Transcript of the International Agencies’ Joint Press Conference

Mario Brkic, OHR

Mersiha Causevic-Podzic, OSCE

Jem Thomas, EUFOR


 


OHR


Crucial Week: Parliamentarians’ Approval Will
Open Road to Europe


The Federation House of Representatives will today discuss the EC approved
agreement on police reform that was accepted last week by the RSNA and
the Council of Ministers and yesterday by the FBiH Government. The
Federation House of Peoples will discuss the agreement tomorrow, and the BiH
Parliament will discuss it on Friday.


This means that by the end of this week parliamentarians can have cleared the
way for BiH to begin moving down the path to EU membership.


The parliaments must adopt the text of the agreement as
it stands, without any amendments, and they must do this without delay.
Procedurally, the European Commission will require a certain amount of time to
prepare a positive recommendation to the European Council, so if BiH wants to
begin
SAA
negotiations by the end of
this year the parliamentarians must approve the agreement this week.


It should be made absolutely clear that this agreement will provide the
people of BiH with policing based on the three principles laid down by the
European Commission.



  • No political interference with operational policing
  • All legislative and budgetary competencies for all
    police matters must be vested at the State level.
  • Functional local police areas must be determined by technical policing
    criteria, where operational command is exercised at the local level.

This means that there will be only one Ministry of Interior at the State
level; no Ministries at lower levels and Police regions will be based on
technical criteria, not on political criteria, which means that in the few areas
necessary, they will cross the IEBL.


The OHR calls on all parliamentarians to endorse this agreement and open the
way for the launch of

SAA talks and for the
establishment of a modern, democratic and efficient single structure of
police in BiH.


RS Government responsible for
implementation of Dean Lukic Decision


Despite more positive statement by the RS Government presented in their
letter dated 7 October. The OHR requires evidence of implementation. The prime
responsibility for this still lies with the RS Ministry of Education
and the RS Government, and they are yet to take any concrete
action.  


Nothing less then full compliance to the HR’s Decision will suffice. The
RS Government has various options to adopt in order to
achieve this.  


Universities are public institutions and must uphold the Rule of Law Autonomy
is a privilege which must be exercised within the law, it is not a license
to break the Law. Otherwise we have chaos. A Professor of law must
knowthis. 


This is not about deciding who has the right to be a University
professor or who should be denied the right to work. Mr. Lukic
can serve as a professor at a  non public
university should he secure an appointment, but not at
a public University funded by  taxpayers.


As Professor of Law he should understand this, and he should
understand the bearing of HR’s Decisions in the BiH legal
framework.


Most importantly we expect the RS Government and Ministry of
Education to protect the interests of students and to make
sure that this situation and the illegal teaching of Lukic
does not derogate students’ educational rights and
privileges or hamper their academic future.


Most importantly we expect RS Government and Ministry of Education to
protect the students and to make sure that this situation and
illegal teaching of Lukic does not derogate students educational rights and
privileges and hampers their academic future.



OSCE


No statement.


 


EUFOR


EUFOR troops contributed to operations in the

Banja Luka

area on Sunday and
Monday morning, aimed at disrupting organized crime networks which support PIFWC
activity.  The media has already reported on these operations. 


However, it must be stressed that these operations were ordered and directed
by the local law enforcement agencies of the Republika Srpska and EUFOR provided
additional security assistance at their request – not the other way
around. 


EUFOR has been impressed by the professionalism and the coordination that the
Republika Srpska Police has demonstrated throughout these operations.  We
have been delighted to be able to contributeto the Republika Srpska Police
operations and look forward to working with them in the future. 


Organized crime and its continued support to PIFWCs present a major threat to
the future of this country.  EUFOR welcomes the concerted actions of the
authorities across the country to stamp this blight out.  These operations
demonstrate their, and EUFOR’s, resolve to disrupt and destroy these
networks.


EUFOR confirms that Major-General David Leakey
CBE will complete his term as Commander of
EUFOR in early December. He will hand over command of EUFOR to Major-General
Gian Marco Chiarini of the Italian Army during a ceremony on 6 December
2005
.


Further details on the change of command ceremony and a full curriculum vitae
of Major General Chiarini will be made available in due course.


 


RTQs


Zorica Rulj, RTRS


Could you comment the announcements made by the parties from Republica Srpska
that they will not support the budget in Parliament if it does not include the
item concerning the population census?


OHR:


Yes.  The question of the census, as we have already said, is a matter
which the

Bosnia and
Herzegovina

government has to deal with. In
this case they should bear in mind several things: the large expenses required
to do this and the amount of time which is needed in order for this to be
carried out and organized.  The government also needs to resolve the issue
of the adequacy, that is the inadequacy of the statistical system, that is the
method of collecting information within a statistical system, which is also one
of the requirements of the Feasibility study for

Bosnia and
Herzegovina

. The Law on Statistics of Bosnia
and

Herzegovina


was adopted by the B&H Parliament in April, but has not yet been implemented
due to the refusal of Republica Srpska, that is the refusal of the Agency of
Republica Srpska to introduce this into the
system.     

Europa.ba