MOSTAR, Sept 21 (Hina) - A spokesman for the international community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina has accused the (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of halting the process of restructuring of the military in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and thus hindering the country's efforts to enter NATO's Partnership for Peace programme.
MOSTAR, Sept 21 (Hina) - A spokesman for the international
community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina has accused
the (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of halting the
process of restructuring of the military in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
thus hindering the country's efforts to enter NATO's Partnership
for Peace programme. #L#
The SDA leadership on Friday opposed proposals for the set-up of the
single army with three national components (Croat, Muslim and
Serb).
Spokesman Julian Braithwaite on Saturday issued a press release
saying that the SDA halted the reform in the defence sector, but
added that it was the decision of that party. According to him, it is
paradoxical that it has been the SDA which prevented the
establishment of the united defence ministry at the state level.
The Office of the High Representative says that the reform in the
defence sector has not changed the current structure or composition
of the armed forces in Bosnia, but that the purpose of the ongoing
reform is to put the armed forces under the control of the State and
to see all troops in the same uniforms.
Braithwaite considers it as one of the most important package of
reforms in the defence sector since the conclusion of the Dayton
peace accords.
High Representative Paddy Ashdown has recently indicated that the
basic elements of a new law on the matter would provide for the
civilian command, namely the Bosnian collective Presidency as the
supreme commander, over the army, and the single defence ministry,
with the entities' armies still in existence but their members will
have the state insignia of Bosnia-Herzegovina and take oath to the
country instead of to the two entities: the Croat-Muslim federation
and the Serb republic.
According to the media, analysts describe the reform as a
compromise which tolerates the existence of the two entities'
armies, but their full uniting should be a next step.
Sulejman Tihic, who is the SDA leader and Muslim (Bosniak) member of
the Presidency, has stated that he is not going to sign the relevant
document on the re-organisation of the defence system.
He believes that those are only half-way measures which would not
bring about necessary changes. Tihic has been cited by the press as
saying that the draft act fortifies the division of the country on
the basis of the ethnic criteria.
Before the compromise solutions, the Bosnian Serb authorities were
treated as the biggest obstacle for efforts in the reorganisation
of Bosnia's defence system.
The leading Bosnian Croat party - the HDZ BiH - has advocated the
set-up of the single armed forces with three national components.
(hina) ms