BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBER HARIS SILAJDZIC CRITICIZES EUROPEAN UNION FOR SIGNING AGREEMENT WITH SERBIA

WASHINGTON, USA (November 10,2007) - A member of the Bosnian Presidency,Haris Silajdzic, denounced the European Union on Friday for signing a preliminary membership agreement with Serbia based on its cooperation in the search for Serbian war criminals. Silajdzic said the signing ignored that Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the Serbian government had reneged on countless promises to surrender for trial the two most-wanted Serbian war criminals from the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic "were not arrested but Serbia got the green light" to sign the document,Bosnian Presdency member Haris Silajdzic stated.

At the same time, they said that Bosnia has not done enough. Bosnia has not done enough because of the Serbians living in Bosnia and Serbia,Silajdzic said.

The 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, which killed an estimated 200,000 Bosnians in Europe's bloodiest years since World War II, erupted after Serbians living in Bosnia started fighting against the Bosnian Government.

"Serbian leaders have indicated they might try again if Kosovo is given its independence by the United States and other international interlocutors," Silajdzic said.

Bosnian Presidency member Haris Silajdzic also said Serbia's Prime minister Vojislav Kostunica is behind the separation ideas of the Serbians living in Bosnia.

"Someone is fomenting that trouble," he said, and trouble in Bosnia is in Kostunica's interest, a Bosnian crisis with the potential to become a regional crisis," Silajdzic said.

"I don't think that will happen, but obviously that's (what) the pronouncements from Belgrade suggest," Silajdzic said.

Still, the European Union, based on a two-day fact-finding mission by the U.N. war crimes prosecutor for former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, has decided to set Serbia on the road to EU membership. A condition of the signing was that full membership would not be assigned before Serbian war criminals Karadzic, Mladic and two other Serbian war criminals are turned over to the court in The Hague, Netherlands, for trial,Silajdzic said

"Appeasement of the radicals in Belgrade never brought change," Bosnian Presidency member Silajdzic concluded.

BOSNIAN STATE COURT ORDERED CUSTODY FOR SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL NOVAK DJUKIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 10,2007) – The Bosnian State Court issued a decision ordering one month custody for Serbian war crminal Novak Djukic, who is suspected of war crimes against Bosnian civilians.

Under this decision, custody may last until December 7, 2007.

The Bosnian state Prosecutor's Office alleges that, during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia, on May 25, 1995, in the capacity of Commander of the genocidal paramilitary formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS), Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic ordered the genocidal Serbian aggressor's soldiers, located on Cerovo Brdo, Vrbak village at the mountain of Ozren, to fire a missile at a location in the centre of the eastern Bosnian city of Tuzla known as „Tuzlanska Kapija.“

As a result of the explosion of the missile, 71 civilians from Tuzla were killed while approximately 240 sustained injuries.Tuzla was declared a safe zone by a Resolution of the United Nations Secutiy Council issued on May 6, 1993.

On the basis of the evidence submitted, the Bosnian State Court concluded that there was grounded suspicion that Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic had committed a war crime.

Further,the Bosnian State Court ordered custody for Serbian war criminal Djukic having found that the evidence pointed to a risk that, if released, he would interfere with the course of the criminal proceedings by influencing witnesses and accessories.

Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic has been arrested earlier this week in the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka by the Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency’s (SIPA).

BOSNIAN MINISTER OF SECURITY TARIK SADOVIC MET WITH TURKISH STATE DELEGATION

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 10,2007) – The Bosnian Minister of Security Tarik Sadovic met in Sarajevo with a Turkish state delegation lead by the Turkish Minister of Ecology and Forestry Veysil Eroglu.

The Turkish delegation is in a visit to Sarajevo on the occasion of opening of the Third Fair of Turkish Economy and marking of the anniversary of the International University of Sarajevo.

Representatives of the Bosnian Foreign Trade Chamber,the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and International University of Sarajevo attended the meeting.

Sadovic fully supported the development of bilateral relations between Bosnia and Turkey in the sectors of economy, education, safety and ecology.

They concluded that the direct investments need to be stimulated, for that is the only way to decrease the enormous trade misbalance between the two countries.

308 BODIES OF GENOCIDE VICTIMS EXUMED FROM KAMENICA MASS GRAVE

ZVORNIK, Bosnia (November 10,2007) - The remains of 308 Bosnian civilians mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian aggressor at Srebrenica in 1995 were exhumed from a mass grave near the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik.

Bosnian forensic experts said they exhumed 41 complete skeletons of the genocide victims and 267 incomplete ones from the Kamenica mass grave at Zvornik, north of Srebrenica.

Bosnian experts said the Kamenica mass grave was a secondary burial site where bodies of the genocide victims were moved by the Serbian aggressor with bulldozers in a bid to hide atrocities.

More than 3,000 genocide victims from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica have been exhumed and identified by DNA analyses so far.

Murat Hurtic, head of the Bosnian expert team,said that this is the biggest mass grave that has been found at the locality.

The genocidal Serbian aggressor led by Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic overran the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995;during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia,and mass murdered some 10,000 Bosnian civilians.

Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic is being sought by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on genocide charges.

LAJCAK REJECTS PROPOSAL ISSUED BY SERBIANS LIVING IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO ,Bosnia (November 10,2007) - The International Community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak, rejected yesterday a proposal issued by representatives of the Serbians living in Bosnia for the solution of the current political crisis in the country, the Office of the International Community's High Representative (OHR) said in a statement in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

The proposal came after Lajcak three weeks ago introduced a number of measures to streamline the decision-making process in the Bosnian Government and the Bosnian Parliament, suggesting changes to the voting system aimed at improving the functionality of the Bosnian state.

The proposal issued by the Serbians living in Bosnia does not constitute a basis for further discussions,the OHR said in a statement.

Instead of streamlining and improving the decision-making process in the Bosnian Government, the proposal introduces new possibilities of blockage which did not even exist before Lajcak's decision,the OHR said.

"The decision of the International Community's High Representative is in force and is not negotiable," read the OHR's statement.

The OHR however said it remained open to constructive dialogue.

BAN KI-MOON: BOSNIA MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR PROGRESS TOWARDS EU MEMBERSHIP

NEW YORK, USA (November 10,2007) - The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon declared that Bosnia once again missed the opportunity to make a step forward in its way towards the EU membership since the main requirements were not met such as cooperation with the Tribunal of Hague and the political reforms.

The newest report on the plitical situation in Bosnia, which the International community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak will present on November 15,shows that Bosnia in 2006 finished the negotiations on the Stability and Association Agreement with the European Union but there were no proceedings towards signing of this document.