SFOR Transcript 22 November 2001

Transcript: Joint Press Conference 22 November 2001, 11.30 Hours Coalition Press Information Center Tito Barracks

Kevin Sullivan - OHR Three items this morning from Office of the High Representative. The second session of the Civic Forum was held yesterday at the home of the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch's. The topic was the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During a more than three hour-long discussion, all the participants expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and discussed ways of creating a climate conducive to doing business in the country. The debate evolved around the role of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina in fostering economic activity; the tax system and tax collection; problems in privatisation; the single economic space; foreign trade; the need for regional economic integration and integration in Europe; the lack of access to financing of many start-up companies, and the grey economy. Although the participants held different views on how some of the existing problems should best be solved, they all agreed that not enough is being done to improve overall economic conditions. The High Representative considered the gathering a useful contribution to the transition process and closed the session by stating that most issues were being tackled and that Bosnia and Herzegovina should look towards Europe in the reform process. On a more positive note, he also said that there are successful examples of companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, big ones and small ones, which demonstrate that with the correct will problems can be overcome and that it is possible to do business here. The invited guests included business people and economic experts: Nihad Imamovic, General Manager of ASA Holding Sarajevo; Jerko Ivankovic, Lijanovici Siroki Brijeg; Dr. Radomir Marinkovic, an expert in EU-related issues Dr. Zarko Papic, Director of the Independent Humanitarian Bureau"; Fuad Strik, the Director of Coca Cola; Alma Smailbegovic, the Director of Univerzal Banka in Sarajevo; Jasenka Perovic, the Managing Director of "Knitting Together Nations"; and Dr. Dragoljub Stojanov, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Sarajevo. Also present were: Joseph Ingram, the Director of the World Bank Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bruno de Schaetzen, the Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund; the Principal Deputy High Representative Don Hays; The Head of Office of the High Representative's Economics Department Daniel Besson and other OHR staff. The High Representative has created the Civic Forum as an informal though institutionalised dialogue between the International Community and intellectuals and representatives of civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He will take proposals made at the meetings seriously, and plans to follow up on some of them with policy initiatives. The High Representative's intention is to organise Civic Forum meetings approximately every six weeks, primarily at his home in Sarajevo, but also in other towns, depending on the issue which are to be discussed. The first session of the Civic Forum took place on October 11. The second point this morning concerns the quarterly report of the Economic Task Force which is the main economic agency co-ordinating the work of the international agencies here. The latest edition of the Economic Task Force quarterly Newsletter is now available on the OHR Web Site. The Newsletter has up to date information on privatisation, taxation reform and the agricultural sector and describes region-wide initiatives under the Stability Pact. It also contains the latest economic indicators, including GDP figures, trade figures, the index on industrial production and employment figures. The newsletter offers a broad overview of progress on a range of economic issues all of which directly impact the lives of ordinary citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina and will do so for years to come. It highlights successes and it identifies areas where not enough has been done by the appropriate authorities. It is in this respect a useful barometer of the current situation in a crucial area of national life. Also worthy of note in the economic field is a recent overview of policy reforms compiled by states in the region under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Stability Pact. You can find this document on the Web and the address is www.investmentcompact.org (see you all busily writing that down). The Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of European Integration was the lead agency in producing a policy plan to build a more favourable investment climate here. This amounts to a statement of intent and it sets benchmarks for the creation of a legislative framework that will promote investment. The Ministry of European integration co-ordinated the relevant state level institutions including the Central Bank, Entity level government representatives and Chambers of Commerce, and the International Community, including Office of the High Representative and the World Bank in the Bosnia and Herzegovina section. This is part of a region-wide effort which collates country specific economic reform measures including privatisation, foreign investment promotion, fiscal reform and customs policy. In each case the expert country teams give deadlines, set benchmarks producing a means of tangibly monitoring progress and measuring success. Copies of the ETF report will be available after the press conference. The final point as most of you will know, the High Representative met yesterday with four HDZ deputies to the Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Representatives. They discussed the best way of promoting the political interests of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, within the legal and constitutional framework - the only context within which Bosnia and Herzegovina Croat political interests can be effectively pursued. The High Representative emphasised that - and I quote -- "there is no Bosnia and Herzegovina without the Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats", and he noted that discussion of the amendments to the Entity Constitutions would now take place in the Entity Parliaments and that the HDZ has a chance to make its views known there. Copies of a press release which was issued after that meeting will also be available after this morning's press conference. Emir Salihovic - OSCE The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina is hosting the third out of a series of meetings called Two Way Street, in ACCESS Youth Centre this Saturday at 3pm. The meetings are between young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and leading local politicians. Beriz Belkic, Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency member, and Zlatko Lagumdzija, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, have already participated in the Two Way Street meetings. This coming Saturday the guest in ACCESS is Sejfudin Tokic, chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Peoples. This meeting is a part of OSCE's Bosnia and Herzegovina-wide youth campaign "We Can Do It" and it gives young people an opportunity to put forward their questions to politicians directly. Because of the great interest young people have shown for these weekly meetings, they will be continued in December, also in ACCESS Youth Centre. So all of you are cordially invited to attend and to report on this third Two Way Street session scheduled to start at 3pm on Saturday, November 24, in the Access youth center, here in Marsalka. Stefo Lehmann - UNMIBH We have three points for you today. A UNMIBH computer team visited the Stolac Primary School yesterday to begin installing ten computers donated to the school last year by the International Community. Until now the computers were in storage as the Principal of the school, Tomo Markovic, refused to share them among Bosniac and Croat children, which was in fact a condition for the donation. UNMIBH demanded that these computers be released from storage in order to be installed for use by all students. Unfortunately, the Principal is of the opinion that Croat and Bosniac children cannot share these computers, and now appears to want to deprive the Croat children of computer education if it means that the computers must be shared. We hope he reconsiders his decision. Regarding the recent incidents in Stolac, UNMIBH welcomes the decision taken by the Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Ministry of Interior to suspend four police officers for not preventing two gunmen from threatening school children in the Stolac High School, and a watchman guarding the mosque construction site in Stolac. These officers have turned in their uniforms and weapons and will be suspended until the investigations into these cases are complete. We are now waiting for charges to be pressed against these two gunmen and for arrest warrants to be issued soon. Our second point is (I think it is very interesting); a 7-member team from the Sarajevo Canton Police Support Unit, accompanied by the IPTF monitor, travelled to Florida last week to enter into a Special Weapons and Tactics team competition, that is the S.W.AT. team that you may be familiar with. The Sarajevo team came a very respectable 18th out of 58 special police units from all over the world. This competition which was held in Orlando from 11 to 16 November. In addition, one of the Sarajevo Support Unit officers came 13th place in the individual "Super Cop" competition. According to the IPTF monitor, the Sarajevo team was honoured with standing ovations after each performance. So congratulations to the Sarajevo Canton Police Support Unit from United Nations Mission. Finally, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women will be honoured on 25th November. I would like to quote excepts from a message from the Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan. "As we observe the second International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we are more aware than ever that violence against women remains a global phenomenon against which no country, no society and no community is immune. Recent events have made the issue come alive even more acutely. The treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan in the past several years has been an affront to all standards of dignity, equality and humanity. As we face a momentous political, humanitarian and human rights challenge in Afghanistan, addressing the plight of women will be a major priority for any future United Nations role in that country. Violence against women is not a "women's issue", but one that concerns us all -- especially men. Indeed, men must work to confront what should be described as men's violence against women, and recognise and respect the equal role and rights of women. When it comes to violence against women, there are no grounds for tolerance and no tolerable excuses." And he ends by saying that: "On this International Day 25th November for the Elimination of Violence against Women, let us recall the words of a member of an Afghan women's group, one of the many unsung heroines of our time: "Society is like a bird. It has two wings. And a bird cannot fly if one wing is broken.'' Let us resolve to ensure that all societies fly with both wings and equal strength and with equal dignity." The full text of the message is outside. So remember November 25th which I believe also coincides with the National Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Daryl Morrell - SFOR There have been news reports recently concerning damage to graves and cemeteries on the Manjaca Range. We received a letter from Mr. Moconja, the Representative of the Displaced Persons from the area of Manjaca Range, on 20 November that had been passed from the Republika Srpska Police to the VRS and then to SFOR. People with complaints about SFOR should complain to SFOR so that we may investigate problems more expediently. What you are seeing is a map of the Manjaca range. Here you see the location of the grave sites in question. The dotted line describes the southern boundary of where SFOR fires. The important point here is that SFOR does not fire within 400m of the grave sites in question. Further, SFOR has an Environmental Damage Assessment procedure that all range users are required to follow in order to ensure that graves and other cultural objects are not damaged. Range users are required to conduct a reconnaissance of the range and locate the exact location of graves and cultural objects precisely on the ground. No firing is allowed to take place until the range users have identified all of these sensitive locations. As a result of the position of where SFOR fires and the precautions outlined above it is highly unlikely that any of the damage was caused by SFOR. I would like to remind everyone, however, that this is a VRS range and has been in use as a military training area since 1946. Given the amount of firing that has taken place over the last 55 years, it is obvious that there will be some damage. SFOR does not deliberately use houses, graveyards or other existing structures as targets, and our troops are under strict orders to respect all sacred and religious sites, including graves and cemeteries. People are free to visit the range area when no training is taking place. Civilians should contact VRS authorities to determine when it is safe to visit the grave sites on the range. Our second point. SFOR is mindful of the criticism regarding the counter-terrorist campaign inside Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Helsinki Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All of the criticisms that we have seen are unfounded. All SFOR actions including the temporary detention of suspects in our investigation have been inside of our mandate to provide a safe and secure environment inside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The treatment of detainees has been well within the parameters of international human rights and of course does not include any sort of torture or mistreatment. In fact all of the persons detained as suspects are in the custody of Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities and since early October Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities have carried the brunt of the joint effort to identify and eliminate terrorist cells and the terrorist support network that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. SFOR has rapidly shifted detention operations to the appropriate police forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We continue to work closely with Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities and participate in the Joint Co-ordination team in the Fight Against Terrorism. As COMSFOR said on 16 November, the threat of terrorism inside of Bosnia and Herzegovina is no greater than anywhere else in the world. Our next point. The Turkish Brigade in Zenica has constructed a bridge for pedestrian and vehicular traffic in Tomici that will be officially opened tomorrow at 1230. The host of the ceremony will be Lieutenant Colonel Hakan Dereli, the Commander of the Turkish Battle Group in MND (N). Major General Blum, the MND(N) commander, will also attend the opening ceremony. Tomici is a small village near Teslic on the Velika Usora River. The work on the Bridge began on 16 September and was completed on 15 November. The bridge, built as a community project between local residents and the Turkish Brigade, is the first bridge of its kind in the area and will be vital in assisting displaced Serb civilians to return to their pre-war homes. Funding for the project came from the Turkish Brigade Humanitarian Fund and the cost of the bridge is estimated at 30,000 KM. The Humanitarian Fund was established by the soldiers of the Turkish Brigade in 1996 and consists of moneys that have been donated by soldiers over the past five years. This fund has reached an excess of 3.5 Million DM since its inception. Our last point. SFOR will conduct Exercise Joint Resolve from the 24-29 November at Eagle Base in Tuzla. This exercise will train and rehearse SFOR's ability to respond to civilian unrest in co-operation with civil authorities. Special emphasis will be placed on the co-operation between the Republika Srpska and Federation Police forces that will be training jointly during this exercise for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina history. There will be a media day on 29 November and we have arranged an opportunity for some media to fly to Tuzla for this event. We have a limited number of seats available on an aircraft departing Sarajevo airport at 0830 on the 29 November, as there are a limited number of seats we will confirm with the individuals who will be able to get on that plane. We plan on returning to Sarajevo no later than 1500 that afternoon. Those who wish to travel on their own should arrive at the gate next to the CPIC on Eagle Base not later than 0915 in the morning. There are a number of media opportunities available throughout the day including: Filming and observing SFOR and entity police forces participating in riot control training; A press conference with the commander of MND(N) and COMSFOR; and Opportunities to interview soldiers, policemen and other participants and dignitaries. This is a great chance to see the good co-operation between SFOR and local authorities first-hand. We would ask that interested media register not later than Friday. Questions and answers Q Yasin Rawasdeh / Kuna - You promised last time to inform about the latest investigations on the case of Sead Mutapcic who was killed ten days ago in Pale. A UNMIBH - I spoke with the IPTF monitor who is responsible for co-locating in that case, and she informed me that in fact that the police are still conducting a thorough investigation. However, there is no additional information that I did not have on Tuesday. In other words there are not many leads, they are questioning various individuals and they have opened up dialogue with the Canton 9 Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior but other than that there is no new development in that case. Q Yasin Rawasdeh / Kuna - Does this means that you are not following the case? A UNMIBH - We are following the case but there is no additional information. Q Fedjad Forto / BH Press - Concerning illegal prostitution, we had an AIDS case in Zenica. Are you going to implement, I do not know, medical exams for all the victims of forced prostitution here in Bosnia and Herzegovina after this case of AIDS? A UNMIBH - Certainly that is not up to us to implement any medical exams. My understanding is when they are interviewed by the IPTF and by the IOM they are offered the opportunity to go through medical checks. I understand that that is voluntary. To my knowledge we do not have any plans to obligate them to take any medical examinations. Certainly that is something that you may want to ask the local Ministries of Health. Q Amra Kebo / Oslobodjenje - In his open letter to Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens the High Representative said that implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement will be replaced by the process of Europisation. Could you please explain it, what does it mean? A OHR - In his letter he analysed the evolution of the Peace Implementation in the last six years. He identified areas where peace implementation, economic transition and political and economic integration with the rest of Europe have effectively come to overlap. So that many elements in re-establishing a normal society in Bosnia and Herzegovina are exactly the same elements that are required for membership of European institutions including the European Union, the rule of law, obviously, a modern education system, a functioning market economy and an effective functional representative system of government. This increasingly can be viewed, as coalescence of positive developments and that is what the High Representative identified in his letter to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Q Amra Kebo / Oslobodjenje - So if you talk about Annex 7, what does it mean? A OHR - You would have to be more specific before I could give you a useful response to that, I mean specifically? Q Amra Kebo / Oslobodjenje - So what is the connection with the implementation of Dayton Peace Agreement and Europisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in regard to the return of refugees? A OHR - The object of the International Community and all its agencies has been to ensure that return takes place, to increase the momentum and sustain it. Clearly those elements which I mentioned earlier regarding the rule of law, representative government are totally intermingled with the return of refugees to their homes, so there is no dichotomy there. Q Fedjad Forto/ BH Press - 'Lands for changes' called people nominated by the High Representative in the election commission overused and asked for their replacement, are you going to talk with them about this case? A OHR - The appointments were made on the basis of the qualifications and suitability of the people who were nominated and the fact of the matter is there is a limited pool of potential candidates for every public office and that is a function of demography that simply cannot be escaped. Q Senad Slatina - Slobodna Buswa - You know that there were local press reports about the beating of individuals by SFOR during the interrogation and these two individuals have confirmed that in interviews with the Helsinki Committee. So basically one single point, a concrete one, were those two individuals from the High Saudi Committee beaten during the interrogation or during any time during their detention? A SFOR - They were not.