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OSCE Sets Bosnia’s Election Date
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti, told the body's Vienna-based permanent council that he was giving the go-ahead for the nationwide polls to take place in line with the timetable set out in the Dayton peace accord.
"The decision to give the green light for the elections, and I say this to you in all frankness, has been anything but easy for me," he told the permanent council in a speech made available to reporters.
The Dayton pact entrusted the OSCE with organising a series of elections throughout Bosnia, and Cotti had to give the final approval for them to be held. He said he based his decision on wide consultations, in particular in Bosnia itself, and on the position taken by the international conference on Bosnia in Florence earlier this month, which he said took on a "decisive significance."
"Its (the Florence conference's) attitude is unanimous and unequivocal in the desire that the elections take place on 14 September, 1996, the deadline foreseen in the peace agreement. And so it shall be," he said.
Cotti stressed that the most important prerequisite for the elections to be effective was the removal of indicted war criminals, such as Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, from political influence. "If the elections are to be effective, then every single possibility of direct or indirect exertion of influence by indicted war criminals in the likes of a Radovan Karadzic, must be hindered," he said.
He said Karadzic was pulling the strings behind the scenes and manipulating political events in Republika Srpska, Bosnian Serb territory which encompasses 49 percent of Bosnian territory. "He provokes the signatories to the peace agreement and indeed the entire world by flaunting his freedom of action," Cotti said.
In his speech, Cotti laid out the pros and cons on whether to hold the elections by September 14. "The reasons for and against weigh out equal in the balance," he said. But he said the minimum prerequisite conditions must be met so that free and democratic elections could take place.
"These prerequisites, and this is the opinion of the chairman-in-office, have at the present point in time and in spite of the small progress mentioned, not been fulfilled," he said.
Cotti went on to urge international organisations and all parties involved throughout Bosnia to do their utmost so that the conditions are improved by the time of the September 14 election.
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VIENNA, June 25 (Reuters) - The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Tuesday Bosnia's first post-war elections would take place on September 14.
Berserkistan, June 23 · Debate Continues over 'Flawed' Bosnian Elections
Berserkistan, June 22 · 48 Parties, 33 Independents Register for Bosnia’s Elections
Berserkistan, June 21 · September 14 Elections Move Closer to Reality
Berserkistan, June 14 · Some 60 Political Parties Register for September Vote
June 8 · Special Report: In Bosnia, Skepticism over Fair Elections
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