1998
January 7, 1998 - A French officer died in a car crash on the road into Sarajevo. He was the 82nd NATO soldier to die in Bosnia. Most died in traffic accidents; a smaller number were land mine victims. None died in combat.
January 8, 1998 - In the USA, senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed predicted a long-term presence of a peace-keeping force, "a decade or more". They also said Europe must be prepared to bear that burden, since the USA has "too many responsibilities around the world". They said they will support a reasonable force for two more years, but after that Europe is on its own. They also said NATO has been doing a good job in separating the factions, but implementation of civilian reforms in Bosnia is lagging — particularly returning refugees to their homes and establishing a functioning professional police force.
As one sign of the slow progress, Reed said the Bosnian factions continue to squabble over such seemingly mundane items as the design of a national license plate, a single passport, and the design of their currency.
A Czech helicopter with 18 peace keepers and 3 crew members crashed during takeoff in northwest Bosnia, injuring 21 people — nine of them seriously. It seemed the tail rotor caused the mishap.
January 12, 1998 - During a two-day operation 25 miles northwest of Tuzla NATO-led forces seized about two tons of weapons and ammunition belonging to civilians.
Despite international warnings to stop stalling, the polarized Bosnian Serb parliament failed to elect a new premier and government. The assembly re-elected Dragan Kalinic, an ally of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, as parliament speaker, and chose his deputies. That allowed the parliament to formally establish itself. Deputies loyal to Karadzic have been trying to block moderate economist Mladen Ivanic from the premiership. He was nominated by President Biljana Plavsic and supported by the international community. The next vote is scheduled for January 17.
Carlos Westendorp implied he would appoint a temporary government if they continued to stall. The Bosnian Serb parliament was elected last November in a vote that broke Karadzic supporters' grip on power. But the hard-line lawmakers who remained still actively oppose Plavsic, who favors closer adherence to the Dayton peace agreement. The first post-election parliament session ended in disarray last month.
January 13, 1998 - NATO-led peace keepers seized about two tons of arms and ammunition from Serb civilians in sweep this week in northern Bosnia.
January 15, 1998 - Croatia gained sovereignty. Eastern Slavionia has been under UN control for the last 2 years.
January 16, 1998 - Vlatko Kupreskic pleaded innocent to taking part in the massacre of his Muslim neighbors in central Bosnia. He was arrested on December 18, 1997.
A American OH-58 helicopter crashed near Srebrenica, 40 miles southeast of Tuzla. The Bosnian Serb news agency, SRNA, said the helicopter hit power lines while flying low over a crowd that was protesting the expected arrival of newly elected Muslim deputies in Srebrenica, a former Muslim-majority town now ruled by hard-line Bosnian Serbs. Dutch television showed the crowd cheering after the crash.
A Serb crowd attacked UN police and international officials trying to enter the former Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. The incident occurred as members of the OSCE and a UN police escort attempted to accompany Muslim politicians to the city for the first meeting of a municipal assembly elected in September. The mob stoned and spit upon the car carrying the acting head of the mission, Ambassador Richard Ellerkmann, and people tried to pull him from the vehicle.
Serbs overran Srebrenica in July 1995. Thousands of men disappeared and are believed to have been executed. Muslim refugees now living elsewhere are registered to vote there, and Muslims won the local elections.
January 18, 1998 - A bare majority of Bosnian Serb lawmakers elected a new, moderate premier after hard-liners declared an end to a tumultuous legislative session and walked out. Plavsic and her supporters, who hold 43 of the parliament's 83 seats, stayed while the opposing camp left. Forty-two voted for her candidate, Milorad Dodik. Westendorp had the right to name a premier himself. But it was not clear whether any internationally imposed premier could work without support from all the Serb parties. Dodik is considered a moderate known for his criticism of the Karadzic camp as well as of Plavsic. Units of the NATO-led peace force were stationed along roads leading to Bijeljina, and soldiers distributed leaflets warning that they would resist any attempts to blockade roads or otherwise disrupt the session.
January 22, 1998 - NATO-led troops went deep into hard-line Serb territory to detain former Bosnian Serb prison camp commander Goran Jelisic — who called himself the Serbian Adolf Hitler — wanted in the killings of more than 60 prisoners. It was the third time NATO forces actively have sought out and arrested a Bosnian war-crimes suspect. The arrest was primarily an American operation.
January 23, 1998 - After a year of quarreling, Bosnian ministers finally agreed on a common license plate for their country that will have only numbers and the six letters common to the Cyrillic alphabet used by Serbs and the Latin alphabet used by Muslims and Croats. The top international official in Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, cheered the agreement, saying it was clear that the peace process might move forward quickly with the new Bosnian Serb government.
"It's a relief for me," Westendorp said. "It's much better when the parties come to an agreement." Westendorp recently has been forced to impose solutions on these issues, including passports, citizenship and currency, because the two entities failed to reach an agreement.
January 26, 1998 - After months of conflict that nearly escalated into an armed clash, police loyal to war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic and those supporting his Bosnian Serb foes agreed Monday to join forces.
January 30, 1998 - A government commission in Croatia has exhumed the bodies of 52 people from a mass-grave at a Roman Catholic cemetery in Eastern Slavonia.
The Bosnian Serb war criminal Jelisic — arrested on January 22, 1998 — pleaded innocent today to genocide and other war crimes.
January 31, 1998 - The new, moderate Bosnian Serb prime minister Milorad Dodik and his cabinet took office in a ceremony boycotted by some hard-liners loyal to indicted wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. The newly elected premier moved quickly to consolidate his power, ordering the government to move the capital and freezing all bank accounts of the former government and its ministries. Banja Luka will now replace indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic's stronghold of Pale as the territory's administrative capital. Washington welcomed the steps.
Dodik expressed his support for Dayton and said: "This government has the strength, the authority of experts and we know the best way to ensure ... peace in this area."
The NATO-led peace force deployed troops and equipment Sunday to show its support for Dodik, and kept up a visibly strengthened presence. Armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles were stationed in front of buildings used by pro-Karadzic police and other officials backing the former Bosnian Serb leader in Pale, southeast of Sarajevo and Bijeljina, in northeastern Bosnia.
February 2, 1998 - A doctor testifying for the UN tribunal spoke of Croat patients in Vukovar being rousted from their hospital beds by Serb soldiers. The bodies were later exhumed from a mass grave. This massacre at the hospital in Vukovar is considered the single worst atrocity of Croatia's 1991 war. Three indicted officers are still at large in Serbia, where authorities refuse to extradite them.
February 4, 1998 - The US is proposing a 1,600-troop strong "paramilitary" force (separate from the US-led NATO force) to help the police in Bosnia, taking on tasks such as crowd control. The new force would be armed with light weapons and tactical vehicles and would consist of European troops mainly. It would (initially) report to the NATO commander. The idea is to form a bridge joining NATO with local police units — which are widely considered inefficient — and the unarmed 2,000-troop strong UN International Police Task Force (IPTF).
First a new national currency, now a flag. Foreign mediators in Bosnia are imposing decisions since Muslims, Croats and Serbs do not seem to be able to agree on anything. The new currency, called convertible Mark, will be tied up to the German Mark and will go into circulation in spring. Now Westendorp decreed flag: a dark blue banner with a golden triangle to symbolize the three ethnic groups. One side of the triangle is lined with silver stars, symbolizing the European ties. It seems odd that foreign diplomats are creating a new Bosnia without consulting the Bosnians, but the idea is that only hard-line leaders will benefit from any delay and foreign donors may not be willing to pour more money into Bosnia.
The flag will be used in the coming Olympic Wintergames in Nagano, Japan.
February 4, 1998: New flag of B-H as selected
by western diplomats.
February 6, 1998 - All hostages taken in retaliation for the arrests of two Bosnian Serbs suspected of killing a senior Muslim official have been released. In 1993, French peace keepers were bringing Turajlic, the deputy prime minister, back from airport negotiations into Serb-besieged Sarajevo when their vehicle was stopped at an illegal Serb checkpoint. The Serbs demanded the vehicle be opened. The French resisted for hours, but eventually opened it. A Bosnian Serb soldier shot six bullets at the deputy premier over the shoulder of French battalion commander Col. Patrice Sartre.
Postal workers delivered 1 million letters and packages to Bosnian Serb territory — some bogged down for more than five years because of the war that began in 1992.
Serbs, Croats and Muslims agreed to resume rail traffic across Bosnia.
February 12, 1998 - Under international pressure, Bosnian Serbs have removed a brick wall they put up Feb10, to protest the arrest of a Serb accused of killing a Bosnian Muslim official.
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said the improving political picture in Bosnia and the prospect of presidential elections in September open the way to an easing of the demand for peacekeeping forces in the Balkan nation. NATO is within a week of reaching fundamental conclusions about the profile of the so-called follow-on force expected to continue the peacekeeping mission beyond its current mandate at the end of June 1998.
Washington currently plans for the continuation of the US participation as a self-contained unit in its own area of responsibility in Bosnia. Those plans require no less than 6,000 troops.
NATO secretary-general Solana said the long-term possibility of a rapid-reaction force stationed outside Bosnia is on the table as an option.
February 14, 1998 - Peace monitors and Bosnian Serbs have agreed to reopen a Serb television station that was shut down in October 1997 for its nationalistic reports.
February 16, 1998 - One US army soldier was seriously injured and two other Americans and one Swede suffered light injuries when what they thought was a dummy detonator exploded. The accident occurred at Camp McGovern.
February 18, 1998 - NATO finally decided to extend the military presence in Bosnia beyond June. The force will remain at the current strength of about 34,000 troops, although after the national elections of this year troop strength might be reduced significantly.
A Bosnian Serb said he will surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal. Last week two other Serbs surrendered to NATO-led troops and pleaded innocent at the Court in The Hague.
There are over 50 indicted war crimes suspects still at large in countries that once formed former Yugoslavia.
February 19, 1998 - The United States is expected to reduce its military commitment to the NATO mission in Bosnia this year from 8,500 to 7,000.
February 20, 1998 - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pledged $5 million in budgetary assistance to the Serb entity in Bosnia on Friday, in recognition of its strong support for the Dayton peace process.
February 23, 1998 - An American envoy granted President Slobodan Milosevic permission Monday for a Yugoslav consulate in the United States, rewarding Milosevic for helping to bring Bosnian Serbs into line. In addition, the United States will allow charter flights by the Yugoslav airline, JAT, into the United States.
February 25, 1998 - A significant number of indictments of Bosnians and others accused of being war criminals are too weak to stand up in court, according to a top US envoy, announcing plans to focus on capturing the worst offenders. SFOR has become more selectively aggressive in seizing accused war criminals or in persuading them to turn themselves in.
March 4, 1998 - Watched by foreign officials, Bosnian Croats exhumed the bodies of 13 of their brethren, victims of the Muslim-Croat war in 1993.
A Bosnian Serb indicted by an international war crimes tribunal surrendered in the eastern Bosnian village of Filipovici to NATO troops — the fourth Bosnian Serb suspect to turn himself in. The war crimes tribunal's indictment states that Dragoljub Kunarac commanded soldiers who held several women in houses and apartments that were operated as brothels. Numerous reported assaults included the rape of a 15-year-old girl.
A militant group called Kosovo Liberation Army urged all able-bodied men to join its ranks and threatened revenge for Serb attacks that killed at least 25 ethnic Albanians. The Kosovo Liberation Army surfaced 19 months ago with a call for armed rebellion for independence from Serbia.
March 5, 1998 - The Clinton administration responded to reports of Serb massacres of ethnic Albanians by reimposing sanctions that had been withdrawn as a reward to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
March 6, 1998 - Secretary of Defense William S.Cohen pressed the US administration's case today for $1.85 billion in emergency money to help maintain U.S. forces in both the Persian Gulf and Bosnia for "as long as necessary." But he ran into congressional skepticism over the price tag and duration of both missions: "If our allies expect and rely on our military protection, they should be full partners in the mission."
Heavily armed Serb police isolated parts of Kosovo for the second day, sweeping through villages of independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in a crackdown that brought international condemnation. Ethnic Albanian officials continued to claim "massacres" by Serb police. Serbian authorities say they are trying to suppress the clandestine Kosovo Liberation Army, which advocates an armed struggle for independence for Kosovo — a Serbian province with 90% Albanians and 10% Serbs.
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said in Prague the basic responsibility for events in Kosovo lies with Slobodan Milosevic. Russia is urging the international community to keep out of what Moscow says is an internal Serbian affair.
March 7, 1998 - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called for international action to prevent a crackdown by Serb police on ethnic Albanian separatists from escalating. "We are not going to stand by and watch the Serbian authorities do in Kosovo what they can no longer get away with doing in Bosnia," Albright said in Rome.
Shaken villagers who fled a Serb crackdown in the southern province of Kosovo described terrifying attacks against ethnic Albanian separatists, including random shootings and the burning of houses. The Serbs' action, which they say is aimed at smashing the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army, has alarmed world leaders.
Milosevic, who took away Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, repeatedly stated that Kosovo is solely the concern of Yugoslavia, a two-part federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbs say that at least 26 ethnic Albanians and two policemen have been killed since Wednesday in the latest sweep — and more than 51 are believed dead in the past week of clashes between police and Albanian militants. The international media are banned but reporters who were allowed into some villages found destroyed houses and terrified villagers who had fled ahead of Serb tanks and other heavy armor.
March 8, 1998 - An explosion caused slight damage to a building in the center of the Albanian capital of Tirana.
March 12, 1998 - SFOR soldiers opened fire on a car which had driven at high speed through one of two checkpoints and was about to drive through the second, giving no indication that it would stop. The driver was hit in his right arm.
A UN court rejected a Bosnian Serb's guilty plea in the rape of Muslim women in 1992. Dragoljub Kunarac was misinformed by his Serbian attorneys when he entered the guilty plea earlier this week, according to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.
March 13, 1998 - The European Union has successfully completed its Telecoms Project in Bosnia-Herzegovina, establishing Inter-entity telephone links between all parts of the country.
The European Union demanded the right to monitor Kosovo in order to deter further brutality by Serb forces against ethnic Albanians. EU foreign ministers decided to dispatch observers to neighboring Albania. Up to 80 people are believed to have been killed in Kosovo.
March 15, 1998 - A decision on the future of Brcko in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been delayed until after Bosnian general elections of September. It was the third time a ruling on the explosive issue had been postponed. Both sides have threatened to resume fighting if control goes to the other half.
March 19, 1998 - Italian police arrested the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Predrag Kostic in northern Italy. He will be handed over to the UN.
March 22, 1998 - The Albanians showed huge support for independence in elections. In Kosovo ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by 9 to 1.
March 24, 1998 - Italy agrees with the United States on considering tougher sanctions on Yugoslavia but sharply disagrees with the US over Kosovo, saying Serbian forces in Kosovo no longer were a threat to Albanian civilians.
March 26, 1998 - Bosnia remains littered by 750,000 land mines, which will kill and main for decades, if not centuries, the Washington Post reported, citing a report.
March 31, 1998 - Citing a lack of evidence, authorities have freed a Bosnian Serb they arrested a week ago after a local court accused him of war crimes. He was not on the list of war crimes suspects wanted by the UN.
April 2, 1998 - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic proposed that a referendum be held on whether foreigners can mediate talks on the future of the troubled province Kosovo.
[Photo: based on USAF photo]
Russian BTR
April 6, 1998 - Western diplomats established an interim executive board to govern the city of Srebrenica. It was dominated by Muslims before the war, but Bosnian Serbs overran the town in 1995. In the last elections the muslims won a majority in September elections, but Bosnian Serbs prevented them from assuming their posts. In an attempt to break the impasse, international officials settled on an interim solution.
April 8, 1998 - Two Serbian alleged war criminals — suspected of prison camp atrocities — have been arrested by SFOR troops.
April 9, 1998 - Two Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects arrested in the British zone by British NATO troops were taken into custody by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, reports the Washington Post. Both men, Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic, allegedly commanded guards at the notorious Omarska camp in northwestern Bosnia. On April 8, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said that the arrests are "yet another warning to all those indicted for war crimes who are still at large that they, too, will be brought to justice."
The UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague has been set up in 1993 and has indicted at least 75 suspects, and has 23 in custody.
April 10, 1998 - Karadzic is negotiating with UN mediators on his surrender to the international tribunal in The Hague, reports NRC Handelsblad, quoting an anonymous western diplomat. Within "days or weeks" Karadzic will report in The Hague. Carlos Westendorp said to expect his arrival within a month.
The French intelligence service believes Karadzic left his town Pale and headed for White Russia (Belarus). He is said to have hired two US lawyers to prepare for his defense. The US State Department, however, said his presence in White Russia is not unlikely. Montenegro, Serbia, and Russia have been mentioned as possible hiding places for Karadzic.
Civilians in Pale have repeatedly stated that Karadzic did not leave Pale, where his wife and daughter have been seen in public regularly. It is also said that special forces from the United States, the Netherlands and Britain have been training for weeks to seize Karadzic from Pale. On April 2, hundreds of NATO soldiers and 50 armored personnel carriers swarmed around Karadzic's house and former offices in Pale for several hours. NATO officials insisted it was only part of a routine inspection of Bosnian Serb police. But it had the appearance of a raid rehearsal.
April 11, 1998 - Karadzic's wife said her husband "will never willingly surrender and will resist any arrest." Several newspapers reported that Karadzic wanted assurances he could serve any prison term in an Orthodox Christian country before he would surrender to the UN. Sources in Pale say that for months, Karadzic has been randomly changing cars and houses, even walking around in disguise.
While focussed on Karadzic the war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic — accused of atrocities — seems to escape attention. The Washington Post reports he has been seen shopping, watching a soccer game, attending his son's wedding in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, and swimming in the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro. Both Mladic Karadzic were indicted in November 1995 for genocide in the massacre of thousands of Muslim men after Bosnian Serb forces captured the UN "safe zone" of Srebrenica. Karadzic is an obvious target because he remained in Bosnia; being in Serbia makes Mladic much more difficult to apprehend. Until now, Serbian authorities have refused to hand over four Serb war crimes suspects.
April 14, 1998 - A Serb policeman was injured after three grenades were thrown at a police station in Vranjevac, an Albanian-populated suburb of Pristina.
April 16, 1998 - The Bosnian Serb Zoran Zigic was arrested at a military prison in Serb-held Banja Luka.
April 17, 1998 - International officials dismissed three Bosnian Croat officials after the killing of a Serb couple who had recently returned to their home in a Croat-controlled region.
April 20, 1998 - Zoran Zigic pleaded innocent to murdering and torturing scores of Muslim and Croat prisoners in two of the Balkan conflict's most notorious prison camps Omarska and Keraterm.
Forensic experts uncovered human remains and clothing of missing Muslims during exhumations around Srebrenica. According to the UN this operation is expected to provide evidence in war crime indictments.
April 22, 1998 - According to the UN bodies were removed from a mass grave site where some of Bosnia's worst massacres occurred. Near a dam, investigators found parts of human bones and skulls, together with many shell and ammunition casings. The investigators also found evidence that bodies had been removed from the mass grave.
April 23, 1998 - The Washington Post reported that an operation to capture former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic last summer was called off after the French Army Major Herve Gourmelon met secretly with the accused war criminal. The Clinton administration did not attempt to refute this. "We know, definitely, that he passed information about NATO operations related to efforts to eventually get Karadzic," according to an anonymous US official. France acknowledged the meetings but said Gourmelon was operating on his own and has since been transferred.
A referendum by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to strengthen the Serbian government's hard-line stance on Kosovo won overwhelming support against foreign mediation, which ethnic Albanian have demanded.
April 24, 1998 - NATO peacekeepers fired warning shots to break up a riot in Drvar (northwestern Bosnia). Some 1,500 Bosnian Croats set buildings ablaze in retaliation for a Serb attack on a Croat Roman Catholic cardinal yesterday. Norwegian NATO troops ended that standoff and evacuated Cardinal Puljic and about 650 worshippers. The Croats also attacked headquarters of UN police monitors. The NATO-led peace force evacuated aid workers and put more troops and helicopters on standby.
April 25, 1998 - Tensions remain high in Kosovo General Kudusi Lama, commander of border troops in neighboring Albania, said he was worried about major buildups of troops and weapons by the Yugoslav army.
Yugoslavia is demanding that the West put pressure on independence-minded ethnic Albanians in its restive province of Kosovo.
April 26, 1998 - Ten people were injured in clashes that included a grenade attack in Svjetleca, 35 miles northwest of Tuzla. In response, Bosnian Serbs then hurled stones at Muslims, injuring three.
April 27, 1998 - Angry Serb and Muslim crowds blocked a tunnel on the road between Tuzla and Doboj in northern Bosnia. NATO troops were deployed between the two roadblocks to prevent further violence. This confrontation is part of recently escalating tensions in Bosnia.
April 28, 1998 - Forensic experts started with the exhumation at a mass grave in the war-devastated eastern city of Vukovar — a site where they expect to find more than 1,000 bodies, believed to be mostly Croat soldiers and civilians killed during the October 1991 siege of Vukovar.
April 29, 1998 - A military board has exonerated 54 of the 60 Canadian soldiers who were accused of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, black marketeering and violence in Bosnia in 1994.
April 30, 1998 - The US and France agreed to keep pressure on Serbia to increase more autonomy for Kosovo. Albania had requested NATO intervention earlier, but that request was rejected.
Cooperation between the US and France was emphasized, after the reports of a France officer being responsible for the canceled operation to arrest Karadzic.
The UN war tribunal's chief prosecutor Richard Goldstone said that unless Karadzic will be brought to trial, there is no point in a war tribunal. "It is the same as if the Nuremburg tribunals would have been held without Hitler, if he had remained alive," he said. He also urged the arrest of Gen. Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian military commander. "The only reason I've been given for inaction by NATO forces is that it is too dangerous, and that is unacceptable, more of an excuse than a reason," Goldstone said.
May 1, 1998 - NATO commander Gen Wesley Clark visited the city of Drvar — backed by Apache helicopters and armored vehicles — to warn hard-line Croats against attacking returning Serbs.
May 4, 1998 - Croatia's defense minister Gojko Susak — a close ally of President Franjo Tudjman — died at the age of 53.
May 6, 1998 - FRY President Milosevic proposed signing of the joint statement on establishing diplomatic relations to BiH President Izetbegovic. Milosevic — probably under pressure of the International Community — abandoned the demand for withdrawal of the sue in the Hague against Serbiaand Montenegro.
May 7, 1998 - The fourth Donor Conference started in Brussels.
May 10, 1998 - New mass graves were discovered today near Kljevace, Kasapnica, Tomine and Vrpoljski Most. According to findings and statements of witnesses, there are 14 Croats and two Bosniaks in these graves, who were killed in early 1992. All victims are mostly elders except for a 15 year old boy.
May 11, 1998 - The exhumation continues. Today 9 more bodies were found, after the 1,150 already found earlier. According to BiH TV all bodies showed damages on the head, indicating they were killed. Weomen in Srebrenica held a calm demonstration.
Fourteen bodies - 12 Croats and 2 Bosniaks were exhumed in the region of Ukljukci, Tomina, Ksapnica and Vrpoljski Most.
In Mostar unknown culprits placed and activated an explosive device under the car of Dragan Vasilj, Criminal Department employee. No casualties were reported.
May 12, 1998 - Forensics began exhumations near Cancari Cesta, southwest from Zvornik, a secondary location — which means that bodies were originally buried in a separate grave, and afterwards relocated.
May 13, 1998 - Two Polish soldiers were injured when one of the soldiers set off a land mine during a routine foot patrol near Tesanji. There were no serious injuries.
On May 6, 1998, media reported that President Biljana Plavsic was arrested on the airport of Vienna. Deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt stated that Biljana Plavsic has never been indicted by the Tribunal nor has any warrant of arrest ever been issued by the Tribunal for her arrest.
"I wish to respond to reports coming from Austrian, Bosnian and Croatian media sources which suggest that President Biljana Plavsic was arrested at Vienna airport on 6 May 1998 in respect of a warrant which is said to have been issued by this Tribunal on 10 Aug 95. It is the policy of the Prosecutor to refrain from making public comment about the existence or otherwise of non-public indictments. It is, however, necessary to make an exception to this policy in view of the latest media report which suggests that this Tribunal, according to "reliable sources", was "warned to cancel the warrant for her (Biljana Plavsic) arrest…in January 1998…..after she began co-operating with the international community and recommended Milorad Dodik as the Prime Minister of RS Government…."
US mediators Robert Gelbard and Richard Holbrooke visited Bosnia praising Bosnian Serb president Plavsic and premier Dodik. They hinted at more financial help form the West.
May 14, 1998 - Prime Minister Dodik met with the Russian ambassador in BH, Philipp Sidorskiy, in Banja Luka on economic cooperation between the RS and the Russian Federation.
The European Parliament today adopted a resolution appealing to Milosevicand Rugova to immediately start dialog on the future of Kosovo in the presence of international mediators.
Bosnian Serb war criminal Maksim Sokolovic, accused of participating in the systematic extermination of Muslims during the Bosnian war, went on trial at the state court in Düsseldorf, Germany. He, who has lived in Germany for 29 years, told the court that he was not even in Bosnia in 1992 when the crimes occurred. He was said to be part of a paramilitary group that terrorized Muslims.
In Pale, 500 SFOR troops in about 30 armored vehicles inspected buildings formerly housing the Bosnian Serb government. The action was said to be aimed at verifying the legitimacy of police activity. The Bosnian Serb government moved to Banja Luka, however, some police units remain deployed at the facilities in Pale.
Three buses with 130 Serb refugees from Belgrade went to Bosanski Petrovac, Glamoc and Sanski Most and all are okay.
May 16, 1998 - The ruling Croat Democratic Union in Bosnia chose Ante Jelavic, defense minister in the Muslim-Croat Federation, as their new leader with 70 percent of the votes.
The party's direction has been dictated by Croatian loyalists, who see the part of Bosnia they control as part of Croatia and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as their only head of state. The international community has criticized the party for its position and its unwillingness to implement the Muslim-Croat Federation and its unwillingness to help returning refugees.
Under the international pressure, Croatia seemed to have withdrawn some hard-liner Ljubic in Bosnia, the Washington Post reports. He was the most likely candidate.
Thirty seven Serb Displaced, now located in Kotor Varos, went to Turbe near Travnik. This was the first visit since the war. The CBH Cantonal Minister for Refugees was there to greet the visitors and invited them back.
May 19, 1998 - Thirty Bosniak families returned to Western Mostar. UN Special Envoy Rehn met with the delegation of BiH Refugees, discussing the matters of specific programs for refugee return.
During her visit to Washington, RS President Plavsic stated that the RS still cannot extradite war criminals, according to its constitution.
May 21, 1998 - The independent Commission that worked on the flag and Coat of Arms has now been asked to coordinate proposals for the national anthem. This commission will be responsible for launching a public competition for musicians.
May 23, 1998 - Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has denied frequency permits to 21 mostly small, local radio and 17 television stations.
In an article in El Mundo it was stated that SFOR soldiers were involved in a child prostitution network and selling drugs. SFOR has the matter under investigation.
May 28, 1998 - SFOR troops seized a large amount of weapons that Bosnian Serb civilians had stored in a basement near Bojo , 30 miles northwest of Tuzla. The weapons included land mines, machine guns, rifles, and grenades. Under the 1995 Dayton peace accord civilians are not allowed to own fire arms or explosives.
In Banja Luka, SFOR troops arrested a Bosnian Serb indicted for war crimes. The UN tribunal currently has 26 suspects in custody in The Hague.
In an attempt to deal with Kosovo, the 16 NATO ministers agreed to help the Balkan nations of Albania and Macedonia strengthen their border patrols. NATO military planners have been asked to plan possible troop deployments if the assistance fails. The ministers also expressed support for the continuation of the 800-member UN peacekeeping mission in Macedonia.
June 2, 1998 - NATO announced the Malaysian Battle group will be replaced by a mixed Belgian / Luxembourg Battle group. The first element of the battle group will be delivered to Split by the Belgium Air Force on June 3. The second group of personnel is expected to arrive June 15. The remainder of the battle group personnel will arrive by July 1.
Albanians fleeing the violence in Kosovo described artillery bombardments that forced out entire villages, and house-burnings they said were clearly intended to drive them out. "It's ethnic cleansing, and it's done the same way as in Bosnia," a witness said. "They shell first so that we abandon our houses, then they burn them so that we cannot return."
Several newspapers warned that the world may have another Bosnia on its hands if the proper decisions are not made. "War in Kosovo has been predicted for so long that it began to sound like Balkan scaremongering," the Washington Post wrote.
June 4, 1998 - Albanian leaders pulled out of talks with Serbia. They demanded a halt to the Serb offensive in Kosovo. The Serbs responded that the police and Yugoslav Army assaults in western Kosovo were not a strike against civilians but were a counter strike against the province's guerrillas.
In Albania — Europe's poorest country — approximately 12,000 refugees have arrived until now. About 7,000 others have fled to Montenegro. More than 250 people have been killed since the Serbs started their mission to destroy the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in March. The KLA claims to control more than 40% of Kosovo. Support for the KLA is growing in some parts, especially in the provincial capital Pristina where more than 10,000 ethnic Albanians protested on the streets against Serb violence.
June 5, 1998 - The regular exchange of mail between the RS and FBiH was established.
The USA announced suspension of their program of equipping and training soldiers of the FBiH army, because they are dissatisfied with the degree of integration of the Croat and Muslim army (especially because they have been reluctant to adopt the badges and other symbols of their federation.
The United Nations, in an unusually strong statement, accused Serbian forces of atrocities in Kosovo, where more than 250 people have died since March 1.
June 6, 1998 - Serb gunners shelled three villages in the Decani area, 45 miles west of Pristina in Kosovo with heavy artillery.
June 8, 1998 - The European Union banned new investments in Yugoslavia and froze country's assets abroad. NATO was urged to consider military intervention to stop Yugoslav Serbs' slaughter in Kosovo.
June 11, 1998 - NATO air exercises may be held in Albania and Mecedonia "to clearly indicate that NATO will define and project its interests in the Balkans," said White House Press Secretary McCurry. Russian President Yeltsin remained firmly against NATO intervention.
June 12, 1998 - Russia and NATO allies agree that the situation in Kosovo forms a major threat to peace in the Balkans but fail to agree on a solution. Russia — being a key supporter of the Serbs in Yugoslavia — has resisted any use of force to stop the Serbs.
The Kosovo Liberation Army — Albanian militants in Kosovo — said they killed two Serb policemen in a series of attacks around the province.
Fighting between Serbian forces and the militants erupted again in the Decani region in western Kosovo, near the border with Albania. Ethnic Albanian sources said seven villages were under Serb attack, pummeled by artillery and grenade launchers. A UN war crimes tribunal said it was sending investigators on a US-backed mission to Kosovo to check out allegations of atrocities in the Serb offensive.
June 14, 1998 - Serb forces launched 500 grenades into villages in the Decani area in western Kosovo, according to the Kosovo Information center. In the capital, Pristina, Serbian police colonel Novica Zdravkovic said ethnic Albanian militants killed two policemen and injured two others in separate incidents in Kosovo's southwestern Djakovica region and the Decani area. More than 300 people have died since the crisis escalated in March.
June 15, 1998 - NATO exercise Determined Falcon was held. It was an air exercise in Albania and Macedonia, with the agreement of both countries. The objective of the exercise was to demonstrate NATO's capability to project air power rapidly into the region. A variety of NATO aircraft participated from all NATO countries, except Iceland, Luxemburg, and Canada. The Serbian leaders did not seem to be impressed.
Brazil's UN ambassador chided his Bosnian counterpart after the Bosnian referred indirectly to Rio de Janeiro as a place where people are condemned "to a life of casual sex." The remark was made in a speech to the Security Council which was meeting in order to talk about the extension of the SFOR mandate.
SFOR troops of MND(SE) detained Milorad Krnojelac - previously commander of the KP Dom prison camp - indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. He is accused of beatings, murder, willful killing, willfully causing serious injury, cruel treatment, and inhumane acts towards prisoners in this camp during the period of April 1992 until October 1994.
June 16, 1998 - The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have unanimously approved extension of the mandates of SFOR (approximately 34,000 troops) and the UN civilian mission in Bosnia until June 21, 1999. The current mandate expires at the end of this month.
June 17, 1998 - The US will keep warships and jets at the ready should NATO decide additional military action near Kosovo is needed, says US Defense Secretary William Cohen, but NATO member remain divided. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic met Russian president Yeltsin yesterday and promised to meet the moderate leader of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, but not with the province's more radical elements. Milosevic has not always kept his word in the past.
Since March, more than 300 people have been killed as Milosevic's army has cracked down on dissent in Kosovo province. About 65,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.
June 19, 1998 - The US resumed a military aid program to Bosnia's Moslem-Croat federation after a 16-day suspension because the two ethnic groups failed to unify their forces.