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France Suggests 2-Year Plan for Bosnia
‘I propose a period of stabilisation, for two years,
"Some voices are being raised to recommend delaying the elections," Foreign Minister Herve de Charette told a meeting of the international community to review Bosnia's fragile peace.
"That would be a grave error with serious consequences," he told the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) conference. Nationwide elections in Bosnia -- a total of 10 polls -- are scheduled for September 14 under the Dayton peace accord that ended Bosnia's 43-month war but the international community recognises that ideal voting conditions are far from being met. "The elections are a very important element in the peace process," de Charette said.
"They do not mark the end. They constitute one stage...It is therefore imperative that the elections take place under the planned timetable. To call them off would be to block the peace
process. To delay them would set back that process. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, charged with setting up the elections, will decide before the end of June whether conditions are right, chairman-in-office Flavio Cotti told the meeting earlier on Friday.
The United States and European powers want the polls to go ahead by September 14 despite problems of registering voters, media bias and disenfranchised refugees, so that the process of building multi-ethnic Bosnian institutions can proceed. De Charette said the international community should demonstrate its longer-term commitment to the peaceful transition in Bosnia.
"I propose a period of stabilisation, for two years, until summer 1998, during which the international community will show its willingness to support the efforts of the leaders of Bosnia Herzegovina," he said.
France was prepared to host a ministerial meeting of the PIC's steering board, comprising the Group of Seven countries, the holder of the European Union presidency, the European Commission, Russia and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, in October to work out an action plan. He said chief peace envoy Carl Bildt should also broker an agreement on the length of the mandates for the parliaments of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and of the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska, something not stipulated in the Dayton deal. |
FLORENCE, Italy, June 14 (Reuters) - France said on Friday that any delay to Bosnian elections, scheduled for September, would block the peace process and called for a two-year "stabilisation period" following the vote.
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