| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Bosnia : Muslims step up drive for the abolition of the Serb entity |
| 2007-02-28 |
| Sarajevo, 28 Feb. (AKI) – Bosnia’s majority Muslims have stepped up their drive for the abolition of the Serb entity Republika Srpska (RS). Created under the 1995 Dayton accord that ended Bosnia's civil war, the RS has been called a "genocidal creature" by Muslim member of Bosnia's three-man rotating state presidency, Haris Silajdzic. Due to the unstable situation in the country, the mandate of the high representative of the international community in Bosnia (OHR) was on Tuesday extended by a year. But the European Union has meanwhile decided to reduce its forces in Bosnia (EUFOR) - from the present 6,000 to 2,500 by the end of the year. Thousands of people demonstrated in Sarajevo on Tuesday against a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the Bosnian Serb army committed genocide in the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995, but that Serbia didn’t participate in the massacre of up to 7,000 Muslims. The court ruled, however, that Serbia did nothing to prevent genocide and punish the culprits. Demonstrators and war victims's families on Tuesday demanded the RS be scrapped, claiming that the ICJ's Monday ruling had proven the RS was a "direct result of genocide and other crimes against humanity." They echoed calls by Muslim member of the three-man rotating state presidency, Haris Silajdzic, and other Muslim leaders for constitutional reform and abolition of RS. The Dayton accord divided the country into two entities, the RS and the Muslim-Croat federation, but the international community, which safeguards peace in Bosnia, has been gradually reducing the entities’ powers to strengthen the central government. Muslims insist on a unified police force on a country level, while Serbs want to retain their own police in their entity, Republika Srpska (RS), which would be coordinated at the federal level. RS prime minister Milorad Dodik has said he would "never renounce RS police, as a part of the police structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina." In a response to majority Muslim calls for the abolition of the RS, Bosnian Serbs have threatened to hold a referendum on independence and to secede from Bosnia. Sarajevo demonstrators carried signs saying "Abolish RS", "Justice is unreachable" and complained that ICJ decision was "unjust" and "politically motivated." The Peace implementation council for Bosnia, an international body composed of leading western power, decided on Tuesday to extend the OHR's mandate by 12 months until June 2003. The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, has stated that the security situation in Bosnia is now "much more relaxed" but a decision on the reduction EUFOR personnel could be reversed "if the situation worsened." |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #1 Muslims are not a majority in Bosnia. Link |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-02-28 16:38 |