BOSNIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER SVEN ALKALAJ ATTENDED 15-TH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT

TEHRAN, Iran (July 31,2008) - The Bosnian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sven Alkalaj atteneded the 15th Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement that took place in Teheran,Iran, from July 27th to 30th.

The Conference was opened by the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Alkalaj used this opportunity in Teheran for the bilateral meetings, as well as for asking for support to Bosnia's candidacy for the non-permanent member of the UN Council for Security for the period 2010 - 2011, it was announced from the Bosnian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

In his talk with the Bosnian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sven Alkalaj in Teheran, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manucher Mottaki said that Iranian business circles were interested in investing in Bosnia.

During their meeting, which took place as a part of the 15th Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, the two confirmed that the political relations between Bosnia and Iran were adequate and expressed the desire to further improve bilateral relations and realize greater economic cooperation.

Alkalaj congratulated Mottaki on the organization of the Ministerial Conference and expressed satisfaction for taking part in it and establishing connections with representatives of a large number of member countries of the Movement.

On the margins of the Conference Minister Alkalaj also talked with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa and the two established the need to improve bilateral relations in all areas.

Bosnia has an observer status in the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded in April 1955; as of 2007, it has 118 members.

The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, Zionism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics."

They represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations's members and comprise 55 percent of the world population.
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SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC TO APPEAR AT UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL TODAY

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 31,2008) - Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is to make his first appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

His appearance is scheduled for 1600 CEST (1400 GMT) today.Click here to watch it LIVE).

Judge Alphons Orie will officially inform Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic of the 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity on the indictment, and give him an opportunity to plead.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, has said his client will postpone entering a formal plea for 30 days, the maximum allowed under court rules.

In the dock of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for the first time, Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic will also be given an opportunity to address the judge on such issues as his detention conditions and arrest.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, 63, was arrested on July 21, thirteen years after the tribunal first indicted him for genocide and other war crimes,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Since his arrest he has been shorn of the flowing beard and the long hair that helped disguise him as "an alternative healer" in the years following the Serbian aggression against Bosnia. He was flown to the Netherlands yesterday morning.


The Face Of Evil - Unmasked: Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic without the long hair and heavy beard he used for 13 years to hide from justice,pictured in custody earlier this week.He has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Speaking to reporters, prosecutor Serge Brammertz conceded the case would not be easy but said his team would draw on evidence already presented in other cases since Karadzic's original 1995 indictment. They are expected to update the indictment before the trial begins.

"We will ensure that it reflects the current case law, facts already established by the court and evidence collected over the past eight years," he said.

It will take months for both sides to prepare for the trial, he said.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is accused of orchestrating the 1995 mass murder of up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, the deadly 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and numerous other genocidal campaigns,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.He faces life imprisonment if found guilty.
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BOSNIA'S EXTERNAL DEBT DROPS BELOW 4 BILLION BOSNIAN MARKS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 31,2008) - In the first six months of this year, the external debt of Bosnia, supervised by the Bosnian Council of Ministers and the Bosnian Ministry of Finance, dropped bellow 4 billion Bosnian Marks.

According to the data provided by the Bosnian Central Bank, the debt amounted to 3.9 billion Bosnian Marks or approximately 2 billion Euros. Bankers, relevant Ministry, and economic analysts generally agree that the sum of Bosnia's external debt is not very high.

Even more favourable are the terms of payment, since these are long-term loans with minimal interests, ranging form 0.75 to 1.5 percent, and a deferral period of up to 10 years.

Bosnia owns the most to the World Bank; this debt encompasses 45 percent of all its obligations; this is followed by 1.1 billion Bosnian Marks it owes to the Paris Club and the London Club. Larger debts also include the one to the European Investment Bank, which exceeds 200 million Bosnian Marks.
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BOSNIAN STATE COURT CONVICTS SEVEN SERBIAN WAR CRIMINALS OF GENOCIDE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 30,2008) - The Bosnian State Court announced yesterday the first instance verdicts in the cases of former members of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's formations,Serbian war criminals Milos Stupar, Milenko Trifunovic, Petar Mitrovic, Brane Dzinic, Aleksandar Radovanovic, Slobodan Jakovljevic, Miladin Stevanovic, Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Branislav Medan and Milovan Matic who were charged with having participated in the capture and mass murder of some 10,000 Bosnian civilians from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and with personal participation in the mass murder of more than 1,000 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian village of Kravice on the evening of July 13, 1995.

These are the first verdicts from the Bosnian State Court involving Genocide charges in connection with events in Srebrenica in July 1995,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Seven (7) Serbian war criminals were convicted for the criminal offense of Genocide pursuant to Article 171 of the CC of Bosnia. The Bosnian State Court sentenced Serbian war criminals Milenko Trifunović, Brano Džinić, and Aleksandar Radovanović to forty-two (42) years long-term imprisonment, Serbian war criminal Miloš Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljević, and Branislav Medan to forty (40) years long-term imprisonment, and Serbian war criminal Petar Mitrović to thirty-eight (38) years long-term imprisonment. All 7 Serbian war criminals were convicted for their participation in the mass murder of more than 1000 Bosnian civilians in the warehouse of the Farming Cooperative Kravice on 13 July 1995 as members of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's formations.

The Panel found that several thousand Bosnian civilians were detained at the Sandići meadow in the morning and afternoon of 13 July. Many of these Bosnian civilians were induced by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor to surrender by deception, and were told they would be safe and taken to territory under control of the Bosnian Army.

At least one thousand of these Bosnian civilians were then transported by bus or marched in a column to the warehouse of the Farming Cooperative Kravice, where they were further detained. Beginning in the early evening,the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered these 1,000 Bosnian civilians in the warehouse by small arms fire, machine gun fire and the use of hand grenades.

The Panel also found that Serbian war criminals Milenko Trifunović and Aleksandar Radovanović were in front of the warehouse shooting at the Bosnian civilians, whilst Serbian war criminal Brano Džinić was throwing hand grenades at them.

Serbian war criminals Slobodan Jakovljević, Branislav Medan, and Petar Mitrović, acted as armed guards at the rear of the warehouse in order to prevent the detained Bosnian civilians from escaping the ongoing killings through the windows at the rear of the warehouse. It is also found that Serbian war criminal Petar Mitrović fired from his automatic rifle at the detained Bosnian civilians as well. The Panel concluded that these Serbian war criminals perpetrated these acts with the genocidal intent, that is, with the aim to destroy in part a group of Bosnian people. These six Serbian war criminals were accordingly found guilty as co-perpetrators in the commission of the criminal offense of Genocide.

In addition, the Panel found that the Serbian war criminal Miloš Stupar knew of the criminal acts of his subordinates, and that he failed to take measures to punish them, having the genocidal intent as well. Serbian war criminal Miloš Stupar was accordingly also convicted of the crime of Genocide on the basis of command responsibility.

Four (4) Accused, Velibor Maksimović, Dragiša Živanović, Milovan Matić, and Miladin Stevanović, were acquitted of all charges. The Panel concluded that the Bosnian State Prosecutor failed to present sufficient legal evidence to prove beyond doubt that these Accused participated in committing the offense of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,and they were released from custody,whilst custody against Milovan Matić was cancelled previously during the main trial.

The custody against the convicted Serbian war criminals Miloš Stupar, Milenko Trifunović, Brano Džinić, Aleksandar Radovanović, Slobodan Jakovljević, Branislav Medan, and Petar Mitrović was extended and the time that they have spent in custody will be credited towards their sentence.
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SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC TAKEN TO THE HAGUE TO FACE GENOCIDE CHARGES

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 30,2008) - Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was taken to a prison cell in The Hague today to face trial at a U.N war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide committed during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, arrested last week, was flown out of the genocidal Serbia by plane at night under tight security. Shortly after dawn, he was whisked from Rotterdam airport to the Scheveningen detention centre near The Hague.

He will appear before the tribunal for the first time at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT) tomorrow, and will be asked to enter a plea to the charges against him, the court said.

Prosecutor Serge Brammertz told reporters at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that the trial was likely to begin in a few months.

Brammertz said he was confident Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's trial would be efficient and successful, but noted two fugitives were still on the run after the Balkan wars of the 1990s. They include the Bosnian Serb wartime commander, General Ratko Mladic.

Karadzic's delivery to The Hague was key to the genocidal Serbia securing closer ties with the European Union.His arrival at The Hague is expected by the Serbian fascist government to defuse tension in Belgrade over his arrest and unlock EU trade benefits.


Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the 1995 mass murder of some 10,000 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.

His lawyer in Belgrade has said Karadzic, 63, believes he will be cleared of genocide and will defend himself.

He will receive a medical examination and meet legal ) and be assigned an en suite cell, identical to that occupied by Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic spent his last five years at the centre and was found dead in his 15-square- meter cell due to heart failure, which Brammertz's predecessor described as a "total defeat."

Asked whether Karadzic's trial would draw on the lessons of the Milosevic trial, which lasted four years, Brammertz said: "We are fully aware of the importance of efficiency."

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was arrested after 13 years on the run. He was most recently living under an assumed name, had grown a flowing beard and long-hair, and was working as "an alternative healer".

Yesterday, some 10,000 Serbian fascists showed their support for Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade, chanting his name and holding up giant banners with his picture.
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10,000 SERBIAN FASCISTS TRIED TO BLOCK HANDOVER OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC TO ICTY

BELGRADE, Serbia (July 30,2008) - Some 10,000 Serbian fascists participated in a rally yesterday,in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade,in support of one of the masterminds of the genocide against Bosnians,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia,Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

Thousands of Serbian fascists had converged on Belgrade yesterday from all over the genocidal Serbia in an attempt to try to block the handover of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic to the war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic,who was captured last week after 13 years on the run from justice, has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the Serbian fascists, who were smashing shop windows and throwing stones and flaming bottles at the police.

With tension in Belgrade at its highest since Serbian fascists attacked the US embassy in February after Kosovo's secession.

But while the US embassy had predicted up to 100,000 Serbian fascists would take part in the pro-Karadzic protests, the turnout last night was much lower than expected.
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LAJCAK CONTINUES BILATERAL MEETINGS WITH BOSNIA'S POLITICAL LEADERS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 30,2008) - The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak met in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo with the Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic.During the meeting was discussed a series of outstanding issues which need to be solved so that Bosnia could move further forward on its path to meeting obligations from the Stabilization and Association Agreement but also to meeting objectives and requirements for the transition of the transition of the Office of the Internationa Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) into the Office of the EU Special Representative (EUSR).Therefore it is necessary to invest additional efforts at political level concerning the remaining unsettled objectives and requirements.

They also discussed an idea to have a joint meeting of all Bosnia's political leaders which was supported last week by the SDA Party President, Sulejman Tihic. Lajcak expressed his expectations that Bosnia's leaders would show their willingness to find an acceptable solution for the issue of state and defence properties as well as the legal status of the Brcko District.

“The state must have its property in order to be able to meet its constitutional competencies”, and on the other hand the Brcko District must be lawfully protected as to have the Arbitration Award implemented, Lajcak confirmed.

The Bosnian constitutional changes were also discussed and there is an agreement that the talks should start immediately after the October elections. If there is willingness in the country, but also within the International Community, that the issue of the Bosnian constitutional changes could not be delayed any longer then it was necessary to make serious preparations, they concluded.

As for the recent arrest of one of the masterminds of the genocide against Bosnians,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia,Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, Lajcak and Silajdzic stressed the need for further cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the region.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been charged by the ICTY with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.
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BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT ADOPTS ACTION PLANS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF SAA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 30,2008) - The Bosnian government has adopted on the session yesterday in Sarajevo the Action Plan of the implementation of the regulations of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and the EU.

The Action Plan contains the obligations that are outcome from the certain regulations of the SAA, deadlines for their implementation, the description of the condition and the measures to be taken, as well as the institutions on charge for their implementation.

The Bosnian government has also adopted the Action Plan for the fulfillment of the obligations from EU's "Road Map" for liberalization of the visa regime for the Bosnian citizens, whose promoter is the Interdepartmental Working Group for negotiations on liberalization of the visa regime.

By this Action Plan, Bosnia has made commitment to deliver the report on preparedness to the Europeam Commission (EC) till September 1st, after which the EC will assess the report and give the detailed guidelines to the necessary activities in all of the demands to the Bosnian side.

The Action Plan will be changed and revised in accordance to the demands and guidelines that Bosnia will get from the Eurpean Commission during the dialogue.
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KOMSIC AND SCHMIDT DISCUSSED POLITICAL SITUATION IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 30,2008) - A member of the Bosnian State Presidency Željko Komšić met with the German Ambassador to Bosnia, Joachim Schmidt.They discussed political situation in Bosnia, its path towards the EU membership and situation in the region.

On this occasion, Komšić once again thanked Germany for its support to Bosnia as well as for participation of the German soldiers within peacekeeping missions in Bosnia. He expressed belief that the trend of extremely good and friendly relations between the two countries would continue.

Ambassador Schmidt said Germany would continue to support Bosnia and its further development, especially its path towards the EU membership. He expressed belief that the role of international community in Bosnia, during his mandate, would be visibly reduced.

Komšić and Schmidt concluded that political relations between Bosnia and Germany are extremely good and friendly but that cooperation in economic segment should improve, as it was stated by the Cabinet of Bosnian Presidency Member Željko Komšić.
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GENOCIDAL SERBIA STEALS 2 BILLION EUROS FROM BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 30,2008) - Bosnian companies Sipad Komerc, Energoinvest and Agrokomerc again appealed to the fascist government of the genocidal Serbia to stop selling their property and stop breaching the international agreement on the issues of Yugoslav succession since the genocidal Serbia is one of the signatories.

According to preliminary data, value of this property is between 1.8 and 2 billion Euros and first sale was completed on June 26 when they sold 15 facilities via auction.

However, additional problem appears since the genocidal Serbia plans to sell another 40 premises belonging to Bosnia in September.Bosnian companies have about 150 business premises on the territory of the genocidal Serbia.

”With this act, Serbia performs nationalization of Bosnia's property and assets from this property cannot be placed into the succession fund. This is clear violation of the international law and if the process is not stopped, Council of Europe should get involved as well as ambassadors of international community in Bosnia and all other relevant authorities”, stated Duljko Hasic of the Bosnian Foreign Trade Chamber.

Hasic added that Sipad, Energoinvest and Agrokomerc and many other Bosnian companies which have property in the genocidal Serbia wanted to develop business relations there, but that doors are closed for them regardless of numerous economic agreements signed between the two countries and reminded that Bosnia returned all the genocidal Serbia's property in Bosnia.

Energoinvest asks for their two large facilities in Belgrade and Novi Sad to be returned along with numerous facilities in Croatia among which 24 gas stations and oil terminals.

Sipad has about 60% of its property in the genocidal Serbia and Agrokomerc wants to return their 16 facilities.
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ASHDOWN: EU MUST SUPPORT THE FURTHER STRENGTHENING OF THE BOSNIAN STATE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 29,2008) - The last thing the European Union needs is another destabilizing situation in the southeastern Europe. This may be what is in store according to the former International Community's High Representative in Bosnia Paddy Ashdown’s assessment.

"It is always more difficult, especially in the Balkans, to defend the preservation of multi-ethnic spaces and resist the creation of mono-ethnic ones. But to do otherwise is always folly and nearly always ends in blood.

Bosnia is going backwards again. The EU must stop running its policy for Bosnia for the benefit of its policy for Belgrade and Kosovo. Brussels must toughen up its conditionality, support its instruments on the ground, resist attempts to undermine the Bosnian state, insist on constitutional reform to make Bosnia more functional and tackle corruption which is becoming ever more embedded. It should also tell Belgrade that a key condition for progress towards Europe will be to support the Bosnian state and give no succour to those who seek to undermine it.

I'm sorry if this disturbs comfortable slumber of some capitals, especially in Europe. But I know of no way to whisper a wake-up call and no words to describe the pain that will ensue if Europe, once again, misjudges or misunderstands what is happening in Bosnia," Ashdown said in an article published by the British Guardian newspaper on Sunday.
Click here to read the full article.
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QUEST FOR OIL TO BEGIN IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 29,2008) - In about ten days a call will be announced for tenders for the selection of a strategic partner to Bosnia's main energy company Energoinvest. The two will form a joint venture for oil exploration in Bosnia.

This has been confirmed today by Energoinvest’s Deputy CEO Ibrahim Bosto, who announced that the new company would pick up where American Amocom left off in the 1990's.

Expressions of interest will be invited first, and the kind of company Energoinvest will be looking for is a company specializing in the area, and capable of providing both technological and financial backing.

There are four places around the country which have been identified as of potential interest.

Energoinvest, carried out a research which proved the existence of oil pools in the northern Bosnian region of Posavina, as well as in several locations in the southern Bosnian region of Herzegovina.

Energoinvest has the original report which indicates that Bosnia may have oil resources as big as Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

"The only solution at the moment is to find a strategic partner, who is ready to invest in this works, to co-operate with us and to reap the rewards of what may be there," Bosto said earlier this year.

According to several Bosnian experts, British Petroleum (BP) and the US Oil Company AMOCO, now also part of BP, were interested in oil resources in Bosnia before the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.
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BOSNIAN STATE COURT SET TO ANNOUNCE ITS VERDICT AGAINST ELEVEN SERBIAN WAR CRIMINALS CHARGED WITH GENOCIDE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 29,2008) - The Bosnian State Court is set to announce its verdict against eleven Serbian war criminals accused of genocide committed in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia in what is being seen as a test case for the country’s justice system.

It is the first time a verdict for genocide could be handed down in Bosnia, in what is also the country’s biggest genocide trial.

The indictment charges former members of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's formations,Serbian war criminals Milos Stupar, Milenko Trifunovic, Petar Mitrovic, Brane Dzinic, Aleksandar Radovanovic, Slobodan Jakovljevic, Miladin Stevanovic, Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Branislav Medan and Milovan Matic with having participated in the capture and mass murder of some 10,000 Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica, and in taking 1,000 Bosnian civilians to the Agricultural Cooperative warehouse in the eastern Bosnian village of Kravice, where they were mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor on the evening of July 13, 1995.

The trial against the eleven Serbian war criminals began in May 2006. More then 100 witnesses and ten court experts have been examined during the course of regular and additional evidence presentation by both parties.

One of the witnesses was a Bosnian who survived the mass murder because he was shielded by the bodies of those Bosnian civilians who were mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in Kravice.

He remembered that the storage shed was completely full when the detained Bosnian civilians were brought in, and how one of them complained that he could not stand anywhere because the storage shed was full of people.

"The soldier pushed him with his foot. Then a burst of shots was heard, and the shooting started," the witness said.

"I closed my eyes and waited to be killed. All the men fell. I lay down. There was blood everywhere." Shooting and the explosions of bombs and grenade launchers lasted for around one hour, he said.

When the shooting quieted down, the witness continued lying on the floor among dead bodies, listening to yelling and laughter coming from the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's soldiers standing outside the building.

"There was blood everywhere. I laid down on one of the dead men and put two dead bodies over me. I stayed like that for 24 hours," the witness said.

In its closing arguments, the Bosnian State Prosecution has called on the Trial Chamber to announce 11 Serbian war criminals guilty and sentence each of them to 45 years' imprisonment, which is the maximum imprisonment sentence prescribed by the Criminal Code of Bosnia.

"The Bosnian State Court should not hesitate to call the crime by its real name. What happened in Srebrenica was genocide. If a murder of 1,000 people and forcible resettlement of tens thousands of civilians, and a systematic approach to the commitment of those crimes, was not genocide, why do we then have all these theories, discussions and thesis that even a murder of one man can be considered as genocide?" the Bosnian State Prosecutor Ibro Bulic said, presenting his closing arguments.

The Defence teams of the eleven Serbian war criminals asked the Bosnian State Court to acquit the accused of all counts contained in the indictment, saying that the Prosecution had not managed to prove the allegations contained in the indictment, or that the genocide was committed in Srebrenica.

"The Defence does not deny that a crime did happen in Kravice but it denies that genocide was committed," Stojan Vasic, one of the attorneys said.

On July 12, 1995 the indictees guarded and controlled the road used by the buses to transport the detained Bosnian civilians who were deported from Srebrenica.

The indictment states that several thousands of detained Bosnian civilians were held in a meadow in Sandici and in its vicinity, in Bratunac municipality, before being transported to various locations, including the Agricultural Cooperative in the eastern Bosnian village of Kravice, and mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor.
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TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL BOSNIA CONTINUES TO OPERATE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 29,2008) - Transparency International Bosnia (TI BiH) continued yesterday with its regular activities. The EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Oli Rehn, yesterday morning explicitly supported the work of TI BiH thus confirming the endeavours of the European Commission to continue protecting the work of civil society in Bosnia as well as insisting on the enforcement of the rule of law and the fight against corruption and organised crime as key priorities for all candidate and potential candidate countries in the European integration process.

Support that Transparency International Bosnia received for its standing from key institutions and governments, including the European Commission, is a clear message that human rights violations and political pressure on civil society organisations are not seen as acceptable behaviour for a country that pretends to fulfil EU accession criteria.

After suspension of its operations on 10 July, for security reasons caused by an unexplainable campaign orchestrated by the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "RS" that aimed to publicly discredit this organisation, Transparency International Bosnia insists that the independent investigation of the so-called “racketeering affair“ should provide for an institutional answer and that all persons suspected for criminal acts must be held accountable in accordance with the rule of law, regardless of the position they currently hold.

Transparency International Bosnia expressed its deepest gratitude to all the organisations and individuals which provided unselfish support in these critical moments and conveyed the perspective that such a public reckoning with those critical of government activities should stop.
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BOSNIAN GDP GROWS 12.1%

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 29,2008) - Bosnia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2007 amounted to 13.7 billion Bosnian Marks, i.e. 1.6 billion Bosnian Marks more than the year before.

The growth of the Bosnian GDP expressed at percentages amounted to 12.1% and is among the highest in Europe. This is, undoubtedly, worth the praise,Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz said.

However, if one takes a glimpse of the structure of the Bosnian GDP over the after-war years, there is no reason to be pleased. This is the opinion of Anto Domazet, Director of Economic Institute of Sarajevo.

Production is not stimulated enough in order to produce significant results. Even a superficial insight shows that the growth of GDP primarily concerns trade, services and revenue increase in favour of public consumption.
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MEETING OF SIX BIGGEST POLITICAL PARTIES IN BOSNIA SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 23

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 28,2008) - The President of the largest Bosnian political party - the Party of Democratic Action (Bosnian: Stranka Demokratske Akcije - SDA) Sulejman Tihic will host the next meeting of the six biggest political parties in Bosnia, scheduled to take place in Sarajevo on August 23.

Invitations have been sent, but topics they are to discuss are still unknown. Most likely, the Bosnian constitutional reform will be high on the list.

A decision about this meeting was made after Tihic met with the International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak.
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NOBEL LAUREATE ELIE WIESEL REMEMBERS SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

NEW YORK, USA (July 28,2008) - In his article published on Saturday by the Daily News of New York City,Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel remembers Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic:

BY ELIE WIESEL
New York,July 26th,2008

"It's unimaginable.

For 13 long years, we thought he was hiding out in the mountains, surrounded by bodyguards. We looked for him in underground hideouts, tracked him down in the region's most obscure corners.

All in vain - Radovan Karadzic, the former Yugoslavia's most infamous, most notorious fugitive, was actually a public figure. People ran into him on the street, in restaurants or at the movies; some people watched him on TV, talking about alternative health options, and no one discovered his real identity.

In fact, examining pictures of him published by the press, with his fluffy white beard and glasses, I wouldn't have been able to unmask him myself.

And yet I had met him. If I ran into him on the street, I'd remember his face, I thought.

It was in late 1992. I had come to do research on the situation in Bosnia and Serbia. Disturbing, even revolting reports were trickling back to us. Newspapers, radio and TV stations were broadcasting horrendous images: cities bombarded, corpses lying in mass graves, massacred children, mutilated men, raped women.

Reports of odious deeds were circulating: Tuzla, Srebrenica entered the annals of crimes against humanity. The words "Auschwitz in Bosnia" were solemnly pronounced.

Faced with various governments' nearly official indifference, I responded to Yugoslavian President Dobrica Cosic's invitation and, with members of Ted Koppel's "Nightline" team, headed to Belgrade, Sarajevo and Banja Luka. We met with all the leaders in the region except the leader of Croatia. Its president, Franco Tudjman, was a Holocaust denier, and I refused to shake his hand.

But I did talk with Slobodan Milosevic. And with Karadzic, in whose palace - a real fortress - the meeting took place. His gaze was icy, haunted, unearthly. He was the all-powerful master. Why so many executions, so many murders? Was it because of some violent mysticism, a cult of death? No. For him, it was something else: a fascination with holding absolute power over his enemies as well as his allies.

I asked him why he had had the famous Sarajevo National Library burned down. Given that he himself wanted to be known as a psychiatrist and a poet, was he afraid of books and their human and humanist truth?

Red-faced with anger, pounding the table, he claimed it was the Muslims themselves who had burned down the building from the inside.

I objected. I had seen the library in ruins: the damaged walls, the artillery scars. The building had been attacked from the outside.

No point in arguing - the pigheaded Karadzic denied it all.

The idea of creating an international tribunal was mine. One day, when I was in the office of Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, we talked about the tragic situation in Bosnia. What were the options? Political, humanitarian, military?

That was when I suggested creating an international tribunal. My argument was that only indicting the killers for war crimes and crimes against humanity would frighten them. There would be no statute of limitations, and they would have to be extradited. Eagleburger thought it was a good idea and proposed it in his negotiations with the allies in the U.S. and Europe.

And yes, I think major criminals should be brought to trial before international courts in order to have a historical and also a pedagogical impact on future generations.

People might ask: How can you ever adequately punish a man who is guilty of ordering the assassination of 8,000 human beings? Good question. It seems that, by its sheer scope, the crime outweighs the punishment. And yet, these trials help our collective memory. For that reason alone, they are justified.

The shocking fact remains: Karadzic succeeded in walking free. For 13 long years. He lived without bodyguards, in Bosnian cities and villages, while local and international police and NATO agents were trying to track him down.

Whose fault was it? Who was responsible? Who were the accomplices?

Was his disguise that good, that successful? Perhaps, may God help us, beneath the killer's mask, there was a failed actor?"

Wiesel, Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Boston University, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. A Holocaust survivor, he was one of the leading voices to call the world's attention to atrocities committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia. This article was written exclusively for the Daily News..

The Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 703,137, as of March 30, 2008.It was founded in 1919, and it has won ten Pulitzer Prizes.
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OHR LAUNCHES NEW ROUND OF TALKS WITH BOSNIAN POLITICAL LEADERS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 28,2008) - The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajčák has launched a round of bilateral talks with Bosnian political leaders. The High Representative and EU Special Representative aims to address a number of open political issues to generate political consensus and ensure progress in Bosnia does not come to a standstill in the months ahead,the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) said.

Last week in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo the HR/EUSR met with the President of the largest Bosnian political party - the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) - Sulejman Tihic.They discussed the appointment of the Bosnian Ombudsmen.

“Restarting the process from scratch would be a needless delay”, said Lajčák. “The Bosnian State Parliament must find a means to harmonize positions on the Bosniak and Croat names before them and conclude this process as soon as possible.”

Looking ahead to activities for the Autumn, the High Representative and EU Special Representative called for a new readiness to resolve the State and Defense property issues and placing the Brcko District into the Bosnian Constitution.

The High Representative and EU Special Represenative and the SDA President discussed the concerning developments in Stolac’s secondary school. The High Representative and EU Special Representative confirmed that he has been following the issue and that it was unacceptable for “children to be held hostage by politics”. Lajčák confirmed that he expected the situation to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

With the Stabilisation and Association agreement now in place the High Representative and EU Special Representative and the SDA President agreed that a meeting of party leaders from the governing state level coalition would secure Bosnia's faster progress on the road to the EU membership.
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BOSNIA TO INVESTIGATE 100 SUSPECTED ACCOMPLICES OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 28,2008) - Bosnian prosecutors are to investigate around 100 people suspected of helping Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic flee prosecution.Official investigations have begun against 44 persons, the Banja Luka-based daily Nezavisne novine reported. Among the suspects are Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's wife and children.

The suspcted accomplices are accused not only of helping Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic but also Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic and other Serbian war criminals escape justice over the years.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague indicted Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic on charges including genocide committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENT HARIS SILAJDZIC VISITS GREAT BRITAIN

LONDON, UK (July 25,2008) — The Bosnian President Haris Silajdžić met yesterday with officials of the British government, the Head of the British Parliamentary Group for Bosnia and other British Parliament Members during an official visit to the UK.

The Bosnian President Haris Silajdžić held a series of public appearances where the domineering subject was the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić and on those occasions, he warned about the consequences of the genocide project and ethnic cleansing and obstructions in implementation of Annex 7 concerning the return of refugees in Bosnia.

He also warned about obstructions in the state organs’ work and attempts by the Serbian fascists to again question the integrity and international sovereignty of Bosnia.
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SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC'S PROPERTY IN BOSNIA TO BE CONFISCATED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) — International officials in Bosnia say Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's property in Bosnia has to be confiscated and used to cover part of the $4.5 billion compensation a U.S. court ordered him to pay to the genocide survivors.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was one of the masterminds of the genocide against Bosnians,committed by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia

Through the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, the genocide survivors who fled to the U.S. during the Bosnian 1992-95 war in which more than 100,000 people were killed, sought compensation from Karadzic. A jury decided on the sum of $4.5 billion in 2000.

The former leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia was a fugitive from justice for more than 12 years until his capture Monday.

Raffi Gregorian, deputy to Bosnia's international administrator Miroslav Lajcak, said today that options are being considered on how to confiscate Karadzic's property so a sum can be paid to the genocide survivors.

The International Community's Deputy High Representative in Bosnia Raffi Gregorian confirmed to Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz that “a few years ago, Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic lost a number of lawsuits before U.S. courts, where he was found guilty of creating concentration camps in which Bosnian women were systematically raped.“

“Karadzic owes the victims several billion dollars. That’s why all his assets and property are of such significance and interest to the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and EUFOR, which recently had his house in Pale valued. They are considering options as to how to confiscate all that property, and how the victims could be reimbursed partially, or at least, symbolically compensated,“ Gregorian explained.

According to the daily, assets belonging to Karadzic’s close relatives as well as to his support network could also probably “come under the court’s microscope“.

Gregorian said that the members of Karadzic’s family were “the heart of the network that helped and is helping hide Serbian war criminals.“

“That’s why they are on the U.S. and EU black list, and that situation won’t change until Karadžić ends up in The Hague,“ he added.

Gregorian said that Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic’s support network and those of the two remaining fugitives were intertwined, and that Karadžić’s family were still a part of it.

A group of ten genocide survivors in the U.S. sued Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic in 1993 via lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including a campaign of rape and other sexual violence as a form of torture against both Bosnian women and men used by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

According to the Bosnian daily, those cases expanded the use of the Alien Tort Statute of 1789, which allows foreigners to bring suits for breaches of human rights committed anywhere in the world before U.S. courts.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who was represented by Ramsey Clark, participated in the case until 1997, but later stopped attending hearings. In September 2000, a jury found him guilty of the said crimes, and ordered him to pay compensation of USD 4.5 billion to the genocide survivors.

A further suit was brought against the former Bosnian Serb leader in 1994 by a second group of victims in a case dubbed “Kadić versus Karadžić“, writes the Bosnian daily.

The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Karadzic hid from justice for nearly 13 years before he was arrested. He had been living under a false identity and working in a private clinic in Belgrade as a doctor of alternative medicine.
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SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC STOLE IDENTITY OF ONE OF HIS VICTIMS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) — Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is believed to have taken his new identity from a victim of the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who eluded arrest as new age healer "Dragan Dabic", took the name from an innocent civilian killed in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by one of his snipers, prosecutors claim.

More details also emerged of his arrest on a bus in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade a few days ago. A witness said agents tried to yank off his "false beard" but pulled out clumps of hair, leaving him shouting in agony.

The woman said: "They tugged it so hard his head snapped down."

"They said, 'We've been following you for 15 days. You won't escape'."

Mladen Dabic, brother of Dragan Dabic, who was killed by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo with at least 11,000 Bosnian civilians, said: "It seems likely my brother's identity was stolen. That's horrible.

"He was against everything Karadzic stood for. He died going to pick up humanitarian aid."

Prosecutors said Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, 63, got the false papers while former President of the genocidal Serbia Slobodan Milosevic's regime was still in power before 2000. He is due in court today - without the bushy white beard, long hair and glasses - for his appeal against extradition to The Hague, Netherlands, on genocide charges.

Meanwhile Mila Mileva Cicak, named by some Serbian papers as Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's mistress, said she will sue over the claims. Mila said she did not know his identity and their relationship was "purely professional".
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BLAZEVIC TAKES OVER AS NEW COACH OF BOSNIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) — Miroslav Blazevic signed a two-year contract to coach the Bosnian national football team yesterday.Blazevic, who led Croatia to a third-place finish at the 1998 World Cup, has replaced Meho Kodro, who was fired in May for refusing to prepare the team for a friendly with Iran.

Many Bosnian players had refused to play for the national team in protest at the perceived mismanagement within the Bosnian Football Association, but Blazevic said he has talked to most of them and they all agreed to come back.

He said he would take his job seriously and would try to move Bosnian football forward from its current position.

"I talked to most of the players from the team and none of them refused my invitation. If it happens that some of them do not come, the doors of the national team will be closed for him," Blazevic told reporters in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

"I will not beg anyone and will not ask twice," said Blazevic, who expressed his optimism in bettering the team's position in the forthcoming qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

During his career Blazevic, who was born in the central Bosnian town of Travnik 73 years ago, led more than 20 football teams, including the national teams of Switzerland, Iran and Croatia.

Blazevic's first concrete task with Bosnia will be a friendly against Bulgaria on August 20 in the central Bosnian town of Zenica.
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BOSNIAN GDP IN 2007 WAS 21,641 BILLION BOSNIAN MARKS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) - The Bosnian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 21,641 billion Bosnian Marks last year, Head of the Bosnian Statistics Agency Zdenko Milinovic has announced.

In a press conference in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, Milinovic said the Bosnian GDP had nominal annual growth of 13.18 per cent in 2007, and real-term growth of 6.84 per cent. GDP per capita was 5,633 Bosnian Marks (USD 3,940).

Trade accounted for the biggest share in the Bosnian GDP growth (14.88 per cent).
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BOSNIA SENDS DIPLOMATIC NOTE OF PROTEST TO GENOCIDAL SERBIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) - The Bosnian government has sent a diplomatic note of protest to the genocidal Serbia, related to the neighbour country’s decision to nationalize the property of former Yugoslav companies.

The Bosnian Foreign Afairs Minister Sven Alkalaj said that Bosnia wants the issue resolved within the SFRJ Secession Agreement.

A Serbian fascist government decree dated June 19 has practically halted the process of restitution of property to companies based in former Yugoslav republics – Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia, and opened the door to the nationalization of their property in the genocidal Serbia.

The secession agreement has been ratified by all the countries of former Yugoslavia.
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INFLATION RATE IN BOSNIA REACHES 9.6 PERCENT IN JUNE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 25,2008) - In the first six months of the year Bosnia’s exports amounted to 3.349 billion Bosnian Marks, which was by 17 per cent more compared to the same period of 2007. However, with the imports worth 7.977 billion Bosnian Marks (growth of 23.9 per cent), the country’ trade deficit increased to 4.628 billion Bosnian Marks, the Bosnian Statistics Agency announced yesterday. The export/import ratio in this period was 42 per cent.

According to the same source, it is too early yet to forecast how high the trade deficit would be by the end of this year, especially as effects of the SAA signing and the Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade-related Matters are still expected.

In June, the prices of products and services for personal consumption were up by 0.9 per cent in a month and the annual inflation rate was 9.6 per cent. Since the beginning of the year, the prices of food in Bosnia went up by average 7.75 per cent.
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COUNCIL OF EUROPE TO PARTNER SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL

STRASBOURG, France (July 25,2008) - For the first time ever, Europe's top rights watchdog the Council of Europe will next month partner the Sarajevo Film Festival and sponsor the "Heart of Sarajevo" award for the best feature film.

This year's festival takes place from 15-23 August. A key event the for southeastern European film industry, it is a "natural choice" of partner for the Council of Europe, the Council of Europe said.

The Council of Europe says it values film as a tool to educate people about rights and democracy and freedom of expression and creativity, and to promote cultural diversity and mutual respect.

"Directors from South-Eastern Europe whose films are selected for the Sarajevo Film Festival have been choosing themes that correspond largely to the Council of Europe's values, most dealing with social commentary and human rights," the watchdog said in a statement yesterday.

The Sarajevo Film Festival also offers a a wide range of films for youngsters through its special Children's Programme, which attracts over 35,000 young viewers from all over the region.

The programme "represents a unique forum to present the Council of Europe's activities in the field of the promotion of children's rights and the protection of children from violence," the Council of Europe stated

At this year's festival, the Council of Europe will present its most recent Europe-wide awareness-raising initiative against the corporal punishment of children, which aims to ban the practice in Europe.

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe has 47 member states representing 800 million Europeans. It is the continent's first and largest inter-governmental organisation.

Aside from democracy and human rights, the Council of Europe seeks to promote political stability, economic growth and social cohesion in Europe.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENT HARIS SILAJDZIC: CAPTURE OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC IS A GREAT DAY FOR BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - The arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic will be marked as a great day for Bosnia, the Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic said in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.President Silajdzic, in his first reaction on Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic’s arrest, said in his statement for the Bosnian state television (BHT) that it has been shown that the justice still can be reached, but he has also warned that Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic is still at large.

The Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic said that it must not be allowed that the project of those two Serbian war criminals still lives in Bosnia, and by this he meant on the consequences of genocide they are responsible for.

"This is at least some satisfaction for the families of the genocide victims.The justice, however, cannot be complete without the arrest of Ratko Mladic," President Silajdzic said.

Although he had been skeptical about the prospects for Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's arrest, he said that his belief in justice has been restored.

The Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic also said that the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic will contribute to justice, peace and stability in Bosnia as well as catharsis in the genocidal Serbia.

Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic,have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since 1995 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
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OIC WELCOMES ARREST OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (July 24,2008) - The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has welcomed the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, since 1995 indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Prof. Ihsanoglu who described the arrest as a major step to end impunity and deliver justice for the Bosnian Muslims as well as other victims of mass killing and war crimes , expressed the hope that this would soon be followed by the apprehension of other indicted war criminals in former Yugoslavia.

The OIC Secretary General also looked forward that this development would close a sad long chapter in the history of Bosnia and open a new era of enduring reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and security for the peoples of the southeastern Europe.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is an international organization with a permanent delegation to the United Nations. It groups 57 member states, from the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Caucasus, Southeast Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBER ZELJKO KOMSIC WELCOMES ARREST OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - The arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is a great thing for Bosnia and justice, said Bosnian State Presidency Member Zeljko Komsic on the special press-conference that took place in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on the occasion of his arrest.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Bosnian Presidency Member Zeljko Komsic said that by this arrest justice has been only partially served.

"Every day that the accused of war crimes spend as free people is a lost day for the victims of the crimes and justice", he pointed out, warning that two other top Serbian war criminals indicted by The Hague Tribunal, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic are still at large.
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ICTY WELCOMES ARREST OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (July 24,2008) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) welcomes the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic and looks forward to his prompt transfer to the Tribunal in The Hague in order to stand trial,the ICTY said.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has also welcomed the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, it was announced by the ICTY.

"I have been informed by my colleagues from Belgrade on the successful operation that resulted in arrest of Radovan Karadzic. On the behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office, I congratulate to the Serbian authorities, especially the National Security Council, Serbian action team in charge of searching after the fugitives and the prosecutor’s Office for the war crimes on undertaking this big step in cooperation with the Tribunal," the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Brammertz said

He pointed out that this is a very important day for the Bosnian genocide victims that have waited for the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic for more than a decade.

He also added that this is a big day for justice since it clearly demonstrates that no one is beyond law and that all fugitives from justice will be, sooner or later, arrested.

The date of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić’s transfer into the Tribunal’s custody will be determined in due course.
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LAJCAK WELCOMES ARREST OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajčák, has welcomed the long awaited arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, since 1995 indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

“The news that Radovan Karadzic has been arrested is positive for Bosnia and for the whole region. This arrest proves that justice reaches everyone. Nobody is untouchable. Although two indictees, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, still remain at large, the arrest of Karadzic can be viewed as the beginning of the end of the most tragic chapter in Bosnia’s modern history,” Lajčák said.

He said that although justice in the Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic case has been delayed it has not been denied.

“Karadzic’s continuing liberty has been an affront to justice and a challenge to the domestic and international legal systems, but justice will now take its course – and that is a matter of the greatest political importance and respect not just for the people of Bosnia but for all of us.”

Lajčák described Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic’s arrest as “a matter of the integrity of the rule of law” and he said it offered “fresh impetus to the region’s long march to postwar recovery and European integration.

The officials of the European Union already announced that the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic will have positive consequences concerning the EU integration process of the region.”

The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia noted that Bosnia in 2008 is a very different country from the one in 1996.

“The arrest of Radovan Karadzic will help the people of Bosnia to turn from past to the future and focus on the challenges they face today,” he concluded.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBER ZELJKO KOMSIC MET WITH HEAD OF CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BOSNIA VINKO PULJIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - Bosnian State Presidency Member Željko Komšić met in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo with Head of the Catholic Church in Bosnia Cardinal Vinko Puljić.During the meeting,they talked about the relations between the Bosnian state and the Catholic Church in Bosnia, as well as about certain open issues concerning the Roman Catholic Church’s property in Bosnia.

Cardinal Puljić emphasized that he as a pontiff, and the entire Roman Catholic Church as well, seem to be receiving less and less support, even a lack of understanding of the competent Bosnian state institutions in relation to solving property and legal, particularly proprietary problems that the Roman Catholic Church has been facing.

He asked Bosnian Presidency Member Komšić to continue to help with his reputation and authority to solving concrete issues, for which he had not had an appropriate engagement.

During the meeting, they also discussed other issues in relation to the work of other religious communities in Bosnia.

Cardinal Puljić thanked Bosnian Presidency member Komšić for the previous overall engagement and understanding for the needs of the Catholic Church in Bosnia.
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BOSNIA LEADS ON FORBES' LIST OF FASTEST CHANGING MARKETS IN THE WORLD

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - In a research done by American Social Technologies for the Forbes magazine, Bosnia tops the list of the world’s fastest-changing markets with 100 points.

The parameters that were analyzed include urban development, literacy, civil liberties, GDP per capital and access to telephone, internet and TV. In the research, the current situation was compared with periods ten and 15 years ago.

The data required were submitted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Freedom House and the World Resources Institute.
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BOSNIA AND NORWAY SIGNED VISA FACILITATION AGREEMENT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 24,2008) - The Bosnian Minister of Security Tarik Sadovic and Norway’s Ambassador to Bosnia Jan Braathu signed a Visa Facilitation Agreement between Bosnia and Norway in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

The agreement will become effective as soon as the process of its ratification is over.

There are approximately 20,000 Bosnian citizens living in Norway. Although not an EU member, Norway is a full member of the Schengen cooperation project, Ambassador Braathu underlined.
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SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC ARRESTED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 23,2008) - Serbian fascist barbarians have apparently sacrificed one of their own,and not just anybody,but one of the masterminds of the genocide against Bosnians,committed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia,Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic himself!

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic,63,eluded justice for 13 years by hiding in plain site in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade.He grew a beard, worked in an alternative medicine clinic, and even gave lectures and had his own website.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, former political leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia, was allegedly arrested Monday in a Belgrade suburb.

Photographs apparently taken in the past few years show him with long white hair with a black streak in the middle, a flowing white beard and large glasses.


Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic as the world remembers him during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, right, and as the bearded and bespectacled "Dr Dabic" ,left.Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.


Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic went unnoticed as a regular magazine contributer in the capital of the genocidal Serbia - Belgrade.Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.


In disguise: former leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic in the capital of the genocidal Serbia after growing his hair and beard.Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.


Using the alias Dragan Dabic,he managed to live what seems to have been a relatively normal life while rumours circulated that he was hiding out in mountain caves and monasteries in remote eastern Bosnia.

The editor of Belgrade's "Healthy Life" magazine, Goran Kojic,said Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic,using his false name, was even a regular contributor to the publication.

"It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic," Kojic said.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who is a trained psychiatrist, even had a website that, as of Wednesday morning, was still online: http://www.psy-help-energy.com.(Click here to see a screenshot of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's website).He apparently sold new-age health aids related to "human quantum energy." Images on the website show strange metallic objects connected by wires or strings.

During the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic masterminded the infamous "siege of Sarajevo." He has been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian civilians.

On Tuesday morning, Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was questioned and ordered to be deported to The Hague.However, his lawyers have three days to appeal the ruling.

"This tribunal welcomed and was very happy to hear about Karadzic's arrest yesterday in Serbia and we are ready and hopeful he is transferred to The Hague detention facilities as soon as possible," Nerma Jelacic, of the International War Crimes Tribunal, said.

Among the worst crimes Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic is charged with is the mass murder of some 10,000 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995 - the largest massacre in Europe since the Second World War.

If Karadzic's extradition is approved, he will still have the opportunity to appeal the ruling - a move that could delay his transfer by days or weeks.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic was nabbed in a raid in a Belgrade suburb after police monitored his behaviour for weeks. However, other reports said he was arrested Friday while waiting for a bus.

"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and than he was taken to some place and kept in the room. And that is absolutely against the law what they did," his lawyer Sveta Vujacic said.

In response to his arrest, Bosnians jammed the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo early Tuesday in celebration. Not even an unseasonal thunderstorm and cloudburst could dampen their celebrations.

When word came through that Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic had been arrested in Belgrade on foot of a warrant from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, hundreds of Sarajevans took to the streets of their still battered and bruised city and celebrated into the small hours.

The thunder and rain came at about 11pm on Monday - about the same time that news filtered through that Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic had been caught. Hundreds took to the streets of Sarajevo and converged on Freedom Square honking horns, cheering and shouting their joy until well after 3am.

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, a Montenegro-born psychiatrist of humble origin,together with Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic inflicted unfathomable horrors on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, as well many other parts of Bosnia and parts of Croatia.

Indicted for multiple war crimes, the pair evaded arrest for 13 years. While Mladic remains at large, Karadzic can expect shortly to be in The Hague.


A Bosnian woman reads the Bosnian daily newspaper Dnevni Avaz, headlined "KARADZIC UHAPSEN" ("KARADZIC ARRESTED") and showing a photograph of former political leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia on the front page, in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, on Tuesday, July 22, 2008.


Bosnians celebrate on a street in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, early Tuesday, July 22, 2008. The streets of Sarajevo are jammed with honking cars and chanting crowds as Bosnians celebrate the arrest of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic,charged with genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Ernad Deni Comaga (21),an activist with Bosnia's Democratic Youth Movement, was happy at the turn of events: "It is like a little piece of freedom come back into Bosnia."

Irena Cetin was more circumspect, still bearing personal scars from the Serbian 43-month siege and shelling of Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia. "There is no justice here," she said. "This will not change anything." Like many Sarajevans, her background is ethnically mixed - her mother was an orthodox Christian, her father a Roman Catholic. Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, she said, was responsible for "everything that happened to me".

"I lost my father," she explained. "We went to find some trees [ during the siege]. I was with him when the grenade exploded. He was killed and so were others but I was the only one not hurt by it." That was in August 1993, and there is a tear now in her left eye. She turns away.

Analysts with the European Union Force in Bosnia (EUFOR) are monitoring reaction but are hopeful there will not be any backlash in the genocidal Serbian creature in bosnia "RS".

"There's always a danger there could be a backlash from the right-wing chetnik [ extreme Serbian fascist] element," said one analyst, "but on a scale of one to 10, I'd rate it around one or two."

Many Sarajevans look back on the war and remember that no one came to help them as they were being bombed from the hills above the city or picked off by the genocidal Serbian aggressor's snipers. They have few expectations.

"Is this possible?" asked Minka, a pensioner, hurrying to the market yesterday. "I simply cannot believe it."

"Whatever lies behind his arrest is now unimportant," said Monja Matovic (24). "The arrest itself is significant for all of us who have been through the war and suffering." A flag draped around his shoulders, Ernad Deni Comaga looks to the future, to recreating the multi-ethnic Sarajevo that used to be.

"Justice will be done for all of us in Bosnia when all the people around the world, the people who left, who are in exile, come back here - Bosnian, Serbian people and Croatian people - when they all come back home and live together without hate and violence."

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's arrest and trial at The Hague is a major condition for the genocidal Serbia's European Union membership.

"What's significant here is that it's the Serbian government itself that has arrested him and is surrendering him to the tribunal," Payam Akhavan, a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, said.

He called it "a good day for international justice" and said the arrest sends a strong message to other tyrannical leaders that war criminals will be brought to justice.


VIDEO: Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic to face genocide charges - Al Jazeera


VIDEO: Footage of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic in disguise emerges

Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's 15 international war trial charges include the following:

- six counts of genocide and complicity in genocide (in Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia)
- two counts of crimes against humanity
- one count of violations of the laws or customs of war
- one count of a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions governing wartime conduct
- one count of persecution
- two counts of deportations and other inhumane acts
- one count of inflicting terror upon civilians
- one count of taking hostages
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENT HARIS SILAJDZIC VISITS CROATIA

UMAG, Croatia (July 21,2008) - Croatia has been unlawfully using the hydro potential from the Busko jezero lake to produce electricity at her Orlovac station, and there is a similar problem with the Trebisnjica hydro power station, where Croatia has altered the distribution of electricity, at the cost of Bosnia, the bosnian President Haris Silajdzic asserted yesterday in Umag, Croatia, during a meeting with the Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.

Bilateral issues were discussed there, including the border, property issues, the Ploce port, the issue of Bosnian workers who were working in Croatia and lost their jobs during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.

The next meeting of the Bosnian-Croatian Interstate Council will take place in Bosnia in November, it was agreed. President Silajdzic said Bosnia wants good relations with Croatia, but not at Bosnia's cost, which is also why he thinks that the border between Bosnia and Croatia should be defined before the building of the disputed Peljesac bridge.

Bosnia is against the construction of thAT bridge.Bosnian officials said the bridge would prevent large ships from entering Bosnia's only port in Neum, thus blocking Bosnia's access to the open sea.

Meanwhile, Bosnia has several options, and a lawsuit is one of them.

If the Croatian authorities do not react to the just and legally well-based warnings that the construction activities are halted, that is if the legal disagreement is not solved diplomatically or in accordance with the international law, Bosnia will sue Croatia at the International Court for the Sea Right.

Recently,the Bosnian State Presidency recommended as well as the Bosnian State Parliament’s House of Representatives to inform the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) on the construction activities, as well as all other department institutions of the European Union.
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BOSNIAN STATE COURT SHOULD TRY SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL BILJANA PLAVSIC FOR GENOCIDE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 21,2008) - Prisons in Sweden are famous for their "enlightened" attitude towards inmates – hardly surprising given that the country’s human rights standards are the best in the world.

But the convicted Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic, a former political leader of the Serbian living in Bosnia and the first woman sentenced for war crimes at International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), might disagree.

Ever since she was transferred from The Hague to the Hinseberg Prison for Women, Sweden's only national prison for females, her letters have been full of complaints, some quite bizarre – air-conditioning too strong, a birthday cake presented to her by wardens not big enough.

In January 2007, Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic asked the Swedish government for an amnesty. Although that request was declined, she did not give up. Just two weeks ago,she had tried again. The tribunal and the Swedish government are yet to respond.

The Plavsic case should serve as a lesson for future plea agreements at the war crimes chamber of the Bosnian State Court. Like the tribunal, this has no mechanisms for punishing those war criminals who admit their guilt and then, after receiving minor sentences, protest their innocence.

Following her plea agreement with Hague prosecutors in 2002, Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic accepted partial responsibility for war crimes committed by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, including one count of persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds.

She made a formal apology and was subsequently sentenced to only 11 years in prison in 2003. Crucially, prosecutors dropped genocide charges against her.

While Plavsic pleaded guilty and showed repentance at her trial, her subsequent protestations of innocence and requests for amnesty tell a very different story.

In her recently published memoirs, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals”, former Hague chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic claimed to be innocent to tribunal prosecutors after she was sentenced.

Shortly after her conviction, Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic said her repentance for her war crimes was false – a show to deceive the Hague prosecutors and judges, as well as the Bosnian public.

Indeed, in her book, Del Ponte admits that she should never have relied on Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic’s honesty.

Unfortunately, there is nothing the tribunal can do about that.

A close examination of the chain of events that led to the deal between Hague prosecutors and Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic could be instructive for the Bosnian State Court and help it avoid making the same mistakes.

As part of Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic’s plea deal, she laid the blame for the genocide committed during the 1992-95 Serbian aggression against Bosnia on the late former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, and on former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic, on the other hand, only “supported and endorsed” the genocidal objective.

In a statement, Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic admitted to the Court that she was repeatedly told about crimes against Bosnian civilians, yet she refused to accept they happened.

“Our leadership, of which I was a necessary part, led an effort which victimised countless innocent people,” she admitted.

Even though the media reported her plea favourably, emphasising the positive role her admission of guilt could play in the reconciliation process, there were some who doubted her honesty. Her apology was certainly too little, too late for the Bosnian genocide victims’ associations.

The sceptics were proven right. Her later claims of innocence and requests for amnesty show the convicted Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic has not come to terms with what she did, nor accepted her punishment.

So where did the Hague prosecutors go wrong?

Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic plea agreement was a clumsy combination of retributive and restorative justice. The retributive part, or the punishment, was reduced by the restorative part – her apology and the potential for reconciliation this could bring.

Theoreticians believe there are three steps necessary for restorative justice to be valid.

The first is for the criminal to understand the consequences of their actions and feel truly guilty; secondly, show a desire to repair the damage done; and, thirdly, accept punishment willingly.

In Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic’s case, the first condition appeared to be met when she made her apology in the ICTY courtroom. However, this principle was violated when prosecutors agreed to drop the genocide charges against her.

The natural second step would be for her to call for multiculturalism across Bosnia. The genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "RS" emerged partly as a result of Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic’s participation in the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.


Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic

Therefore, if the convicted Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic wanted to redeem herself, it would be reasonable to expect that while she was in prison she should send messages calling for peace and multiculturalism and warning about the dangers of Serbian fascism – which she has not done.

Finally, she should serve her shamefully low 11-year sentence with dignity and without complaints. This is not happening.

If Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic did not accept responsibility and did not truly repent, why then did she bother to apologise at all? Some analysts see part of the answer in the wording of her apology.

“I came for two reasons: to confront these charges and to spare my people, for it was clear that they would pay the price of any refusal to come,” she said at the time.

Some believe this implied that she wanted to avoid the sanctions the international community was threatening to impose on the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "RS" if it refused to cooperate with the tribunal.

A greater insight into Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic’s psyche can be found in “I Testify”, or "Svedocim", the lengthy volume Plavsic wrote in prison and published in 2005.

The book is full of extreme fascist messages in line with her wartime rhetoric, and its content flies in face of her agreement with Hague prosecutors.

In one of Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic's most infamous statements, published in 1993 by the Belgrade weekly magazine Svet, she said Bosnians were “genetically spoiled material” which justified their destruction.

In I Testify, she speaks about sacrificing herself for the Serbian people, suggesting that she only pleaded guilty to save the Serbian people from the burden of collective guilt.

It is curious that nobody from the ICTY has ever commented on her book – despite the fact that its contents contradict the statement she made following her plea agreement, in which she gave up her right to claim innocence.

Del Ponte’s memoirs reveal more of what happened during negotiations for Plavsic’s plea agreement.

At the time, she said, her office was surprised to hear from the accused’s lawyers that she was willing to plead guilty – but not to the count of genocide. Now it seems clear that Del Ponte accepted this deal too readily.

In her book, Del Ponte writes that although Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic promised to testify against Serbian war criminal Momcilo Krajisnik who is also a former leader of the Serbians living in Bosnia, she changed her mind after she moved from the Hague detention unit to the Swedish prison.

“Dressed in a stiff tweed skirt, like a proper British lady, [Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic] informed me that she was a doctor of biology and proceeded to describe the superiority of the Serbian people. Her nonsense was nauseating, and I brought the meeting to an end. I wanted to seek life imprisonment against her,” said Del Ponte.

Now it seems the former prosecutor should have trusted her first impressions.

While Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic promised verbally to testify against other Serbian war criminals, she refused to put it in writing.

“I had felt that my personal contact with Plavsic, despite her racial-superiority claptrap, had been so cordial that I could trust her,” said Del Ponte, admitting this was an error.

In her book, Del Ponte describes trying to rectify the situation.

“We must advise the Trial Chamber of what Mrs Plavsic is now saying,” Del Ponte told her team, at some point following Plavsic’s volte face. “Let's present a motion to the court to put Biljana Plavsic on trial.”

In the former prosecutor’s memoirs, she recalls sending a motion to the tribunal president – although does not say when this took place. However, he apparently returned it, saying he lacked jurisdiction.

She then sent the same motion to the trial chamber that accepted the plea.

“I still await their response,” she wrote.

As the court’s deadline of 2010 draws closers, Del Ponte continues to wait for an answer.

However, there might be a job here for the Bosnian State Court. While it is not possible to charge someone for the same crimes twice, the fact that the genocide charges against Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic were dropped could open the door for a new indictment against her.

If the judges in The Hague were to find that she violated her plea agreement, there is a real possibility for re-opening her genocide case at the Bosnian State Court.

It seems increasingly unlikely that Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic or Ratko Mladic (who are charged with genocide by the ICTY) are ever going to see the inside of an ICTY courtroom.

Since Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic was the highest-ranking politician of the Serbians living in Bosnia to stand trial at The Hague, it would be a right thing for the justice process to try her for all crimes she was suspected of having committed,including the crime of genocide.

It would replace the ICTY’s ill-advised restorative principle with the proper retributive justice Serbian war criminal Biljana Plavsic deserves.
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TRIAL OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADE VESELINOVIC STARTS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 21,2008) - The Prosecution and Defence have presented their evidence presentation plans at the trial of Rade Veselinovic, announcing that the first witnesses will be examined on August 18.

The trial of Serbian war criminal Rade Veselinovic, who is charged with war crimes against humanity in Hadzici municipality in 1992,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia, has started before the Bosnian State Court of Bosnia by presentation of introductory arguments by the Prosecution and Defence.

The Bosnian State Prosecution considers that Serbian war criminal Rade Veselinovic, as member of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's forces, participated in the mass murder, forced resettlement, capture, torture and causing suffering and bodily injuries to the Bosnian civilians in Hadzici.

The crimes charged upon him were committed in Zunovnica, Musici, Binjezevo, Kucice and other villages near the central Bosnian town of Hadzici.

"The Trial Chamber will hear a pained testimony of a witness, whose father has still not been found, after having been taken in an unknown direction. On the basis of this, the Bosnian State Prosecution shall prove that Veselinovic participated in forcible disappearances," Prosecutor Vesna Ilic said, referring to one of the crimes described in the indictment.

The Prosecution intends to ask the Bosnian State Court to accept, as determined facts, the allegations contained in the verdicts against the convicted Serbian war criminals Stanislav Galic and Momcilo Krajisnik, which were announced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Ilic explained that those verdicts indicated that a broad and systematic attack was conducted by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor against Bosnian civilians in the Sarajevo area.

The Tribunal sentenced Serbian war criminal Stanislav Galic to lifetime imprisonment,and Serbian war criminal Momcilo Krajisnik was sentenced, by a first instance verdict, to 27 years' imprisonment.
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66 BODIES OF GENOCIDE VICTIMS EXUMED FROM A MASS GRAVE NEAR SREBRENICA

SREBRENICA, Bosnia (July 18,2008) - Bosnian forensic experts have completed excavation of a mass grave near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica today. Officials of the Bosnian State Institute for Missing People confirmed 66 bodies of the genocide victims from Srebrenica were found in the mass grave called Pusumlici 2, along with three bags of bones and personal belongings.

These 66 genocide victims were among 10,000 Bosnian civilians mass murderd by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in July 1995, during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Murat Hurtic, the head of the Bosnian forensic team, says the last bodies of the genocide victims were taken out earlier today. The team exhumed two complete and 64 incomplete skeletons of the genocide victims.

An ID card found in the grave supports initial information that the bodies were of the Bosnian civilians from Srebrenica.

Over 3,200 genocide victims from this part of Bosnia have already been found in some 60 nearby mass graves, identified through DNA analysis and reburied.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY MEMBER ZELJKO KOMSIC MET WITH IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO BOSNIA AHMAD FARD HOSSEINI

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 18,2008) - The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Bosnia Ahmad Fard Hosseini congratulated Bosnia on signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union, at yesterday’s meeting with a nenber of the Bosnian State Presidency Željko Komšić.

He said that Iran understood and supported the path of Bosnia to the European Union and added that their country would remain open for Bosnia wishing to provide further help, first trough strengthening economic ties and relations among peoples.

He informed Bosnian Presidency Member Željko Komšić that construction of a modern health centre would begin in October on the territory of Novo Sarajevo Municipality, which would be a gift of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Bosnia.

Bosnian Presidency Member thanked for the Iran's willingness to finance construction of this health center in Bosnia and thanked the Iranian people and leadership for full support and generous assistance showed to Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.
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