BELGRADE, Aug 11 (Hina) - Almost a decade after the adoption of a memorandum in which the special status for the area of Sandzak was required, the Bosniak (Muslim) National Council passed a declaration on the ethnic Bosniaks' right to
the political and national equality, the Belgrade-based daily "Glas Javnosti", reported on Sunday.
BELGRADE, Aug 11 (Hina) - Almost a decade after the adoption of a
memorandum in which the special status for the area of Sandzak was
required, the Bosniak (Muslim) National Council passed a
declaration on the ethnic Bosniaks' right to the political and
national equality, the Belgrade-based daily "Glas Javnosti",
reported on Sunday. #L#
The recently adopted declaration, unlike the memorandum, has no
indications which exactly area would be covered by "a modern
political territorial unit with a high level of autonomy," as the
declaration read.
According to the daily, the area would probably include six
Serbia's municipalities - Priboj, Prijepolje, Nova Varos, Novi
Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin - and five Montenegro's municipalities -
Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Berane, Rozaje and Plav.
The Serbian daily poses the question "whether there are demographic
and territorial foundations for such status of the Raska region,
i.e. Sandzak, " given that, Serbians and Montenegrins make up a
majority in six of the 11 mentioned towns.
According to 1991 census, there were 420,862 Muslims (Bosniaks) in
the entire area at the time, accounting for 51.5 percent of the
local population, while Serbians and Montenegrins made up then 46.1
percent of the local residents.
The daily believes that a new census will show different results, as
a considerable number of ethnic Bosniaks left Yugoslavia in the
meantime.
The declaration contains six principles, and the council at whose
helm is Sulejman Ugljanin, an ethnic Bosniak leader, insist that
those items should be taken into consideration during attempts to
compile a constitutional charter of the future community of Serbia
and Montenegro.
The first principle is that Bosniaks should be treated as a people,
the second is that Sandzak should be taken as one of the regions of
the future state community.
According to the third principle, interests of all peoples should
equally be treated.
The commission for the elaboration of the said charter should make
decision through consensus of all of its members.
The declaration proposes the decentralisation of the further joint
state with regions and the principle of subsidiarity.
The sixth principle envisages the principle of integration as a
factor in the definition of the future community.
Esad Dzudzevic, a member of the commission for the elaboration of
the charter, and a representative to the Yugoslav parliament, was
quoted by the daily as describing the declaration as a political
framework for his activities at the commission's sessions.
The head of the Helsinki Committee for Sandzak, Sefko Alomerovic,
believes the document is a trick of marketing, "in function of the
political survival."
Zoran Lutovac, an expert in the commission, said the declaration
had been made by the ethnic Bosniak leadership ahead of the
elections in order that those local politicians could score better
results at the polls.
(hina) ms