SARAJEVO, June 1 (Reuters) - Improved regional relations and more involvement by the European Union and United States make it possible to overcome ethnic divisions that have hobbled Bosnia since the 1992-95 war, its presidency chairman said on Tuesday.
"Even on the midterm, the long-term, I am an optimist. Provided that we have an understanding that the European Union, the Americans and other friends should be involved," Haris Silajdzic, chairman of Bosnia’s three-man presidency, told Reuters in an interview.
Silajdzic spoke before a Wednesday conference of European Union and Balkan foreign ministers on the future of the region and the common goals of joining NATO and the European Union.
"What we are trying to do is secure peace forever because we know what war is," he said. "That is why we are working so hard on securing NATO, the European Union, and send a message that the adventures are over."
Since the end of the wars that marked federal Yugoslavia’s break-up, Croatia has moved close to joining the EU while Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia have applied for membership, but not Bosnia.
Under the peace agreement that ended the war, Bosnia was split into two rival regions, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, linked via a weak central government.
An international High Representative oversees the country’s peace process, with powers to fire officials and impose laws. But Bosnia must prove it can act independently of foreign envoys if it wants to apply for EU membership.
The Serbs want the envoy, Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, to leave. The Muslims and Croats, on the other hand, fear the Serbs could undertake secession steps and want the international community to remain until Bosnia changes its constitution.
CONTINUED DISPUTES
The rival ethnic groups, led by Silajdzic and Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, cannot agree on the status and distribution of state property, a key condition for the closure of the international protectorate office.
The distribution of military property is also the main condition for a full NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), opening the way to Bosnia’s eventual membership of the alliance.
"We have to change things. We would not be able to change it without the European Union, without this impulse," said Silajdzic, a Muslim who previously served as prime minister during the war in which 100,000 Bosnians died.
"We have to do a lot of things here to make one step forward. The conditions are ripe now and I hope we continue that way."
In the interview, Silajdzic was harshly critical of Dodik, saying his separatist tendencies and rhetoric represent a threat to peace. Dodik’s policies follow in the footsteps of Serbian wartime strongman Slobodan Milosevic, he said.
Still, he could negotiate with Dodik if the Bosnian Serb leader did not challenge the country’s integrity, he added.
But in its latest separatist move, the Serb Republic parliament on Tuesday passed a law to conduct its own census, even though legislation on a national census has been discussed in the central parliament.
