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Bosnians Want Do-Over on Peace Deal | ||||||
2005-11-20 | ||||||
They soon discovered what a new generation of Bosnians has learned the hard way: Dayton was a roadmap to peace, not a blueprint for the future. So they have written a new mock constitution for a nation with an unwieldy power-sharing system that is designed _ but often fails _ to satisfy everyone. "Dayton may have worked at the time to stop the war
Brokered by the United States in the privacy of Wright-Patterson Air Force base, the accord was announced on Nov. 21, 1995, in Dayton and signed in Paris three weeks later. It ended a 1992-95 war among Muslims who call themselves Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes. The accord recognized Bosnia, formerly a piece of an imploded Yugoslavia, as an independent country. NATO deployed 60,000 peacekeepers to keep its armies apart. Now a force of 7,000 European Union troops busies itself with fighting organized crime and illegal logging in Bosnia's lush forests. Bosnia's own army, 13,000-strong and multiethnic, is being formed. More than 1 million refugees have returned to their homes, and this week Bosnia is expected to sign an agreement to prepare it for its cherished long-term goal of joining the prosperous, democratic EU. "The peace stabilization has been a miracle," said British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's international administrator for the past 3 1/2 years. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. diplomat who brokered the Dayton deal, says: "It is hard to think of any other peace process in the last decade _ anywhere in the world _ that has done nearly as well as this one."
The Dayton accord divided the nation of 3.2 million into two ethnic mini-states with broad autonomy, a shared parliament and government and a three-man presidency. But the power to impose laws and fire officials is in the hands of a A consensus has emerged that Bosnia has outgrown Dayton. "The current constitution of Bosnia is not really sufficient. If they want progress with Europe, they have to amend it," said European analyst Tomas Markert. Parallel or overlapping agencies compound Bosnia's problems of poverty, corruption and 40 percent unemployment. Sixty-two percent of Bosnia's youths want to leave, a recent U.N. study found.
There are other harbingers of changing mindsets. The country is still run by its wartime parties, but more flexible leaders are ready to talk and make small steps forward. The old nationalists have been removed from the leadership or even put on trial for war crimes, mismanagement or corruption.
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Posted by:Steve White |
#1 will take it to Washington, where negotiations are under way for changes in the existing constitution. I don't know, it's just a thought. |
Posted by: 2b 2005-11-20 17:51 |