SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina stated on Saturday that the return of national parties to power had additionally worsened the already unsatisfactory human rights situation in the
country.
SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in
Bosnia-Herzegovina stated on Saturday that the return of national
parties to power had additionally worsened the already
unsatisfactory human rights situation in the country. #L#
Presenting the 2002 human rights report at a news conference in
Sarajevo, a member of the Committee's steering board, Srdjan
Dizdarevic, said that last year had seen a number of attacks on
returnees and members of minorities, which he said was the best
proof that there had been no major progress in the establishment of
the rule of law and democratic standards in 2002.
Dizdarevic said the most drastic example of this was the murder of
three members of a Croat family, the Andjelics, from Kostajnica
near Konjic.
"Nationalist pressures the purpose of which it to maintain the
ethnic division of the country continued last year and after the
October 5 elections and the victory of national parties pressures
against returnees and minorities worsened," he said.
The Committee also believes that the benevolent attitude of High
Representative Paddy Ashdown towards national parties had only
additionally complicated the situation, as had the fact that he did
not consider return and respect for human rights priority issues.
Dizdarevic believes that Ashdown's authoritative behaviour with
regard to the settlement of problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina
regretfully significantly differed from the partnership relations
which his predecessor Wolfgang Petritsch had tried to build with
local authorities.
The Committee believes that local authorities are the most
responsible for the situation in the country because they have
proved unable to solve a number of burning problems, especially
social ones.
Noting the fact that seven years after the end of the war 1,300,000
Bosnian citizens are still waiting to return to their pre-war
homes, the Committee particularly warns about rocketing
unemployment figures and the fact that almost 50% of the population
are deprived of the most basic form of health care, as well as about
the fact that as many as 72% of pensioners live below the
subsistence level.
(hina) rml