The Serbian parliament on 17 March adopted a declaration supporting the treaty signed last month aimed at strengthening ties between the Bosnian Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, local media reported. Some deputies questioned the purpose of the declaration, since the pact is between the Republika Srpska and the federal Yugoslav state. The Serbian parliament also recommended that the federal parliament ratify the pact later this week. But French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette asked federal Yugoslav authorities to delay ratification until the High Representative for Bosnia, Carl Bildt, confirms the agreement conforms with the Dayton peace accords, Nasa Borba reported. Some 100 Kurds from Turkey were arrested by Bosnian police in Sarajevo on 17 March under suspicion of trying to reach Western countries illegally and were deported the same day, Oslobodjenje reported.
Turkish citizens can enter Bosnia and stay up to three months without a visa.
In other news, Berlin authorities said on 17 March they would step up the forced repatriation of Bosnian refugees unless they started returning home voluntarily, Reuters reported. But Berlin's Interior Minister Joerg Schoenbohm said they rule out the forcible return of Muslims who were expelled from Serb areas, and of traumatized refugees. For the first time, pro-regime media have said Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is likely to run for the federal Yugoslav presidency, AFP reported. The federal parliament, which is dominated by Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, will elect the president in June. Milosevic is constitutionally barred from seeking a further term as Serbian president.