MOSTAR: PICULA AND TOMAC ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

MOSTAR, April 12 (Hina) - Ending his visit to Mostar, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula on Friday expressed hope that the combined meeting of all Croat political parties in Bosnia scheduled for Monday in Sarajevo, would end in a consensus about constitutional amendments in Bosnia. #L# "We wanted to inspire that consensus. Our ambitions were great and I believe that our visit to Mostar today was worthwhile", Picula said. The talks in Mostar concerning constitutional changes in Bosnia with Picula and the president of the Croatian parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Zdravko Tomac, were boycotted by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia, who objected to the Zagreb government supporting the recent Sarajevo Agreement on constitutional amendments about the constitutionality of all three peoples in the country. Minister Picula said that he considered the HDZ's failure to participate did not endanger the talks in Mostar. The boycott of the Mostar talks was seen by Zdravko Tomac as a "mistake and another 'own-goal' for the HDZ". Tomac warned that no one has the right to put party interests above national interests. "The constitutional amendments are a chance to thwart any possible process of connecting Republika Srpska with Serbia or Kosovo with Albania", Tomac said, adding that constitutional amendments in Bosnia need to definitely reject any "firm" connections between the Republic of Croatia and the Bosnian Federation. In talks with international representatives in Mostar, according to Tomac, the Croatian delegation relayed the government's and parliament's attitude that "Bosnia is maintainable if the equality of all three peoples in Bosnia are strengthened", and that it was vital for symmetrical constitutional amendments to be implemented in the Bosnian Federation and Republika Srpska. According to Tomac, the Croatian delegation objected to international representatives not taking a "deeper look into Republika Srpska". Regardless of the insufficiencies, Tomac reminded, the constitutional amendments and the Sarajevo Agreement should not be obstructed because, as he said, this was the first positive step toward transforming the entities in Bosnia. During their visit to Mostar, the Croatian delegation met with economists and local Croat and Bosniak county and city officials. Picula and Tomac also met with representatives of the recently founded association of the Democratic Alternative of Rama (DAR) that supports the idea of a complete B-H and consider Bosnia & Herzegovina to be the homeland of the Croat people. (hina) lml sb