VIENNA, May 9 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, on Thursday submitted a report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna following the conclusion of his three-year mandate.
Petritsch said that a huge step had been made during his mandate, which he added should be the beginning and not the end of positive changes.
VIENNA, May 9 (Hina) - The international community's High
Representative in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, on Thursday
submitted a report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna
following the conclusion of his three-year mandate. Petritsch said
that a huge step had been made during his mandate, which he added
should be the beginning and not the end of positive changes. #L#
The first half of the mandate could be described as one of 'high
interventionism' and huge efforts to remove people who hampered the
implementation of the Dayton Agreement, Petritsch said. He added
that he sent a clear message to all hard-core nationalists that the
Dayton Agreement was not just a piece of paper but a document whose
implementation meant creating the path to democracy, tolerance and
a multiethnic society.
The last serious intervention and most likely the largest and most
difficult, as Petritsch said, was removing Ante Jelavic from the
Bosnian Presidency along with three other members of the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) who supported the 'Croat self-government'.
Several weeks later Petritsch appointed a 'temporary board' for
Hercegovacka Bank where odd transactions had been noted, Petritsch
said, stressing that had the Croat self-government not been stopped
in Bosnia, Dayton would have fallen through.
The greatest evidence that Bosnia has entered a new era is the
readiness of Bosnian politicians for compromise and change,
Petritsch said. He particularly emphasised the significance of
accepting the amendments to ethnic constitutions by which the two
entities became multiethnic societies.
Petritsch considers his greatest success the return of refugees and
displaced persons, 67,000 in 2000, and 92,000 in 2001. He expressed
concern due to the lack of will by local politicians to offer
support to returnees and to assist them with rebuilding their
homes.
Petritsch is leaving Bosnia in the belief that his successor, Great
Britain's Paddy Ashdown, will find solid foundations for the
building of democratic institutions and a democratic society.
Croatia's Ambassador to the OSCE (Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe), Mario Nobilo, thanked Petritsch for the
results achieved, even though he pointed out some problems and
asymmetry and imbalances in the current solutions that were
imposed, particularly with regard to rights enjoyed by Bosnian
Croats.
The Croatian delegation requested that Croats be included more in
the interior political system in Bosnia.
The delegation welcomed the decision by the parliament of the
northern Yugoslav province of Vojvodina to recognise Croatian as an
official language which follows the recognition of Croats as a
minority in Yugoslavia, Nobilo said.
(hina) sp sb