Bosnia tilts toward ethnic partition 

The Bosniak, Serb and Croat leaders of the country have signed a common declaration on the institutional reorganisation of the country on 26 January in Banja Luka, the French daily Le Monde reported last week. 

Under the headline 'Project for a new Bosnian partition', the new agreement could bring about the institution of four 'regions' in Bosnia – Bosnian, Serbian, Croat and a Sarajevo federal district. It was signed by Sulejman Tihić, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, who lead the Bosniak, Serb and Croat parts of the country. 

The 1995 Dayton agreements had instituted two main entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Repubika Srpska. 

While the supporters of the country's unity dream of abandoning the present "entities", nationalists are trying to consolidate ethnic divisions along former front lines. Most Muslim Bosnians wish a reunification of the country, while most Serbs want to consolidate the Republika Srpska. Croats, who represent only 10% of the population, prefer to keep a special "entity". 

Should the agreement receive parliamentary support, then the division would be sealed. The three parties – SNSD for the Serbs, SDA for the Muslim Bosnians and HDZ BiH for the Croats - do not have a majority and need the support of other political players. 

The Banja Luka agreement was signed only days after the departure of Miroslav Lajčák, the high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who became Slovakia's foreign minister. 

It is still unclear if the position of high representative of the international community in the Balkan country will be maintained. Le Monde writes that once again, the international community appears to have no coherent strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Commission 'studies' the agreement 

However, the European Commission appears to be optimistic. Krisztina Nagy, spokeswoman for enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, said on Friday that the EU executive had just been informed about the joint statement signed by the three leaders. 

"We are still studying it. We welcome this agreement. Domestic dialogue based on compromise is the only way forward for Bosnia and Herzegovina," Nagy said, adding: "It is important now to translate the joint statement into legislative proposals and to get them adopted. We will be following this issue very closely. We understand that more concrete proposals will be made in the coming weeks." 

The head of the Croatian National Council in Bosnia, Bishop Peter Matanovic, spoke against the agreement of the three nationalist leaders and stated that the division of Bosnia into four federal units would lead to a new war, the Croatian daily Javno wrote on 1 February. 

"It seems to me that this agreement entails an intention to strengthen entities and weaken the country. In the agreement of the three, they stressed the nation too much, although I think economy should come first, then human rights and only then national and historical messes which are important, but not that much. So, we believe that this leads into a new conflict and a new war and we would like to avoid that," Matanovic is quoted as saying.