List members may be interested in the following statement following a
seminar at the PRO last Friday-Saturday.

THE BOSNIAN INSTITUTE
14/16 St Mark's Road, London W11 1RQ, UK 
Telephone:  44 171 243-2900    Fax:  44 171 243-8874
        e-mail:  [log in to unmask]    website:
http://www.bosnia.org.uk
Registered Charity Number 1064733


URGENT * PRESS RELEASE * URGENT * PRESS RELEASE


BOSNIAN ARCHIVISTS MEET IN LONDON


Senior archivists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, headed by the director of the
Archive of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and coming from both its two entities, the
Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, met together
officially for the first time in London last week at a seminar organized by
the Bosnian Institute, with the participation of the International Council
on Archives.    

Working together with representatives from a range of international and
non-governmental organizations and major European archives, they agreed on
a common programme and priority action plan for rebuilding the archive
service across Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was severely damaged and disrupted
during the recent war and has been left in limbo since the establishment of
new administrative units following the Dayton Peace Accords.

Three broad areas for future co-operative action were identified: the need
to modernise and harmonise the legal framework for the archive service
across the country, and in particular to strengthen the position of the
Archive of Bosnia-Herzegovina; work to protect the physical condition of
archives; and training for staff of both archives and record-creating
organizations.   

Archives and records are crucial to good governance and essential for
ensuring accountability and transparency. Bosnia-Herzegovina, after
experiencing a devastating war, is still undergoing major constitutional
and economic transitions. The rehabilitation of the archive service in
Bosnia-Herzegovina into a modern, effective element of public
administration will be a key factor in establishing its ability to function
fully as a democratic state.
 
The seminar was hosted by the Public Record Office, and received financial
support from the British Council Sarajevo.  Representatives of UNESCO, the
International Council on Archives, the Open Society Archive (Budapest), the
Packard Humanities Institute (California) the International Multireligious
and Intercultural Centre (Sarajevo), Bosnia-Herzegovina Heritage Rescue
(London), and the Bosnian Manuscript Ingathering Project (USA) attended,
along with senior archivists from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Sweden and the
United Kingdom.  The seminar was part of the International Seminar
Programme of the Bosnian Institute, a London-based non-governmental
organization.

12 MAY 1999





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