Revealed: US plans for Bosnian constitution

Revealed: US plans for Bosnian constitution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,2763,1639014,00.html
· Crunch date looms over democracy ambitions
· Lure of EU entry is driving reconciliation process

Ian Traynor in Sarajevo
Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian


The Americans have written a new constitution transforming Bosnia into a centrally
governed parliamentary democracy for the first time, and are pushing strongly - with
European backing - to have the blueprint agreed by Bosnia's rival nationalist
leaders within the next fortnight.

The blueprint, obtained by the Guardian, has been developed during seven months of
secret negotiations between US experts and officials and Bosnian politicians. The
bold new draft is said to enjoy the full backing of the US state department. The
crunch session of negotiations comes this weekend.

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Leaders of the main eight governing and opposition parties in Bosnia are to travel
to Brussels tomorrow for a weekend of negotiations on the draft which, for the first
time since the war ended 10 years ago, would give Bosnia the "normal" trappings of
an integrated, non-ethnic parliamentary democracy: a national parliament with full
legislative powers, central government and cabinet enjoying full executive power,
and a titular head of state.

The deal, if agreed, would it is hoped help to undo the bitter legacy of the war and
the ethnic pogroms that were its main feature and steer the country towards multi-
ethnic integration. If successful, it would be a rare triumph for western "nation-
building" efforts in "failed states" and war-ravaged countries.

"This draft would mean the total transformation of this country," said a senior
official in the office of Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader who is
the paramount international authority in Bosnia. "This is very ambitious."

Bosnia currently has one of the most complicated and wasteful systems of government
ever devised. It is split into two ethnic halves, a Bosnian Serb republic and a
federation of Muslims and Croats, both with their parliaments and governments. There
is then a national parliament, presidency, prime minister and government. Over the
past 10 years, the ethnic entities have enjoyed strong powers, with central
authority weak, albeit strengthened in recent years largely as a result of Lord
Ashdown's initiatives.

The federation half, in turn, is split into 10 "cantons", also with their own
parliaments and governments enjoying wide powers. The US blueprint makes no mention
of the cantons. Both "entity" halves are retained, but crucially are stripped of
most of their powers, which are vested in a strong central government sitting in
Sarajevo and answerable to a national parliament whose main lower house is to double
in size.

At the blueprint's centre is an emphasis on individual human and civil rights,
supplanting the previous accent on the privileges of the rival ethnic collectives.

Donald Hays, a former US state department official who served for four years in
Bosnia as deputy to Lord Ashdown and his predecessor, is the key architect and
driver of the plan. "What they [the Bosnians] are looking at is to make the future
government a parliamentary democracy," he said. "Until the Brussels meeting, we
don't know what they are willing to achieve."

His colleague, Bruce Hitchner, a Boston professor, said the draft entailed scrapping
more than half of the constitutional dispensation agreed exactly a decade ago at the
three-week conference in Dayton, Ohio, that ended the 42-month Bosnian war. "This is
Dayton-plus," said Mr Hitchner. "The changes are astonishing. A year ago there would
have been no chance of them sitting together to discuss this."

Mr Hays said the new deal represented Bosnia's "fast track" to integration with and
ultimate membership of the European Union. It was the attraction of the EU that was
driving the movement towards a normal functioning democracy.

If Bosnian leaders agree in Brussels this weekend, they will travel to Washington
where the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will preside over a signing
ceremony on the new constitution on November 22, the anniversary of Dayton. The
constitution would then be adopted in Sarajevo by next March, leaving six months
before general elections in October are conducted in a radically altered political
landscape.

However, a senior Bosnian Serb government official warned that too much pressure for
such a radical a shift could trigger "a collapse".

The blueprint abolishes the current tripartite presidency, with places reserved for
a Muslim, a Croat, and a Serb. The head of state would be one person, elected by
parliament rather than popular vote. The office would surrender its powers to the
prime minister and the presidency would be largely symbolic.

Backstory

When Yugoslavia dissolved into war in 1991, Bosnia became the main bloodbath. A
country of 4.5 million Slav Muslims, Serbs and Croats, Bosnia became the target of a
landgrab, first by Serbia to the east, then by Croatia to the west. "Ethnic
cleansing" was the main tactic aimed at seizing land. More than half the population
were forced from their homes and 150,000 were killed. The victims were mainly
Muslims. Sarajevo and rebrenica became bywords for Serbian savagery. The US launched
a bombing campaign in 1995 and forced a settlement 10 years ago at Dayton that gave
the Serbs half the country and turned Bosnia into an international protectorate.
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