SPECIAL SESSION ON CVIJANOVIĆ'S VETO

BANJA LUKA, JULY 7 /SRNA/ - A special session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska will be held in Banja Luka today, during which lawmakers will vote on the veto put by the Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, Željka Cvijanović, against the decision of the Chairman of the Presidency, Denis Bećirović, on the appointment of members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH.

As part of the 40th special session, lawmakers will also consider the Declaration on the Protection of the Vital National Interest of the Serb People in BiH, proposed by the Veterans' Organization of Republika Srpska and the Creators of Republika Srpska Association. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00. National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić said yesterday that the 39th special session would be held immediately after the current special session, with the agenda to be supplemented by the bill amending the Criminal Code of Republika Srpska. The proposed amendments introduce two new criminal offences: the public promotion and glorification of the Ustasha movement and the Ustasha ideology of the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/, and the public display and promotion of the flags and symbols of the so-called Army of BiH. The agenda will also include the bill amending the Law on Cemeteries and Funeral Services. He emphasized that lawmakers would also consider, under the urgent procedure, the bill amending the Law on the Rights of Veterans, War Invalids and the Families of Fallen Soldiers of Republika Srpska's Patriotic-Defensive War, as well as the bill amending the Law on Renewable Energy Sources. The Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, Željka Cvijanović, put a veto against the decision on the appointment of members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH, declaring it destructive to the vital national interest of Republika Srpska after it was adopted at a Presidency session held without a quorum. She said that the National Assembly of Republika Srpska would have the final say on the decision, adding that the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Denis Bećirović, who proposed it, had acted unlawfully and that constitutional and procedural rules had been violated on several occasions during the session.