BOSNIA'S MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES SIGNED DECLARATION ON POLICE REFORM

MOSTAR, Bosnia (October 29,2007) - The presidents of Bosnia's six major political parties adopted a declaration on implementation of police reforms in the southern Bosnian City of Mostar yesterday.

The declaration is expected to remove obstacles for to the initialing and signing of a pre-membership agreement between Bosnia and the European Union.The move came following their four-hour meeting of six top Bosnia's politicians with the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak.

The signatories agreed to assume all of the necessary obligations for the implementation of the reform in keeping with EU principles, which are necessary for the continuation of the EU association process.

The declaration was signed after nearly four hours of a meeting behind closed doors.

"We are offering this Declaration to the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and the European Union," said the host of Sunday's meeting, Dragan Covic,the President of the HDZ BIH Party.

The declaration was signed by Covic,Haris Silajdzic of the Party for Bosnia (SBIH),Sulejman Tihic of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA),Bozo Ljubic of the HDZ 1990, Milorad Dodik of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, and Mladen Ivanic of the Democratic Progress Party.

The European Union has warned Bosnia that it could not sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement, the first step on the ladder to EU membership, without the police reform.

The signatories agreed they would take every activity necessary to implement the reform in accordance with the EU's three principles: be organized at the Bosnian state level, financed from a single budget and free from political interference.

The declaration says that the aim of the entire police reform in Bosnia is the functioning of a multiethnic and professional police.

The declaration does not specify if the current police force of the genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia "th RS" will survive and if police regions will cross the entity border, the reason for previously irreconcilable positions.

The declaration says the new and reformed police will rely on relevant provisions of the Bosnian Constitution that will result from constitutional reform. This should mean that police reform will be accompanied by constitutional reform.

The International Community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak, who attended the meeting, told the press the participants in the meeting agreed to launch a new negotiating round on constitutional amendments, which would be discussed at the next joint meeting in a month's time.