Post by Bozur on Nov 24, 2005 2:14:09 GMT -5
Bosnia's 3 Groups Reach Unity Agreement
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: November 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - Leaders of the major ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, seeking to unify their country after years of sectarian hatred, pledged Tuesday to overhaul their constitutional and government system for the first time since the Bosnian war ended a decade ago.
Kevin Wolf/Associated Press
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took part in the signing of the agreement in Washington.
Prodded by the Bush administration, the leaders representing the country's Serbian, Croatian and Muslim factions said they were committed to an initial set of reforms - including the scrapping of an unwieldy system of three presidents - by March 2006, and to further steps in subsequent years.
The leaders' action followed several days of intense negotiations in Washington, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords, which concluded a war that cost more than 200,000 lives and left millions homeless in what was the worst outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 50 years.
"The full potential of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina will only be achieved when Bosnia and Herzegovina takes its place in the community of democratic nations," the political leaders said in a statement, adding that "these are only first steps" and that more would be carried out "to improve the quality of life for all citizens."
Saluting the achievement of the Bosnian leaders, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited senior members of the Clinton administration to the State Department and said it was time to "transform" the accords negotiated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, in 1995.
"To advance the promise of peace and progress, we must now move beyond the framework constructed a decade ago," Ms. Rice said. "A weak, divided state was appropriate in 1995, but today in 2005 the country needs a stronger, energetic state capable of advancing the public good and securing the national interest."
In a separate development also hailed by American officials as a breakthrough, the Bosnian Serb leaders issued their own call for two Serbs wanted on war crimes charges during the Bosnian conflict "to surrender voluntarily and immediately" to them for eventual prosecution by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
If they do not surrender, the leaders said, the Bosnian Serb authorities will undertake "all possible measures and actions to find and apprehend them."
The United States and Europe have sought the two leaders, Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader at the time, for their roles in the massacre of thousands of Muslim men at Srebrenica.
Though there have been pledges to arrest them in the past, the Bosnian Serb authorities have not tried to carry out their promises, American officials say.
"For 10 years there has been a clear and appalling lack of will to go after these war criminals," said R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs. "This statement will strengthen the kind of efforts needed to turn them over."
General Mladic is believed to be living in Serbia and Montenegro. Mr. Karadzic is believed to be moving from that country to the Bosnian Serb region of Bosnia.
Nine Serbian, Muslim and Croatian leaders from Bosnia signed the Commitment to Pursue Constitutional Reform at the State Department on Tuesday, in consultation with leaders at home. Among them were three presidents, Miro Jovic, a Croat; Borislav Paravac, a Serb; and Sulejman Tihic, a Bosnian Muslim.
The document seeks to streamline a government structure that effectively reflected the patchwork of ethnic rivalries that led to the war. Not only does it have three presidents, one from each major group, it also has two separate governments, one a Muslim-Croat federation and the other Serbian.
There are also 11 district governments, along lines imposed after Serbs "ethnically cleansed" many areas of Muslims during the war. Since then, while peace has been maintained, continuing violence and hatred have encouraged people to migrate to districts where they were already predominant, effectively segregating the country further.
The new government would have one president, with a strong prime minister and parliament, making decisions more possible.
"For 10 years the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a patchwork of checkmates based on ethnic mistrust," said Donald S. Hays, a career American diplomat who helped negotiate the accord this week. "You couldn't do anything inside the government, because everyone was able to checkmate everyone else."
Mr. Hays said a stable Bosnia could eventually lead to negotiators' addressing the separate issue of the status of Kosovo, the mostly Albanian-inhabited southern province of Serbia, which sought to secede in 1997 and is now under United Nations supervision.
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: November 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - Leaders of the major ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, seeking to unify their country after years of sectarian hatred, pledged Tuesday to overhaul their constitutional and government system for the first time since the Bosnian war ended a decade ago.
Kevin Wolf/Associated Press
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took part in the signing of the agreement in Washington.
Prodded by the Bush administration, the leaders representing the country's Serbian, Croatian and Muslim factions said they were committed to an initial set of reforms - including the scrapping of an unwieldy system of three presidents - by March 2006, and to further steps in subsequent years.
The leaders' action followed several days of intense negotiations in Washington, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords, which concluded a war that cost more than 200,000 lives and left millions homeless in what was the worst outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 50 years.
"The full potential of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina will only be achieved when Bosnia and Herzegovina takes its place in the community of democratic nations," the political leaders said in a statement, adding that "these are only first steps" and that more would be carried out "to improve the quality of life for all citizens."
Saluting the achievement of the Bosnian leaders, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited senior members of the Clinton administration to the State Department and said it was time to "transform" the accords negotiated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, in 1995.
"To advance the promise of peace and progress, we must now move beyond the framework constructed a decade ago," Ms. Rice said. "A weak, divided state was appropriate in 1995, but today in 2005 the country needs a stronger, energetic state capable of advancing the public good and securing the national interest."
In a separate development also hailed by American officials as a breakthrough, the Bosnian Serb leaders issued their own call for two Serbs wanted on war crimes charges during the Bosnian conflict "to surrender voluntarily and immediately" to them for eventual prosecution by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
If they do not surrender, the leaders said, the Bosnian Serb authorities will undertake "all possible measures and actions to find and apprehend them."
The United States and Europe have sought the two leaders, Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader at the time, for their roles in the massacre of thousands of Muslim men at Srebrenica.
Though there have been pledges to arrest them in the past, the Bosnian Serb authorities have not tried to carry out their promises, American officials say.
"For 10 years there has been a clear and appalling lack of will to go after these war criminals," said R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs. "This statement will strengthen the kind of efforts needed to turn them over."
General Mladic is believed to be living in Serbia and Montenegro. Mr. Karadzic is believed to be moving from that country to the Bosnian Serb region of Bosnia.
Nine Serbian, Muslim and Croatian leaders from Bosnia signed the Commitment to Pursue Constitutional Reform at the State Department on Tuesday, in consultation with leaders at home. Among them were three presidents, Miro Jovic, a Croat; Borislav Paravac, a Serb; and Sulejman Tihic, a Bosnian Muslim.
The document seeks to streamline a government structure that effectively reflected the patchwork of ethnic rivalries that led to the war. Not only does it have three presidents, one from each major group, it also has two separate governments, one a Muslim-Croat federation and the other Serbian.
There are also 11 district governments, along lines imposed after Serbs "ethnically cleansed" many areas of Muslims during the war. Since then, while peace has been maintained, continuing violence and hatred have encouraged people to migrate to districts where they were already predominant, effectively segregating the country further.
The new government would have one president, with a strong prime minister and parliament, making decisions more possible.
"For 10 years the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a patchwork of checkmates based on ethnic mistrust," said Donald S. Hays, a career American diplomat who helped negotiate the accord this week. "You couldn't do anything inside the government, because everyone was able to checkmate everyone else."
Mr. Hays said a stable Bosnia could eventually lead to negotiators' addressing the separate issue of the status of Kosovo, the mostly Albanian-inhabited southern province of Serbia, which sought to secede in 1997 and is now under United Nations supervision.