TEN PARTIES JOIN 'ALLIANCE FOR CHANGES' IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Jan 13 (Hina) - Leaders of 10 political parties in Bosnia- Herzegovina on Saturday signed a statement assuming the obligation to work together in the joint establishment of executive authorities from which they are going to exclude representatives of three nationalist parties - SDA, HDZ and SDS - which ruled the country in the last ten years. This coalition called "Alliance for Changes" has so far been constituted of parties whose main headquarters are in the Moslem- Croat entity (the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina). Some parties from the Serb entity such as the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) led by the former Premier of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, are expected to join the Alliance. "We state that as of today the alliance of our parties begins to work," Zlatko Lagumdzija, the head of the strongest party in the alliance - Social Democrat Party (SDP) - told reporters today after the parties' officials signed the document which defined guidelines for their activities in the coming two years and elaborated the operational plans for their engagement in the fulfilment of tasks drawn up by the Managing Board of the Council for the Implementation of the Dayton Accords. The document also has scheduled time terms for measures aimed at the improvement of the overall situation in the country, particularly of the economic state of affairs. Besides SDP, other parties which formally make up the Alliance are the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH) and the New Croatian Initiative (NHI) led by former top state officials, Haris Silajdzic and Kresimir Zubak respectively, the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), the Republican Party led by Stjepan Kljujic, a former Croat representative in the first collective Bosnian Presidency set up after first multiparty elections, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Patriotic Party (BPS) led by war general Sefer Halilovic, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Civic Democratic Party and two parties of pensioners. These ten parties have 70 seats in the 140-seat federal parliament, and Lagumdzija announced that on Monday the Alliance would propose its candidates for the chairman and his deputies of that assembly. SDA (Moslem-led Party of Democratic Action) and HDZ (Croatian democratic Union) have won 63 seats in the same body, but the Alliance believes it will have a stable and solid parliamentary majority. Lagumdzija also announced the Alliance would suggest its candidate for the new chairman of Bosnia's Council of Ministers. "We are able to gain a parliamentary majority at the state level as well," he added. However, Lagumdzija, warned that they should first clarify the situation which ensued after the leader of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) Mladen Ivanic, the Premier-Designate in the Serb entity, appointed a member of nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) to a ministerial post in the new government. Alliance officials regard the cooperation with the PDP in such circumstances as impossible and contrary to a basic aim of the Alliance not to work together with national parties. Papers signed by the Alliance today also guarantee the full protection of the current representation of Croatian officials in the executive authorities in Bosnia. NHI leader Kresimir Zubak told Hina he was sure the Alliance would be able to represent and protect Bosnian Croat interests. Commenting on the warning of HDZ officials that authorities which would be formed by the Alliance would not be able to function in Bosnian areas where the HDZ won the November elections, Zubak said the HDZ's attempts to hamper the work of new authorities would be in accordance with the practice that party did in the past. "I am sure that the HDZ blockade would produce no results. It would be to the detriment to people who live in such areas. I hope that the HDZ will realise it is not in the interest of the people," he added. (hina) ms