Post by kapetan on Oct 20, 2008 11:44:08 GMT -5
Advisors to Bosniak leader Haris Silajdzic are denying claims that he said Sarajevo would soon recognise Kosovo, in remarks which have inflamed tensions with Bosnian Serbs.
“This is not a small prank that we can tolerate any more. This is a serious issue which can have hard and ugly consequences on Bosnia and Herzegovina,” local media quoted on October 20 Mladen Ivanic, the Bosnian Serb speaker of the state House of Peoples and leader of the Party of Democratic Progress, a junior partner in the Bosnian Serb ruling coalition, as saying regarding Silajdzic’s purported remarks.
“This would be the drop that would overflow a glass,” Ivanic said. “There is no possibility that Bosnia and Herzegovina will recognise Kosovo.”
“Such possibility would bring the total partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Silajdzic’s false promises can only deepen the mistrust and bring Serbs further apart from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Ivanic concluded.
These statements were in reaction to an interview with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, which Croatian daily Vecernji List published on October 18.
Among other things, Sejdiu said that during his recent meeting with Haris Silajdzic, the Bosniak member of the tripartite Bosnian presidency, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Silajdzic pledged that Bosnia would “soon” recognise Kosovo.
However, Damir Arnaut, an advisor for Silajdzic told Balkan Insight that the leader and Sejdiu did not meet in New York, but only briefly greeted each other. He also said that Silajdzic never pledged that Bosnia would recognise Kosovo.
“The president has absolutely never said what Sejdiu is claiming,” he said.
Kosovo’s independence earlier this year stirred major tension in Bosnia, as most Bosnian Serbs support Serbia in rejecting this move as illegal.
Bosniak officials have repeatedly stressed in the past that because of the political sensitivity Bosnia will not even debate – let alone recognise – Kosovo’s independence. Also, any such decisions would have to be adopted by Bosnian Serb representatives in Bosnia’s Parliament, which is unlikely, to say the least.
These statements were believed to be timed, if not motivated, by Bosnia’s October 5 local elections.
Last month, Silajdzic triggered a political scandal by appearing before the UN and later before the EU leaders in a personal rather than presidential capacity, and delivered speeches which condemned Bosnian Serbs for genocide and ethnic cleansing during the 1992/95 war.
On October 19, senior United States diplomat and deputy High Representative, Raffi Gregorian, in an unusually strong statement, criticised Silajdzic and other local leaders for deliberately pushing tensions in the country in order to remain in power and continue “stealing the country’s wealth.” Read more: www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/14087/
“This is not a small prank that we can tolerate any more. This is a serious issue which can have hard and ugly consequences on Bosnia and Herzegovina,” local media quoted on October 20 Mladen Ivanic, the Bosnian Serb speaker of the state House of Peoples and leader of the Party of Democratic Progress, a junior partner in the Bosnian Serb ruling coalition, as saying regarding Silajdzic’s purported remarks.
“This would be the drop that would overflow a glass,” Ivanic said. “There is no possibility that Bosnia and Herzegovina will recognise Kosovo.”
“Such possibility would bring the total partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Silajdzic’s false promises can only deepen the mistrust and bring Serbs further apart from Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Ivanic concluded.
These statements were in reaction to an interview with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, which Croatian daily Vecernji List published on October 18.
Among other things, Sejdiu said that during his recent meeting with Haris Silajdzic, the Bosniak member of the tripartite Bosnian presidency, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Silajdzic pledged that Bosnia would “soon” recognise Kosovo.
However, Damir Arnaut, an advisor for Silajdzic told Balkan Insight that the leader and Sejdiu did not meet in New York, but only briefly greeted each other. He also said that Silajdzic never pledged that Bosnia would recognise Kosovo.
“The president has absolutely never said what Sejdiu is claiming,” he said.
Kosovo’s independence earlier this year stirred major tension in Bosnia, as most Bosnian Serbs support Serbia in rejecting this move as illegal.
Bosniak officials have repeatedly stressed in the past that because of the political sensitivity Bosnia will not even debate – let alone recognise – Kosovo’s independence. Also, any such decisions would have to be adopted by Bosnian Serb representatives in Bosnia’s Parliament, which is unlikely, to say the least.
These statements were believed to be timed, if not motivated, by Bosnia’s October 5 local elections.
Last month, Silajdzic triggered a political scandal by appearing before the UN and later before the EU leaders in a personal rather than presidential capacity, and delivered speeches which condemned Bosnian Serbs for genocide and ethnic cleansing during the 1992/95 war.
On October 19, senior United States diplomat and deputy High Representative, Raffi Gregorian, in an unusually strong statement, criticised Silajdzic and other local leaders for deliberately pushing tensions in the country in order to remain in power and continue “stealing the country’s wealth.” Read more: www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/14087/