FOREIGN MINISTER ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN BOSNIA

ZAGREB, Jan 16 (Hina) - The Croatian government maintains the constitutional reforms in Bosnia are an opportunity to advance democratic processes and establish symmetry of institutions in the country's two entities, Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told parliament on Wednesday. Zdravka Busic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the strongest opposition party, asked why the government did not react to a proposal by the international community's High Representative in Bosnia to establish in the Bosnian Serb parliament a special commission for the protection of fundamental national interests instead of a House of Peoples. Busic said Wolfgang Petritsch's Office was thus dodging the implementation of a Bosnian Constitutional Court decision stipulating that all three peoples (Croats, Serbs, Muslims) were constituent throughout the country's territory. This, she added, could reduce Bosnian Croats to the status of a national minority. The foreign minister said he had spoken to Petritsch on the phone earlier today. The High Representative will soon visit Zagreb, explain his intentions, and speak about the Bosnian constitutional reforms, Picula added. He told Petritsch he was both interested and concerned in the latter's statement as the Dayton peace agreement and the Constitution bind Croatia to care for Bosnian Croats. The High Representative assured Picula there was no cause to fear that Croats in Bosnia might become a national minority. Croatia will not watch indifferently the constitutional reforms in Bosnia, Picula asserted. (hina) ha