PRESS BRIEFING ON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Every day was a fight to ensure that the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords was not forgotten, said the Special Representative and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elisabeth Rehn, at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Ms. Rehn said the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) had expanded its mandate from that of police monitoring and now advised, trained, mentored and encouraged the local police to return to democratic methods of policing. In July, UNMIBH was given a new mandate to set up a two-year judicial assessment programme. Its 26 lawyers -- 18 international and 8 national -- were now spread around the region to find out what the judiciary was really like. Currently, judges were still appointed according to political party affiliations or for ethnic reasons. The mission was also conducting independent human rights investigations, she added.

Peace-building efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina were focused on building a civilian police force, supported by an independent judiciary and respect for human rights, she continued. The goal was to create a Bosnia and Herzegovina where the individual was protected, not the State. The police and judiciary favoured the State authorities, whereas in a democratic society citizens were more important.

The restructuring, retraining and re-equipping of the police included efforts to get more minority police, to improve security when minorities returned to their towns and villages, she said. The mission also wanted to create a single, multi-ethnic functioning border guard force and to continue its license plate project, which had been very successful. Nearly 100 per cent of the cars now had the same license plate and could not be identified as coming from a particular place, such as Pale, Banja Luka or Mostar. As a result, freedom of movement had increased greatly.

It was impossible to say when the mission's tasks would be completed, she continued. However, it was creating benchmarks and goals, so that perhaps in two years there would be a multi-ethnic police force and the training and certification programme would be complete. The focus could then turn to police monitoring. The judicial assessment programme had a two year mandate, but the human rights investigation would take longer. The United Nations work in Bosnia and Herzegovina would take years and its presence would depend on continued "military muscle". She said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had told her it would not let UNMIBH down and would maintain nearly the same force. It was important that the NATO force remain visible for some time, she added.

It was important to remember the environment in which the United Nations was carrying out its work, she said. The tragedy of the missing persons

Rehn Briefing - 2 - 11 November 1998

history should not be forgotten. The return of displaced persons was the most important issue and resolving it would depend on economic conditions.

A correspondent asked how the election results, which seemed to strengthen the hand of the more nationalist forces in the Serb Republic, had affected her work. Ms. Rehn said as far as her mandate was concerned -- to restructure a democratic professional police with a strong multi-ethnic element -- nothing had changed, because the former leaders had not provided her with much. They did not deliver, so things could not get worse. She had had good talks with leaders about police restructuring and, at least verbally, they had complied with her demands. However, although eight of the ten cantons had been inaugurated, not all had complied with demands to integrate the police. Therefore, she had asked for support from the European Union and the Security Council, to help make it clear that there had to be compliance.

In reply to how many people were still displaced, Ms. Rehn said there were still hundreds of thousands and returns had been much slower than expected, partly because returnees were afraid for their security. Life in the villages was also difficult. Homes were either destroyed or badly damaged, there were no services or schools and no employment possibilities. Some areas were also mined. Returnees preferred to go home in groups of either 20, 30 or even 40 families, as there had been harassment and even killings of returnees. Early warning by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was very important, because the mission could then pressure local police to provide security. In the worst cases, the NATO Stabilization Force could be called on to help with security. Hopefully, there would be more returns next year, when there would be more multi-ethnic police.

Responding to a question about the number of missing persons, Ms. Rehn said that approximately 19,000 people were still missing. Last summer, exhumations for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia uncovered a lot of evidence. The Office of the High Representative was leading work by the Commission for Missing Persons, which had also conducted exhumations to help with identifications. It was important to keep the work impartial. A mother, whether from the Serb, Bosnian or Croat side, experienced the same tragedy when she lost her son.

Asked about the current border guard situation, Ms. Rehn said there was no order and each entity took care of its own borders. The State lost an enormous amount of revenue because of smuggling and illegal cross-border traffic. The mission had been trying to get rid of check points between the entities, but had still not been completely successful. The problem of the borders needed to be dealt with, because Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted to become a member of the Council of Europe.

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