OPERATION BALKAN VICE III: TREASURY DESIGNATION OF THIRTEEN INDIVIDUALS OBSTRUCTING THE DAYTON PEACE ACCORDS IN BOSNIA


This Department of Treasury press release may be viewed at:
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1162.htm

   Treasury Secretary John Snow announced today that Treasury's Office of
   Foreign Assets Control designated thirteen individuals under the
   Western Balkans Executive Order 13219, as amended by Executive Order
   13304. Todays designation will allow the U.S. Treasury to block the
   assets in the U.S. of these individuals and to prohibit financial
   transactions with them by U.S. persons.

   The 13 individuals were designated for obstructing, or the risk they
   pose for obstructing, or support for obstructing the Ohrid Framework
   Agreement of 2001 relating to Macedonia, and the Dayton Accords,
   including the decisions of the High Representative, relating to Bosnia
   and Herzegovina, or for assisting or supporting persons, or for having
   acted or purported to act on behalf of persons, designated pursuant to
   the order.

   Those designated today were Dragan Basevic, Beljko Borovcanin, Samojko
   Djorda, Ljuban Ecim, Avdyl Jakupi, Radomir Kojic, Tomislav Kovac,
   Predrag Kujundzic, Milovan Marijanovic, Ivan Sarac, Mirko Saravic,
   Xhezair Shaqiri, and Menduh Thaci.

   In a parallel action, at a news conference at 1 p.m. (7 a.m. EST) in
   Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, the High
   Representative and EU Special Representative to Bosnia and
   Herzegovina, announced the blocking of the assets of 10 of the
   individuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the removal of three
   individuals from their positions as police officers and the removal of
   Mirko Sarovic from his position as vice president of the Serb
   Democratic Party.

   Information available to the U.S. government indicates that, among
   other sanctioned activities, seven of these persons  Dragan Basevic,
   Beljko Borovcanin, Samojko Djorda, Ljuban Ecim, Tomislav Kovac, Ivan
   Sarac, and Mirko Sarovic  have used their positions in public office
   for the benefit of Milovan Bjelica, a person designated pursuant to
   E.O. 13219. Two of these persons  Radomir Kojic and Milovan
   Marijanovic  own or control commercial businesses suspected of
   providing support to persons indicted for war crimes (PIFWCs) by the
   International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or other
   persons designated pursuant to Executive Order 13219. Four of these
   persons  Avdyl Jakupi, Predrag Kujundzic, Xhezair Shaqiri, and Menduh
   Thaci  are leaders of armed militant groups opposed to the United
   Nations efforts to establish peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

   Under Executive Order 13219, the President of the United States
   exercised his statutory authority to declare a national emergency in
   response to the unusual and extraordinary threat to national security
   and foreign policy of the U.S. by persons engaged in, or assisting,
   sponsoring, or supporting acts of obstructing implementation of the
   Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia.

   The United States has a vital interest in assuring peace and stability
   in Europe. In the Western Balkans, the U.S. is engaged, together with
   NATO Allies, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
   UN missions, the EU, and other international organizations in an
   effort to achieve peace, stability, reconciliation, and democratic
   development and to facilitate the regions integration into the
   European mainstream. The U.S. views full implementation of the Dayton
   Peace Accords in Bosnia as critical to these efforts.

   

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