PRIVATE BOSNIAN ISLAMIC RADIO CALLS FOR SANCTIONS IF BOSNIA NOT ADMITTED TO PFP
Text of commentary aired on Bosnian private Islamic station Radio Naba on 26 May 2004

Unidentified commentator: Non-cooperation with the Hague tribunal in its strongest form has imposed itself as an obstacle to Bosnia-Hercegovina joining European and Euro-Atlantic integration structures. The only way out is, obviously, to arrest war criminals and bring them to justice, and to present the truth to the public about what was been done in the first five years of the 1990s.

(Bosnian) Premier Adnan Terzic is right when he says that a stop to Bosnia-Hercegovina's further integration in the democratic community is actually a reward for war criminals. Bosnia-Hercegovina and its larger entity cannot do anything to change the situation. Obviously, everything is in the hands of the international community and the authorities in the smaller Bosnia-Hercegovina entity. It is clear that even now the latter are not prepared to take a single more serious step towards cooperation with the (Hague) tribunal.

The public is, thus, rightly expecting a reaction from the international community. It was the international community that recognized the legality and legitimacy of the smaller Bosnia-Hercegovina entity, gave it the status of a legal and political player at the international conference in Dayton, and it can and have to take steps to change this.

The international community, therefore, shares the responsibility for the first major failure of Bosnia-Hercegovina on the road of integration in the democratic world. If nothing changes after the Istanbul rejection notice, the reforms will be slowed down and frustrated. There will not be any as the international community likes referring to it magnet to pull the reform process more strongly than the OHR (Office of the High Representative) sanctions.

Therefore, we are right in asking the question what the OHR and the international community will do to remove the obstacle from Bosnia-Hercegovina's road to European integration. The most drastic step is the erasure of the (Bosnian) Serb Republic. It is obvious that the international community is not prepared for this, who knows why. The next step is, then, removal of politicians and stripping the smaller Bosnia-Hercegovina entity of powers.

The sanction has to correspond to the gravity of Bosnia-Hercegovina's punishment. Someone from the Serb Republic leadership trio must accept the consequences of the years-long obstruction, largely generated by the Serb Democratic Party (SDS). Further, as an obstacle on Bosnia-Hercegovina's road to the democratic family of nations, the Serb Republic must lose its financial strength. Anything less than this is simply a counterproductive pulling of the wool over the eyes of Bosnia-Hercegovina public, but also complicity in preventing it from becoming part of the normal world.

Source: Radio Naba web site, Visoko, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0745 gmt 26 May 04

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