MORE THAN 10,000 FOREIGNERS GRANTED BOSNIAN CITIZENSHIP

SARAJEVO, Jan 19 (Hina) - More than 10,000 foreign citizens were granted Bosnian citizenship in the past seven years, reads an article in the Sarajevo daily 'Oslobodjenje' on Wednesday. According to the information obtained from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications, most of the 10,994 new citizens were granted citizenship on the basis of their participation in the war. It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 foreigners, who were members of military units or worked in humanitarian organisations, have been granted citizenship. All new citizens have been granted citizenship in line with the laws valid in the pre-war Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Only 66 persons have been granted Bosnian citizenship since the adoption of the new law on citizenship and the take-over of the procedure by the authority established in line with the Dayton agreement. Civil Affairs Minister Marko Asanin claims that persons who were granted Bosnian citizenship came mostly from the Sandzak region and Kosovo in neighbouring Yugoslavia, and Macedonia. Asanin also claims that only 39 persons were granted citizenship in the Bosnian Serb entity during the war, and another 220 were granted citizenship after the signing of the Dayton agreement. Since January 1, 2000, a large number of Croatian Serb refugees have the right to seek Bosnian citizenship and Asanin believes the number of applications will be large. A special commission for the revision of citizenship certificates granted during the war has so far received information about 5,130 persons who were granted citizenship during the war. According to Asanin, only a small number of irregularities have been detected during the revision. It is still unknown how many persons from Muslim countries have been granted the right to Bosnian citizenship. (hina) rml