No Result Yet From Key Bosnian Talks

The first Meeting in camp Butmir

The talks, which started on October 9, hit a snag even before they officially resumed on Tuesday with representatives of all three of Bosnia's main ethnic groups essentially rejecting the proposed package of demands and incentives prior to the restart of negotiations.

After the talks were interrupted on Tuesday afternoon, local leaders told media that their positions were so distant and contradictory that no compromise could be reached. Because of this situation, EU and US officials have called for a break and will reconvene the meeting on Wednesday morning.

“This proposal cannot be even a basis for discussions,” the premier of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, told reporters on Monday evening. He said that the proposal contains “almost dramatic changes” to the Dayton peace accord and is unacceptable to Bosnian Serbs.

Dodik sent a letter to the US ambassador in Bosnia, Charles English, and Swedish EU Presidency, in which he said that the proposed changes were “anti-Dayton, politically incorrect and unacceptable as a basis for talks”, media reported on Tuesday.

Earlier, Dodik warned that the Republika Srpska leadership may call for a referendum for independence should the international community try to pressure local leaders into accepting the proposal.

The two main Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) leaders also indicated that the international proposal was too weak and shallow and, as such, unacceptable.

“There is a line beneath which we will not go. We will not accept cosmetic changes,” Sulejman Tihic, the leader of the strongest Bosniak political movement, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, said on Monday.

A press statement from the Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite Presidency, Haris Silajdzic, was critical of senior EU and US officials for excluding entity voting from their proposal - currently the most important and disputed element of putative constitutional reforms.

Bosnian Croat leaders Dragan Covic and Bozo Ljubic have said that the package will further weaken the Bosnian Croat negotiating positions within joint institutions.

“At least there is one thing all local leaders agree upon: they all agree to disagree with the package proposed by the EU and US,” one international official said, ironically.

Futile Efforts

The likely failure of the talks comes despite strong efforts by EU and US officials to put together a proposal that would entice local leaders to abandon their maximalist, conflicting and unrealistic demands and end Bosnia's long-standing political deadlock.

On October 9, US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt held a meeting with representatives of most top Bosnian parties at Butmir to deliver the package of conditions and incentives.

A team of US and EU officials has remained on the ground in an effort to build support for the proposals in meetings with local leaders ahead of today's resumption of talks.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn arrived in Bosnia on Monday and was scheduled to join Bildt and Steinberg at Butmir today. Bosnian Premier Nikola Spiric met Rehn on Monday evening and presented him with an example of Bosnia’s first biometric passport.