MOSTAR, March 4 (Hina) - The leaders of eight of Bosnia's most influential political parties failed on Sunday, for the fourth time, to reach an agreement on constitutional reforms which should make the three peoples constituent
throughout the country's territory, a Bosnian Croat official said. There is a wish to use the constitutional changes for the definitive division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into one Bosniak (Muslim) and one Serb entity," Niko Lozancic, an official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BH), told Hina over the telephone. He said there had been no actual will to ensure full equality for the three peoples throughout Bosnian territory, and that the Serb parties had entered the talks to dissuade other parties from implementing a Constitutional Court decision proclaiming the three peoples constituent throughout Bosnia. All Bosnian Serb parties strongly object to the establishment
MOSTAR, March 4 (Hina) - The leaders of eight of Bosnia's most
influential political parties failed on Sunday, for the fourth
time, to reach an agreement on constitutional reforms which should
make the three peoples constituent throughout the country's
territory, a Bosnian Croat official said.
There is a wish to use the constitutional changes for the definitive
division of Bosnia and Herzegovina into one Bosniak (Muslim) and
one Serb entity," Niko Lozancic, an official of the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ BH), told Hina over the telephone.
He said there had been no actual will to ensure full equality for the
three peoples throughout Bosnian territory, and that the Serb
parties had entered the talks to dissuade other parties from
implementing a Constitutional Court decision proclaiming the three
peoples constituent throughout Bosnia.
All Bosnian Serb parties strongly object to the establishment of an
upper parliamentary house for fear of losing the Bosnian Serb
entity, asserted Lozancic.
He said the Bosniak parties did not seem too concerned with the
Serbs' stance and even suggested reconsidering the need for having
a House of Peoples in the parliament of the other Bosnian entity,
the Croat-Muslim federation.
The parties should attempt one final meeting to harmonise their
stances at the office of the international community's High
Representative. It is also possible that he may personally decide
about the constitutional changes.
Lozancic said, however, that any form of imposition would not be a
good solution.
HDZ BH advocates a full harmonisation of the two entities'
constitutions with that of the Bosnian state, which contains all
mechanisms for the protection of collective rights, especially
important for the Croats, Bosnia's least numerous people.
Participating in the Sunday talks in Sarajevo, besides HDZ BH, were
representatives of the Social Democratic Party, the Party of
Democratic Progress, the Party for BH, the Party of Independent
Social Democrats, the New Croatian Initiative, the Serb Democratic
Party, and the Party of Democratic Action.
(hina) ha