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With Trade Talks, Bosnia, Serbia Begin ‘A New Chapter’
‘We signed a protocol in which we established communications between
the two countries -- for telephones, railroads, airlines and roads.’
By Dan De Luce
"We signed a protocol in which we established communications between the two countries -- for telephones, railroads, airlines and roads," Bosnian Vice-President Ejup Ganic told reporters in Belgrade. Ganic hailed the agreements signed by Bosnian and Serbian ministers as the beginning of a reconciliation process between the wartime foes. "This is a new chapter between the two countries," Ganic said.
The accords came at the end of a two-day trade mission by Bosnian officials and businessmen who flew to Serbia on Tuesday in a visit which would have been unthinkable until recently. Both sides said the visit showed the peace process was moving forward since Balkan leaders signed the Dayton peace agreement, which ended fighting in Bosnia last November.
Prlic and his counterpart, Milan Milutinovic, signed a protocol in which "citizens of Bosnia and Yugoslavia should be able to cross with their passport without other formalities," Prlic told repoters. Bosnian and Serbian officials were close to concluding negotiations on opening representative trade offices in Belgrade and Sarajevo, officials said.
Ganic, who met Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday, said he expected this week's visit to clear the way for regular meetings and normal relations between Belgrade and the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo. Ganic and other Bosnian government leaders condemned Milosevic throughout the 43-month war for his support of separatist Serb forces who laid siege to Sarajevo and fought Bosnia's bid for independence. But Ganic, a prominent member of Bosnia's ruling Muslim nationalist Party of Democratic Action, said it was time to build prosperity and leave the bloody war behind. "My aim was to open communications, to say let's face each
other now," he said.
Bosnia and rump Yugoslavia, which consists of Serbia and Montenegro, were still not ready to exchange ambassadors partly because Belgrade wanted the Sarajevo government to drop war crimes charges filed against Serbia in the International Court of Justice. U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton deal, brokered the Bosnian trade mission in a round of shuttle diplomacy last week.
There were no protests staged in Belgrade against the Bosnian delegation's visit, which was accompanied by tight
police security. But Milosevic came under severe criticism from nationalist opposition politicians. The nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia slammed Milosevic for allowing the trade mission to go ahead and said he had become a "vassal of the United States."
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BELGRADE, July 24 (Reuters) - Serbia and Bosnia agreed on Wednesday to restore telephone, railway, bus and air links
between the two countries for the first time since the Bosnian war erupted four years ago, government officials said.
Jadranko Prlic, foreign minister for Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation, said the two governments also agreed that civilians crossing the Bosnia-Serbia border would no longer require visas or special permission.
Berserkistan, July 23 · Bosnian Trade Delegation on Groundbreaking Mission to Serbia
Berserkistan, July 18 · Bosnian Vice President in First Delegation to Serbia Since War Began
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Bosnian/Balkan Reconstruction U.S. Department of Commerce
Bosnian Reconstruction at a Glance World Bank
Bosnian Reconstruction Guide Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina Triennale di Milano XIX Esposizione Internazionale
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