LAJCAK EXPECTS CONCRETE PROGRESS IN POLICE REFROM

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 13,2007) – The International Community's High Representative and the EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak expects that concrete moves will be made related to the police reform.

He is of the opinion that the time has come for a serious agreement on tempo and on guidelines for constitutional reforms in Bosnia.

The High Representative does not expect the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between Bosnia and the European Union by the end of the year, but is of the opinion that it will happen in several months.

EUPM ORGANIZES CONFERENCE IN SARAJEVO

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 13,2007) – Police and officials from the Bosnian judiciary will gather in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo today and tomorrow to address obstacles they face in their daily operations.

The conference, organized by the EU Police Mission in Bosnia (EUPM), together with the Office of the Bosnian State Prosecutor, the Bosnian High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC). and the Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) will look at ways to enhance communication and cooperation between police, prosecutors and courts with a view to a more efficient fight against crime and corruption.

The speakers will be Brigadier General Vincenzo Coppola, Head of the EUPM, Tarik Sadovic, the Bosnian Minister of Security and Branko Peric, President of the Bosnian High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council.

This is the third conference organized upon the initiative of the EUPM in order to establish better coordination mechanisms between the police and prosecutors in Bosnia in the fight against crime.

SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL DRAGOMIR MILOSEVIC SENTENCED TO 33 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (December 13,2007) – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted yesterday Serbian war criminal Dragomir Milosevic of five counts on the charge sheet, including responsibility for terrorising the civilian population of the Bosnian capital through a campaign of indiscriminate shelling and sniping during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

"There was no safe place in Sarajevo," according to the judgement delivered by the Presiding Judge, Patrick Robinson. "One could be killed and injured anywhere and any time."

The judgement also said that the genocidal Serbian aggressor's troops under Serbian war criminal Dragomir Milosevic’s command deployed modified air bombs – powerful weapons normally launched from aircraft that were attached to rockets at a time NATO was patrolling a no-fly zone over Bosnia.

According to the judgement, these weapons were so inaccurate and the devastation they caused so indiscriminate, that their use in a civilian area was illegal.

The Tribunal referred to one particular order, issued by Serbian war criminal Dragomir Milosevic on April 6, 1995, in which he ordered the launching of an air bomb, selecting a target “where the greatest material damage and casualties would be inflicted".

Serbian war criminal Dragomir Milosevic was in command when one of the worst mass murders during the siege, the shelling of Markale market, took place.

The attack on August 28, 1995, in which 34 Bosnian civilians were killed and 78 injured, led to NATO’s campaign of air strikes against the genocidal Serbian aggressor which in turn contributed to the opening of the Dayton peace conference.

Serbian war criminal Dragomir Milosevic, 65, pleaded not guilty, on the grounds that Sarajevo was a legitimate field of operations.

However,the Presiding Judge, Patrick Robinson said Serbian war criminal Draomir Milosevic had “planned and ordered gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian law".

Milosevic’s predecessor Serbian war criminal Stanislav Galic, was sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal in 2006.

According to the Sarajevo-based foundation, "Research and Documentation Center", almost 13,000 civilians were killed in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

NIKOLA SPIRIC AGAIN CANDIDATE FOR BOSNIA'S PRIME MINISTER

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 13,2007) – Nikola Spiric, who resigned last month as Bosnia's Premier triggering a month-long political crisis, was nominated again as the prime minister-designate and will most probably keep his old cabinet.

Bosnia's political leaders agreed to re-nominate Spiric a day before a deadline expired for political parties to propose candidates.

The Bosnian Presidency was due to approve Spiric's nomination yesterday, but first needed formal clearance from the election commission and the state security agency. Parliamentary approval is expected next week.

Spiric resigned on Nov. 1 in protest against a measure by the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia,Miroslav Lajcak, to revamp the government's voting rules.

However,Lajcak stated that it is a paradox that Spiric is against the measures aimed at the strengthening of the functionality of the Bosnian State Government,headed by Spiric himself.

But the crisis was defused this month after Bosnia's leaders agreed on more efficient voting systems in the Bosnian State Parliament and on steps to reform their separate police forces.

They were rewarded by the European Union, which initialled the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia on Dec 4, the first rung on the ladder to the EU membership.

The deal will be signed once Bosnia has produced concrete results in its reform pledges. A key reform concerns the unification of the ethnically separate police forces.