Ashdown Criticises BiH Cabinet Over Pace of Reforms

09/06/2005

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) -- High Representative Paddy Ashdown said Wednesday (8 June) that either BiH leaders have run out of the capacity to embrace reform or are suffering a bout of "summer madness". Ashdown spoke at a press conference a day after a row erupted within the cabinet, involving BiH Prime Minister Adnan Terzic and Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic. Ashdown said the clash might indicate the administration is no longer capable of doing its job, which would leave the country "at dead stop until the next elections". He said he prefers to believe the row means politicians are human too, complete with emotions. At issue is Terzic's decision to sack Ivanic over a disagreement concerning the country's new intelligence chief. (Nezavisne novine - 09/6/05; OHR Sources, Fena, RTRS, PBS BiH - 08/06/05)