ZAGREB, Sept 24 (Hina) - The Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovinahas ruled that 13 toponyms in the Bosnian Serb entity must be changedas they are contrary to the country's constitution. As a result, townswhose names were changed
during the war into Srpski Brod, SrpskaKostajnica and Srbinje etc. will be renamed Bosanski Brod, BosanskaKostajnica and Foca respectively, the court's president, Mato Tadic,said on Friday.
ZAGREB, Sept 24 (Hina) - The Constitutional Court of
Bosnia-Herzegovina has ruled that 13 toponyms in the Bosnian Serb entity must
be changed as they are contrary to the country's constitution. As a result,
towns whose names were changed during the war into Srpski Brod, Srpska
Kostajnica and Srbinje etc. will be renamed Bosanski Brod, Bosanska Kostajnica
and Foca respectively, the court's president, Mato Tadic, said on Friday.Tadic told reporters that the Court was forced to adopt this ruling as a
provisional measure after the Bosnian Serb parliament failed to change the
disputed names within a three-month deadline set by the Constitutional Court
on 27 February.
The Court established that toponyms containing the name of only one
people in the country were unacceptable and must be altered.
The area called Srpsko Sarajevo, a part of a wider Sarajevo area under
the Serb control, will be renamed Sarajevo-Istok (Sarajevo-East).
The Serb entity's parliament has now a one-month deadline to vote the
names which will be generally acceptable. Until then, the Court's ruling on the
reintroduction of prewar names for the 13 towns and municipalities will be in
force.