BOSNIA TO HAVE ITS COMMISSION FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

SARAJEVO, Feb 23 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Presidency accepted a proposal for the establishment of a commission for the truth and reconciliation, the Sarajevo-based daily "Oslobodjenje" reported on Tuesday. The three-man presidency is to adopt a statement on the issue soon. According to the daily, the Bosnian Presidency's members would like that such a commission may help to "establish causes of war and gross abuses that have happened" as well as to propose ways of preventing a recurrence of such events. The commission would not serve as a substitute for criminal proceedings which either are taking place or will take place at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Instead, it would have broader goals. The commission will be a first step to be taken by Bosnian peoples in their attempts to come to terms with the recent tragic past and to move forward in a better future, a draft statement said. To set up the commission for the truth and reconciliation has been actually an idea of U.S. Peace Institute workers led by William Stuebner, a former senior official of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Bosnia. They have been working on this for two years. The Institute employees' idea has been to follow a positive example of such initiative launched in the Republic of South Africa after the fall of the apartheid. (hina) ms