change font size

print version

copyright

Other languages:

New Constitutional Debate Shakes BIH Public

14 08 2007  Sarajevo_ Another round of political debates about eventual constitutional changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina has gripped the country's public.

Apparently unintentionally, the tone of this debate was set by the US ambassador to BiH, Douglas McElhaney, who said during his visit on Friday to Trebinje, that BiH should be a unitary state, as a base for talks on future constitutional changes.

Later, the US Embassy issued an explanation that US Ambassador considers that BiH should be united rather than unitary state.

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Republika Srpska, RS, reacted immediately, stressing that the RS should remain a federal unit in BiH in any future constitutional changes, as the very minimum under which neither RS officials or citizens would go.

“Naturally, people, and especially representatives of the US policy can have their stances and present them, but it must be understood that no solution can be sustainable here if it is not a result of creation and compromise of domestic political forces,” said Dodik.

He added that if that is not acceptable, there could be alternatives, such as a BiH confederation.
The leader of the ruling Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Sulejman Tihic, then surprised few observers by taking the opposite position.

Tihic has been lately hardening his political positions in an attempt to strengthen Bosniak public support.

In Sunday`s edition of daily Dnevni Avaz, Tihic said that federalization of BiH is unacceptable as it would only cement present ethnic division. Again blaming RS for not accepting any constitutional changes, Tihic stressed that BiH should be a decentralized state composed of several multi-ethnic regions.

As Dodik left the country to attend the Guca trumpet festival in Serbia on Sunday, the RS President Milan Jelic continued where he had left off.

Jelic said that any centralization of BiH opens room for dominance of one ethnic group over some other.

“RS citizens and institutions do not accept propositions for a future constitution that undermines Dayton and marks the continuation of power shifting and uncontrollable setting up of inefficient state institutions,” Jelic told the SRNA news agency.

This familiar public debate shows not only how BiH politicians tend to favour politicking over practical bread-and-butter issues, but also the difficulty of the task new BiH High Representative is facing ahead of the continuation of police and constitutional reform, expected next month.