BRUSSELS, April 12 (Reuters) — The United States intends to divide the $145 million it has pledged specifically to rebuild Bosnia this year onto two distinct segments, Craig Buck, head of the USAID mission in Bosnia, said on Friday. But little or none of it will go to the Bosnian Serb territory known as Republika Srpska."About $80 million will be for rehabilitating existing damaged infrastructure such as electric power, telecommunications networks, roads, bridges, schools, and health clinics," Buck told reporters during a 55-nation meeting of international aid donors. "This money will start flowing very quickly... We expect to have personnel on the ground by June," he said.
Another $60 million or so will be given to the Bosnia-Herzegovina government to be used as commercial loans by the government for private businesses in sectors such as timber, transport, textiles, furniture and leather. This too will begin moving quickly. "We expect that we can disburse $2 million a week to private businesses until the money runs out," Buck said.
Get Money Moving as Soon as Possible
"The primary objective is to relaunch the economy to get it moving as soon as possible and create employment," he said, citing Lebanon and Germany as examples of once war-shattered economies that had expeienced explosive growth rates. However, the Bosnian Serbs, who excluded themselves from the two-day meeting that aims to raise $1.2 billion in reconstruction aid, will see hardly any of the U.S. money."The law agreeing the money says that 87.5 percent of U.S. assistance must be to areas where United States troops in IFOR (the NATO-led peace Implementation Force) are present," Buck said. "Therefore most of the money will go to the (Muslim-Croat) Federation." The United States Congress agreed last month to allow $198 million in urgent assistance to Bosnia, with $145 million for economic revitalisation, $45 million for police training and monitors, $5 million for mine clearance and $3 million for operating expenses. Added to this is the $62.7 million the U.S. pledged at the first aid conference last December.
This falls far short of the one-third share of the Bosnia reconstruction bill the European Union had been urging the United States to shoulder. But a diplomat noted that Washington had never intended to fund more than 10 percent of the estimated 5.1 billion it will cost to rebuild Bosnia over the next four years.
Bosnia's Billion Dollar Weekend
Bosnian Serbs to Boycott Aid Meeting April 11
Bosnian Donors Told to Dig Deep April 11
The World Bank
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