SARAJEVO, July 1 (Hina) - A United Nations Security Council decision on a short-term technical extension of the UN mandate in Bosnia-Herzegovina has caused concern among the country's media and some officials.
SARAJEVO, July 1 (Hina) - A United Nations Security Council
decision on a short-term technical extension of the UN mandate in
Bosnia-Herzegovina has caused concern among the country's media
and some officials. #L#
All leading dailies say on Monday the dispute between the United
States and UN Security Council members could have serious
repercussions on the region's stability, even if the withdrawal of
Americans from NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) is not drastic.
The Sarajevo-based "Dnevni avaz" says on the cover "the peace
process is endangered", claiming the latest developments do not
exclude the withdrawal of all Americans from international
organisations active in Bosnia.
"Oslobodjenje" is more cautious, saying it is important that for
the moment there are no concrete indications about the American
withdrawal from the SFOR.
According to "Nezavisne novine" from Banja Luka, the withdrawal of
the Americans from the SFOR would lead to a real disaster,
independently of the difficulties which would be caused by a sudden
termination of the UN mission mandate.
It would be a major catastrophe because the US command has such
authority, says Marc Vheeler, analyst with the International
Crisis Group.
The chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Dragan Mikerevic,
said today the termination of the UN mission might bring into
question everything positive that had been achieved with the help
of the International Police Task Force (IPTF).
The IPTF mandate ends at the end of the year, but the months ahead
should see an undisturbed transfer of powers to the European Union
Police Mission, even though the latest developments bring this into
question too.
"In case the UN withdraws from Bosnia, we expect the EU will specify
the mandate of its police beforehand, i.e. step up the arrival of
its police," said the deputy interior minister in the Croat-Muslim
entity, Tomislav Limov.
Bosnian Ambassador to the UN Mirza Kusljugic told BH Radio 1 he
hoped a solution would be reached in the next couple of days.
He said there were many possibilities for the continuation of the
IPTF mandate, and added the most important thing was to prevent the
current crisis from affecting the SFOR mandate.
The UN mission seat in Sarajevo today did not comment on the latest
events, only saying in a statement that mission head Jacques Klein
was resuming his activities according to plan.
(hina) ha