BOSNIAN HDZ SLAMS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

MOSTAR, April 20 (Hina) - The general secretary of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BH) party said on Saturday the constitutional amendments which were imposed yesterday prevented Bosnian Croats from electing their representatives in the executive authority. Serbs will do that in Republika Srpska and Bosniaks in the Federation, Josip Merdzo said. #L# The other Croat parties in Bosnia's Croat National Assembly said some constitutional amendments were entirely unacceptable as they reduced the equality of the Croats, which are the smallest Bosnian people. "It is beyond dispute that the Croat people got certain positions it did not have in Republika Srpska, but is certain that in line with the adopted procedures, Serbs and Bosniaks will decide about Croats in the executive authority, in both Republika Srpska and the Federation of BH. Herein lies the biggest injustice of such constitutional amendments," said Merdzo. He added the euphoria of the international community and close political parties would not last long and the imposed solutions prove bad. The president of Bosnia's Croatian Christian Democratic Union, Mijo Ivancic, said the imposed constitutional solutions had made Croats "second rank citizens." The international community was guided by the number of Croats and disregarded the fact that equality is not measured in percentages, he added. The party said the imposition of constitutional amendments by High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch was "unconstitutional." Labelling him the "last communist dictator in Europe," Ivancic's party said Petritsch's latest decision would "not be implemented without the use of force" in Croat-populated areas. (hina) ha sb