BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Serbian president attends trade fair with his Bosnian counterpart, but reconciliation difficult

Record ID: 788764

  • Title: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Serbian president attends trade fair with his Bosnian counterpart, but reconciliation difficult
  • Date: 15th April 2010
  • Summary: MOSTAR, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (APRIL 13, 2010) (REUTERS) CROWDS WALKING THROUGH OUTDOOR AREA OF TRADE FAIR
  • Embargoed: 30th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA253X7P9MW7WZ3WIEPLD3MF3DJ
  • Story Text: The presidents of Bosnia and Serbia attended a trade fair aimed at boosting regional investment on Tuesday (April 13) but scrapped planned talks in a sign that reconciliation remains difficult to achieve.
    Serbia's Boris Tadic was warmly welcomed by the Bosnian delegation, but recent events in London raised tensions and the Chairman of the Bosnian Tri-Partite Presidency Haris Silajdzic was openly critical of Serb foreign policy in his address.
    "Professor Ejup Ganic, former president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been arrested in London, based on a warrant issued by Serbian state institutions, only couple of days after the agreement and in complete discord with it,'' Silajdzic told the audience, referring to an agreement signed recently in Belgrade between the two countries' Ministries of Justice on legal cases and indictments, including war crimes.
    ''That is something that does not improve regional cooperation. Today is the hearing in London of this case and sadly this matter goes on. That is not going to help relations, on the contrary it will only be to their disadvantage. I don't know who will benefit from this, I heard Mr Tadic saying that it was not in the Serbian interest. What kind of Serbia is then doing this? If there is no more ethnic cleansing than we will be harassed in London or Belgrade," Silajdzic added.
    Relations between Bosnia and Serbia have worsened since Tadic's last official visit in 2006, mainly because of Serbia's arrest and trial of a Bosnian official for war crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, and other similar arrest warrants.
    Both countries aspire to join the European Union and need to improve ties to lure investors worried about regional stability.
    Serbia's pro-Western president said preoccupation with war topics was counter-productive for the EU future of the region.
    "If we became disunited in the former Yugoslavia it will take us a bit longer to start living together under a European sky, and our borders will become less important, but before that our economies should know no borders," said Tadic.
    "Every misunderstanding between us deters investors, every harsh word between us hampers the potential economic development of every one of us. That's why it is important that today, tomorrow and in the future we behave rationally and it's important that we are not held hostage to the years and decades of the past," he added.
    A planned Tuesday meeting of the two leaders never took place. Tadic did not give a reason although the Bosnian president left the event after his speech.
    In December, Serbia made notable steps in the EU integration process by winning the right for its citizens to travel to EU countries without visas, and it also applied for membership.
    Some diplomats said early in 2010 that Serbia had muddied the waters with tough rhetoric about its ex-province of Kosovo.
    The low point came last month when Tadic refused to attend a Balkan summit because of the presence of the prime minister of Kosovo, whose independence Serbia does not recognise.
    Since then Tadic, who was born in Sarajevo, has attempted to mend fences with Croatia and Bosnia.
    In March the Serbian parliament passed a resolution apologising for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which Bosnian Serb forces killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
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