OHR

BiH Presidency Starting to Speak and Function in a More Coherent
Way

As you know, the High Representative and EUSR, Christian Schwarz-Schilling,
has just completed his first meeting with the BiH Presidency.

The High Representative encouraged the members of the Presidency to speak and
function in a more coherent way.

He noted the progress that BiH has made in particular the
opening of

SAA
negotiations but noted also that there are still important issues to be
resolved, in particular the need to enact a BiH Ombudsman Law. As you know, the
Ombudsman’s Office is a key safeguard for citizens’ rights – enacting this Law
is also one of the remaining CoE post-accession requirement for BiH..

High Representative to Meet ICTY Chief Prosecutor

This afternoon, the High Representative will meet ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla
del Ponte, here at the OHR. This will be the first meeting between the two since
the High Representative took office. The High Representative
and the Chief Prosecutor will make short statements to the media following their
meeting, at
four o’clock this afternoon
here at the OHR.

SDHR to Press for Progress in Education, Administration and Banking
Supervision Reform

The Senior Deputy High Representative, Martin Ney, will pay a farewell visit
to

Banja Luka

tomorrow. He will meet
RS President, Dragan Cavic and the outgoing Prime Minister, Pero Bukejlovic.
Ambassador Ney will also meet with the outgoing Ministers of Finance and
Education, Svetlana Cenic and Snjezana Bozic, and with the RS Prime Minister
designate, Milorad Dodik. 

Among the topics Ambassador Ney will raise during these discussions are the
need to make further, rapid progress on Public Administration Reform – so that
public funds can be used more effectively and public services can be improved at
the same time, the need to establish banking supervision in BiH at the state
level – so as to further strengthen the banking sector and thus increase the
funding that can be poured into job creation, and the urgent need to enact a BiH
Higher Education Law, which will, among other things, make BiH degrees valid
abroad.

Following his meetings with RS officials, Ambassador Ney will hold a press
conference at 
13:45
tomorrow at the OHR Banja Luka 

OSCE

Special Envoy of the OSCE Belgian Chairmanship in visit to
Bosnia and
Herzegovina

The Special Envoy of the OSCE Belgian Chairmanship, Senator Pierre Chevalier,
arrived yesterday to Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

Senator Chevalier, early this morning, met with Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mladen Ivanic. They discussed talks on constitutional changes, forthcoming
elections and negotiations on Stabilization and Association Agreement. Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, respectfully, will send the press release on more
details.

After the meeting with Minister Ivanic, Senator met with Ambassador dr.
Martin Ney, Senior Deputy High Representative. As already announced,
Senator is right now travelling to Mostar where he will  meet the
Chairman of the Mostar City Assembly, Murat Coric, and Cantonal Prime Minister
Miroslav Coric. The press opportunity will take place at
16:15 after the meeting with Prime Minister Coric, at the
premises of Cantonal Government building.

Senator Chevalier’s visit focuses on reaffirming the close cooperative
partnership between the OSCE and the citizens of

Bosnia and Herzegovina
on beginning of the 11th year of
the
Mission
’s extensive field
presence in the country. 

EUFOR

Visit of Carla del Ponte

Last night,

Monday 6 February 2006, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte met with COM EUFOR,
Major-General Chiarini, at

Camp

Butmir

.  This morning,

7 February 2006, she met with COM
NHQSa, Brigadier-General Weber. Subsequently she was briefed by representatives
of the NATO/EUFOR/ICTY team responsible for coordination of efforts to apprehend
Hague-Indicted Persons Indicted For War Crimes (PIFWCs).

During her meetings and briefings, Carla Del Ponte was appraised of the
enhanced coordination mechanisms between EUFOR, NATO and ICTY and discussed the
current activities ongoing and future efforts being planned to finally bring the
remaining six Hague-indicted PIFWCs to justice.

ICRC

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Over 15,000 people still missing

The ICRC published the seventh edition of the Book of Missing Persons on
the Territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina today as part of its ongoing efforts
to tackle one of the most serious humanitarian issues in the country. The latest
edition of the book, first published in 1996, contains the names of 15,275
persons still unaccounted for.

Under international humanitarian law, families have the right to learn the
fate of their missing relatives and to recover and bury the remains of those who
have died, which is an essential part of the grieving process. The obligation to
provide the families with the information they need rests with the relevant
authorities.

The book bears witness to the suffering of thousands of families in
Bosnia-Herzegovina who, 10 years after the end of the war, are still waiting for
news of their missing loved ones. Its main purpose is to provide data for all
those engaged in the tracing process and to obtain further information that
could be of use to them. It is also a reminder that efforts to ascertain the
fate of the missing cannot be abandoned until each and every case has been
resolved.

The book lists the names of the missing in alphabetical order and by place of
disappearance. It provides separate lists of persons about whom no information
has been obtained since they were reported missing by their families and of
those whose deaths have been reported to the ICRC but whose remains have yet to
be found. It can be consulted by the general public in the offices of the ICRC
and of the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

The Federal Commission on Missing Persons, the Republika Srpska Office for
Tracing Detained and Missing Persons and government officials regularly provide
information on the identification of human remains in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This
enables the ICRC to update its lists of missing persons.

DNA analyses and the collection of
ante-mortem data have improved the identification process and thousands of
families have now recovered the remains of their loved ones.

Since 1995 the ICRC has received 21,480 tracing requests. So far, 6,855 cases
have been resolved, mainly through the exhumation and identification of remains.
At the same time, more than 350 families have only recently (2005) reported
missing relatives to the ICRC. “The sheer numbers show how difficult it is for
families to bear the torment of uncertainty,” said Marianne Gasser, head of the
ICRC delegation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. “It is crucial that the families of
missing persons throughout the country be given answers rapidly. They have
already waited too long and they cannot recover their peace of mind until they
learn what has happened to their relatives. Anyone who can help is requested to
come forward.”

The ICRC will pursue its efforts to ascertain the fate of all those still
unaccounted for and to support their families, in accordance with its mandate
and the Dayton Peace Agreement.

The information contained in the Book of Missing Persons is available
on the ICRC’s website (
www.icrc.org).

RTQs

Fedzad Forto, FENA:

A question for the ICRC. When can missing persons, who are definitely, one
hundred percent surely dead, be legally declared dead? It is a very important
question for their families – can the family members of a missing person inherit
property, formally get a divorce, get married again? What is their legal status?

ICRC:

That is a very good question because…well, we are
talking about 22,000 missing persons and their families had many problems until
the Law on Missing Persons was adopted. The Law was adopted at the end of 2004.
I think

Bosnia and
Herzegovina

is the first country to have
adopted such a law. It was adopted by the Parliament of Bosnia and

Herzegovina

.
However, there is a minor problem regarding that Law. The problem is that the
Law is not yet in the phase of implementation. A Work Group has been formed
within the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, which is working together
with the ICRC to draft sub-laws in order to resolve the implementation of this
Law.

The Law defines everything, starting from the method a missing person can be
declared…that is, the status of the family of a missing person. So far if a
person wished to exercise their rights they first had to declare their relative
dead – unfortunately. However, now in accordance with the Law on Missing persons
this is no longer the case. In conclusion, this Law allows the families of
missing persons to still deem their missin relatives as missing
persons.  

Bosnia and herzegovina

has signed an agreement with the
Commission on missing persons to establish an Institute for Missing Persons.
According to protocol the Institute was supposed to open at the beginning of
this year. However, as you can assume, everything is till in the negotiation and
agreement phase, but according the plan I have seen, by the middle of this year
it should be known when the Institution, as part of the Institute for Missing
Persons, will start working – meaning that the problem of protection of
information and other formalities must be solved in order for the Institute to
start functioning. All of this would in some way help the families of missing
persons, so that they can find out what their legal rights are exactly and how
they can legally exercise their rights.

Thank you.