June 4- June 10, 2006. Issue Number 680 Bosnian FM stresses Kosovos domino effect The Foreign Affairs Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mladen Ivanic, said in an interview with New Europe that only a solution on the future status of the Serbian province of Kosovo, which would be acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina, would not provoke instability in the Balkans. We cannot ignore a domino effect, Ivanic said after meeting EU Enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn on June 2 and giving a keynote speech in an ambassadorial meeting of the SEEGROUP (Southeast European Group) at the NATO headquarters. I told the ambassadors very clearly that, despite political difficulties, only an agreed solution between Belgrade and Pristina would not have a negative influence in the region, Ivanic said. Some voices in the international community are arguing that the separatist will of the Kosovo Albanian majority in the Serbian province should be satisfied and an independence of Kosovo imposed against the will of Belgrade. If the international community imposes a solution which would make one side a winner and the other one a loser, that would definitely have an impact on the region and would create instability, he said. Ivanic underlined that our friends here (in Brussels) would like to hear that there will be no instability, that Kosovo is a case apart. But then normal people will ask why Kosovo is a case apart and there is no logical answer to this question, he said. That is why we have to find a solution in which there will be no winners and losers, the Bosnian foreign minister said. Ivanic added that Commissioner Rehn was dissatisfied with recent statements by leaders in the Republika Srpska, the Serb semi-independent entity in Bosnia, about a referendum on independence, following the one in Montenegro two weeks ago, and a possibility of an independence of Kosovo. Under the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the three-year civil war, Bosnia is composed of three constituent nations Serbs, Muslims and Croats and of two semi-independent entities the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat federation. I believe that the best way to resolve problems is to treat all sides in Bosnia equally, and not always pressure one side, Ivanic, an ethnic Serb, said. He said it was strange that no one, not even in Brussels, has ever openly criticised calls made mostly by nationalist Bosnian Muslim politicians to abolish the Republika Srpska. Both things a referendum on independence and an abolishment of the Republika Srpska are against the Dayton peace accords, he said. That is why not only calls for a referendum on independence, but also calls for the abolishment of the Republika Srpska should be criticised, Ivanic said. This is the best way to eliminate concern, he added. Ivanic also underlined that Rehn expressed deep dissatisfaction with the process of police reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the key preconditions for the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), a first step towards full integration in the EU. Rehn is satisfied with the progress of the SAA talks at the technical level and believes the agreement could be signed by the end of the year, he said. However, he underlined that the main obstacle could be a lack of progress on police reform and he was very disappointed about that, the minister said. The police reform deal, reluctantly accepted by Republika Srpska in 2005, implies a more centralised police system. Ivanic informed Rehn about his proposal for talks among politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina about the general framework of the police reform in order to get the process out of deadlock. Police reform is a test of maturity for the politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a precondition for the transformation of a High representative of the international community into a Special EU representative for Bosnia, Ivanic added. He said the least controversial way of resolving the problem of police reform would be to let some police activities such as street patrols and traffic control remain at the level of entities. That is the best solution, one which is in line with European standards, Ivanic told New Europe. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Everything you need is one click away. 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