Posted on 09/06/2005 1:06:24 PM PDT by joan
Belgrade, 6 Sept. (AKI) - Bosnian Croats, dissatisfied with organisation of the state, demand a complete overhaul of the apparatus or their own entity, a Croat member of the collective state presidency, Ivo Miro Jovic, said on Tuesday. Croats make up around 17 per cent of and a Serb, told the Belgrade daily Politika that a decade after the Dayton accords that ended the civil war in Bosnia, the document should be revised to grant Croats equal rights with Muslims and Serbs.
Under the Dayton agreement, Bosnia was divided into two entities, the Muslim-CroatFederation and the Serb entity, Republika Srpska, with all state attributes, including parliament, government, army and police. Jovic said it was like putting three people in a room with two beds.
“In such a situation someone has to sleep on the floor, or share bed with the other person, and if that person is much bigger, then you can imagine what conditions for a good sleep you have”, said Jovic. That was, in his words, the position of Bosnian Croats, sharing power with majority Muslims.
He pointed out that for the past 15 years Croats couldn’t get the permission to build a new Catholic Church in the capital Sarajevo, while all mosques damaged in the war were reconstructed and scores of new ones were built. All local institutions, including television, were dominated by Muslims and streets were named after Muslim historical figures, leaving no room for Croats, he complained.
Jovic said Croats should have their own entity and self-rule, or the country should be organized on three government levels, with regional autonomy for each nationality, with loose ties on central level, which would comprise foreign and trade policy and monetary system. This would, according to Jovic, protect Croats and Serbs from Muslim domination.
The high representative of the international community, which safeguards peace in Bosnia, British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, has been gradually reducing powers of Republika Srpska and of the Muslim-Croat federation, and strengthening the central government structure. But Jovic, like Bosnian Serbs, said he opposed centralised government because it would give the upper hand to majority Muslims.
Jovic alleged that all of Bosnia was hostage to mujahadeen from Islamic countries, who remained in the country after the war, and wielded a strong Islamic influence on local people and institutions. “We are now all their hostages and hostages of a police which represents serious barriers on our joining European integration”, Jovic said.
ping
Ah, the play of the Croat card in an effort to save the fading away Serb rouge entity. Will it take a trick?
I’m curious what is "mighty" Paddy opinion on that?
This is an Italian news source (AKI) and it is the Croats who are making the news. It just was turned up in a search - actually "Destro" sent me this article to post (as they won't let him post here anymore - 'tis sad).
clinton Legacy Bump!
Once again those close to clinton get screwed!
Through their own stupidity the Bosian Croats trusted clinton and Tudjman, threw in with the Muslims and are left holding the bag!
Croats equal rights with Muslims and Serbs
The Serbs = Christians
The Muslims = ??
The Croats = Muslims
Something must be getting lost in the translation. The Croats ar muslims correct?
The Croats are Catholics. The Muslims in Bosnia, they are Slavs (Croats and Serbs) converted by the Turks.
No, Croats would not be Muslims. Mostly Catholic I would've thought.
The Serbs = Orthodox Christians
The Muslims = call themselves "Bosniaks"
The Croats = Catholics
"The Serbs = Christians
The Muslims = ??
The Croats = Muslims"
No.. It is like this.
Serbs = Orthodox
Croats = Catholics
Muslims = Terrorists
Just last week it was revealed he had been/is a spy, and he isn't the only one:
Ashdown 'was M16 secret agent'
Sep 1 2005
Lord Paddy Ashdown, currently the top international administrator in Bosnia, was an agent for the British MI6 secret service in the 1970s, according to a report published on the internet and picked up by Bosnian newspapers.
The former Liberal Democrat leader's name was among 276 alleged MI6 agents identified by the Web site Crytome.org, which said he worked for the secret service while based in Geneva in 1974.
The information was reported by the Oslobodjenje and Dnevni Avaz newspapers on today.
Ashdown's spokesman, Mario Brkic, declined comment "on such speculation."
Ashdown took over the duties of the top international administrator in Bosnia - the High Representative of the International Community - in May 2002.
Ashdown has wide powers in the country, and can impose laws and fire local politicians as high as presidents of the country if he feels they are obstructing Bosnia's peace.
The Cryptome list also includes the former head of Ashdown's public relations office, Julian Braithwaite, stating that he was an MI6 agent in Sarajevo in 2002.
A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said the government had a policy of neither confirming nor denying whether any individual works in intelligence, in order to protect those who do.
"The posting of these names is highly irresponsible," the spokesman said. While he would not comment on Cryptome.org's naming of Ashdown, he said the website's lists were often "highly inaccurate."
Which makes Jovic's stated desire for a Croat entity nothing but empty calorie soundbites produced for local consumption, as far as I can tell.
Nobel Prize winning author Ivo Andric was a Bosnian Croat by birth (although he lived the latter decades of his life in Belgrade). His novel The Bridge on the Drina does a good job of depicting the different groups in Bosnia under Turkish rule. It is structured like one of James Michener's historical novels, jumping from one historical period to another but staying focused on the same town in Bosnia.
Why does Bosnia even exsist as a state?
Historical accident. One could ask the same question about Belgium, Austria, Iraq, Jordan, Canada, most of the Central American and South American republics, and most of the countries in Africa.
The Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Catholics don't want to be part of Serbia. The Bosnian Orthodox and the Bosnian Muslims don't want to be part of Croatia. The Bosnian Orthodox and Bosnian Catholics, for the most part, would rather be part of Serbia or Croatia, respectively, than under the Bosnian Muslims. The previous set-up was no decent solution. The current set-up is no decent solution. There is no good solution.
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