"Without a stable and democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina, there will be no stability in the region we live in and in Europe we aspire to join," Mesic said at a meeting of the Igman Initiative, which consists of 140 non-governmental organisations from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro.
The meeting was devoted to the tenth anniversary of the Dayton agreement and the next steps to be taken by its three signatories -- Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia-Montenegro.
Mesic said that the Dayton agreement was "increasingly becoming an obstacle to any deeper reform" and should therefore be "upgraded and adjusted to the requirements of the present time and the time that lies ahead."
The Croatian president noted that in the forthcoming reform of the Dayton-based Bosnia-Herzegovina it would be crucial to achieve full equality of the country's constituent peoples.
"In my opinion, the solution lies in establishing a civil society in which the internal organisation of the state will be solely of an administrative nature and in which no one will exercise their rights on the basis of their ethnic background, but solely on the basis of civil equality. This kind of equality should also include what we could tentatively call the right (of each constituent ethnic group) to their ethnic particularities, such as the use of their language and script," he said.
Serbia and Montenegro's President Svetozar Marovic said that the time had come to review the achievements of the Dayton agreement and its historical value.
"Citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina are the most qualified for such a review," Marovic said, adding that his country would support any agreement on Bosnia-Herzegovina reached by all three constituent peoples -- the Bosniaks (Muslims), the Serbs and the Croats.
In this way Marovic hinted that the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, which had so far opposed the Dayton accords being amended, might be willing to accept changes.
Sulejman Tihic, the Muslim member of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that the present organisation of the country was an obstacle to its admission to the European Union and NATO.
Tihic called for "a civil Bosnia-Herzegovina", adding that the country should be decentralised and organised in multiethnic regions. He opposed calls for ethnic prefixes to be attached to the names of institutions, business enterprises or towns, except in the case of cultural or humanitarian organisations.
The leaders of umbrella organisations gathered within the Igman Initiative signed a joint declaration, saying that reality had transcended the Dayton agreement and that therefore new forms and frameworks should be sought to meet the needs of citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The declaration also advocated non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.