MOSTAR MOSTAR, March 7 (Hina) - A large number of posters advocating the establishment of a third entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina appeared on Sunday morning in west Mostar and on the walls of the "Ero" hotel where a local office of the
international High Representative to Bosnia is situated. According to the Dayton Accords, Bosnia-Herzegovina formally consists of the two entities - the Croat-Moslem Federation (officially called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina) and the Bosnian Serb entity (officially the Republic of Srpska). The posters which appeared in the Croat-controlled part of the southern city expressed opposition to a unitary Bosnia or Yugoslav and Balkan federations. They also pose the question why there were two entities for three (constituent) peoples, and expressed the fear that Croats may lose their national identity if they do not have their own part of Bosnia, claiming tha
MOSTAR, March 7 (Hina) - A large number of posters advocating the
establishment of a third entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina appeared on
Sunday morning in west Mostar and on the walls of the "Ero" hotel
where a local office of the international High Representative to
Bosnia is situated.
According to the Dayton Accords, Bosnia-Herzegovina formally
consists of the two entities - the Croat-Moslem Federation
(officially called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina) and the
Bosnian Serb entity (officially the Republic of Srpska).
The posters which appeared in the Croat-controlled part of the
southern city expressed opposition to a unitary Bosnia or Yugoslav
and Balkan federations.
They also pose the question why there were two entities for three
(constituent) peoples, and expressed the fear that Croats may lose
their national identity if they do not have their own part of
Bosnia, claiming that "there is no identity without entity".
These posters have the signature of the local association of war
veteran invalids called HVIDRA.
Similar local associations in areas with a Croat majority have
recently organised the signing of a petition asking the
international community to treat Croats equally as other peoples in
Bosnia. The petition has contained signatures of almost 150,000
citizens in the Federation.
The Mostar-based HVIDRA claimed that the international community
had used double standards in their treatment of Croats and Moslems
(Bosniaks) and accused international diplomats of assisting
secretly in attempts to arrange Bosnia-Herzegovina as a unitary
state. Therefore this organisation insisted on the third entity for
Bosnian Croats believing that it could be the only way to safeguard
Croat interests in that country.
However, international representatives hold that to establish a
third entity in Bosnia would mean the violation of the Dayton
Accords which envisaged the two entities in Bosnia.
Bosnian Croat officials said none of them had ever mentioned the
third entity.
Ante Jelavic, the Croat member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's collective
presidency, said recently that he could not be liable for such calls
(for the third entity). Jelavic said it in response to a request by
the United States' Ambassador to Sarajevo, Richard Kauzlarich, to
publicly distance himself from some newspaper articles, campaigns
of spreading posters and calls for the set-up of the third entity.
In Mostar, a two-day round table on the topic "Can the Dayton-
created Bosnia-Herzegovina Have Three Identities Without Three
Entities" will begin on Monday. The event has been organised by the
local branch of the "Matica Hrvatska", a Croatian cultural
institution.
(hina) ms