BH FEDERATION PARTIES AGAINST SPECIAL RELATIONS AGREEMENT

SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's (BH) Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina are sceptical about a special relations agreement between Croatia and the Croat-Muslim Federation of BH, SDP vice president Sead Avdic told a press conference on Wednesday. He said that SDP representatives in the federal parliament would oppose the ratification of the agreement which they say is unsuitable for BH. Avdic believes the initialled special relations agreement only helped strengthening Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's political position, weakened by conflicts within the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the recent resignations of several of his closest associates. The secretary general of the Party for BH, Safet Halilovic, said that the federal parliamentary bench of the Coalition for Integral and Democratic BH would reach a final decision on whether they would or would not support the agreement in its proposed form, on November 13. Croatian Peasants' Party of BH president and federal MP Ilija Simic believes that, by postponing the signing of the agreement, the (Bosniak Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was trying to present the agreement as another form of international community political pressure, and simultaneously call for further homogenisation amongst Bosniaks. (hina) it jn/ab/ha