MOSTAR, Sept 21 (Hina) - The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) on Sunday accused international diplomats in Bosnia-Herzegovina of making a deal with Croats and Serbs in the reform of the defence sector, which envisages the
establishment of a single army with three national components.
MOSTAR, Sept 21 (Hina) - The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) on
Sunday accused international diplomats in Bosnia-Herzegovina of
making a deal with Croats and Serbs in the reform of the defence
sector, which envisages the establishment of a single army with
three national components. #L#
According to a press release the party issued today, that is not
acceptable to the Bosniak (Muslim) people in the country.
Reacting to accusations of the spokesman for the Office of the High
Representative (OHR), Julian Braithwaite, who pointed the finger
at the SDA as the party which halted the reform, the SDA said that if
the process had been halted, this was the result of the deal which
Serb and Croat representatives made with the international
community.
According to the SDA's explanation, a law on the matter has been
drafted in cooperation with those representatives, while the
Bosniak (Muslim) members of the competent commission did not give
support to the proposals.
High Representative Paddy Ashdown has recently indicated that the
basic elements of the new law on the matter would provide for
civilian command over the army, namely the Bosnian collective
Presidency as the supreme commander, and a single defence ministry,
with the entities' armies still in existence but their members
would have the state insignia of Bosnia-Herzegovina and take oath
to the country instead of to the two entities: the Croat-Muslim
federation and the Serb republic.
According to the media, analysts describe the reform as a
compromise which tolerates the existence of the two entities'
armies, but their full uniting should be the next step.
Sulejman Tihic, SDA leader and Muslim (Bosniak) member of the
Presidency, has stated that he is not going to sign the relevant
document on the re-organisation of the defence system.
He believes that those are only half-way measures which would not
bring about the necessary changes. Tihic has recently been quoted
by the press as saying that the draft act fortifies the division of
the country on the basis of ethnic criteria.
Before the compromise solutions, the Bosnian Serb authorities were
treated as the biggest obstacle for efforts in the reorganisation
of Bosnia's defence system.
The leading Bosnian Croat party - the HDZ BiH - has advocated the
set-up of single armed forces with three national components.
(hina) ms