CROATIANS LIVING IN BOSNIA ADOPTED PLATFORM ON BOSNIAN CONSTITUTION

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 22,2007) - The main political parties of the Croatians living in Bosnia have adopted a joint platform on future Bosnian constitutional changes at a meeting in the central Bosnian town of Kresevo yesterday.

The declaration envisages the abolition of Bosnia’s two largely autonomous entities, and the creation of new regions.

The joint platform sets out the Croats' proclaimed commitment to the Bosnian state with a EU agenda, where Croats, together with the other two constituent peoples, the Bosniaks and the Serbs, will enjoy sovereignty and equality across the whole territory of Bosnia.

“A new Bosnian constitution would abandon the existing two-entity organization and establish a more functional and just organization, which will not discriminate against or favour any one people,” says the declaration.

The document envisages Bosnia as a decentralized state with local, regional and state-level governments, where the regional and state level authorities have legislative, executive and judicial powers.

The most disputed layer of government – on the regional level – is intended to be established on the basis of historical, ethnic, geographic, economic and other important criteria “with the possibility of territorial discontinuity of the present organizational units.”

Sarajevo, as the capital of Bosnia, would enjoy special status.

The declaration was signed by leaders of the political parties of the Croatians living in Bosnia: the Croatian Democratic Union in Bosnia, the Croatian Democratic Union, 1990; the Croatian Party of Rights; the Croatian Rights Party; the Croatian Christian Democratic Union; and the People's Benefit through Work Party.

Even before the declaration was signed, it was rejected by other, less nationalist Croat leaders.

“This document does not speak clearly about the internal organization of Bosnia, but it favors a third entity, and we have always been against the entity division of the country and against the creation of a third entity,” said the president of the Croatian National Council, Franciscan father Luka Markesic, after meeting Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Thursday afternoon.