AFP, March 30, 2001
Bosnian deputies confirm moderate Muslim, Croat presidents
SARAJEVO, March 30 (AFP) -
The upper house of Bosnia's central parliament on Friday confirmed the election of moderates to the Muslim and Croat seats in the country's tripartite presidency, ending the supremacy of nationalists.
The House of Peoples confirmed Jozo Krizanovic, a Croat, and Beriz Belkic, a Muslim, to the posts.
Both are from the Alliance for Change, a reformist group uniting the different moderate parties that dominates both houses of the assembly. The two were elected Tuesday by the lower House of Representatives.
The Croat seat in the presidency became vacant after Ante Jelavic was sacked earlier this month by Wolfgang Petritsch, the top international mediator in Bosnia.
Petrisch sacked Jelavic and three other because of their move to lead Bosnian Croat nationalists in a bid for self-rule. The move was seen as a threat to the Dayton peace agreement, which ended the armed conflict in Bosnia in December 1995.
Veteran Muslim leader Halid Genjac stepped down to make way for Belkic, after having taken the seat on an interim basis to replace Alija Izetbegovic. Izetbegovic was forced to step down due to failing health.
In his first address in his new role, Krizanovic said the joint leadership had to work hard to make Bosnia a "desirable partner."
He added: "I wish to express the hope that (Bosnian) Croat people will accept their moral and patriotic obligation in building this country."
He called on the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), the main Bosnian Croat nationalist party, to come back to working within Bosnia's formal institutions.
Krizanovic, 56, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Alliance's major force, was the only candidate for the Croat seat.
The HDZ did not nominate a candidate after it decided -- together with a number of nationalist parties -- to split from the Muslim-Croat Federation, which along with the Serb's Republika Srpska (RS) make up post-war Bosnia.
The self-rule move was in retaliation for an electoral law which they view as biased against HDZ. It has been condemned internationally as a threat to the country's fragile structure.
Belkic, 54, of the moderate mainly Muslim Party for Bosnia-Hercegovina, expressed the hope that the presidency would "help overcome the political problems" of the country and focus on the "normalisation of living conditions."
The newly-elected Muslim and Croat members will remain in office along with the current Serb presidency's chairman Zivko Radisic until new presidential elections, due in 2002.
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