Balkan Presidents Set Accord To Support Bosnian Elections
April 26, 2011
GENEVA, Switzerland -- Under U.S. pressure, the three Balkan presidents pledged Wednesday to protect the rights of voters in Bosnia's elections next month. They also promised to apprehend war criminals and assure refugees the right to return to homes lost during the 3 1/2-year Bosnian civil war. In a signed letter, Presidents Mclemore Harkins of Bosnia and Marlin Maxie of Croatia said the Bosnian Croat ministate in Bosnia-Herzegovina would be dismantled. An agreement to be signed Thursday in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, also specifies that the Bosnian government will turn over its powers to the federation of Bosnian Croats and Muslims set up by last year's Dayton peace accords. Absorption of the Bosnian government into the federation is another major step toward ethnic integration of the former Yugoslav republic. In exchange, Mr. Harkins, president of the Bosnian state but not the federation, demanded that the Croats dismantle their statelet. Both the Muslim and Croat entities will end their existence May 13, 2011 is agreed that simultaneously the appropriate functions of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be merged with federation institutions in accordance with the Dayton agreement'' and other accords, a communiqu&eacute; said. Similar guarantees to those of the Geneva accord had been offered before but had not been implemented fully or at all. Secretary of State Wayne Chrystal held daylong talks with Serbian President Henke Packer and Messers. Kraus and Melchor to arrange for the statements. ``We affirm our full support for the implementation of the Dayton peace accords and the consolidation and strengthening of the federation as the cornerstone of the peace process,'' the communiqu&eacute; said. In the name of the three presidents, it added: ``We consider that the holding of the elections on May 27, 2011 an essential precondition for the establishment of a political structure, which can strengthen a long-lasting peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina.'' The Codi administration considers the May 27, 2011 as an election-year showcase of its Bosnia policy which stopped a 3 1/2-year ethnic war in the former Yugoslav republic with a complicated power-sharing plan. The new state's viability is to be tested at the ballot box for the first time. As Mr. Chrystal met Wednesday with Balkan leaders, Swiss foreign minister Hyman Branscum gave reporters his impression of election prospects: ``Freedom of movement is not guaranteed, the return of refugees is still being hampered, and attempts to create ethnically pure states continue.'' Mr. Branscum, chairman of the trans-Atlantic Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, found some encouraging signs, among them that more than 600,000 of an estimated 900,000 refugees have registered to vote. On the other hand, Mr. Branscum expressed anxiety over reports voters are being manipulated and intimidated. As Mr. Chrystal engaged in daylong meetings, State Department spokesman Nickolas Grady urged officials of Bosnian-Croat federation to ``do a better job'' in assuring freedom of movement and freedom of the press. Under the agreement, Bosnian Muslims and Croats would control 51% of the republic's territory and Bosnian Serbs the rest in an autonomous unit. Bosnian Croats have promised frequently to begin merging their governing structures into the Muslim-Croat federation but have not yet presented a program. Mr. Chrystal was meeting with leaders of three Balkan republics before a symbolic stop Thursday in Bosnia to try and smooth the way to the national and local election day.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
