JOINT LIST OF B&H FOR TUZLA

Subject: National criterion underlying the establishment of the Croatian commune. Despite pressures exerted on the Croatian population the SDA remains silent. The idea aimed at disintegrating B&H.

The HDZ Manipulating the Bosnian Croats

Tuzla, August 26 (AIM) - The national criterion is insufficient reason for the establishment of a new commune within the Federation. The HDZ proposal - District Board of Tuzla - contains only the national criterion and motive for the establishment of the Croatian commune of Soli. Therefore, the competent ministry of the Tuzla-Drina basin Canton rejected this proposal pointing to the legal ambiguity of the study. Two things are crucial - the study on the establishment of a new commune did not define the sources of revenue for the proposed commune and not all settlements which want to be integrated into the proposed commune are connected with communication links. Irrespective of this, the HDZ District Board submitted the same proposal to the Communal Council of Tuzla. Now it is using this idea for election purposes. The population is asked to declare its support for the idea, to vote for it, although it is quite clear that the Dayton Agreement envisaged voting only in the already existing communes. In this process it threatened the Croats that they better support the HDZ proposal, or else...Only the Croats are covered by the public opinion polls, although there are other nations within the imagined borders of the commune.

Practically speaking, the idea on the establishment of a new commune is used for pre-election propaganda with the attempt to homogenize people along the national lines. It seems that they have a tacit approval of the SDA for this, which finds the pre-election homogenization suitable, and thus remains silent on the subject of irregular HDZ activities in the area of Tuzla, states the Press Release of the Joint List of B&H for Tuzla.

In this connection the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) addressed the public pointing to the fact that demands for ethnic divisions were strong before the war in B&H, and that it is the same now, after the war. Slavko Pericevic, the HSS official stated: "This idea of the HDZ leads to a division of B&H. Had the integral Bosnia and Herzegovina been at their heart then they would have demanded the establishment of the Bosniac communes in Stolac, Livno and other areas controlled by the HVO".