SARAJEVO DAILY COMMENTS ON FINANCING OF CORRUPTION CLAIM SUIT

SARAJEVO, Sept 16 (Hina) - The lawsuit which the highest Bosniak officials will file against The New York Times and reporter Chris Hedges regarding an article on corruption in Bosnia-Herzegovina will be a civil suit financed with the state money, the Sarajevo daily "Oslobodjenje" reported on Thursday. Senior Croat officials in the authorities of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina told the daily they had neither been consulted nor informed about the lawsuit. Representatives of the US law firm "McDermott, Will & Emery", who early this week visited Sarajevo in order to start investigating the claims published in the NYT article, told reporters they would be paid on the basis of agreement with the Federation Premier Edhem Bicakcic. "I heard about the hiring of foreign lawyers on the radio", Bicakcic's deputy Dragan Covic said. Covic added he did not know which funds would be used for financing the US lawyers. Federation President Ivo Andric Luzanski also said he had not been consulted regarding the suit, and Federation Vice-President Ejup Ganic said the same. An advisor on media of the President of the BH Presidency, Tihomir Begic, said his office was not acquainted with the possible suit. "It is absurd for the BH Federation to finance a civil suit", Begic said. A special "Oslobodjenje" commentary, headlined "A Private State", reminds that the news conference held by the US attorneys who visited Sarajevo was also attended by Bakir Izetbegovic, Muhamed Sacirbegovic, Vasvija Vidovic, and Adamir Jerkovic, who are all connected with Alija Izetbegovic and not Edhem Bicakcic, who should sign the costs of the trial. "Obviously, someone has mixed up private and state interests, mixing up the money as well... What is likely to have happened is a major faux pas after which another stain will fall on the Izetbegovic family. But it's their own fault. They failed to realise what was their own property and what was the property of Bosnia-Herzegovina", the commentary concluded. (hina) rml