MOSTAR STATUTE MOSTAR, Feb 3(Hina) - The presidency of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party has opposed a recent decision by the international community's High Representative in the country, Paddy Ashdown, to impose a
statute under which the southern city of Mostar is organised into six constituencies instead of the previous six districts.
MOSTAR, Feb 3(Hina) - The presidency of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) party has opposed a recent decision by the international
community's High Representative in the country, Paddy Ashdown, to
impose a statute under which the southern city of Mostar is organised
into six constituencies instead of the previous six districts.#L#
In a statement issued after a presidency session held in Sarajevo on
Tuesday, the party said it stuck to its position that Mostar should be
structured as a single local self-government unit and a single
constituency organised like the other units of local self-government
throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, with standard mechanisms of protection
of the vital national interests of the country's three peoples.
The party's officials in Mostar recently complained that Ashdown's
solution for the city would leave its 60-percent Croat population with
only a 42-percent share in the future city council.
The party's presidency concluded today that Ashdown's statute
disregarded the democratic will of voters in elections for the city
council and was, as such, unjust and undemocratic.
According to the party, Ashdown's solution constitutes a precedent
which shows the model of the Dayton peace accords, which Ashdown
referred to when passing the decision on the statute, has been
exhausted and points to the need of reorganising Bosnia with a view to
creating a functional community and preventing any people from being
dominant throughout the country.
(Hina) ha sb