SARAJEVO: CANTONAL ASSEMBLY WITHOUT DEPUTIES OF THE HDZ

USUAL MOVES OF THE RULING PARTIES

AIM Sarajevo, October 7, 1996

Problems of constitution of authorities in Sarajevo Canton, which are not new, still continue. This was shown by the constituting session of the Canton, held on Saturday, that is, by the fact that deputies from among the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) have not participated in it.

Due to inter-partisan disagreements between coalition (or as they nowadays like to call themselves - co-habitating!?) partners - Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the HDZ, and lack of will to find a joint solution, administrative agencies of Sarajeco Canton have not been established, which, of course, has a disagreeable effect on the city and its citizens.

The latest problem seems to be the fact that deputies of the HDZ do not wish to participate in the work of the Assembly until global agreement on organization of Sarajevo is reached, and just another reason why agreement has not been reached is the demand of the HDZ to get almost one third of the power in the Canton, which is not proportional to the election results. The HDZ acts by pursuing the logic that exclusive representatives of one of the three constituent nations in B&H, which they consider themselves to be, are automatically entitled to one third of power, this time in Sarajevo, regardless of the fact that election results achieved by this party do not correspond to the demanded percentage of power. In Sarajevo, they amount to hardly six per cent of the votes.

While deputies from other parties whose mandates were verified were taking a solemn oath at the constituting session of the Canton Assembly, deputies of the HDZ, Jozo Leutar, Mladen Bevanda and Radoslav Ljubas, left the session. After the break, Bevanda informed the deputies that "Croat deputies do not wish to participate in the work of the Assembly", explaining it with the fact "that there are no guarantees that vital interests of the Croat people in Sarajevo will be protected, that deputies of the Croat nation will have any influence on reaching important decisions".

"We, therefore, do not wish formally to participate in the work of such an Assembly until adequate conditions for it are provided", it is stated, among other, in the statement signed by Bevanda, Leutar and Ljubas, and it is added that "legally constituted City Assembly was arbitrarily suspended, and a single-national canton imposed". This latter comment in the statement of deputies of the HDZ indeed returns the problem of Sarajevo back to last year's political quibbling between the SDA and the HDZ. The first dissolved the City Assembly referring to the Washington agreement, and proclaimed Sarajevo Canton in which majority of citizens (and therefrom, power) are of Bosniac nationality, while the latter contested such a decision referring to Dayton and the never implemented Roman agreement on Sarajevo as a district, and then city entity, and finally the Canton.

President of the Canton who was elected back at that time, Sabira Hadzovic (SDA), declared that the latest departure of Croat deputies would not affect further operation of the Assembly, because their mandates have been verified, and the Assembly, even without them, has a quorum for valid decision-making.

Deputy of the opposition Associated List of B&H, Nermin Pecanac, believes, however, that the problem concerning constitution of Sarajevo is much bigger than walking out in protest from the session of the deputies of the HDZ.

"Before leaving the session they had publicly said that they had been negotiating about establishing authorities in Sarajevo with the SDA. It is unacceptable for the Associated List that the two parties are again deciding about the future organization of the city far away from any institution. The Associated List will give its proposal of organization of Sarajevo, which must be reasonable, efficient, modern and not too expensive".

Secretary of the Cantonal Committee of the Associated List, Nusret Biber, believes that walking out form the session is usual practice of both the HDZ and the SDA, because, as he says, "they are putting spokes in each other's wheels whenever they get the chance".

"The HDZ in Sarajevo is trying to claim much more than the citizens have placed confidence in them in the elections. The people have given them as much as they won - six per cent, but the HDZ claims much more in the cantonal authorities. They demand parity in power, that is, one third, which would mean between 25 and 33 per cent", said Biber, and added: "We would not be so much against it if the SDA and the HDZ could really reach an agreement, although I doubt that it could happen and I think that we will have to wait for municipal elections". According to him, the SDA and the HDZ in this way wish to keep tensions up in order to ensure that "their" respective people

• the Bosniacs and the Croats - vote for them in the local elections too.

Deputy of the SDA in the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton, Midhat Haracic, believes that departure of Croat deputies is just continuation of permanent policy of the HDZ which tried to obstruct even verification and the beginning of operation of the Cantonal Assembly from the very start.

Haracic claims that such a gesture of the Croat deputies is not unexpected, but that this will not affect the operation of the Assembly. "We had better work. Problems in the city are numerous, and this parliament must work and reach decisions important for the citizens of Sarajevo", Haracic believes.

"It is obvious that the Sarajevo Canton and the citizens of Sarajevo are hostages again of squibbling of the ruling SDA and the HDZ, where the HDZ is trying to impose the model of Mostar on Sarajevo", claims the leader of the opposition, Sejfudin Tokic (United B&H Social Democrats):

"There is no real concern for actual living condition of the citizens of Croat nationality in Sarajevo. This is an attempt to turn the whole situation concerning the status of the city - district, city, canton - into an instrument for other purposes, purposes of ethnically cleansed territories which the HDZ has still not given up", claims Tokic.

According to him, it is necessary to establish the district of Sarajevo as soon as possible, where police and authorities would be quite different from the rest of the state:

"I am a witness that in the federal parliament, the SDA is continuously refusing to put that on the agenda. It is obvious tehrefore, that neither the ones nor the others find this unresolved problem of the status of Sarajevo annoying. Simply, once they resolved the problem of the city of Sarajevo or the city of Mostar, the ruling SDA and the HDZ would have to face something that would be much harder for them - problem of vital interests of the citizens of B&H", Tokic believes.

And while the dispute about Sarajevo for who knows how many times before is driving into a blind alley, in the real city streets of Sarajevo, discontent miners protested today. Yesterday, it was done by disabled veterans, tomorrow it might be done by pensioners, the unemployed, the hungry... Will the policy of empty stomachs return as a boomerang to the current "co-habitatining" partners?

Ibro KOVACEVIC