Three short statements for you today, first one concerning the extension of the deadline to the new passports. At the last session of the Council of Ministers, Co-Chairman Haris Silajdzic proposed a further extension of this deadline, citing technical problems over the issuing of the new common passport, in particular through embassies abroad. The deadline for the validity of the old passports has already been extended once, from December 1998. OHR therefore considers a further extension to be unnecessary, and will not support it. Moreover, while the Council of Ministers has every right to propose amendments to the law on travel documents, it is unlikely that the PIC members will tolerate a further extension.
Second item is on the donors' conference.
May. OHR would like to remind you all that this date remains entirely provisional. May. But most of all, whether or not the donor's conference takes place still depends on the parties fulfilling the conditions upon which the conference is based. I do not need to remind you that the international community are looking hard at their Balkan spending budgets, and for reasons to shift their financial commitments southwards. So now more than ever, a successful donor's conference is in the hands of the leaders of Bosnia - Herzegovina. The final item as a part of the OHR's wish to engage the Croat people in a meaningful dialogue, Carlos Westendorp, the High Representative, will tomorrow chair a meeting of Croats drawn from a wide spectrum of Croat society - the Catholic Church, unions, cultural associations, the education sector, opposition parties as well as the HDZ, will all be represented.