CAMPAIGNING FOR LOCAL ELECTION IN BOSNIA OFFICIALLY OPENS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 5,2008) - Campaigning for Bosnia’s local elections has officially opened amid warnings of stern sanctions against those found guilty of radical and divisive rhetoric.The Bosnian Central Election Commission stressed that it has a wide range of sanctions at its disposal – starting from financial penalties to the removal of candidates and even entire parties – in order to prevent the further radicalisation of the political scene.

However, when asked, election commission officials’ were not able to explain what kind of statements would be considered unacceptable or illegal. The election commission added that every incident will be regarded and analysed independently.

The Office of the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia (OHR), has also warned it has powers to dismiss those who are found to work against the Bosnian Constitution.

Yet some Bosnian politicians and analysts have complained that this was just an empty threat as the Office of the High Representative has failed to punish those accused of hardline statements ahead of the 2006 general elections.

“Already now, although the pre-election campaign hasn’t even started officially, we have examples of such rhetoric being used. Yet there were no sanctions during the last elections,” the general secretary of the largest Bosnian political party,the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Amir Zukic, told media.

“The OHR has a possibility to sanction the perpetrators, but obviously they don’t want to do that,” he added.

Such comments refer in particular to the leader of the genocidal Serbian fascist creature in Bosnia "RS", Serbian fascist Milorad Dodik, whose party ,SNSD, swept most votes of the Serbians living in Bosnia,who has proved on numerous occasions that he is a true enemy of Bosnia.

Most political parties will already organise their first, central rallies today and over the weekend. The pre-election campaign will last until October 4, when a 24 hour election silence starts ahead of the October 5 ballot.

A total of 3,024,127 Bosnian citizens are registered to vote in 4,985 polling stations across the country.

A total of 80 political parties, alliances and independent lists are registered to participate in the ballot with 29,043 verified candidates, who will compete for positions in 149 municipalities as well as in the Brcko District.
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BOSNIAN PRESIDENT URGES TURKISH INVESTORS TO INVEST MORE IN BOSNIA

ISTANBUL, Turkey (September 5,2008) - The Bosnian President Haris Silajdzic said yesterday that Bosnia's investment potential is significant but that resources will begin to diminish and rise in price in the coming years if investors do not hurry.

"In two or three years, investing in Bosnia will be very expensive so we invite Turkish investors to act quickly," President Silajdzic said in İstanbul at a joint meeting of the Turkish-Bosnian Business Council (TBBC) organized by the Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) at the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Plaza.

President Silajdzic also said Bosnia and Turkey have very good relations but that this is not apparent in the economic area as there is a wide gap in trade between the two countries.

"We have had talks on the political dimension in Ankara and we mutually think that economic relations should be improved," he said, adding that this could be achieved by more investment in Bosnia.

Turkey ranks among the top 10 countries that invested in Bosnia from May 1994 through the end of last year. In comparison, Austria topped the list of investors in Bosnia with 1.294 billion Euros.

Milan Lovric, co-president of the TBBC, said the amount of foreign direct investments in Bosnia has increased dramatically, to 1.6 billion Euros last year from 564 million Euros in 2006.

"Our country is small but has big potential," he said regarding the country, which covers approximately 51,209 square kilometers of land and has a population of 3.8 million.

In 2006, Bosnian nominal gross domestic product [GDP] reached 9.78 billion Euros. Real GDP growth was 6.2 percent, continuing the underlying trend of growth of around 5.5-6.0 percent," he said.

Lovric said the most attractive investment areas in Bosnia are energy, timber, tourism and chain stores that sell electronics targeting the youth, whose buying power has grown.

President Silajdzic added that an agreement with Turkey signed in 2005 to eliminate double taxation was approved in Bosnia on July 28 of this year.
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BOSNIAN STATE PROSECUTOR REQUESTS CUSTODY EXTENSION FOR SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL RADOMIR VUKOVIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 5,2008) - The Bosnian State Prosecution filed a motion, requesting the custody extension for Serbian war criminal Radomir Vukovic, who is charged with Genocide, because he might attempt to flee to the genocidal Serbia or Russia should he be released. The Bosnian State Court will render its decision concerning this proposal at a later stage.

The indictment states that, from July 10 to July 19, 1995,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, Serbian war criminal Radomir Vukovic,a former member of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's formations, participated in a joint criminal enterprise, with an aim of forcibly deporting about 40 thousand of Bosnian civilians from the UN protected zone in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Besides that Serbian war criminal Radomir Vukovic participated in the mass murder of about 10 thousand Bosnian civilians.Serbian war criminal Radomir Vukovic is considered responsible for the mass murder of about 1500 Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian village of Kravice on July 13,1995. It is stated that he threw bombs at the Bosnian civilians, while other genocidal Serbian aggressor's soldiers were murdering them by shooting from machine guns and throwing bombs at them.

Following his extradition to Bosnia, the Bosnian State Court ordered him into a one-month custody starting in early August this year.

"The indictee has informed the Court that he does not have a registered place of residence in Bosnia. The Prosecution has been informed that the indictee's wife lives and works in Belgrade (Serbia). Therefore, he does not have a motive to stay in Bosnia. Besides that he used to work in Russia, where he assumingly established contacts with local people. He probably can find a job in that country. The Prosecution believes that he might leave his family and look for a job in Russia," Prosecutor Kwai Hong Ip said.

The Bosnian State Prosecutior said that Serbian war criminal Radomir Vukovic might "put pressure on accomplices and helpers, asking them to change their statements".

Defence attorney Radivoje Lazarevic said that the motion itself was "contradictory".

"On the one hand the Prosecutor claims that there is a danger that the indictee might try to flee to Serbia, should he be released from custody. On the other hand, he claims that, should he be at liberty, he might attempt to influence witnesses, who live in another country. The witnesses have given their statements two or three times already. It is not clear how he can change those statements. I am absolutely certain that the conditions for extending his custody have not been met," Lazarevic considers.
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IRANIAN COMPANY FARAB TO BUILD NEW HYDRO POWER PLANTS IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 5,2008) - Representatives of the leading Iranian company for building hydro power plants expressed their interest in building this kind of facilities in Bosnia, in Sarajevo today.

During a meeting with the FBIH entity’s energy minister Vahid Heco, they emphasized that the Export Development Bank of Iran had already provided funding for this investment, and Farab is ready to start immediately.

The Iranian delegation offered two investment models for this project – one in which a favourable loan would be taken out by the FBIH entity government from the export bank, and Farab would be the contractor, with local subcontractors, and another one according to which Farab would make a direct investment, and hand over the facility after a certain amount of time.
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