US official urges BiH political party leaders to agree on constitutional reform

22/11/2005

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns voiced hope Monday that Bosnian political leaders will declare their readiness to revamp Bosnia and Herzegovina's Constitution.

(The Washington Times, AP - 22/11/05; Washington File, Reuters, AP, BBC, VOA, RFE/RL - 21/11/05)

"We're not there yet. We don't have an agreement yet," said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. "But I'm confident that they're heading in that direction." [AFP]

A senior US diplomat voiced hope Monday (21 November) that while ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) are under way in Washington, political leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will agree to revamp their country's constitution.

"What we hope they'll agree to tomorrow is, as political party leaders in the country, that they will dedicate themselves to this process of constitutional reform, that they will pursue that over the coming months in advance of the 2006 elections," said US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.

About ten days ago, the leaders of the eight main ruling and opposition parties in BiH met in Brussels to discuss changes in the constitution, which is part of the DPA. They continued their talks in Washington on Sunday, ahead of the two-day commemorative ceremonies, which began Monday with a conference entitled "Beyond Dayton: the Balkans and Euro-Atlantic Integration".

"Dayton established a state with internal divisions, internal Berlin walls, separating one community from another because that was the only way to stop the war and to build a tentative and fragile peace," Burns said at the conference, sponsored by the US Institute of Peace. "Ten years later these internal walls must now be torn down. The country's people -- the Croats, Serbs, and Muslims -- must be allowed to mix, they must be allowed to integrate as differing people do in normal multiethnic states."

The Accords left BiH divided into two political entities -- the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska (RS) -- each with its own government and parliament. In addition, there is a national parliament and government, and a tripartite presidency, whose members represent the three main ethnic groups.

In recent months, as the country strengthened its ties with the international community, calls have been intensifying for reform of what most analysts agree is one of the world's most cumbersome political and administrative systems.

"Bosnia can't remain a fractured state and think that it can become part of the unified Europe or a unified NATO," Burns said.

Under the proposed constitutional changes, the two entities would be retained, but with their powers sufficiently curtailed, while the currently weak national parliament and government would be strengthened. The three-member presidency would be replaced by a single president.

Speaking at Monday's conference, Richard Holbrooke, a former US ambassador to the UN who brokered the DPA n 1995, also urged the BiH politicians, particularly the Bosnian Serbs, to agree to reform the constitution.

"I need to tell you, frankly, that by defending the Dayton Agreements in their present form you are essentially trying to prevent progress," he said. "You must help improve Dayton. RS needs to realise once and for all that it is part of a single country called Bosnia and Herzegovina."

On Tuesday, the BiH delegation, headed by the chairman of the tripartite presidency, Ivo Miro Jovic, and including the other two members of the presidency and some 40 other Bosnian officials and politicians, will attend a gala luncheon, hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.