BOSNIA MARKS DAY OF INDEPENDENCE ON ONE THIRD OF ITS TERRITORY

SARAJEVO, March 1 (Hina) - By laying wreaths at monuments to Bosnian Army soldiers and civilian victims of the war, members of Bosnia- Herzegovina Ministerial Council and state and Moslem-Croat federal parliaments marked the Day of Independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday. The Day of Independence is celebrated on March 1 after the referendum on Bosnia's secession from the former Yugoslav Federation (SFRY) was held on that day 1992. An overwhelming majority of citizens voted for their country's independence at the referendum. However, this holiday has been celebrated only in third of the country, where Moslems (Bosniaks) are in a majority, while Bosnian Serbs and Croats claim that such Bosnia-Herzegovina as established at the Dayton peace conference in 1995 has still no law on public holidays. Therefore only the Moslem member of the Bosnian three-man presidency, Alija Izetbegovic, gave reception in Sarajevo on this occasion. The referendum on Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence was conducted on 29 February and 1 March 1992, after the European Union pledged to recognise former Yugoslav republics as sovereign States whose citizens vote for the independence. The Serb Democratic Party (SDS), led by Karadzic who was later accused of war crimes in Bosnia, called on Bosnian Serbs to boycott the ballot, and even tried to block its holding. The referendum was held in 107 municipalities out of the then 109 municipalities in the country. Of 3,200,000 citizens eligible to vote, almost two million or 63.4 percent went to the polls. Most of them opted for independence while just less than 6,000 people voted against it. Only one day after the ballot, the SDS set up first barricades in Sarajevo which served as an introduction into several-year-long cruel war and open aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) ms