DECEMBER 2007
http://www.earthtim
EARTH TIMES.ORG (NEW ZEALAND)
Radioactive waste disappears from hospital in Bosnia
Posted on : 2007-11-13 | Author : DPA
Sarajevo/Banja Luka - Nearly one tonne of radioactive waste has disappeared from a hospital in Banja Luka over the last couple of days, Bosnian Serb media reported Tuesday citing official sources. The radioactive material needed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes was stored in lead
containers in the basement of the Banja Luka hospital, from where it was stolen, Bosnian Serb Health Minister Ranko Skrbic told local media.
Skrbic however said the waste should not be dangerous to the population. It was likely that the containers would be sold as the lead is very heavy and has a certain market value, reports said.
Skrbic said an investigation into the case would be opened to find out how it was possible for the radioactive lead containers to disappear from the hospital's storage, despite security measures.
(The journalist does not query what happens to the content of the lead containers after they are sold - For then the population is surely at risk? JB, editor)
SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN TIMES (USA)
http://www.setimes.
BiH parties to start consultations on new prime minister
13/11/2007
If no agreement on a new prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina is reached within a month, the country will have to hold early parliamentary elections.
(Office of the High Representative - 13/11/07; AFP, AP, Reuters, DPA, AKI, B92 - 12/11/07)
Bosnia and Herzegovina'
The presidency, currently headed by Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic, must propose to parliament a candidate for prime minister within 30 days. If they fail to do so, early parliamentary elections will have to be called.
Spiric tendered his resignation on November 1st to protest High Representative Miroslav Lajcak's decision to impose reforms, aimed at improving the functionality of state institutions, including Spiric's cabinet. On October 19th, the Slovak diplomat announced a series of measures including changes to the quorum rules governing the work of the BiH Council of Ministers and parliament that would make it more difficult for members of the two bodies to block the passage of decisions and legislation by boycotting sessions. Lajcak said that unless the measures are implemented by December 1st, he will use his powers as the top international administrator in BiH to impose
them.
Bosnian Serb politicians immediately rejected the proposed steps as unconstitutional and in violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 conflict in BiH. Claiming that the measures would allow Bosniaks and Croats to outvote them, they threatened to leave all
state-level institutions. Spiric, who is a member of Republika Srspka (RS) Prime Minister Milorad
Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and who will remain as acting prime minister until a new cabinet is appointed, was the first Bosnian Serb to quit his post. His move followed a declaration by representatives of the major powers overseeing BiH's post-conflict recovery, expressing full support for Lajcak and his decisions. Dodik said on Monday that the SNSD would take part in political talks to choose a replacement for Spiric, provided the High Representative "withdraws or amends" his decision.
Lajcak said on Tuesday he was still awaiting an answer from the RS about the legal interpretation of the proposed amendments sent to the entity for consideration. "The decision of the High Representative is in force and is not negotiable," his office said last week.
Lajcak is due to brief the UN Security Council about the current political and security situation in BiH on Thursday. He will tell the 15-nation body that the two scenarios the country faces are "escalation of the artificial political crisis, which leads to isolation, or subsiding of the political
crisis and moving forward on the European road", his office said on Tuesday.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com
HISTORY 1992
GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA
CLEANSING OF SREBRENICA REGION
Serb inhabitants were exiled from Srebrenica on May 8, 1992, and many of them were killed. Two days earlier 72 Serb villages in Srebrenica neighborhood were burned down and all their Serb inhabitants killed. Through the burned Serb villages Muslim troops have reached Drina river on October 5, 1992 with aim to cut the main communications with Serbia. On January 16, 1993 the Muslim offensive has started under the command of Naser Oric against the still remained Serb villages: Skelane, Cosici and Kruscic.
During the period when Muslim forces under Naser Oric controlled Srebrenica they killed some 3,200 Serbian civilians in the area. Naser Oric went public at that time, proudly displaying a video of Serbian civilians his troops had mutilated. There were burning houses, dead bodies, severed heads, and people fleeing. Oric grinned throughout admiring his handiwork. 'We ambushed them,' he said when a number of dead Serbs appeared on the screen. The next sequence of dead bodies had been done in by explosives: 'We launched those guys to the moon,' he boasted. [According to theTribunal, forensic scientists have discovered 1,668 bodies 'in and around the Srebrenica area' so far]
Remaining population of Srebrenica villages were mainly elderly Serbs, many in their 80s, who refused to leave their homes. Even these poor souls were not spared, but were slaughtered by having their throats slit.
1993, Bosnia - This photograph was seized from Saudi Arabian fighters captured in Crni Vrh near Teslic, Bosnia. A Muslim solder displays the severed head of Blagoje Blagojevic, a Serb from the village of Jasenovo near Teslic.
The three Dutch military historians and Ambassador Bissett recalled that Serbian General Ratko Mladic has protested the misuse of the so-called "safe haven" of Srebrenica by Oric and warned that continued attacks on surrounding villages would bring a response from the Serbian forces. Forewarned, Oric had pulled his armed troops, including Mujahedin soldiers who had been imported from many of the Islamic countries, out of Srebrenica three days before the final push began.[Epilogue]