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Bosnia constitution talks begin with deep divisions
12/11/2005

(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM) – No deal on sight on “upgrading” the 1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Dayton Agreement during the first out of three-day of the US sponsored conference which started Saturday morning in Belgian capital of Brussels, between the leaders of three ethnic communities of the Balkan country.

Representatives of Muslims, Croats and Serbs are divided over US proposed changes of the constitution aiming of strengthening the central state institutions and enable more efficient functioning of the country and overpass ethnic divisions.

Under auspices of Washington Institute for Peace, leaders of eight political parties of Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered to discuss the new blueprint for BiH constitution, allegedly prepared by US administration officials and also based on the remarks of Venice Commission – the Council of Europe experts on legal and human rights issues.

The key points of the new blueprint (a copy of which is obtained by DTT-NET.COM) aim to strengthen central government, reduce power of Presidency of the country and reduce powers of ethnic entities.

“ This overview is indented to provide a broad sense of the changes proposed in the election, power and responsibilities of the State government for the purpose of improving its efficiency, accountability, competency and its compliance with EU and international standards of Human Rights as recommended by the Venice Commission” says the text explaining the aim of changes proposed.

The first day of the talks on the new constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina began and ended with deep divisions, with Muslims leaders supporting the idea of strengthening the central institutions, Croats seeking more competencies for them selves/or abolishing the current entities and Serbs fearing they would loose powers of their entity.

Under the Dayton accord Serbs were given their own entity: Republika Srpska (RS), while Croats merged with majority Muslims into another entity, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, with all state attributes and loose ties at federal level.

Participants disagree on the proposal to have “a single president or a president with two Vice-presidents who could rotate into the office of the president every six months”.

Only Bosnian Muslims have shown readiness to accept the proposal.

“Current form of presidency is not acceptable. I think that during constitutional changes, the institutions of BiH should strengthen and not weaken”, said Sulejman Tihic, Bosnian member of BiH presidency told reporters.

Serbs are against a single president and power transfers from the Presidency to the Council of Ministers/ Government as fear that the influence of their entity at the presidency ( through their representative) will be weakened.

The President of RS Dragan Cavic insists that Serb entity is crucial element in country system.
“Therefore any talks on improving the functionality of the country, should start with respecting this crucial element”, said Covic.

Croat representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina also insists that the Croat interests should be respected during possible constitutional changes, because “they were avoided during past solutions”.
“We can’t accept the possibility of maintaining two entities in BiH because Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina are really second class citizens and this is literally marked even in actual constitution”, said Dragan Covic the leader Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in BiH.

Last month Bosnian Croats stepped up calls for their own republic, demanding changes in the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the 1995 internationally brokered Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in the country.

Croatian Democratic Union which rallies most Bosnian said in mid –October said that Croats are not satisfied with their rights inside federation which they make together with Bosnian Muslims, and want their own entity and regional institutions, as Dayton agreement has provided to Bosnian Serbs.

Croats make about 14.3 per cent of the some 4.5 population of BH, while Bosnian Muslims represent 48 per cent and Serbs 37.1.

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Dragan Covic last months said that representatives of all Croatian parties in Bosnia have reached an agreement to insist on their own entity.

But the four pages of US proposals do not foresee any new ethnic entity or abolishing the two current one.

The Saturday-Monday meeting is meant to resolve another 4 proposals related to the powers and the functioning of the Government and the Parliamentary Assembly.

The US plan to change the constitution of the country is cautiously seen by European Union which is not formally involved on attempts to upgrade the text. However officials from EU and France’s government have warned that no changes can be imposed and they must be agreed by consensus by all three ethnicities.

European Commissioner in charge of enlargement, Olli Rehn who addressed briefly the meeting on Saturday morning told DTT-NET.COM that EU supports initiatives for a "functional multi-ethnic state to serve its citizens better and facilitate European integration", but underlined that he favours “evolution rather then revolution” of Bosnia and Herzegovina constitution.

“This is a clear sign of an emerging consensus to review the Dayton Constitution. Leaders of the country have the ownership of the process, which the European Commission is ready to facilitate.” Rehn said.

Croatian American Association
National Treasurer
Daniella Sumera
6607 W. Archer
Chicago, IL 60638