LAJCAK CONTINUES TO TOLERATE SWORN ENEMIES OF BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 3,2008) – Leader of the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia,Serbian fascist Milorad Dodik’s Saturday "performance", as well as the new silence from the International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak and the Office of the High Representative (OHR), has concerned the great majority of Bosnian citizens with good reason,the Bosnian Social Democratic Party said yesterday.

The Bosnian Social Democratic Party points out that, by addressing the Congress of the Serbian Minority Council in Croatia, a sworn enemy of Bosnia,Serbian fascist Milorad Dodik said that Bosnia was “imposed” on the Serbians living in Bosnia.

The Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR) downplayed Serbian fascist's remarks,protecting him once again:

“It is a destructive not a constructive way of conducting the pre-electoral campaign,” the OHR said in its statement. “Using a nationalist platform for one’s own promotion is counter-productive to the creation of a healthy political atmosphere."

The Bosnian Social Democratic Party points out that, by addressing the Congress of the Serbian Minority Council in Croatia, Serbian fascist Milorad Dodik has also misused this opportunity "to inseminate the seed which will never grow", and its name is the statehood of the genocidal Serbian fascist creature in Bosnia "RS".

”The Bosnian Social Democratic Party condemns most pointedly the silence and passivity of the High Representative Miroslav Lajcak, and invites him to start acting after two years within his mandate in Bosnia”, it is said in the announcement.
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LAJCAK AND BELKA DISCUSSED POLITICAL SITUATION IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 3,2008) – The International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia (HR/EUSR), Miroslav Lajčák, met yesterday with Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe,Marek Belka, to discuss the current political and economic situation in Bosnia.

Both HR/EUSR Lajčák and Secretary Belka reaffirmed importance of Bosnia's full commitment to fulfilling the five objectives and two conditions that need to be met before OHR transition.

Lajčák, briefed the Secretary Belka on political situation and future challenges ahead of Bosnia where he reported that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and the EU will be signed on 16 June. When Bosnia signs the SAA, one of the conditions for transition of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to the Office of the EU Special Representative (EUSR) will be met. The other condition – a positive assessment of the situation in Bosnia will also have to be achieved.

With regard to the economic situation in Bosnia Lajčák emphasized that adoption of Platform for Action at OHR’s Economic Conference of 16 October 2007 has triggered progress on some long-standing economic reforms. Also, the Bosnian State Parliament is expected to adopt the Law on the National Fiscal Council, a European Partnership requirement. Some progress is evident in the negotiations on the issue of indirect tax revenues allocation, although there has been no final agreement yet.
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BOSNIA AND SLOVENIA RATIFIED AGREEMENT ON SOCIAL INSURANCE

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (June 3,2008) – The Slovenian Foreign Ministry Secretary Andrej Ster and the Bosnian Ambassador to Slovenia Izmir Talic exchanged yesterday documents on the ratification of the agreement on social insurance between Slovenia and Bosnia, which is to enter into force on 1 July.

The agreement covers health, pension and disability insurance, maternity protection, occupational injuries and diseases, and insurance for the case of unemployment.

Under the agreement, employed insured persons who are citizens of one country and have a permanent residence in the other country will be provided with health care services in the country in which they work.

The agreement also regulates the issue of adjustment of pensions and insurance periods calculated in accordance with the legislation of the former Yugoslavia on pension and disability insurance for soldiers.

The agreement which was signed in February last year during a visit by Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa to Bosnia. Similar agreement have been signed with Croatia and Macedonia.
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28 GENOCIDE VICTIMS FROM ZVORNIK BURIED IN KALESIJA

KALESIJA, Bosnia (June 3,2008) – The burial of 28 identified genocide victims from the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik that were murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in June 1992 was performed on the Shahid Cemetery Memici, near the northern Bosnian town of Kalesija, near Tuzla,.

The memory on the genocide victims was annotated under the slogan “Not to forget the days of the sorrow and pain”.

Most of the genocide victims that were buried were exhumed from the mass grave Crni vrh, municipality of Zvornik, while the rest of the bodies of the genocide vistims were found in another two mass graves in the eastern Bosnia.

According to the testimonies of the witnesses,the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor mass murdered these Bosnian civilians on the location called Bijeli Potok. The youngest victim of this mass murder is Emir Selimovic who was 18 years old when he was murdered, and the oldest victim was Ramo Tuskunovic who was 86 years old when the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor murdered him.
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MOSTAR JOINS SOUTH ADRIATIC EURODISTRICT

MOSTAR, Bosnia (June 3,2008) - The representatives of five countries that have the Adriatic Sea in common have established the South Adriatic Eurodistrict as a cooperation platform for the communities of Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Italy. They will have access to funds worth EUR 33 million, intended for joint infrastructural development projects.

The town that joined the district from Bosnia is Mostar. The other towns are Dubrovnik (Croatia), Scutari (Albania), Tivat, Budva, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Ulcinj (Montenegro) and several Italian towns.

An agreement about this Eurodistrict was reached in Strasbourg on May 28, by the heads of Adriatic regions and cities. The first formal meeting has been scheduled for mid September, in Mostar
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BOSNIA MODERATELY INDEBTED

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 3,2008) - As of December 31, 2007, the national debt of Bosnia amounted to 3,894,420,935 Bosnian Marks (1,991,185,806 Euros), and to service the foreign debt it takes around 2 per cent of the GDP a year, which makes the country moderately indebted.

According to a report adopted by the Bosnian government, a relative share of the foreign debt in the GDP is showing a downward tendency. Loans from the World Bank account for the biggest share of this (50.95 per cent of the total debt), while the smallest portion is owed to the International Monetary Fund (0.08 per cent).

Caution is required in the future rate of borrowing, considering that regulation of the interior debt has not been finalized yet.
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WORLD BANK APPROVES 3,4 MILLION USD FOR ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION PROJECTS IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 3,2008) - The World Bank has approved a 3.4 million US Dollars grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for a project about forest and protected mountain areas in Bosnia, aimed at protecting the biodiversity of global importance in critical forest and mountain eco-systems.

The project consists of three mutually related components, and the WB hopes that it would be “the first out of many efforts to raise the status of protection and preservation of BH’s biologically diverse eco-systems”, the head of the World Bank’s Office in Bosnia – Marco Mantovanelli said.
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BOSNIA TO BEGIN ISSUING BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS IN MARCH 2009

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 3,2008) - The Bosnian Minister of Civil Affairs Sredoje Novic has announced that the issuing of new biometric Bosnian passports would begin in March 2009. All technical conditions have been met, and offers to providing the document will be invited within the next month.

All “old” passports will be valid until their expiry date, Novic said, which means that there would be a five-year transitional period for all passports issued before March next year. A deadline for transfer to biometrics is expected to be contained within the EC’s visa liberalization roadmap.

A decision to introduce biometric passports in Bosnia was adopted by the Bosnian government last year.Initially, the Bosnian Ministry of Civil Affairs planned to start issuing biometric passports by November 1,2008.

A biometric passport is a combined paper and electronic identity document that uses biometrics to authenticate the citizenship of travelers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny computer chip, much like information stored on smartcards. Like some smartcards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.
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