SARAJEVO, Sept 22 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be admitted into NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and will put its chance of joining the European Union at risk unless the Bosniak side accepts the proposed plan for the
reform of the defence system by the end of this week, the international community's high representative in this country, Paddy Ashdown, warned on Monday.
SARAJEVO, Sept 22 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be admitted
into NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and will put its chance
of joining the European Union at risk unless the Bosniak side
accepts the proposed plan for the reform of the defence system by
the end of this week, the international community's high
representative in this country, Paddy Ashdown, warned on Monday.
#L#
Commenting on the refusal by the Bosniak member of the country's
collective presidency, Sulejman Tihic, and his Democratic Action
Party (SDA) to accept the draft defence bill worked out by a special
group of experts over the last three months, Ashdown told a press
conference in Sarajevo that Bosnia-Herzegovina would make a huge
mistake unless it endorsed the bill.
He said he was very concerned about what some people within the SDA
were doing, adding that they either did not understand the proposed
solutions or misinterpreted them.
The expert group led by US diplomat James Locher has drawn up the
defence bill under which a national defence ministry and a joint
military headquarters are to be established for the first time
after the signing of the Dayton peace agreement in 1995. The bill
gives the collective presidency command powers over the military.
The armed forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two entities -- the
Bosniak-Croat federation and Republika Srpska -- would continue to
exist, but soldiers and officers would wear the same uniforms with
insignia of the state and would swear allegiance to the state of
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Tihic and his party associates claim that this will only cement the
existing divisions along ethnic lines and that the proposed reforms
will legalise bad solutions from the Dayton agreement.
The SDA finds it unacceptable for the defence minister and the army
chief of staff to have two deputies each, arguing that this will
enable creation of a parallel command system.
Locher said that the proposed reforms simply respected the existing
laws which, in the case of the Federation army, also explicitly
referred to its Croat component (HVO).
Ashdown said that the unified armed forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina
would be established in 2007 as a precondition for full membership
of NATO.
He added that at the moment NATO Secretary General George Robertson
was very interested in Bosnia-Herzegovina entering the Partnership
for Peace programme by the end of this year or at the beginning of
2004 at the latest.
This refusal could not have happened at a worse moment, Ashdown
stressed. If this project is brought into question, it will be a
sign to the European Union that Bosnia-Herzegovina is unable to
carry out the necessary reforms, he added.
According to the Office of the High Representative, Serbia and
Montenegro is certain to join the Partnership for Peace programme
by the end of the year, in which case Bosnia-Herzegovina will remain
the last "black hole" in the Balkans, completely isolated from
Euro-Atlantic integration processes.
Ashdown insisted he would not impose the proposed bill, and said
that the local authorities would have to take responsibility and
consequences for any failure to carry out reforms.
(hina) vm