SARAJEVO, April 8 (Hina) - The constitutional amendments adopted by the Bosnian Serb entity's parliament last week are not entirely compliant with a previously reached agreement on constitutional changes to be implemented in Bosnia
and will have to be changed, Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija and US Ambassador Clifford Bond said on Monday.
SARAJEVO, April 8 (Hina) - The constitutional amendments adopted by
the Bosnian Serb entity's parliament last week are not entirely
compliant with a previously reached agreement on constitutional
changes to be implemented in Bosnia and will have to be changed,
Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija and US Ambassador
Clifford Bond said on Monday. #L#
The agreement on constitutional changes was adopted on March 27
through the mediation of international High Representative
Wolfgang Petritsch.
Ambassador Bond told reporters in Sarajevo the agreement was a fair
and balanced approach to the implementation of a Bosnian
Constitutional Court decision on the equality of the three peoples
throughout the country, and that as such it must be implemented. As
for the Serb entity's amendments, he said they were an incomplete
step in the implementation of the Sarajevo Agreement.
According to Bond, the most contentious aspect is that the adopted
amendments practically limit the role of the Bosnian Serb
parliament's Council of Peoples. The Serb parties decided this body
could arbitrate only in a very limited number of issues which are
deemed of vital national interest. The Council of Peoples must
decide what is of national interest and not the Bosnian Serb
parliament, said the ambassador, one of the signatories of the
Sarajevo Agreement.
He urged the authorities of Bosnia's other entity, the Croat-Muslim
federation, not to wait for the resolution of this issue but do
everything to entirely implement the Sarajevo Agreement.
Speaking as president of the Social Democratic Party, Bosnian
Foreign Minister Lagumdzija said the Bosnian Serb amendments were
evidently contrary to the March 27 agreement. "It doesn't matter
how much of the agreement is incorporated in the amendments. The
fact is that the agreement must be implemented in its entirety or
not at all," he said.
According to Lagumdzija, another signatory of the Sarajevo
Agreement, the most contentious point is that the Bosnian Serbs
have avoided introducing effective mechanisms of protection of
vital national interests.
He is confident the problem will be eliminated in the coming days.
The ruling Alliance for Changes will do its share of the job in the
implementation of constitutional changes in the federation, he
said.
(hina) ha sb