BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA: Bosnia prepares for October 1 general election

In the fifth general election in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the end of the war, some 2.7 million Bosnians will cast ballots for parliament on Sunday (October 1) as well as for the Serb, Croat and Muslim members of the tripartite presidency, and the president of the Serb Republic. Under the complex Dayton peace treaty which ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia the country of four million is divided into two entities, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. Economic or European integration issues have been secondary in the election campaign, which is showing that ethnic divisions still run deep in the country. Muslim, Serb and Croat candidates appear to be more focused on radicalising voters than treating seriously issues such as unemployment, health or education. Muslims and Croats want the weak central government boosted at the expense of two regions they call unnatural. They claim the Serb Republic was founded on ethnic cleansing and genocide. "The ethnic division in Bosnia and Herzegovina came as a result of the aggression and genocide. It's not natural to Bosnia. Whatever problem in Bosnia, came from outside. This was a normal society, multi-ethnic pluralistic society and that is what we are trying to recreate in Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Haris Silajdzic, Bosnia's wartime foreign minister and the loudest advocate of the regions' abolition. Polls show Silajdzic mounting a serious challenge to incumbent Sulejman Tihic of the main Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) for the Muslim seat on the state tripartite presidency. The Croats, the smallest of the three groups, have long complained about their inferior status and they have timidly revived their calls for a third entity unless Bosnia was re-organised to give them more protection and clout. Serbs hotly oppose losing more autonomy threatening the secession of the Serb Republic if its existence comes under attack. "The unresolved national question of the Serb people, and not only Serbs but other nations here in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well, has always been causing instability, and it is high time now to solve this issue by compromise," said Dragan Cavic, at a rally in the Serb wartime stronghold of Pale. Cavic is the president of the Serb Republic and president of the SDS party founded by indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic. The Serb Republic prime minister Milorad Dodik, whose party is set for a resounding victory in the Serb Republic, has caused a stir in the West saying that Serbs would organise a referendum on secession if Serbia's UN-run province of Kosovo becomes independent. "The current situation (in BiH) is that half the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not want to have the Serb Republic, and the other half does not want to have Bosnia and Herzegovina. And that is something which is in the essence of all election, and not only election, activities in this country," Dodik said. The international community plans to dismantle a protectorate set up after the 1992-95 war so the ex-Yugoslav republic can demonstrate to Brussels that it can function on its own and boost its chances of membership to the European Union. The EU and NATO still have about 6,000 peacekeepers in the country and have no plans to withdraw them soon. "We in the European Union will accept any government in place as long as that government is committed to the reform process and is committed to European integration. This is part of platform of all politicians, not as highly underlined or capitalised as I would like, but it is part of their platform. And I very much hope that after the elections when the governments come in, they will seize the reality of the situation and they will ensure that their government policy is in line with the European integration future of Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Michael Humphreis, the outgoing Head of the EU Commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

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