Srpska Republika News Agency (SRNA), 97-09-13

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From: The Serbian Unity Congress Server at http://www.suc.org

SEPT. 13 1997 DAY

NEWS REVIEW, REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

SARAJEVO - The president from RS in the Presidency of B&H, Momcilo Krajisnik, expressed his belief that the problems emerged in the voting of Serbs in the Municipality of Brcko will be overcome. Krajisnik announced the possibility that the Serbs, who have registered themselves properly, but of which the names are not included in the voter registration list for Brcko, will cast their ballots which are then to be placed into a separate box.

BANJALUKA - After she voted at a pooling station located at the Banjalucka Bank, the RS president Biljana Plavsic stressed that the commenced democratisation is an irrepressible process in all of the Serbian lands.

BANJALUKA - At a meeting held in Banjaluka between the RS president Biljana Plavsic and the OSCE special representative for monitoring the elections in RS and the Federation of B&H, Javier Ruperez, it was agreed to that all of the social and political problems in RS and the FB&H be resolved democratically and within the Constitution. After the meeting held in camera, Ruperez stated for journalists that according to this what he saw while he was visiting the pooling stations in Banjaluka, he came to a conclusion that the local elections in the city are proceeding quite regularly.

SARAJEVO - While casting his vote in Pale, the vice-premier of the RS Government, Velibor Ostojic, assessed that because of 'the irregular conditions created after the OSCE imposed and supplemented the electoral rules, the local elections in RS are not proceeding in completely normal and regular conditions'. As he said, we are dealing here with the non- compliance with the agreement made at the recently held meeting in Belgrade, which was attended by the president from RS in the Presidency of B&H, Momcilo Krajisnik, the president of the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic and the High Representative of the international community, Carlos Westendorp.

SARAJEVO - His Holiness Metropolitan Dabrobosanski, Nikolai, confirmed that he was not able to vote at the local elections in RS because, as he said, his name was not included in the voter registration list. 'I was told that I can not fulfil my citizen's duty because I was in Dalmatia, in Croatia, in 1991. It is true, but that is not my homeland. My homeland is Bosnia and Hercegovina', explained the Metropolitan Nikolai.

BANJALUKA - The OSCE Mission spokesman, Johann Ferhaiden, confirmed in Banjaluka that according to the rough assessments more than 15% of the electorate in RS and the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina have voted until 12:00 hrs, today. At a regular press conference, Ferhaiden expressed his satisfaction with the fact that all of the citizens from RS and the Federation of B&H will be able to fulfil their citizen's duty because the talks between the chairman of the Provisional Electoral Commission, Robert Frowick, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the deputy chief of the OSCE Mission, Richard Elerkman and representatives of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) were successfully concluded on September 12.

SARAJEVO - The Republic Electoral Commission does not have at the moment complete data on whether all the pooling stations in RS are opened and whether the elections are proceeding without any difficulties.

BRCKO - Out of 4,895 voters from the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, some 1,225 or 25% voted until 14:00 hrs at the pooling station No. 20 in Brod, in the zone of separation in Brcko. Because of a big crowd, this polling station is divided into three sections, while the voters are assigned in alphabetical order.

BRCKO - The mayor of Brcko, Miodrag Pajic, and the chief of the OSCE Office to Brcko, Jessy Bunch, are to meet in order to try to resolve all of the problems in the voting, because of which the pooling station No. 001 in Krepsic was closed. The voting was interrupted after it was found out that out of 850 registered voters there were only 205 voters on the final voter registration list. The majority of residents in Krepsic has been living in this place even before the war broke out.

BRCKO - In the checking of only two out of 20 balloting stations in Brcko, it was found out that some 1,020 Serbs were left out from the final voter registration list in regard to the provisional voter registration list, stated the head of the Local Electoral Commission, Teodor Gavric.

BRCKO - This morning, at about 9:00 hrs, the OSCE supervisors allowed at the balloting station for voting in absentia that persons, of which the pleas were rejected, can vote in Brcko on unverified ballots which are then to be placed in envelopes and forwarded to Sarajevo to be verified.

BRCKO - The names of about 463 Serb voters, who were left out from the final registration list by fault, were found on the OSCE computer. Because of this the balloting station No. 1 in the Municipality of Brcko will be reopened at 15:00 hrs., confirmed the PEC head, Teodor Gavric. This morning, at about 9:00 hrs, it was found out that out of 900 voters, who were registered twice on the provisional voter registration list, only 180 voters were registered on the final list.

BRCKO - The supervisor for Brcko, Robert Farrand, expressed his satisfaction with the unfolding of the local elections in the city. 'It isn't true that some people were left out from the final voter list, because everything is just in accordance with the OSCE rules and regulations. Also, it isn't true that the voting in Krepsic was disrupted, but the truth is that the RS had the voter registration lists in her hands a month ago, and any appeal is late today', specified Farrand.

BRCKO - The US mediator for the former Yugoslavia, Robert Gelbard, assessed that the elections in RS and the Federation of B&H are unfolding successfully, but he did not want to pass a comment on the great number of Serb voters who were left out from the final voter registration list in Brcko. In Brcko, Gelbard visited the polling stations for citizens from the Federation of B&H, but probably he is going to visit not even one of the stations at which Serbs are casting their votes with huge problems.

BRCKO - A balloting station with three points was opened in the zone of separation in the settlement of Brod for citizens from the Federation of B&H, who intend to vote for the local authorities in Brcko, in RS. As was agreed to, Muslims and Croats from the FB&H are to arrive by buses and private vehicles in the SFOR base, where from they will - after being searched - go in smaller groups to the balloting station. Some 4,000 Muslims and Croats are expected to come.

BANJALUKA - Out of 114,000 registered voters, about 16,000 persons voted in Banjaluka by 13:00 hrs., stated the Provisional Electoral Commission secretary, Branko Cvijic.

Banjaluka - The Banjaluka branch (Municipal Board) of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) informed the Electoral Appellation sub-Commission and the Commission of Experts for Media that it will ask for the annulment of the elections in Banjaluka because of a blatant violation of the electoral rules in the city. The objection signed by the head of the SDS Municipal Board, Vitomir Papovic, says that at about 10:00 hrs, the Serbian Radio, Studio-Banjaluka started broadcasting a programme on the occurrences that happened in the city on September 8, placing a stress on the SDS as 'the Party of thieves and criminals' and presenting a whole series of other lies.

BANJALUKA - The Provisional Electoral Commission (PEC) in Banjaluka warns that the number of voters for this largest electoral unit in RS was changed on an inexplicable method, because the first figure numbering 132,409 voters was reduced to 132,007 voters.

PARIS - The Paris 'Figaro' concludes that Russia does not look with friendliness at the announcements made by the USA about the dispatching of special planes for disturbing the Serb Radio- TV programme during the elections in RS. In an article titled 'Bad Russian Mood', Figaro writes that 'just a day before the elections Moscow made an objection to NATO saying that it was not enough consulted on the matter of an approach to the political crisis in RS'.

HAMBURG - The basic aim of the including of Muslim voters in the Serb electorate is to provide the Muslim leaders with the right to participate in the making of decisions in the RS governmental institutions, writes the weekly 'Die Zeit'. The article written by a Die Zeit's correspondent from Tuzla, Norbert Nidick, points out that that formula, according to the reliable information, is also suitable for the plans concerning the settling of Muslims in 'the Serb parts of the country'.

HAMBURG - The USA are determined to "break a backbone" to the RS leadership. The "successful" holding of municipal elections is an important phase in this, writes the German paper Kieler Nachrichten'. This thesis about "the breaking of the Serbian backbone by the USA, the paper confirmed with a statement made by an unnamed press spokesman of the USA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who openly acknowledged that Washington is counting on the victory of her favourites at the elections in RS".

LONDON - The British press believes that the local elections could lead to a change of the national structure of the authorities in RS and the Federation of B&H. The Daily Telegraph foresees that the local authority in Brcko and Srebrenica will be transferred into Muslim hands, while Drvar, which is presently governed by the Croats, will again be the Serbian, just as it has been all the time.

ZURICH - The Swiss paper 'Tagesanzeiger', writes about the NATO Secretary- General, Javier Solana's expectations that the local elections in RS and the FB&H will contribute to the consolidation of peace and the implementation of the Daytona Agreement. The paper underlines Solana's call to the leadership of RS, the FB&H and the parties to support SFOR and other international institutions participating in the process of strengthening and maintaining of peace.

ZURICH - The head of the Association of Serbs from Switzerland, Zvonko Jovanovic, confirmed that on September 12, the Serbs from Switzerland went aboard on six buses, heading to RS. They are expected to arrive in the afternoon, on September 13.

BRUSSELS - The strategic goals of the OSCE at the local elections in RS and the FB&H are embodied in the attempts to reconstruct the pre-war ethnic map at the municipal level, concluded the Belgium paper 'D' Morgen'. Such endeavours, maintains the paper, are evident in the fact that in the making of the voter registration lists, the OSCE gave - evading the principle of free-willingness - the priority to the option according to which refugees are to vote in their former places of residence, but not in the places they are presently living and they want to stay in.

ROME - The local elections in RS and the Federation of B&H will gave a small contribution to a unitary concept of B&H and will only confirm its ethnic division, this is a unanimous assessment by the Italian electronic media and press. The news items and commentaries are focused on the assessments about what kind of attitude on such developments will be taken by the USA and other signatories of the Dayton Agreement. The statements made by the former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and some republican senators who believe that Washington has to withdraw its troops in June 1998, are being cited.

/end/

From the Serbian Unity Congress Server at http://www.suc.org

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