BOSNIAN AND SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSSED CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (April 28,2008) – The Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister Sven Alkalaj had a meeting on Friday with the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Descallar.

Alkalaj congratulated for the recently-completed elections in Spain and congratulated the minister for his re-election to the post. He also congratulated his colleague Moratinos.

Alkalaj informed Descallar on the current political situation in Bosnia, especially in the light of the recently-adopted police reform, as precondition for signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and the EU.He also emphasised the importance of the decision passed at NATO’s Bucharest Summit at which BiH was granted Intensive dialogue status.

Descallar expressed pleasure with adoption of the law on police reform and added that Spain has been carefully monitoring development of the political situation in Bosnia.

The Bosnian and Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministers concluded that there are no open issues between Bosnia and Spain and that bilateral and economic issues are at a satisfactory level.
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BOSNIAN STATE COURT: FOUR PROSECUTION WITNESSES TESTIFIED AT TRIAL OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL PREDRAG KUJUNDZIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (April 28,2008) - Four Prosecution witnesses testified on Friday before the Bosnian State Court at the trial of Serbian war criminal Predrag Kujundzic.They said, with tears in their eyes, how their husbands were taken by the genocidal Serbian aggressor from Bukovacke Civcije, in Doboj municipality, to a concentration camp and how they found out about their deaths.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges Serbian war criminal Predrag 'Predo' Kujundzic, as commander of a genocidal Serbian fascist paramilitary unit, with having participated in the occupation of Bukovacke Civcije village, demolition of the local mosque and abuse and taking around 160 Bosnian civilians to a concentration camp in Doboj on June 12, 1992,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The witnesses said that, on that day "the Serbian army" came to their village and "mined the mosque" and then took all men "in the direction of Doboj" by buses.

"I found out that my husband was used as a live shield and that he died in Makljenovac place on July 12, 1992," said Senada Ahmic in the courtroom. She added that the body of her husband and 12 other neighbours were exhumed in 1998.

The story told by second witness Vahida Sehic was similar to this one. She said that her husband's cousin told her that her husband was "no longer with us" and that he was used as human shield and killed.

The indictment alleges that Serbian war criminal Predrag Kujundzic participated in taking 50 detained Bosnian civilians from a concentration camp near Doboj and "using them as human shields" in Makljenovac, where at least 16 of them were killed.

Witness Ferida Ahmic said that the genocidal Serbian aggressor detained her husband Zijad and son Nermin to a concentration camp and that she saw Zijad for the last time one day before he was killed, when he was brought by the genocidal Serbian fascists to a place near their house to perform some forced labor.

"He said that there was going to be some exchange, but it did not happen. They used them as human shields. My son survived and he said that they were half-naked, when they lined them in five rows. When the shooting started, people started falling dead and he also fell down with them. He was wounded, but he survived," said Ferida Ahmic, adding that her husband and 13 residents of Bukovacke Civcije village were killed on that day.

Ahmic claims to have heard, the day when her husband was taken away, that "Predo and his Unit" came to their village. Answering the Prosecutor's additional question, she explained that she was talking about Serbian war criminal Predrag "Predo" Kujundzic.

Witness Rukija Mujanovic also spoke about the war crimes committed by the genocidal Serbian aggressor in Bukovacke Civcije, describing her last meeting with her husband.

"My husband used to work in Kotorsko and my daughter asked if we could go and see the bus, in which her father was. The bus stopped for one second only and we managed to see him. And then it left," Mujanovic said. Later on she found out that her husband was used as a human shield and that he was killed on July 12.

"A neighbour, who was released, told me: 'Meho was killed. He is not coming back home,'" the witness said with tears in her eyes.

The witnesses said that the remaining residents of Bukovacke Civcije were forced by the genocidal Serbian fascists to perform forced labor, including digging and cherry picking, every day as of June 12, 1992.

"We dug every day, from dusk till dawn. Every morning we had to bring our picks and food for one day and come to the mosque. A truck would then come and they would load us on it," said witness Vahida Sehic.

As mentioned by the witnesses, when leaving Bukovacke Civcije in mid 1993, all residents were forced by the genocidal Serbian aggressor to sign a statement waiving their property "voluntarily".

The trial of Serbian war criminal Predrag Kujundzic is due to continue before the Bosnian State Court on May 7.
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ALKALAJ: NO LEGAL BASIS FOR BOSNIAN CENTRAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION DECISION

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (April 28,2008) - The Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister Sven Alkalaj is surprised by the Bosnian Central Elections Commission decision which suspended him and Deputy Defence Minister Igor Crnadak and Deputy Civil Affairs Minister Senad Sepic from applying to any of the positions obtained through elections or immediate elections in the following four years.

The Commission stated that the three officials breeched the decrees of the Bosnian Law on Collision of Interest. Minister Alkalaj announced to make an appeal to the department court.

The Bosnian Central Elections Commission determined that Alkalaj performed two functions in the period from February 9 2007 to January 21 2008 – he was the Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister and a member of the VGT Insurance Visoko Managing Board, which made business with the Bosnian state in the amount of over 5.000,00 Bosnian Marks per a year.

However,Alkalaj stated at a press conference in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo that he has still not obtained an official information from the Commission, and added that no factual or legal basis existed for such a decision.

He stated that the documents which have been submitted to the Commission clearly state that there is no collision of interest, for the circumstance according to which he was a member of the company’s Managing Board at a time does not, by itself, stand as a breech of law. He had resigned the position of the Managing Board member prior to the Commission’s decision.

”As a minister, I have gained no material use for I have given up all the incomes for membership at the Managing Board”, Alkalaj stated and added that after his nomination to the position of the Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister, the insurance company did not make a single agreement with the Bosnian state.

He is of the opinion that it is obvious that certain members of the Bosnian Central Elections commission do not care a lot about the facts. They were exclusively lead by the political goals.

He said that certain political parties, “for reasons already known to the public”, have been taking an action against him for some time. He also said that some members of the Bosnian Central Elections Commission had personal motifs, for they expect that it is a good way of preventing announcement of the data and initiation of procedures related to their illegal actions, at the previous functions they performed.

However, the key reason for this decision is seen by Minister Alkalaj in the fact that the country’s foreign policy is being created inside, not outside of Bosnia and that the position of Bosnia is growing stronger day by day in the world.

”It is obvious that positive results of such policy are seen, especially when we talk about the acceleration of integration of Bosnia into EU and NATO. It is clear that those who openly say things that are not in the interest of Bosnia have their reasons for that to happen”, the Bosnian Foreign Affairs Minister Sven Alkalaj said.
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