12-13 April Bosnia Donors’ Conference

Date: 18/04/1996

THE donors' conference hosted by the World Bank and the European Commission, which brought together delegates from 55 nations and 27 international organisations, raised a total of 1 billion ecu in commitments for reconstruction needs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That sum, added to pledges given at a donors' meeting in Brussels last December totalling 480 million ecu, brings available funds for this year to nearly 1.5 billion ecu, more than the World Bank had requested.

COMMITMENTS from the EU budget and bilateral pledges from the 15 member states at both conferences now total 550 million ecu, about one-third of the money pledged by the international community so far.

OF the 4 billion ecu the World Bank estimates will be needed for the next three to four years, roughly 3 billion ecu will go to the Muslim-Croat Federation and 1 billion to the Republika Srpska.

BOSNIA and Herzegovina was represented by Premier Hasan Muratovic for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and by Prime Minister Izudin Kapetanovic for the Federation. Muratovic said his government would treat the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic equally during the reconstruction process, allocating resources on the basis of need rather than political choices.

LEADERS of Republika Srpska had agreed to form part of Bosnia-Herzegovina's delegation to the conference, but Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ordered his Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic to stay away. International High Representative Carl Bildt said the only money Karadzic would receive was his room and board as a prisoner if convicted by the international war crimes tribunal. Most European and US officials suggested that as long as Karadzic, an indicted war criminal, was still in power, Serbs would receive no money. But Russian diplomats urged moderation to avoid driving Karadzic towards a more radical stance.

GREECE was the only donor country to set aside money specifically for Bosnian Serbs. Athens earmarked 1.5 million of its 5.5-million-ecu pledge for infrastructure reconstruction in Republika Srpska.

BILDT said infrastructure and land-mine clearance were his priorities for this year. While most delegations did not specify how much of the money they had pledged should be spent on demining, World Bank officials said they expected it to be a substantial sum.

NO delegations made pledges beyond 1996, but most said they would continue their support until 1999. Donors agreed to meet again after the Bosnian elections this summer to review reconstruction progress, and said they would consider examining the needs of other war-torn regions of the former Yugoslavia. Participants also announced they would hold a mid-term review of the peace process at a meeting in Florence in mid-June.