SARAJEVO, March 31 (Hina) - Commenting on an agreement on constitutional changes in Bosnia which the international High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, proposed earlier this week, the country's media concluded it thoroughly
changed the organisation of the Serb entity but failed to guarantee the full equality of Bosnia's three peoples throughout the country's territory.
SARAJEVO, March 31 (Hina) - Commenting on an agreement on
constitutional changes in Bosnia which the international High
Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, proposed earlier this week,
the country's media concluded it thoroughly changed the
organisation of the Serb entity but failed to guarantee the full
equality of Bosnia's three peoples throughout the country's
territory. #L#
According to the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz, the agreement merely
paves the way for bigger changes which should culminate in Bosnia
and Herzegovina's association with the European Union.
Evidently, no one is completely satisfied with the agreement, but
it still represents a compromise which significantly distances
Bosnia from the "rotten Dayton (peace agreement) structure,"
Dnevni Avaz said.
If anything in the agreement appears grotesque, it is due to the
Dayton agreement's establishment of a federalised Croat-Muslim
entity in one half of Bosnia and a centralised Serb entity with a
presidential system in the other, the daily added.
According to Oslobodjenje, the biggest deficiency of the Petritsch
agreement is that the equality of the three constituent peoples has
not been realised on a full parity basis.
The fact that the agreement respects the majority principle in both
entities cost the Croats, as the least numerous, the most. Serbs
remain dominant in the Bosnian Serb government and Bosniaks
(Muslims) have the majority in the federation, Oslobodjenje said,
adding that if nothing else, the agreement at least made the Serb
entity a little less Serb.
Political parties reacted similarly.
The Social Democratic Party was the most enthusiastic about the
agreement, claiming that it accomplished what had been the goal of
negotiations, i.e. to abolish ethnic discrimination.
The Party for BH expressed reservations, stating that many
principles had to be sacrificed for the adoption of the agreement.
Kresimir Zubak, the president of the New Croatian Initiative, said
the agreement was a good foundation for the implementation of a
Constitutional Court decision proclaiming Bosniaks, Croats, and
Serbs equal throughout Bosnia. He conceded that nobody was entirely
satisfied with the agreement.
The president of the Party of Independent Social Democrats, Milorad
Dodik, said there was no doubt the Serb entity would be exposed to
international sanctions if it refused to implement the Petritsch
agreement.
(hina) ha