Post by MiG on Mar 31, 2010 23:26:50 GMT -5
EU, U.S. officials to meet with Bosnian leaders in April
Senior EU and U.S. officials will travel to Sarajevo in April to meet with Bosnian leaders, the Balkan Insight Web site reported Monday.
The visit is an apparent attempt to ease political tensions that have been mounting in the ethnically fragmented Balkan country as it prepares to hold general elections in October.
Spanish and U.S. embassies in Bosnia confirmed to Balkan Insight that their top officials will hold talks with Bosnian political leaders in Sarajevo, but refused to discuss the content of the meeting or its exact date. Bosnian leaders have indicated that the officials will be in Sarajevo on April 6 and 7.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said, according to the Balkan Insight that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will travel to Sarajevo to “stress the inevitability of constitutional reforms for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be on a firm path toward EU and NATO membership.”
Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic said last week that Spanish officials have initiated a series of separate talks with the leaders of Bosnia’s key political parties hoping to get them to agree on a text of a declaration about their continued commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration.
After meeting with Moratinos in Madrid last Wednesday Covic said that the text of declaration had already been drafted and that there was nothing contentious in it.
“It is essentially a pledge of commitment to initiate constitutional changes immediately after the elections. I believe that we might sign it after some minor corrections,” Covic said on Friday according to the Balkan Insight.
He added that the leaders of Bosnia’s top Croat, Serb and Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) parties would discuss the declaration with Steinberg and Moratinos in Sarajevo on April 6 and 7 and that they should then sign it in Spain some two weeks later.
Haris Silajdzic, a member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and leader of one of the leading Bosniak parties, the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, or SZBiH, also met with Moratinos in Madrid last Wednesday, but he did not publicly talk about the content of the meeting.
However, the latest initiative appears to be aimed at getting Bosnian leaders to reaffirm their commitment to reforms rather than to agree on any specific steps to be taken.
It follows a failed attempt by top EU and U.S. officials in October last year to push through a package of specific constitutional changes for Bosnia.
Following meetings held at the Butmir military camp near Sarajevo in October last year, Bosnia’s leaders refused a reform package presented to them by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Steinberg.
At the time, Sweden was holding the rotating EU presidency.
Bosnian Serbs rejected the reforms as too drastic, while Bosniak and Croat party representatives described them as insufficient.
Under the Dayton peace agreement, which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, the country was divided into two highly independent entities – the Serb dominated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak federation.
The two entities are united by weak central institutions, but each has its own government, parliament and presidency.
The international community has long insisted that more powers be transferred to central institutions in order to make the country more functional, but Bosnian Serbs strongly reject such moves and insist on retaining their autonomy.
In the wake of the failed Butmir talks, top Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik repeatedly said that Serbs were no longer willing to take part in any internationally sponsored talks.
The Balkan Insight quoted Dodik last week as saying that Bosnia was surviving only due to international intervention and that the time had come to discuss its peaceful dissolution.
His statement was strongly rebuffed by Bosniak leader Silajdzic, who said that all those who dislike Bosnia can leave, but cannot take any part of the country with them.
The exchange between the two antagonistic leaders provoked a reaction from the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) - a group of 55 countries and international organizations that sponsor and direct the peace implementation process in Bosnia.
After meeting in Sarajevo on Friday, the PIC ambassadors condemned “the escalation in irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric" and reminded Bosnian political leaders that their words and actions “carry a special weight locally, regionally, and abroad”.
“This kind of divisive rhetoric and action, which undermines inter-ethnic trust and further polarizes the political atmosphere, is counterproductive to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s path toward Europe and harms the interests of its citizens,” the PIC ambassadors said in the statement, quoted by the Balkan Insight.
Senior EU and U.S. officials will travel to Sarajevo in April to meet with Bosnian leaders, the Balkan Insight Web site reported Monday.
The visit is an apparent attempt to ease political tensions that have been mounting in the ethnically fragmented Balkan country as it prepares to hold general elections in October.
Spanish and U.S. embassies in Bosnia confirmed to Balkan Insight that their top officials will hold talks with Bosnian political leaders in Sarajevo, but refused to discuss the content of the meeting or its exact date. Bosnian leaders have indicated that the officials will be in Sarajevo on April 6 and 7.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said, according to the Balkan Insight that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will travel to Sarajevo to “stress the inevitability of constitutional reforms for Bosnia and Herzegovina to be on a firm path toward EU and NATO membership.”
Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Covic said last week that Spanish officials have initiated a series of separate talks with the leaders of Bosnia’s key political parties hoping to get them to agree on a text of a declaration about their continued commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration.
After meeting with Moratinos in Madrid last Wednesday Covic said that the text of declaration had already been drafted and that there was nothing contentious in it.
“It is essentially a pledge of commitment to initiate constitutional changes immediately after the elections. I believe that we might sign it after some minor corrections,” Covic said on Friday according to the Balkan Insight.
He added that the leaders of Bosnia’s top Croat, Serb and Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) parties would discuss the declaration with Steinberg and Moratinos in Sarajevo on April 6 and 7 and that they should then sign it in Spain some two weeks later.
Haris Silajdzic, a member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and leader of one of the leading Bosniak parties, the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, or SZBiH, also met with Moratinos in Madrid last Wednesday, but he did not publicly talk about the content of the meeting.
However, the latest initiative appears to be aimed at getting Bosnian leaders to reaffirm their commitment to reforms rather than to agree on any specific steps to be taken.
It follows a failed attempt by top EU and U.S. officials in October last year to push through a package of specific constitutional changes for Bosnia.
Following meetings held at the Butmir military camp near Sarajevo in October last year, Bosnia’s leaders refused a reform package presented to them by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Steinberg.
At the time, Sweden was holding the rotating EU presidency.
Bosnian Serbs rejected the reforms as too drastic, while Bosniak and Croat party representatives described them as insufficient.
Under the Dayton peace agreement, which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, the country was divided into two highly independent entities – the Serb dominated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak federation.
The two entities are united by weak central institutions, but each has its own government, parliament and presidency.
The international community has long insisted that more powers be transferred to central institutions in order to make the country more functional, but Bosnian Serbs strongly reject such moves and insist on retaining their autonomy.
In the wake of the failed Butmir talks, top Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik repeatedly said that Serbs were no longer willing to take part in any internationally sponsored talks.
The Balkan Insight quoted Dodik last week as saying that Bosnia was surviving only due to international intervention and that the time had come to discuss its peaceful dissolution.
His statement was strongly rebuffed by Bosniak leader Silajdzic, who said that all those who dislike Bosnia can leave, but cannot take any part of the country with them.
The exchange between the two antagonistic leaders provoked a reaction from the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) - a group of 55 countries and international organizations that sponsor and direct the peace implementation process in Bosnia.
After meeting in Sarajevo on Friday, the PIC ambassadors condemned “the escalation in irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric" and reminded Bosnian political leaders that their words and actions “carry a special weight locally, regionally, and abroad”.
“This kind of divisive rhetoric and action, which undermines inter-ethnic trust and further polarizes the political atmosphere, is counterproductive to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s path toward Europe and harms the interests of its citizens,” the PIC ambassadors said in the statement, quoted by the Balkan Insight.
www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=eu-u.s.-officials-to-meet-with-bosnian-leaders-in-april-2010-03-29
Daj boze da nesto dobro izadje iz ovoga.