SARAJEVO/BRCKO, Oct 20 (Hina) - The situation in Brcko has been more peaceful since the district's assembly brought a decision on the temporary closing of primary and secondary schools, local media confirmed Friday. Since Thursday
afternoon there are no longer protesters on the streets who had for the past three days been requesting the setting up of separate schools for students of Serb nationality. According to information at hand the situation has stabilised and local police are doing everything to secure order and peace, UN spokesman in Sarajevo Douglas Coffman told Hina Friday. For four consecutive days, several hundred students of Muslim and Serb nationality had been holding protests in Brcko in north-eastern Bosnia against the education system in force in this district. Brcko has the status of a separate district whose administration is independent of the governments of both the Bosnian Serb republic and
SARAJEVO/BRCKO, Oct 20 (Hina) - The situation in Brcko has been more
peaceful since the district's assembly brought a decision on the
temporary closing of primary and secondary schools, local media
confirmed Friday.
Since Thursday afternoon there are no longer protesters on the
streets who had for the past three days been requesting the setting
up of separate schools for students of Serb nationality.
According to information at hand the situation has stabilised and
local police are doing everything to secure order and peace, UN
spokesman in Sarajevo Douglas Coffman told Hina Friday.
For four consecutive days, several hundred students of Muslim and
Serb nationality had been holding protests in Brcko in north-
eastern Bosnia against the education system in force in this
district.
Brcko has the status of a separate district whose administration is
independent of the governments of both the Bosnian Serb republic
and the Croat-Muslim federation, Bosnia's two constituent
entities.
Radio BiH reported Friday police patrols had increased as well as
the number of armoured personnel carriers of the Stabilisation
Forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Brcko District police were provided backup from police
administrations in Tuzla and Bijeljina. Coffman confirmed
additional police troops would remain in Brcko as long as
necessary.
We know police on Thursday apprehended 15 people for causing
incidents, he stressed.
Brcko police commissioner Dusko Kokanovic said that during the
rally on Thursday two police officers had been injured and five
Bosniak-owned shops damaged.
The decision on the temporary closing down of school was made to
defuse tensions temporarily and avoid new incidents.
The District government is obliged to begin negotiations with
students and professors to find a solution to their requests, but
members of the local assembly agreed with the decision that
students were just an instrument in the hands of political
manipulators.
The international supervisor for Brcko, US diplomat Garry Mathews
said the case was about a dirty political game.
President of the district's assembly, Mirsad Djapo, said the
protests of Serb students on the streets of Brcko were nothing more
than an integral part of an electoral campaign and their requests
had the least to do with the situation in the education system.
There is no doubts this is an issue of political manipulation,
Coffman said, stressing that in order to make a final assessment,
one should wait for the results of an ongoing police investigation
which should identify the true instigators of the biggest riots
that occurred in the Brcko area since the district had been placed
under international supervision a year and a half ago.
(hina) lml