SARAJEVO, Nov 15 (Hina) - The Parliament of the Federation of +Bosnia-Herzegovina will most probably not accept the agreement on +special relations between the Bosnian Federation and Croatia in the +form in which it has been
initialled, Bosniak (Moslem) member of the +Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, said on +Saturday.+ Izetbegovic told Bosnia-Herzegovina's TV news Saturday night that +the Parliament will not accept this agreement "unless some miracle +happens in the meantime".+ According to Izetbegovic, the decision on the signing of the +agreement does not depend only on the President of the Bosnian +Federation, Ejup Ganic, who is currently in consultation with party +bench representatives of the Parliament.+ "In a situation as it is now, if I were him, I would sign the +agreement and leave it to the Parliament to reject it," Izetbegovic +said, adding that this way, the "cred
SARAJEVO, Nov 15 (Hina) - The Parliament of the Federation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina will most probably not accept the agreement on
special relations between the Bosnian Federation and Croatia in the
form in which it has been initialled, Bosniak (Moslem) member of the
Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, said on
Saturday.
Izetbegovic told Bosnia-Herzegovina's TV news Saturday night that
the Parliament will not accept this agreement "unless some miracle
happens in the meantime".
According to Izetbegovic, the decision on the signing of the
agreement does not depend only on the President of the Bosnian
Federation, Ejup Ganic, who is currently in consultation with party
bench representatives of the Parliament.
"In a situation as it is now, if I were him, I would sign the
agreement and leave it to the Parliament to reject it," Izetbegovic
said, adding that this way, the "credibility of the country and
Ganic would be saved".
He described the agreement without annexes as "quite empty" and
that it was an "abstraction", but that reserves towards its
contents existed not only because of the provisions in themselves,
but also because of the "type of the agreement" it was.
"People do not want this kind of agreement on special relations. If
it had been an agreement on cooperation with the Republic of Croatia
with all these provisions, it would have passed without a problem,"
Izetbegovic said.
He confirmed he was prepared to go to Zagreb on November 19 and sign
the agreement on the free use of Croatia's port of Ploce by Bosnian
citizens and the free passage through Bosnia-Herzegovina's
southern town of Neum for Croatian citizens, "because we need this
agreement," but it was doubtful, because the Croatian side is
requesting that the agreement on special relations be signed at the
same time.
Asked about what he expected from the final arbitration on the
northern Bosnian town of Brcko, Izetbegovic reiterated that he
would resign to his present duty if this strategically important
town should be permanently given to the Bosnian Serb entity of
Republika Srpska.
"I will withdraw from being member of the Presidency of Bosnia-
Herzegovina the same day, in case the arbiter's decision is to give
Brcko to Republika Srpska. I state this clearly and openly,"
Izetbegovic said.
He stressed that such a decision would be an utter injustice, and he
would call on the younger generation to never accept it.
The Bosniak political leader also warned that such a decision on
Brcko would jeopardise the implementation of the Dayton
Agreement.
Before the war, Brcko was mostly populated by Bosniaks and Croats.
During the war, Serbs occupied it to ensure a free corridor between
Banja Luka and Serbia.
The Dayton Agreement does not stipulate to which entity the town
should belong, so an international arbitration was introduced,
which has been postponed several times.
The town is currently under an international supervisor.
(hina) lml