BOSNIA: SUPPORTERS OF BOSNIAN RULING PARTY, THE SDA, ATTENDED A RALLY IN THE TOWN OF GORAZDE

Record ID: 584938

  • Title: BOSNIA: SUPPORTERS OF BOSNIAN RULING PARTY, THE SDA, ATTENDED A RALLY IN THE TOWN OF GORAZDE
  • Date: 31st August 1996
  • Summary: GREBAK AND MAHALA, BOSNIA (AUGUST 31, 1996) (RTV/ RTV (W) -- ACCESS ALL) GREBAK (RTV (W)) 1. LV CROWDS AT RALLY 0.15 2. LV BOSNIAN ARMY SOLDIERS ARRIVING 0.20 3. SMV PEOPLE AT PRAYERS (3 SHOTS) 0.36 4. MV OFFICIALS SPEAKING 0.40 5. SLV SOLDIERS SEATED 0.45 6. LV PEOPLE HOLDING FLAGS OF THE BOSNIAN RULING PARTY (SDA) (3 SHOTS) 0.57 7. SMV BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC SPEAKING AT RALLY (SERBO-CROAT) 1.10 8. LV CROWD SEATED ON GROUND AT RALLY 1.12 MAHALA (RTV) 9. SLV PEOPLE CLEARING DEBRIS FROM HOMES (4 SHOTS) 1.30 10. MV IMPLEMENTATION FORCE (IFOR) TROOPS SEARCHING MEN FOR ARMS (3 SHOTS) 1.52 11. SCU MAJOR GREB TUBBS OF IFOR SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 2.11 12. SLV VILLAGERS STANDING IN STREET 2.19 TRANSCRIPT SEQ. 11. GREB TUBBS "WE ARE HERE IN MAHALA DOING A ROUTINE PATROL TO ENSURE SECURITY IN THE ZONES OF SEPARATION. THE CIVILIANS HERE FROM MAHALA WHO ARE OCCUPYING THEIR HOMES AND TRYING TO FIX THEM UP, ARE COOPERATING AND HELPING US TO ENSURE THERE ARE NO WEAPONS BROUGHT INTO THE ZONE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 15th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GREBAK AND MAHALA, BOSNIA
  • City:
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Reuters ID: LVA4HDWGUQ5330RUUHKNWWEYCHKZ
  • Story Text: - INTRO: More than a thousand supporters of the Bosnian ruling party, the SDA, attended a rally on Saturday (August 31) in the strategic land corridor linking the town of Gorazde to the Moslem-Croatian federation.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic addressed the rally, near the village of Grebak, in the run-up to general elections on September 14.

    About 100 soldiers of the Bosnian army's Seventh Brigade also attended the rally, dressed in their white or black uniforms and sporting their green headbands with Arabic writing. Before President Izetbegovic addressed the crowd, prayers were held.

    Hundreds of members of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) were on hand to monitor the situation.

    The president said that he had received assurances from United States envoy John Kornblum on Friday (August 30) that the United States would never accept a division of Bosnia and if the Serbs tried to separate, the so-called Republika Srpska would be isolated.

    Grebak was a symbolic choice for the rally - during the war secret supply routes passed through this area from Bosnian-held territory through Bosnian Serb areas into the besieged enclave of Gorazde.

    Three million people in all are called on to elect a three-member Bosnian presidency and multi-ethnic parliament to govern a loose union of Serb and Moslem-Croat entities.

    Voting is supposed to lay foundations for a democratic reunification of a country torn along communal lines, but analysts believe the three dominant Serb, Moslem and Croat nationalist parties are likely to win.

    Meanwhile North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops freed 75 Moslem men detained in the village of Mahala on Saturday (August 31), two days after Moslems resettling the village clashed with local Serb police.

    NATO forces blocked off Mahala, a Moslem village assigned to Serb republic territory under the Dayton treaty, and searched the men and nearby buildings for possible concealed weapons that could provoke fresh violence with the Serbs.

    The NATO troops also set up checkpoints on roads in and out of Mahala after one Moslem was recognised as a major in the Bosnian government army, raising questions about the real objective of military-age men arriving on Saturday.


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