CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF B&H

Three, Five or Seven Ministers

AIM Sarajevo, 11 November, 1996

What will the steps in which Bosnia & Herzegovina will move towards its reintegration be like and how long will they be in any case greatly depends on organization of its authorities, specifically on constitution of its Government, or, as the Serbs insist, the council of ministers, as noted in the Dayton accords.

Therefore, it is not at all surprising that on the highest level, in the Presidency of B&H, swords are crossed over this very issue. With the assistance of high representative Carl Bildt, members of the Presidency, Alija Izetbegovic, Kresimir Zubak and Momcilo Krajisnik, are doing their best to find the optimum solution for the structure and organization of the council of ministers, to arrange it in such a way that it can satisfy all the requirements and discharge all the duties institutions of B&H are entrusted with by the Dayton accords.

There was an essential difference between initial political standpoints of the partners in power - the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), until in the course of the latest session Izetbegovic and Zubak managed to reach an agreement.

The Serb party expressly insists on organization of the council according to the principle one plus two. In other words, apart from the chairman who according to their opinion should be a member of the Serb nation, two ministries should be organized. They are the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of foreign trade. The Serb party founds its stance on the Dayton accords which - in Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution of B&H - say that the chairman will nominate the minister of foreign affairs, of foreign trade and other ministers who will take over their respective duties by approval of the Chamber of Representatives of the parliament. Krajisnik's proposal advocates that other ministries be formed according to circumstances, as assessed by the council of ministers and possibly proposed increase of the number of ministries.

However, Alija Izetbegovic and Kresimir Zubak agreed wirth the proposal that the council of ministers be organized according to the principle one plus five (a chairman and five ministers).

These are ministries of foreign policy, foreign trade, budget and relations with international financial institutions, ministry for civilian affairs and ministry of international communications and copmmunications between entities, infrastructure and public enterprises.

Such structure was proposed by the high representative Carl Bildt, and from the very beginning it was supported by the Croat representatives in the authorities.

As concerning the Bosniacs, their initial stances were that apart from the chairman, there should be seven ministries, and they advocated that the chairman be changed by rotation. This proposal has no foundation in the Constitution, but it could be discussed by the partners in power. This choice was justified by the Bosniac party by the fact that the Serb party was still trying to weaken the state structure of B&H in order to slow down the process of the reintegration of the state. That is why they had started from the maximum possible number of ministries in order to reach a compromising solution.

Rapprochement of stances of the Bosniac and Croat representatives is certainly very significant. Especially because Momcilo Krajisnik will be forced to think twice before the next session of the B&H Presidency whether he will correct his stances and coordinate them with those of his partners, in other words, whether the Office of the high representative will have to use in this matter its authority and authorization given to it in mediation.

Judging by the statements which could be heard from this Office, for the time being, no special pressure will be exerted on the Serb party. The stance of the representative of the international community is that members of the Presidency should have two or three rounds of negotiations in order to coordinate their opinions and reach an adequate solution.

There is no doubt that the assistance of the international community is needed again, and in what form and in what way will it be reflected is less important than the fact that every moment is of great significance for operation of the Government. Especially from the aspect of rebuilding and reconstruction of B&H, but also that of prevention of the blockade in operation of the authorities in B&H in general.

That is why the job of determination of structure and organization of the council of ministers should in any case to be finished before Paris conference planned for 14 November this year, because one of the topics of the announced conference will be reconstruction and rebuilding of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and donors, without doubt, want to and must know who they will give the money to and in what way.

Mirjana MICEVSKA