BOSNIA WILL GAIN IN STRENGTH, THERE WILL BE BOTH SCARVES AND

Party of Democratic Action: Alija Izetbegovic

MINI SKIRTS

AIM Sarajevo, September 19 - "Victory of the Party of Democratic Action in the elections is a victory of the forces of the centre and of reasonable politics," declared today in Sarajevo, at a press conference, Alija Izetbegovic, President of this party and the winner of the race for Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Choice of the voters of, allegedly, a party of the centre, as well as forthcoming political processes in Serbia and Croatia are a guarantee for Izetbegovic that Bosnia & Herzegovina as a state has a future. At the same time, he says, Serbia is not capable any more of either militarily or financially "undertaking an adventure like the 1992 one, and it will sober up from national drunkenness". As concerning Croatia, he forecasts that it "will in the future inevitably be a democratic country", adding that "democratic Croatia will not interfere with Bosnia's affairs". "Bosnia will, in the meantime, gain in strength and that is where I see its future", said Izetbegovic.

The fact that voters chose the SDA is according to him also the choice of the allegedly only party capable of resisting right extremism in Bosnia !? This party pursues a moderate policy and only thanks to that "we have prevented real danger which threatened to turn Bosnia into another Afghanistan". The SDA is "also a barrier to any deviation to the left, where under the slogan of weak Bosniac people - strong Bosnia, the Bosniac people are offered oblivion both of their name and tradition".

Izetbegovic also spoke about the strategy of the SDA and his own, as the President of the state, underlining the significance of full implementation of Dayton accords. Nowadays these accords are implemented only partially, only as each of the parties sees fit. Izetbegovic repeated the stance which he had expressed a few times already, that he accepted Dayton "as a whole or not at all". He noted specifically that nothing has been done in implementation of Annex 7 which referred to return of refugees.

"We will put the focus on it since already back in Dayton we considered return of refugees to be the main instrument of reintegration of B&H", said President of the SDA and added that according to his opinion, the SDA was the only party from the Federation which had "stepped into the Serb entity", and that by winning the second place in the race for seats of representatives from Republika Srpska in the parliament of B&H it had already made "the first step towards reintegration of the state".

To a journalist's question when the first meeting of new members of the Presidency would be convened, that is his and his closest associates, Krajisnik and Zubak, Izetbegovic replied that their official contacts would have to be differentiated from unofficial ones. "An official meeting will occur when Mister Krajisnik will be ready to swear on the Constitution of Bosnia & Herzegovina and it will be held only in Sarajevo which is, pursuant the Dayton accords the capital of the state", promised Izetbegovic. Krajisnik's proposal was to construct a new building of the Presidency on the border between two entities. "B&H is not North and South Korea" said Izetbegovic.

As concerning unofficial meetings, it is possible that they will be convened before the official one. He also clarified that the present political situation could not be compared with that in 1992. "It is similar, but it is taking place in considerably different circumstances that those in 1992", Izetbegovic found a difference.

Commenting on the election failure of opposition parties, Izetbegovic said that it was not unexpected because they had based their propaganda on two incorrect theses: they placed on the same level the SDS and the SDA, and they were not the same just as "black and white are not the same". "They placed the party which was destroying B&H on the same level as the one which defended it. An opposition leader in Pale declared that people should not vote for Krajisnik and Ganic, but they were not the same. Krajisnik shelled this city, and Ganic was with us who were defending it", said Izetbegovic. The other thesis of the opposition which he believes to be wrong was that there was no democracy on the territory controlled by the Army of B&H and that the opposition could introduce it. Izetbegovic denied this by the fact that there was no censorship on this territory, that 60 journals were published on it, and 40 radio and 12 television stations operated. He also stated his own unique "calculus" (which is also used by the television station he mentioned) that state television devoted nine tenths of the program to the opposition in the election campaign, and only one tenth to the SDA!?

And just another "jewel" - as a counter-argunment to the opposition concerning establishment of the Islamic republic, Izetbegovic stated that women in Bosnia & Herzegovina, who he seemed to have finally noticed, "wear both scarves and mini skirts, and noone orders anyone what they should wear".