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Mediators Say Bosnia Will Fail if Dayton is Ignored
By Jovan Kovacic
"The fact of the matter is that today Bosnia is still a society coming apart -- not a society starting to come back together," Colum Murphy, spokesman for the international community's High Representative for Bosnia, told reporters. He said that for both the Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat Federation "peace is still the continuation of war by other means -- not the reconciliation that would be the true spirit of Dayton and Paris."
He was speaking hours before the start of a key conference in Florence to review compliance six months into the fragile peace pocess in Bosnia which will probably give the go-ahead for Bosnian wide elections. The Dayton deal split the country into two almost equal halves, one belonging to the Serbs and the other to the Muslim- Croat Federation.
Under Dayton, the two entities will be bound in a single sovereign state with loose but common central authority after the elections scheduled for mid-September. The deal guaranteed freedom of movement and the right to refugees to return to their homes.
Murphy listed several ongoing violations of the Dayton accord, including violation of human rights. He said the federation failed to build governing structures and was "rather developing towards a strategic partnership, an alliance of leaders, fitful and halting, in the form of a confederation between two of three communities of Bosnia."
He said tensions and distrust were still strong. "We do notsee any coming together of communities, rather the contrary."
Murphy said the Bosnian Serbs want to transform the inter- ethnic boundaries into a tightly controlled state border,
effectively denying freedom of movement and the right of return or refugees. "They want a partitioned Bosnia -- which most definitely is not the peace agreement," he said.
The continued presence by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, an indicted war criminal, on the political scene was another major problem Murphy listed.
He said mediators were increasingly seeing the different parties advocating their own version of the package deal on which the Dayton peace agreement was based. "These different agendas and interpretations of the peace agreement are increasingly obvious as we move closer to the coming elections," he said.
Murphy said the election campaign itself was likely to increase rather than decrease the differences between the parties. But he added that the High Representative preferred fair elections in less than perfect conditions to the greater danger of delayed elections which would in turn delay the construction of common institutions meant to knit the country together.
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SARAJEVO, June 13 (Reuters) - Bosnian mediators on Thursday accused rival Serbs, Muslims and Croats of continuing war by other means and warned the country could fall apart if the Dayton accords continued to be ignored.
Berserkistan, June 13 · Bosnia Conference Opens, Compliance Report by Bildt
Berserkistan, June 12 · Clinton: Stick to IFOR Timetable
Berserkistan, June 12 · NATO to Weigh Bosnia Progress on Thursday
Berserkistan, June 12 · OSCE Considers Giving Go-Ahead to Elections
Berserkistan, June 12 · Bildt: Karadzic Must Not Stand in Way of Elections
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