BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA/FRANCE: ELECTIONS POSTPONED IN DIVIDED CITY OF MOSTAR/ INTERNATIONAL MEDIATOR CARL BILDT REPORTS TO PANEL MONITORING BOSNIAN PEACE ACCORD

Record ID: 646241

  • Title: BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA/FRANCE: ELECTIONS POSTPONED IN DIVIDED CITY OF MOSTAR/ INTERNATIONAL MEDIATOR CARL BILDT REPORTS TO PANEL MONITORING BOSNIAN PEACE ACCORD
  • Date: 24th May 1996
  • Summary: MOSTAR, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/ PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 24, 1996) (RTV(A) - ACCESS ALL) MOSTAR, BOSNIA (MAY 24) 1. LV/PAN: MOSTAR DIVIDED BY RIVER 0.15 2. GV: PEOPLE IN STREET 0.18 3. MCU: UNIDENTIFIED MAN SAYING: IT'S GOOD TO DELAY THE ELECTION. IT WOULDN'T BE LOGICAL TO HOLD ELECTIONS WITHOUT THE REFUGEE VOTE (SERBO-CROAT) 0.34 4. GV: GRAFFITI ON WALL/ PEOPLE IN CAFE (2 SHOTS) 0.40 5. CU: UNIDENTIFIED MAN SAYING: CROATS ARE INSISTING ON ELECTIONS BECAUSE THEY ARE A MAJORITY NOW, AND THEY WOULD HAVE WON IF THIS DECISION HADN'T BEEN MADE (SERBO-CROAT) 0.48 6. MV: FLAGS 0.52 7. MCU: PRESIDENT OF BOSNIAN CROAT FEDERATION KRESIMIR ZUBACK SPEAKING (SERBO-CROAT), SAYING: WE AGREED TO DELAY THE ELECTIONS SO THAT THE RULES CAN BE THE SAME AS THOSE AGREED UPON IN DAYTON AND AS MR. KOSHNICK (THE PREVIOUS EU ADMINISTRATOR) HAD SUGGESTED 1.14 8. MV: EUROPEAN UNION ADMINISTRATOR RICARDO PEREZ CASADO SPEAKING (SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) SAYING: THE FIRST OF THOSE AGREEMENTS IS TO POSTPONE THE ELECTIONS FOR THE SECOND PART OF JUNE 1.27 9. SV: JOURNALISTS LISTENING 1.30 10. MV: CASADO SPEAKING (SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) SAYING: THE ANSWER IS THAT THERE WAS THE BASIS FOR AGREEMENT THAT ALL THOSE CITIZENS REGISTERED IN 1991, THAT IS THOSE WHO WILL BE IN A POSITION TO DO SO, WILL VOTE 1.56 11. MV: JOURNALISTS 1.58 12. GV: PRESS CONFERENCE 2.00 PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 24) 13. MV: NEWS CONFERENCE WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY PEACE ENVOY CARL BILDT (ENGLISH) (3 SHOTS) 3.28 -------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 13: BILDT: "BOSNIA HAS TWO ENTIRELY SEPARATE POLITICAL SYSTEMS, THE FEDERATION SIDE AND THE REPUBLICA SERBIA THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO CONTACT BETWEEN BOTH SIDES EXCEPT THROUGH MY OFFICE OR THE BLACK MARKET. THOSE ARE THE ONLY TWO UNIFYING FORCES EXISTING TODAY IN BOSNIA. WHILE BOTH OF THOSE ARE STRONG THEY ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO UNIFY THE COUNTRY. THE LONGER WE WAIT FOR ELECTIONS, THE LONGER THEY GET USED IN OPERATING AS TWO SEPARATE POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND THE MORE DIFFICULTY WE HAVE MOVING THEM AWAY FROM TOTAL PARTITION WE HAD AT THE END OF THE CONFLICT." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 8th June 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSTAR, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/PARIS, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVAGC7Y3S9G6CRM1TX6AV6LIXHU
  • Story Text: INTRO: European Union administrators have postponed elections in the divided Bosnian city Mostar on Friday just one day after officials said they had headed off a proposed Bosnian Moslem boycott of the proposed polls. Meanwhile in Paris International mediator for Bosnia-Herzegovina Carl Bildt warned of the dangers of delaying Bosnia-wide elections.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- The European Union EU) administrator of Mostar said on Friday (May 24) elections to help reunify the ethnically divided city which were originally set for May 31 would now take place in the second half of June.

    The announcement came just one day after the European Union officials had said that Bosnian Moslems, who had originally intended to boycott the elections, would participate. It also coincided with comments made by the International Community's High Re-presentative to Bosnia, Carl Bildt, who warned against delaying elections.

    EU administrator Ricardo Perez Casado told a news conference in the Croat-Moslem city that after many meetings they had reached the basis for an agreement on Mostar elections. The first part of the agreement is to postpone the elections to the second half of June, he said.

    Casado confirmed the gist of a status report given the day before by a senior European diplomat in Sarajevo who said mediators had struck a deal to head off a Moslem boycott that threatened elections in western Bosnia's biggest city.

    Local Bosnian Moslem leaders had been unhappy that Moslems driven out of the city by Croat separatists during a 1993-94 war would be unable to vote.

    "It's an agreement on the basis of which all Mostar citizens registered in 1991 (before the war) will be able to vote and do so in the best possible political conditions," Casado said.

    President of the Bosnian-Croat federation Kresimir Zubak, a Bosnian Croat, said that the postponement had been agreed upon in line with the Dayton peace accord and previous proposals from former EU administrator Hans Koshnick.

    On Friday Mostar city residents went about their business as normal. One man said that it was sensible to delay the election because it would not be logical to hold them without the votes of the refugees. Another, a Bosnian Moslem, said that the Bosnian Croats were insisting on elections because they were in the majority.

    Meanwhile in Paris, International mediator for Bosnia-Herzegovina Carl Bildt told a panel set up to monitor the implementation of the Dayton peace accord that Bosnia-Hercegovina would remain a divided country if elections did not take place.

    Bildt said that the longer the international community would have to wait for elections the more difficult it would be to move away from the partition of the two political systems (Bosnian-Croat Federation and Bosnian Serbs) He said that Bosnia at present had two distinct political systems - and the only contact between the two was through the black market or through the High Representative's office.


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