March 3, 2001

Croat Hard - Liners Want Own State



By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:02 p.m. ET


MOSTAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Bosnian Croat nationalists pledged Saturday to create their own state in Bosnia, threatening efforts to establish a lasting peace in a Balkan country struggling for stability in the aftermath of war.

About 500 hard-liners declared they were pulling out of the Muslim-Croat federation during a sedate congress in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. Hundreds of supporters stood silently outside the doors of a local cultural center as the country's largest ethnic Croat party wildly applauded speeches urging Bosnia's Croats to embark on self-rule.

``Now is the moment,'' said Ante Jelavic, the Croat member of the Bosnian state presidency, as he promised to move toward self-rule.

The unilateral move constitutes a blatant violation of the peace plan that ended Bosnia's 3 1/2 year war and is a setback to international efforts that have focused on unifying the country.

The 1995 Dayton peace agreement divided Bosnia into a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation, only loosely linked with each other by a three-member presidency and other national institutions.

The declaration also forces the hand of international officials governing Bosnia. They must now decide whether to keep the Dayton peace accord intact or risk possible unrest in Croat-controlled areas by ousting the Croatian Democratic Union or HDZ, a political party that enjoys wide support.

The top international official in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, described the plan as ``a purely political act,'' on the part of Jelavic's party

``They are swimming against the tide,'' Petritsch said in remarks carried by the Austria Press Agency. ``There are many military figures among them that still have a war mentality and many others with connections to criminal structures. They all see their futures endangered.''

The remarks were part of an interview to be published Sunday in an Austrian daily, Kurier.

Petritsch has the power to fire any and all of the participants in the congress, ban entire parties and ultimately to dispatch NATO-led peacekeepers to protect the peace agreement and the constitution.

Petritsch failed to fire Jelavic on Saturday, despite suggesting the day before that he may do so in the event of such a declaration.

The head of the U.N. mission in Bosnia, Jacques Paul Klein, also denounced the move, suggesting that international police forces would resist ``all groups or individuals who want to establish new or return the old parallel structures.''

The declaration came after Jelavic's party protested election rules that they claim made it impossible for them to retain posts they have held since the 1995 peace deal was signed. The party claims that the election rules favored multiethnic parties, rather than parties devoted to a single group, such as the HDZ.

The session gave international officials 15 days to revise the election rules or the declaration would take effect. But Petritsch said there can be no negotiations on their part in the peace plan.

During the war, the HDZ enjoyed the support of the late Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman. A huge photo of the former leader was displayed where the session was held in Mostar.

The new pro-Western government in Croatia has turned its back on extreme nationalism at home and abroad, urging the Bosnian Croats not to take steps which would lead them to isolation.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic said Saturday that those who want to split the Muslim-Croat federation are politicians who never accepted Bosnia as their own country.

``All problems in Bosnia must be solved through the institutions of the system in cooperation with international community,'' Mesic said in Croatia's capital, Zagreb.