BOSNIAN PRESIDENT SILAJDZIC CALLS ON ALL BOSNIAN ARMY'S WAR VETERANS TO AVOID TRAVELLING TO GENOCIDAL SERBIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 19,2008) – With a purpose of removing all uncertainties which the genocide survivors from Srebrenica are facing, the Bosnian President Silajdzic informed the Bosnian public that the Bosnian Presidency has received an official confirmation that there were no requests for arrests of any Bosnian citizens from Srebrenica which were, according to the media issued in the genocidal Serbia.

Even though this news is encouraging, President Silajdzic pointed out that there is no legal basis for extradition of anyone from Bosnia to any other country without thorough procedure by the Bosnian state institutions and only after the official request is sent by some other country.

Entities do not have competence to solve such requests and all such procedures have be done on the state level. Considering that the position of Bosnia that all criminal acts committed on the territory of Bosnia should be processed in Bosnia, there is no danger of extradition of the Bosnian citizens in these situations,President silajdzic said.

However, considering the case of Bosnian citizen Ilija Jurisic, who was arrested by the Serbian aggressor in Serbia regardless of the clear rules of the Hague Tribunal which forbids such arrests, President Silajdzic calles on all Bosnian citizens who took part in defending Bosnia from aggression to be careful and to avoid travels to the genocidal Serbia.

"In case of illegal arrests or kidnapping with a purpose of transferring Bosnian citizens to Serbia, all necessary measures will be taken in order to protect security of all Bosnian citizens and Bosnia’s sovereignty,"President Silajdzic said.

President Silajdzic also invites the international community to strengthen its measures with a purpose of protecting the Bosnian citizens and to take all necessary activities in order to remove any provocations on ethinc grounds.

"Regarding this, the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR). has a duty to firmly react on the announced erection of a cross on Zlatiste and forbid such actions. We remind that the OHR did not hesitate to forbid naming of the Sarajevo Airport by the first president of independent Bosnia, Alija Izetbegovic even though this was not a sign of provocation but sincere honoring of the first president of Bosnia, contrary to motives regarding Zlatiste," stated the Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic in a press release.
.

ASSOCIATION OF BOSNIAN ARMY'S DEMOBILIZED WAR VETERANS URGES FOR PROTECTION OF BOSNIAN CITIZENS FROM SREBRENICA

SREBRENICA, Bosnia (March 19,2008) – The Association of the Bosnian Army’s Demobilized War Veterans from the Srebrenica municipality urged Bosnian state authorities, primarily the Bosnian State Court and the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia to officially take the stand against the indictments raised against Bosnian citizens from Srebrenica for the alleged war crimes by the genocidal Serbia.

This organization recalled the case of the Bosnian citizen Ilija Jurisic, who was arrested by the genocidal Serbian aggressor and has been in a prison in Belgrade since 11 May 2007. He now faces trail for "war crimes".

Ilija Jurišić is a Bosnian patriot who participated in defending the Bosnian city of Tuzla during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggresion against Bosnia.

The announcement signed by Zulfo Salihovic, the President of the Association, warns that fear is now living among the citizens of Srebrenica and that Bosnians started abandoning the town in fear of illegal arrests and torture.

It has been emphasized that not a single Bosnian citizen from Srebrenica is afraid of processing for alleged war crimes in Bosnia.

However, keeping in mind Jurisic’s case, Bosnians of Srebrenica fear that they have been enlisted to the accusation lists of various associations of the Serbians living in Bosnia and Serbian war criminals who are trying to hide their own war past and crimes in such a way, especially crimes committed in genocide against the Bosnians from Srebrenica.

The Association called all the Bosnian state authrioties to actively participate in protection of Bosnians from Srebrenica and prevent torture and pressures which the genocidal Serbia and the genocidal serbian creature in Bosnia "RS" have been making against the Bosnians since the beginning of the Serbian aggression against Bosnia in 1992.
.

EC REQUESTS INFORMATION ON POLICE REFORM AND BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS INTRODUCTION

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 19,2008) – The Bosnian Minister of Security Tarik Sadovic received a letter from the Vice-President of the European Commission Responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini, asking for detailed information related to the introduction of biometric passports necessary for the beginning of a dialogue between the European Union and Bosnia on visa regime liberalization.

Commissioner Frattini stated in his letter that he is convinced that the “additional information you will send me the following few weeks will confirm our positive mark of the progress made in all the sectors”.

In the document, the European Commission expressed determination for opening of dialogue with all the region’s countries, for the purpose of developing a map of road on the conditions necessary for visa regime liberalization; the progress will be observed by the EU Parliament, the Bosnian Ministry of Security announced.
.

BOSNIAN INTER-RELIGIOUS COUNCIL SUPPORTS "FREEDOM OF FAITH RIGHTS MONITORING PROJECT"

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 19,2008) – Members of the Bosnian Inter-religious Council Assembly supported the Freedom of Faith Rights Monitoring project in Bosnia.

The Council’s Assembly already expects the written proposals and amendments to the Report on Monitoring by March 31 the latest, after which the Report’s text would be finalized and prepared for publishing.

They also expressed concerns over the slowness of adoption of the law on return of the nationalized property. They also stated that passing of the Law on Denationalization and Restitution is inadequate, which would be based on the principle of natural restitution wherever possible.

If the natural restitution is not possible, the natural compensation principle or financial compensation principle should be applied. Use of securities is certainly out of the question. The Council emphasized the importance of a fast passing of the law, for various manipulations are made in reality with the property, and that is something that will be difficult to correct in future.

The Orthodox Christian Church representative again emphasized the need of return of the Seminary building in Sarajevo, so that an orthodox theological faculty is active in the city, together with Islamic and Catholic.

The Inter-Religious Council’s Assembly supported the attitude and emphasized that it is necessary to return all the property to all religious communities in Bosnia.

The Council firmly supported the stand that the freedom of faith also means the right to organize religious classes for children. In that sense, the Council’s members called all the department organs to respect the rights of parents to provide their children with religious teaching in primary and pre-school institutions. That has been defined by the Act 4 of the Law on Freedom of Faith and Legal status of Churches and Religious Communities in Bosnia.

Session of the Bosnian Inter-Religious Council was presided by the leader of the Bosnian Islamic Community Reis-Ul-Ulema Mustafa Ef. Ceric. The meeting was also attended by Catholic Archbishop of Vrhbosna Cardinal Vinko Puljic ,Orthodox Bishop of Zvornik and Tuzla Vasilije Kacavenda,and Head of the Bosnian Jewish Community Jakob Finci.
.

BOSNIAN EXPORT PROMOTION AGENCY OPENED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 19,2008) – The Bosnian Foreign Trade Chamber organized yesterday in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo the ceremonial opening of the Bosnian Export Promotion Agency (BHEPA).

BHEPA is founded within the project of the EU EUEXPRO which goal is to build capacities for export promotion. EU secured more than 840.000 Euros for the setup of this agency.

Opening of the agency was attended by the Head of the European Commission in Bosnia Dimitris Kourkoulas, the Bosnian Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Slobodan Puhalac and the Bosnian Chamber head Milan Lovric.

Kourkoulas stated that this is one of many projects of the EU for improvement of the Bosnian economy.

Export Promotion Agency shall act within Foreign Trade Chamber and former Sector for international economic relations was merged into it.

Main task of BHEPA is to help Bosnian companies to expand the existing export markets and to find new ones, primarily through gathering key information on demand of foreign markets for certain products and services and through promotion activities of Bosnian products and economic potentials abroad.

Slobodan Puhalac stated that the negative foreign trade balance sheet of Bosnia is not so drastic in the fact that a large part of Bosnian import goes on transport facilities and equipment which creates preconditions for export oriented production.

He also added that Bosnia has small number of products which could be exported to European market and those are mostly wood industry products and automobile parts.

BHEPA shall also develop support programs for analysis of their export competences as a precondition for successful survival on foreign markets.

Head of the Bosnian Export Promotion Agency is Enes Aliskovic.
.

BOSNIAN CENTRAL BANK: DATA ON CARD OPERATIONS AND E-BANKING IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 19,2008) - Out of the total 31 commercial banks which operated in Bosnia at the end of 2007, 24 banks provided card operations services, and 18 of them had some of international payment cards. According to the data of the Bosnian Central Bank, the total number of issued cards as of December 31, 2007, was 1.528.498.

In 2007, more than 24 million transactions were performed in card operations, of which, more than 13,8 million transactions were performed through ATM machines, while 10,3 million transactions were performed through POS terminals. Total value of stated transactions was 3,5 billion Bosnian Marks. Out of the stated value, only 20,18% was used for the payment of goods, while even 79,82% were related to cash withdrawals through the ATM machines and POS terminals. The average value of one transaction was 145 Bosnian Marks. The annual turnover of transactions per one card was 2.296,40 Bosnian Marks, or 191,30 Bosnian Marks per month.

Cards issued by Bosnian banks were used for cash withdrawal amounting to 70 million Bosnian Marks and for payment of goods in the amount of 102 million Bosnian Marks on ATM machines and POS terminals abroad. At the same time, cards issued by foreign banks, were used for cash withdrawals in the amount of 388 million Bosnian Marks at ATM machines and POS terminals of Bosnian banks. Cards issued by foreign banks were used for payment of goods and services in Bosnia in the amount of 119 million Bosnian Marks.

There is a total of 655 ATM machines and 14.076 POS terminals installed in Bosnia so far.

Out of the total number of banks in Bosnia, 27 used e-banking, which is three times more compared to year before. The number of clients whom some form of e-banking transactions are performed for, is relatively small – only 10.692 legal entities and 5.308 physical entities, the Bosnian Central Bank said.
.