Ignoring reports on Al-Qaeda is Bosnia's Problem

Ignoring reports on Al-Qa'idah presence is Bosnia's problem - foreign minister
BBC Monitoring - October 26, 2004, Tuesday

Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Sarajevo, 26 October: Bosnian Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic has warned that cooperation with the Hague tribunal is not the only problem which Bosnia-Hercegovina faces, but also the fact that numerous reports on the presence of the Al-Qa'idah network in Bosnia-Hercegovina are being ignored.

Commenting on the reports in the American media and the latest statements by advisors in the US Congress that Islamic terrorists, who are now active in Baghdad and other parts of the world, have been trained in Zenica, Ivanic said at a press conference in Sarajevo that "B-H must thoroughly investigate every specific case, and not ignore it".

(Passage omitted)

Commenting on constitutional changes, Ivanic said that there is no joint stance within B-H which he as a foreign minister could present.

"Personally, and as a leader of the Party of Democratic Progress, I support those constitutional changes from which all citizens of B-H would benefit, and I am against any changes whose essence is abolition of the Bosnian Serb Republic," Ivanic said.

Ivanic considers the frequent questions about the protection of the vital national interests of the Bosniaks and Croats as abuse of the constitutional mechanism and realisation of party interests under the veil of national interests.

SOURCE: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0909 gmt 26 Oct 04

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