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Mediators Head Off Muslim Boycott of Mostar Elections
SARAJEVO, May 23 (Reuters) — Mediators have struck a deal to head off a Muslim boycott that threatened elections in the troubled Muslim-Croat city of Mostar in southern Bosnia, diplomats said on Thursday. "As a result of crash diplomacy, We have an agreement between both sides in Mostar... (which) should make it possible for the European Union administrator to announce a date for the elections soon," mediator Michael Steiner told reporters. The elections are due on May 31 but local Muslim leaders were unhappy that Muslims driven out of the city during the war would not be able to vote.
"We have found a modus ensuring that all Mostari who came under the census of 1991 and left involuntarily are able to participate in the vote in a practical way," Steiner said. It was not clear whether the elections would be held on schedule or postponed slightly.
Elections in Mostar are seen as crucial for the survival of the fragile federation, which in turn is the cornerstone of the the Bosnia peace treaty signed last December. The accord split the country into the federation and a Serb entity.
Mostar's EU administrator Ricardo Perez Casado met Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, patron of Bosnia's Croats, in Zagreb on Thursday to discussed the problematic elections. Croatian state radio said Tudjman and Casado discussed possible compromises that would ensure the elections were held by the end of June at the latest. Reporters were barred from the meeting venue and a spokeswoman for Casado refused comment, saying only that he would hold a news conference in Mostar on Friday.
Mostar's Muslim candidates are protesting at voting rules that they say will disenfranchise non-Croats who fled or were evicted from homes in the Mostar area by Croat separatists during the 1993 war. EU foreign ministers said a week ago the elections would go ahead as proposed but EU officials in Mostar indicated that the vote was in serious trouble and could still be postponed.
Croatian radio quoted Tudjman as telling Casado he wanted the EU mission to succeed and it would need Croatia's help. If the elections were abandoned, everything achieved so far under the Dayton agreement would be jeopardised, Tudjman said.
Muslims and Croats fought bitterly for control of Mostar in 1993. The city has been under EU administration since July 1994 while a peaceful reintegration of the former foes is sought. The current EU mandate expires in July. The Dayton deal envisages freedom of movement but local nationalist leaders are still trying hard to prevent ethnic
mixing across what were meant to be merely administrative and porous boundaries.
Steiner said before the deal was clinched mediators were concerned that the decrees of the EU admininstration and
international agreements would not be honoured in Mostar.
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Berserkistan, May 22 · Mostar Elections Focus of Casado-Izetbegovic Meet
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