Bosnia takes crucial steps to post-war rebuilding

Date: 26/02/1998

By Mark Turner

A NEW sense of optimism will characterise next week's meeting in Brussels of senior international diplomats monitoring post-war reconstruction in Bosnia.

In the past two months, the divided country has taken some of the most crucial steps towards normality since its warring parties signed the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995

Bosnia now has a federal flag, a single vehicle licence plate and a unified railway system which should be up and running by next month. The country should also have a common currency by the end of March, and proposals for a Bosnian coat of arms will be ready by mid-April.

"We have entered a whole new phase, backed by increased international resolve for Carlos Westendorp to use his powers," said a spokesman for the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo.

Westendorp's role received a strong boost last December in Bonn, when a meeting of world leaders gave him a mandate to force the Bosnian authorities to adopt basic federal structures.

Adding to the optimism, NATO confirmed last week that, subject to a United Nations mandate, it was prepared to "organise and lead a multinational force in Bosnia and Herzegovina" following the end of NATO peacekeeping force SFOR's current mandate in June.

Perhaps most importantly, Republika Srpska - traditionally the most difficult of the country's two federal entities - cast off its hardline government last month after a tense vote in parliament, and is now led by the decidedly more pro-western Prime Minister Milorad Dodik.

Shortly after Dodik's election, the EU decided to speed up aid to Srpska, which the European Commission had frozen in areas controlled by nationalist leader Radovan Karadzic.

"There is a disgraceful track record of terrible slowness in being able to spend funds," said UK International Development Minister Clare Short earlier this month. "We are keen to move quickly and make sure that there is support for the new prime minister."

EU governments and the Commission are now waiting for the European Parliament to give the go-ahead to a new regulation which should speed up the disbursal of funds in Republika Srpska.

Following a four-day tour of the country, UK Conservative MEP Tom Spencer, chairman of the Parliament's foreign affairs committee, is calling for a quick approval "as the money is needed on the ground in a hurry". But he has condemned EU aid efforts as "institutional ad hocery", and is warning that the Parliament could freeze funds in future if their organisation is not improved.

Despite progress, Bosnia has a long way to go before it can consider itself a properly functioning democracy. Ethnic tensions are still high, travel across the country remains difficult and tens of thousands of refugees are afraid to return.

The international community, led by the US with strong support from Germany, is putting increasing pressure on Bosnia to repatriate people who fled during the war, and where possible to restore the multi-ethnicity that used to characterise the Balkan state. According to US aid experts, the key is to offer local communities substantial incentives, such as new clinics or libraries, in return for taking back displaced people.

International scrutiny is currently firmly focused on the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) and their treatment of Serbians in the capital Sarajevo. "We have initiated a very big push to tilt the balance here; Sarajevo has to set the standard," said an OHR spokesman.

"The Bosniacs have made it very hard for Serbs to return: they make it difficult to register, or allocate Serb houses to Muslim war veterans and then claim they cannot throw them into the street.

"We must break the back of this resistance. We want 20,000 refugees back by the end of the year. If this is not done properly, we will withhold funding from a majority of Bosniac municipalities," said the spokesman.

This shift apparently came as quite a shock to the Sarajevo authorities, who were more used to seeing criticism targeted at their eastern neighbours. Despite initial outrage, however, they have accepted international demands to speed up the integration of refugees.

Next week's meeting will essentially be an information exercise to show the West what has been achieved so far.

"The demon is broken in Srpska," said an OHR spokesman, adding: "The problem is now to change things in the federation."