YUGOSLAV ARMY PARTICIPATED IN THE SIEGE OF THE BOSNIAN CAPITAL SARAJEVO

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (November 25,2008) - Elite Yugoslav Army units participated in the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo in 1993,former high-ranking VJ officer Borivoje Tešić told the trial of former Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (Vojska Jugoslavije "VJ") Serbian war criminal Momčilo Perišić before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Tešić confirmed yesterday that he had led a special VJ unit, some 100 strong, in the region around the Sarajevo suburb of Vogošća in late December 1993.

At the time, Tešić was an operative officer in the VJ’s Guards Brigade.

He also confirmed that the VJ’s 72nd Special Brigade had also been active in Vogošća, adding that he had received orders from then Special Corps Chief-of-Staff Ljubiša Stanimirović to assist in the evacuation of the brigade’s members and the recovery of the corpses of eight special unit members.

Tešić said that as commander of the Special Corps, Miodrag Panić had not had the authority to order such a maneuver, which was why he had presumed that the orders had come from VJ HQ in Belgrade,Serbia.

Serbian war criminal Momčilo Perišić was VJ commander-in-chief at the time. Tešić also told the court that VJ officers had sent reports on a daily basis to the VJ’s Special Corps Operations Center.

Most of the witness’s testimony has been closed to the public, because of the confidentiality of the documents in question.

Serbian war criminal Momčilo Perišić is accused of providing logistical and financial support to supporting the genocidal paramilitary fascist forces of the Serbians living in Bosnia and Croatia, as well as of playing a major role in a four-year siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo that left about 12,000 Bosnian civilians dead, the bombing of the Croatian capital Zagreb that killed seven Croatian civilians and injured 194 and participation in the Srebrenica genocide, where over 10,000 Bosnian civilians were mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in July 1995.
.

SECRETARY GENERAL OF MUSLIM WORLD LEAGUE MET WITH HEAD OF BOSNIAN HAJJ MISSION

HOLY CITY OF MAKKAH, Saudi Arabia (November 25,2008) - Secretary General of Muslim World League (MWL) Dr Abdullah Al-Turki received here yesterday Head of the Bosnian Hajj Mission Sheikh Mursal Mahmoud Tawfeeq.

Speaking on the occasion, Tawfeeq highlighted the great efforts being exerted by the Saudi Government to ensure the comfort of the pilgrims.

He noted that the Bosnian Muslims have benefited from the Islamic centers established by the Kingdom in Bosnia and so many of Bosnian students study at the schools and institutes established by Saudi Arabia in the country.
.

BOSNIA BECAME ASSOCIATED TO THE SEVENTH EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK RESEARCH PROGRAMME (FP7)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (November 25,2008) - Yesterday, Bosnia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Commission which will allow full access to the EC's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) which runs from 2007 to 2013.

This "associated status" will allow Bosnia to participate in all calls for proposals and compete on an equal footing with the EU Member States and the other associated countries for research co-operation and support actions funded under FP7, as of 1 January 2009.

This agreement is an important step in Bosnia's integration into the European Research Area and in the pre-accession process for European Union membership. Bosnia is the 12th country associated to FP7.

The status of FP7 associated country will provide all scientific entities from Bosnia – researchers, universities, associations or companies – with the possibility of participating in research cooperation with their counterparts across European Union and the rest of the world in order to build up their scientific excellence, including in scientific fields crucial to facilitate the implementation of EU legislation and standards.

With Bosnia and Herzegovina, all Western Balkan countries are now associated to FP7 which will increase the research opportunities in the Region and support the regional competitiveness.

“I am pleased to see that with Bosnia's association to the FP7, we have all the Balkan countries on board to participate in the European Research Area”, said Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

“Research cooperation with Europe's scientific community is a tool that can smooth the way for the integration process of candidate and potential candidate countries into the European Union. In addition to forging links with scientists and companies across Europe, Bosnia will have new opportunities to work with its regional partners in addressing common challenges."

Commissioner Potočnik signed the Memorandum on behalf of the European Commission at a ceremony held in Brussels yesterday, with the Bosnian Minister for Civil Affairs Sredoje Novic, who represented Bosnia.

The FP7 supports scientific research in the EU and the broader European Research Area with a budget of almost 55 billion Euros over a time span of 7 years (2007-2013). It allows for funding of collaborative research in strategic areas such as health; energy; climate change, information technologies, nanotechnology or transport. FP7 also stimulates the mobility of researchers through Marie-Curie grants and has special programmes to support capacity building such as research infrastructure, research for small and medium sized enterprises and Science in Society.

The associated countries to date are Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania.
.

IMF: GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS WILL NOT SLOW DOWN BOSNIA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 25,2008) - In a statement for the media after a meeting with Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, IMF’s Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal asserted yesterday that Bosnia is well-positioned macroeconomically to respond to the challenges of the global financial crisis.

Economic growth has been high and inflation rate low in the past period, Portugal said, and welcomed the start of operations of the Fiscal Council. He also underlined the importance of adopting entity and national budgets by the end of this year.

Both sides agreed in their assessment that the global financial crisis will not slow down Bosnia’s economic growth dramatically. An IMF monitoring team will visit Bosnia to help with the crisis management.
.