BRITISH ACTOR RALPH FIENNES VERBALLY ASSAULTED IN BOSNIA

MOSTAR, Bosnia (July 11,2008) - The well known British actor Ralph Fiennes was verbally assaulted in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar after mentioning a Croatian general on trial for war crimes.

The incident, reflects still lingering ethnic and political tensions in the region.Croatian fascist barbarians attacked Bosnia in the early 1990's committing numerous war crimes against Bosnian people and destroying numerous Bosnian cultural and religious monuments.

Fiennes, who is well known for his roles in movies such as the English Patient and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, has been touring Croatia and Bosnia for the past few days in search of a location for his new movie.

On Wednesday he visited Mostar where he dined at a local restaurant. In the discussion over the lunch, he asked his local counterparts about the Croatian general Ante Gotovina, whose pictures he saw in the Croatian town of Split. Gotovina is currently under trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in the Hague.

Bosnian actor and producer Miro Barnjak, who was accompanying Fiennes, told Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz that a Bosnian man sitting at the next table warned them that political topics were not allowed in the restaurant. As they disregarded the warning, the man stood up and verbally assaulted the group, telling them they are not allowed to talk about Croatian generals there.

Barnjak added that following the incident Fiennes and his entourage left the restaurant.
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SDP DISSATISFIED WITH HERZEGOVINA-NERETVA CANTONAL BUDGET FOR 2008

MOSTAR, Bosnia (March 8,2008) - The Herzegovina-Neretva Cantonal Board of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) stated that Draft Budget for 2008 is “unserious and bad”, which really reflects essence of the so- far work of Cantonal Government.

The government of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) is ready to implement entity laws when it comes to taking of revenues of local communities, even in the course of fiscal year. However, the HNC government forgets to implement law of the FBIH entity authorities related to increase of coefficient of civil servants, says the statement issued by the Cantonal Board of the SDP.

Members of the party expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that the HNC government, besides increase of juvenile delinquency, cuts transfers for culture, sport, and information.

SDP also stated that work of the HNC government, apart from this year, the one from August to December last year should be put on the agenda of the next session of the Cantonal Assembly.
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EUPM IS HOSTING FORUM ON STANDARDISATION OF INVESTIGATION PROCEDURES

MOSTAR, Bosnia (February 27,2008) – The EU Police Mission in Bosnia (EUPM) is hosting a three-day forum gathering Bosnia's police officials and prosecutors in order to standardise and harmonise the formal documentation used in criminal investigations.

The need to harmonise procedures directly follows from a desire to improve mutual understanding and efficiency with regard to investigations.

The forum has a two-fold assignment – to analyse every relevant step of criminal investigations and the formal documents used on the one hand, and to define how they could be standardised and harmonised throughout the whole country to make investigations and the necessary cooperation between various authorities more efficient on the other.

The findings of the working group will be communicated at a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 27 February 2008 at 13:00 hrs at the Hotel Ada in Blagaj, Mostar.

This meeting was organised upon the initiative of the EU Police Mission in scope of an ongoing project of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council aimed at establishing better coordination mechanisms between the police and prosecutors in the fight against crime and corruption.
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