SARAJEVO, Jan 10 (Hina) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic stirred up spirits in Bosnia with his statement that the country's status and future would depend on the status and future of Kosovo.
SARAJEVO, Jan 10 (Hina) - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic
stirred up spirits in Bosnia with his statement that the country's
status and future would depend on the status and future of Kosovo.
#L#
In a comment for a German weekly, "Der Spiegel", on the current
situation in Kosovo and the possibility of this Yugoslav province
becoming formally independent from Serbia, Djindjic said that in
that case a discussion on borders in the entire region, especially
Bosnia's fate as a country established by the Dayton peace accords,
would have to be considered as well.
Djindjic's statement is nothing new because he had given similar
statements earlier, causing avalanches of condemnation. His
reiteration of theses about a possible change of borders in the
Balkans did not result in any less strong opposition.
The first reaction was by the Bosnian Foreign Ministry with Zlatko
Lagumdzija at the helm.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the ministry warned that
such claims harmed the continuation of good neighbourly
cooperation.
Without beating about the bush, Lagumdzija stated that it would be
better for Djindjic to deal with the arrest of war criminals who
were still living freely in Serbia, than to dispute Bosnia's
territorial integrity.
A member of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Sulejman Tihic, and
the High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, joined in the
condemnation of Djindjic's statement.
Ashdown said that borders in Europe and their changes would no
longer be considered at any international conference. He recalled
that, as opposed to Kosovo, Bosnia was a sovereign state and the two
issues could not be placed in the same context.
The current chairman of the Bosnian Presidency, Mirko Sarovic, who
had previously mostly defended everything coming from Belgrade,
said that one should refrain from making claims about changing the
Dayton agreement.
The office of the European commissioner for the common foreign and
security policy, Javier Solana, also deplored Djindjic's attempt
to contest Bosnia's sovereignty.
Under attacks from various sides, the Serbian government issued a
statement explaining that its commitment to the Dayton accords was
not in question, nor was the respect for Bosnia's sovereignty.
"We, however, expect the same guarantees for Serbia with regard to
the status of Kosovo," Djindjic's government said in the press
release.
Djindjic's latest assertion only harmed himself because he had
nullified the little respect he enjoyed in Bosnia after stepping up
on the political scene after toppling Milosevic's regime.
(hina) lml