SARAJEVO, March 26 (Hina) - The Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina decided that the names of towns in the country containing the adjective "Serb" were unconstitutional, the court said in a statement in Sarajevo on
Friday.
SARAJEVO, March 26 (Hina) - The Constitutional Court of
Bosnia-Herzegovina decided that the names of towns in the country
containing the adjective "Serb" were unconstitutional, the court said
in a statement in Sarajevo on Friday.#L#
Ruling on a complaint filed in the summer of 2001 by Sejfudin Tokic,
vice-president of the opposition Social Democratic Union of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, the court decided that adding adjectives denoting
one nation to the names of towns in the Bosnian Serb entity was
contrary to the country's constitution.
Tokic's complaint is based on the fact that Republika Srpska, like the
other entity, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was by
constitutional amendments in 2001 transformed into a multiethnic
entity and that it is therefore illegal to name towns and
municipalities after one ethnic group.
There are 12 towns and municipalities in the Serb entity whose pre-war
names were changed and where the mass expulsion of Croats and Muslims
took place.
Even the suburbs of the capital Sarajevo, which under the Dayton peace
agreement were allocated to the Bosnian Serb entity, were renamed into
Serb Sarajevo.
The Constitutional Court ordered the parliament of Republika Srpska to
give the towns in question their pre-war names within 30 days.
(Hina) rml