Posted on 10/29/2008 4:39:47 PM PDT by Bokababe
Sarajevo, 29 Oct. (AKI) - The top international representative in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, said on Wednesday the country must speed up reforms in order to overcome political deadlock and economic stagnation. “It’s high time for leaders and members of parliament in Bosnia-Herzegovina to speed up the reforms needed for European integration,” Lajcak said.
He pointed out that political quarrels between local Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders have blocked the reforms and stalled the country’s drive towards membership in the European Union.
“The European Union has invested a lot to secure stability in Bosnia-Herzegovina and we should not allow anyone to annul the progress achieved so far,” he added.
Lajcak said 13 years after the civil war, Bosnia was no longer at the centre of the international community's attention, and that political quarrels have reflected negatively on the planned seven billion dollars of foreign investments.
Lajcak, a Slovak diplomat, singled out Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Muslim leader Haris Silajdzic as the main culprits for the current situation.
Silajdzic has stepped up demands for abolition of the country’s two entities, which have most state powers.
Dodik, prime minister of the Serb entity on the other hand, has responded by threats to hold a referendum on independence.
“I don’t think the threats of a referendum represent a smart policy,” Lajcak said.
Thirteen years after the 1992-1995 war in which about 100,000 people were killed and close to a million resettled, Bosnia still has to hold a population census, but the issue has popped up as another source of quarrels.
Dodik insists that the census should take a note of the nationality, religion and language spoken by each citizen, while Muslim and Croat leaders believe this information is irrelevant for the census.
“I want to state clearly in the census that I’m a Serb, that I speak Serbian and that I’m an Orthodox Christian,” Dodik said. “No one can take away that right,” he added.
Majority Muslims, on the other hand, insist on a unitary state, the creation of a Bosnian nation and that their language be called Bosnian.
Serbs, Muslims and Croats speak the same language with only slightly different languages.
Serbs and Croats oppose a unitary state, saying it would usher in majority Muslim domination.
Yeah, holding together a fake state isn't easy!
It certainly could and, sooner or later, probably will. We created far more problems there than we ever solved, but not for lack of tryng.
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