MOSTAR, April 28 (Hina) - The US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Clifford Bond, has said that the Dayton peace agreement can be changed, but that changes have to be made on the local level.
MOSTAR, April 28 (Hina) - The US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Clifford Bond, has said that the Dayton peace agreement can be
changed, but that changes have to be made on the local level. #L#
The Dayton agreement could and should be changed in the sense that it
maintains the existing circumstances and changes. This has already
happened over the last eight months with the establishment of a state
defence ministry and institutions supporting it, Bond said in an
interview with the Bosnian edition of Croatia's Vecernji List daily.
So far this is the most open announcement of possible changes to the
Dayton agreement, which put an end to the war in the country in 1995,
but according to many failed to bring a just peace.
European parliamentarians in Brussels recently signed a petition
requesting that the Dayton agreement be amended to strengthen Bosnia's
state institutions and limit the role of the two entities. The
European Security Initiative, a non-government organisation gathering
prominent political analysts, recently also suggested changes which
would lead to the establishment of 12 cantons by dissolving the
Croat-Muslim entity and reorganising the Serb entity into one canton.
According to this proposal, Bosnia-Herzegovina would consist of 12
cantons - 10 in the current Croat-Muslim federation, Republika Srpska,
and Brcko District.
Both Muslims and Croats support the abolishment of both entities,
while officials in the Bosnian Serb entity are unanimously against
it.
Commenting on the problem of terrorism and the mujahedeen, Bond said
that there was a danger of extremism in the country.
He said he believed that most people would agree that people who came
to Bosnia during the war really did not reflect the traditional values
of living in the country.
(Hina) rml