change font size

print version

copyright

Other languages:

Brcko Left on Sidelines in Bosnia Constitution Talks

04 07 2007  This prosperous and harmonious town offers lessons on how Bosnia might be run. Instead, its example is being ignored.

By Saida Mustajbegovic in Brcko

As the discussions heat up about the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities, the future of the District of Brcko remains unknown. A town with its own special status and administration, it has been left out of the constitutional talks that began over 18 months ago.

Brcko lies in Bosnia's north-east, on the right river bank of Sava. The area of the District makes up only 1 percent of the country's territory.

It also lies at a strategic crossroads between the main routes running east to west and north to south, 200 kilometres from both Sarajevo and Belgrade and about 300 from Zagreb.

The town's strategic position almost torpedoed the 1995 Dayton negotiations on ending the Bosnian war, as neither the Serbs on one side or the Bosniaks and Croats on the other could agree to which entity Brcko should belong.

The American Arbitrator, Roberts Owen, made sure it went to neither. Instead the decision was made to put Brcko under international supervision, demilitarize it, create a special legal framework, organize a multi-ethnic educational system and conduct local elections four years after the establishment of the District. The territory obtained special status seven years ago.

Since then, Brcko has become the most prosperous part of Bosnia, a place where the local authorities function according to civil and not national principles - unlike the rest of the country.

“The initial prognosis said the District would survive three months at the most,” Mirsad Djapo, mayor of Brcko, recalls.

Much of the initial scepticism about the chances of success of Brcko District was based on the failure of a similar political experiment in Mostar. The south-western city remains divided between Bosniaks and Croats, a place where the legacy of ethnic division has been preserved.

“It is with reason that we say 'Brcko is a model’ for the rest of the country,” Asim Mujkic, an expert on the District of Brcko tells Balkan Insight. “If this model was applied to the rest of the country you would step on the toes of many people in Banja Luka, Sarajevo and western Mostar - the established ethno-political elites who ensure their existence by generating crises.”

But the constitutional talks, which failed to win the approval of Bosnia's local politicans last April, have barely mentioned the future of this small but important area.

Instead, talks have focused on the relationship between - and future status of - the two entities. A year on, as the international community once again attempts to resurect the failed talks, Brcko is again on the sidelines.

Local and international experts have suggested that the District be included among the common state institutions or included in Article 1 of the Constitution as a specific local unit of self-administration.

When Balkan Insight visited Brcko, the local Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was marking its fifteenth anniversary. Around the same dates, the Republika Srpska's brigade celebrated its fifteenth anniversaries as well. The solemn ceremonies of both former warring parties passed off without incident.

Ethnic divisions have not entirely disappeared in Brcko. Some restaurants and coffee shops in town are still patronised only by representatives of one ethnic group. But these divisions are not played out in the institutional life of the District, in the police, education department and the government.

The mayor thinks the system established in Brcko has created a different and better environment from the one prevailing in the rest of the country. “In the two entities, government institutions operate in an environment where one or two nations are a majority,” Djapo says. “Here... members of all three nationalities are first and foremost citizens. This approach has created a much more friendly environment, and it should be institutionalized by including it in the Constitution.”

But the future of the town depends on the outcome of the constitutional talks taking place under international supervisors. “We would first like to see the future design of the BiH Constitution before we continue negotiations about the status of the District of Brcko,” Raffi Gregorian tells Balkan Insight.

As the current constitution, embodied in the Dayton Peace Agreement, was made before the establishment of Brcko District, it does not address Brcko's status.

Gregorian says a way now needs to be found to formulate constitutional relations between the District of Brcko and the state. If a consensus is found among local politicans to abolish the two entities, there will be no reason for the continued existence of the District of Brcko. But if the concept of an ethno-territorial federation wins out, “Brcko will become a problem”, according to Mujkic. “Brcko comprises 1 per cent of the territorry of BiH. But at the same time it is the only part of the country not organized on the basis of ethnicity but on the basis of civic principles.”

The international community knows most local people are pleased with the current arrangement. “The District is a successful administrative unit, people like living there and the local authorities like the existing arrangement,” Gregorian says.

An economic threat also hangs over the town if its status is downgraded or compromised. The institutions developed within the District employ more than 2,000 people today. If the town reverts to being an ordinary local municipality, these jobs would be lost.

For that reason, some people actually want Brcko to remain off the agenda of the constitutional talks, arguing that any change is likely to be for the worse.

“Why change something that is good?” asks Zarko Papic, a local political analyst. “Including this issue on the constitutional agenda may only open up Pandora's Box.” End

Saida Mustajbegovic is a Sarajevo-based Balkan Insight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRN's online publication.

This article has been produced as part of BIRN’s Bosnia Constitutional Reforms project, which is financed by the Swiss Embassy in Sarajevo and the University of Sarajevo's Human Rights Center.