BOSNIA HAS THE LARGEST OIL DEPOSITS IN EUROPE

TUZLA, Bosnia (May 22 ,2008) - Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Mining in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla, Abdulah Basic, told Bosnian media yesterday that some 500 million tonnes of oil could be located in several locations in the northern Bosnia as well as further in the southern Bosnia in a the depth of between 4,000 and 6,000 metres.His comments were triggered by an incident on May 12, when a man digging a water well in the village of Kadrici near Tuzla, hit a pocket of natural gas. The gas ignited creating a column of fire which according to eyewitnesses was at least 20 metres high.

In the past, local media have occasionally touched upon the possibility of oil deposits under Bosnia. According to several Bosnian experts, British Petroleum (BP) and American Oil Company, AMOCO, now also part of BP, were interested in potential oil resources in Bosnia before the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.

In cooperation with these two companies, one of the biggest Bosnian construction companies, Energoinvest, carried out a research which proved the existence of oil pools in the northern region of Posavina, as well as in several locations in the south.

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

Yet even after the end of the war, neither the Bosnian government nor international companies showed interest to continue with the research. However this may be changing with the recent skyrocketing of oil and food prices on global markets.

“First barrels of oil from Bosnia could be excavated as soon as the next 15 years, under the condition that local governments have an interest in this,” Basic stated.
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NEW MASS GRAVE FOUND IN EASTERN BOSNIA

ZVORNIK, Bosnia (May 22 ,2008) - Bosnian forensic experts found a new mass grave today believed to contain the bodies of more than 40 Bosnian civilians murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The grave was found near the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik, Murat Hurtic of the Bosnian Commission on Missing Persons said.

Hurtic said the mass grave was believed to contain the bodies of 42 Bosnian civilians murdered in April and May 1992, soon after the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor attacked Zvornik.

The exhumation, he said, should be completed in the next few days.

Some 30,000 people went missing during the 1992-95 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia and over the years Bosnian experts have been finding their bodies in hundreds of mass graves throughout the country.

Once a body is exhumed, it goes through an identification process that includes DNA analysis before it is released to the family. So far about 17,000 bodies have been found.
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LAJCAK: THE CLOSURE OF THE OHR IS NEAR

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (May 22 ,2008) – The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcák said the closure of the Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR), is a matter of months.

In an interview published yesterday by Slovak daily Hospodarske Noviny,Lajcak, stressed the international community still had work to do in Bosnia and refused to speculate on when the OHR would be finally closed.

"I don’t want to speculate about when this would be, but we are definitely talking about months, and not years", Lajcak said.

In his recent half-annual report before the UN Security Council, Lajcak asserted that the country had made significant progress, but the work of the international community in Bosnia is not over yet.

Ambassador Lajčák said the main goal of the International Community from now on “will be to ensure that EU integration is at the top of the political agenda as the main cohesive factor.”

He stressed that “EU integration addresses fundamental issues of the Bosnian statehood” and added that “the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia (EUSR) is therefore the natural successor to the OHR as the principal coordinator of international engagement in Bosnia, once the time for OHR closure is right.”
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PLASSNIK: BOSNIA TO SIGN THE SAA WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION ON JUNE 16

VIENNA, Austria (May 22 ,2008) – Bosnia will sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union on June 16 in Luxemburg, confirmed on yesterday the Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister Ursula Plassnik.

"The efforts Bosnia invested in economic and political reforms are now giving results and make it possible to complete the set of agreements between the EU and southeastern European states”, stated Plassnik in the press release.

She received a green light from the Austrian government to sign the SAA with Bosnia at the ceremony which will be held on June 16 in Luxemburg.

The SAA was initialed on December 2007 between Bosnia and the EU and its signing depended on the adoption of the police reform which was completed by Bosnian State Parliament in April.
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TRIAL AGAINST UNITED NATIONS AND NETHERLANDS TO BEGIN ON JUNE 18

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (May 22 ,2008) – An international team of lawyers filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of approximately 6,000 genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica against the Dutch State and the United Nations (UN) for helping the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor commit genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

The lawsuit contains 8.000 individual cases with around 6.000 plaintiffs.

Finally, after one year, the first hearing in this case will be held on 18 June 2008 at 10 a.m. at the District Court at The Hague,the Netherlands.

Late last year, the court declared that the UN is in default of appearance.

The UN had announced through other channels that it would be exercising its right to immunity and had therefore chosen not to appear as litigant in the trial.

The genocide victims' families launched the lawsuit against the Netherlands and the U.N arguing the Dutch U.N. soldiers were to blame for the genocide in Sreberenica because they refused crucial air support to their own troops defending the Bosnian town.

The Dutch U.N. soldiers abandoned the enclave instead,and the genocidal Serbian aggressor mass murdered up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians who had relied on protection from the Dutch U.N. troops.

Former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on genocide charges over Srebrenica, are still on the run.

Dismayed by the failure to bring to justice the two chief suspects, the genocide victims' families say they have turned to a Dutch court for recognition and redress for the tragedy.

The Dutch state has always said its troops were abandoned by the U.N. which gave them no air support, but public documents actually show a network of Dutch military officials within the U.N. blocked air support because they feared their soldiers could be hit by friendly fire, the genocide victims families' lawyers said.

Despite repeated attempts by both the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office and the attorney of the Dutch State to have the claims of the genocide survivors declared inadmissible, the judge decided in the favor of the genocide survivors.

During this crucially important hearing, proceedings will only deal with the issue of whether the UN,despite its direct involvement in the genocide in Bosnia,is entitled to immunity in this extraordinary case.

Given the possible implications for the UN, this trial will be receiving worldwide attention. The court has already indicated that additional measures will be taken in this respect for media and other purposes.
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CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE TO BE ORGANIZED IN SARAJEVO IN JUNE

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (May 22 ,2008) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with the Bosnian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations will host a conference “Climate Change Challenges in Bosnia”, which will take place in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on June 2 - 3.

"Since Bosnia has finally ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the issue of climate change has become one of the foremost global priorities, it is the right moment to improve the understanding of key national stakeholders on opportunities and economic and social development benefits for the country, which joining the Protocol, activating it’s development mechanisms, and the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requirements can bring to Bosnia," UNDP said.

The conference aims to gaining a better understanding of the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and the needs for legislative, institution and capacity building in this regard.

Through the conference, the participants will discuss the changes in institutional and regulatory framework needed to spearhead the carbon emission reductions and come up with recommendations on the best ways to attract and facilitate investments in this sector.
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BOSNIA AMONG COUNTRIES WITH THE LOWEST BIRTH RATE IN THE WORLD

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (May 22,2008) – Bosnia along with South Korea, Belize, Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine is a country with lowest birth rate in the world, stated yesterday the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 2006 fertility rate, measured by average number of newly born by one woman, decreased in these countries from 1.4 to 1.2 in 2000 and 1.6 in 1990, shows the WHO records.

Right behind these countries are Japan, Singapore, Andorra, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, San Marino and Slovenia.

The largest fertility rate is in Niger and Afghanistan, 7.3 and 7.2
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