting the issue of assistance to political parties, and independent candidates and coalitions. So let me say this one more time, the OSCE is distributing IN-KIND assistance, and IN-KIND assistance only, to selected parties, coalitions and independent candidates based on their track records and on the platforms they presented and according to criteria such as support for Annex 7 of the General Framework of Agreement for Peace; commitment to joint institutions; elaboration of non-ethnic issues; support for a multi-ethnic state in Bosnia Herzegovina, composition of party leadership and candidates lists; a commitment to democratic principles, including tolerance. We are not giving cash assistance to any political unit. This means, for example, that if a party needs to a poster printed, we will get the poster printed for them, we will not give them the money in order to get it printed. I have put a further press release, further to the one that we distributed last week on the subject in English and in translation on our table outside, so please take a good look at it. We also would like to remind all of you and all media outlets that we have entered the 45-day pre-election period of media monitoring, as stated in the Media Guidelines. This means we are carefully watching and monitoring the performance of all media through out the territory of Bosnia Herzegovina through our general and spot monitoring activities and through our Media Access Support Teams, the MAST teams. Whose job it is to help political units gain access to the media, but also to monitor the media. We are looking at the time given by broadcasters to the news blocks, as well as their political programming, to ensure a level playing field. And to give you an example of how we look at that and compare it, we do weekly reports on how the different media houses are giving time to political parities in the news blocks, as well as in the political programming. In attempt to make sure there is equal access as specified in the Media Guidelines. Lastly, we are in the process of distributing, I think I told you about this a few weeks ago, a tabloid, a printed tabloid-form newspaper that contains the political party programs as submitted under the Rules and Regulations of the PEC this year. You will find copies of it on the table outside and we will have more of them at the Press Office, at the head office. The aim is to inform the voters as completely as possible as to the positions of the different political units who are filling candidates in this election and how they take on the issues, the burning issues that face the Bosnian people this year. Those issues include refugee return, minority rights, economics and social affairs and these are the platforms that each party, each independent candidate submitted under the Rules and Regulations in order to be able to qualify to run in these elections. Finally, there will be a press conference following this one by the Head of our Election Observation Unit, from the Office of Democratic and Iniatives and Human Rights, Mark Power-Stevens, he will address you when we are finished. Thank you very much. Questions Nedim Dervisbegovic, Reuters, Q, Alex. Locally you reported this morning that the Federation police is about to deploy Specialist Police Unit in Central Bosnia. Are you aware of this and could you give us more information about the current security situation there and investigation into the murder? Alexander Ivanko, UNMIBH, The investigation into the murder is being monitored by IPTF and as you know, we do not give the details of any on going investigations. So once it is finished, then we expect the local police to actually make the results public. I am not aware of any deployment of any Specialist Police Units in Central Bosnia but I will check when I get back to the office. Nedim Dervisbegovic, Reuters, Q, Is there a Specialist Police Unit being approved by the IPTF? I believe the Federation Police does not have Specialist Police units since the old one was debanded. Alexander Ivanko, UNMIBH, That's what I said. I am not aware of any out of the ordinary deployments of police in Central Bosnia but I will check when I get back to the office. Rida Attarashany, OHR, No questions. Thank you.