$1.4 Billion At Stake, But Serbs Refuse
to Accept Funds through Bosnian Federation
SARAJEVO, May 14 (Reuters) — The World Bank is preparing to fund projects in Bosnia's Serb republic but local reservations about accepting cash through a unified state could hold up the aid, a senior bank official said on Tuesday. The international community has pledged a total of $5.1 billion to the post-war reconstruction of Bosnia, including $1.4 billion targeted for the country's Serb republic.Rory O'Sullivan, World Bank director for Bosnia, told reporters: "We are designing a substantial number of projects, so when Serb authorities are ready to move so are we." O'Sullivan announced that two projects which include smome funds for the Serb republic — one involving district heating and the other education — were being presented to the World Bank board for approval on Tuesday. He said many other Serb republic projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and including road, bridge and rail reconstruction were in the World Bank's technical design phase.
All the projects could be delayed if Bosnian Serb leaders continued to refuse to sign subsidiary agreements with the central government of Bosnia Hercegovina, through which the funds are channeled.
The Dayton peace agreement which ended Bosnia's 43-month war preserved the country as a sovereign state with two parts — a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb republic, joined by a weak central government based in Sarajevo. Hardline Bosnian Serb leaders fought the war on the basis of communal separatism and still harbour ambitions for their own statelet. They are loathe to sign any program which makes the Serb republic a subsidiary of the central government.
Because the World Bank only makes loans and grants to central governments, the Serbs will have to think long and hard about whether they can afford their separatist principles. Asked whether he thought the Bosnian Serbs would sign the subsidiary agreement, O'Sullivan replied: "We don't know, but we feel the situation has evolved in a positive direction in the past two to three weeks."
The issue of war crime suspects in the Bosnian Serb republic not having been handed over to a U.N. tribunal as required under Dayton could prove to be a more difficult problem. Bosnian Serb "president" Radovan Karadzic and his army commander, General Ratko Mladic, cling to power despite their having been indicted by the Hague war crimes tribunal. Some donor nations, most notably the United States, have vowed not to give the Serb republic any reconstruction funds until it is in full compliance with Dayton.
All projects for Bosnia funded by or through the World Bank must pass through the central government in Sarajevo, which is controlled by Muslims and Croats until elections scheduled for later this year. Conceivably, the central government might refuse to execute agreements for the Serb republic if Karadzic and Mladic remain in power, but O'Sullivan doubted that would be the case.
Apr 13 · Bosnia Aid Conference Tops $1.2 Billion Target
Yugoslavia Contributes $10 Million in Aid
Bosnian Serbs Defend Conference Boycott
The World Bank
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