BOSNIA'S HDZ SLAMMED OVER STALLING REFORM OF EDUCATION SYSTEM

SARAJEVO, March 22 (Hina) - Representatives of international organisations operating in Bosnia last weekend strongly criticised the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) for statements that it will not support the reform of the country's education system because it fears that it may result in the revoking of the right to education in the Croatian language.#L# The country's minister of civil affairs, Safet Halilovic, accused the HDZ also of trying to introduce segregation in the system of higher education. In a statement for Sarajevo's Oslobodjenje daily of Monday, Halilovic said HDZ leader Barisa Colak was trying to establish ethnic universities, which was contrary to European standards. Education ministers from Bosnia's five cantons with the Croat majority, who are members of the HDZ, last week signed a declaration urging protection for the constitutional right of every people to be educated in their own language and attend ethnic schools, thus rejecting a proposal for the reorganisation of the country's systems of primary and higher education. High Representative Paddy Ashdown, the head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, Robert Beecroft, and the Council of Europe's representative in Bosnia, Sonia Moser-Starrach, issued a joint statement condemning the conduct of the HDZ ministers and warned that turning the unification of the school system into a political and ethnic problem would harm Bosnia's prospects of joining the EU. They said that the strategy of reform of the education system abolishing discrimination and parallel structures and providing for more cost-efficient operation of schools had already been supported in the country. Beecroft said that the existing school system, which tolerates the practice of students attending ethnically separated classes under the same roof, should be made more economical, which he said would in no way affect the curricula or languages used in the education process. (Hina) rml