BOSNIA: SARAJEVO: BALKAN STABILITY SUMMIT PREPARATIONS

Описание: (29 Jul 1999) English/Nat

A two-day conference which will address the stability and future of not only Kosovo, but the entire Balkans region, gets started in Sarajevo on Thursday.

The Summit for Stability will open with southeastern European leaders drafting a 'stability pact' which will require signatories to commit to human rights and democratic reforms.

On Friday, they will be joined by President Bill Clinton and the leaders from 40 other nations who will sign off on the agreement to show their support.

But ahead of the summit, questions remain as to whether the (b) billions of dollars in aid for the reconstruction of Bosnia have been put to the best use over the past four years.

SUGGESTED VOICE - OVER:

Helicopters and military hardware were out in force patrolling the skies and streets of Sarajevo in the run-up to the two-day international summit taking place there.

But it is in the hope that in the future, real military operations will cease to be necessary in Bosnia and its Balkan neighbours that the conference is taking place.

Nearly 40 heads of state from the entire European Union, Russia, the Balkans, the United States and Japan are due to fly in for the Summit for Stability in southeastern Europe.

As part of the huge security operation, more than four-thousand peacekeepers from the U-N-sanctioned, 37 nation-peace Stabilisation Force have been drafted in to help out.

They will be working alongside a similar number of Bosnian-Croat Federation and Republika Sprska police to secure the main routes and facilities for the summit.

Authorities are taking all precautions to make sure President Bill Clinton and other world dignitaries are well protected during their stay.

In support of S-FOR, NATO is increasing airspace security and deploying 400 additional troops contributed by France, Germany and Spain.

The signing of the 'stability pact' will signify the commitment of the leaders and their countries to pursuing democracy, human rights and regional security in the Balkans.

Most leaders do not arrive until Friday, when they will endorse the agreement and pledge their cooperation and assistance to the effort.

Bosnian presidential advisor Mirza Hajric outlined the lofty goals of the summit's organisers.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is a summit of a pact of stability which should, in our view, provide a permanent peace and a process which would lead towards a developed democracy, respect of human rights and all those preconditions which would make sure that we never see war again."
SUPER CAPTION: Mirza Hajric, Bosnian Presidential Advisor

A large media pack with approximately 14-hundred journalists are on hand to cover the event.

The Zetra Sports Complex, which hosted the 1984 Olympics and was destroyed during the war, has been rebuilt to house the summit.

Jacques Klein, a Principal Deputy High Representative with the European Union, says the scale of the summit shows Europe is finally beginning to see the Balkans as an area that must be cultivated and courted if another Kosovo is going to be prevented.

He welcomes the fact that world leaders finally understand that there has to be a comprehensive view of the whole region, and not an isolated view.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think they have come to a realisation now that keeping this region out of Europe, out of the E-U, ultimately costs more than actually bringing them in."
SUPERCAPTION: Jacques Klein, Principal Deputy of (European Union) High Representative








SOUNDBITE: (English)






SOUNDBITE: (English)



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