The results aren't a surprise at all.
Quote:
Muslims have stepped up a drive to abolish entities altogether and to create a unitary state. Local Serbs and Croats resist the move.
I know the idea of a unitary state has been resisted in the RS sector, both by the politicians and people; but I wasn't aware of any major resistance of the idea of a unitary state from the Croat population. I'm sure there are a few who cling to the far fetched idea of a "Herceg-Bosna" state; but as far as their politicians have gone, I don't recall too many of them being that adamantly vocal against the idea of a unitary state. Of course it could also be because the international media tends to focus more on the Bosniak and Bosnian Serb politicians especially when it comes to quotes on Bosnia's status.
The international community has said it would not recognize such referendum, but Dodik said Bosnia should be further decentralized and reorganized as a federal state.
Isn't Bosnia already a federal state of sorts? The central government is very weak, and the majority of the power lies in the entities. I certainly don't think that decentralized, and by extent, destabilized central government in Bosnia would be in the best interest of the country.
I wonder if the creators of the Dayton Treaty realized they would face this much problem and debate along the road?
But onto some positive news:
Dodik said his government would focus on economy and protection of the rights and property of all citizens, regardless of nationality and religious beliefs.
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2 comments:
in a sense BiH has wound up federalized anyway. The Croats just want more say over their area. What I've heard said by ordinary Bosnian Croat people is 'The Serbs have their RS, and Banja Luka and the Muslims have Sarajevo and we Croats don't get anything!'
It's really sad that the willingness of most Bosnians at the end of the war to try and get along wasn't capitalized on more. Over time I think the initial willingness to get along was lost along the way. I observed that people in general seemed more uncomfortable outside their own groups than shortly after the end of the war.
The way I see it is there is no middle ground between federalization and a totally unitary state.
The trouble is the central government in BiH is too weak to protect anyone's rights, so each group does what they can to enhance their group's position.
In this game the Bosnian Croats get screwed the worst. The Bosnian Serbs could concievably start another war. The Croats really can't afford to do that. They don't have the numbers.
This was all perfectly forseeable at the end of the war, but there were not a lot of ways to make peace. So the easy answer was taken. It was better than the Vance-Owen plan at least. Can you imagine the Mess-o-Rama that would have been?
Thank you so much for your insight on this subject. Do you have any insight or hunch as to why people are more uncomfortable outside their own ethnic group now, than they were at the end of the war?
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