The creation of an integral and democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina comprised of multiethnic an economic regions is the goal of the Party for Democratic Action (SDA), the party’s candidate for the Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite presidency said on Sunday.
Sefik Dzaferovic spoke to Krug 99 (Circle 99), an association of intellectuals in Sarajevo.
“That is our basic political goal. We all have the right to consider how to achieve that goal,” he said, adding that “this idea requires a consensus which unfortunately does not exist.”
Circumstances for the creation of a better political system in Bosnia do not exist “so we have to respect what we have as a framework,” Dzaferovic said.
The 1992-95 war in Bosnian ended with a peace agreement that divided the once mixed country in two semi-autonomous regions, Republika Srpska (RS), dominated by the Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, shared by the Bosniaks and the Croats.
The Croats are not happy about sharing a political entity with the numerically dominant Bosniaks and would like to have their own entity as the Serbs do.
The Serbs would like to secede from Bosnia and become independent or join Serbia.
The Bosniaks want all the internal borders to disappear and the country to unify.
This political battle is going on since the war ended.
Joining NATO and the European Union has been widely seen as a move that would stabilize the country but Bosnian Serbs vehemently reject NATO membership.
“There is no alternative to the EU and to NATO,” Dzaferovic said.
“There has to be unity among the state-building political forces over a minimum of values we have to protect together,” he said, “for example the achieved level of reforms.”
Dzaferovic complained that there are no Bosniaks in top judicial institutions, saying that this is not the way equality can be achieved.
“What we need today is knowledge, persistence and truthful politics, and what we see is populism,” he said.
Dzaferovic criticised the habit of Bosnian Serb leaders turning to Serbia’s leadership whenever they have a problem.
The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is Sarajevo and problems concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be solved there, he said.
