Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Dayton Peace Project, a non-government organization of academics and former diplomats such as Bruce Hitchner and Donald Hays, has invited the leaders of Bosnian political parties to negotiate about changing the Dayton “constitution” of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The “constitution” needs to change because it is non-functioning, it creates a inefficient and oversized government, invites corruption, stifles progress and causes instability.

Worse than all that, the Dayton “constitution” makes legal the results of aggression and genocide carried out against Bosnia and its people. It was signed by Slobodan Milosevic, the butcher of the Balkans, who died while making a farce of his war crimes trial at the Hague, the president of Croatia Franjo Tudzman, the man who betrayed Bosnian Croats by pledging their territories in Posavina to the newly created “Serb Republic”, and by Alija Izetbegovic, who did not have authority under the Constitution of the Republic Bosnia-Herzegovina, the victim of the aggression, to sign such an agreement. The final version, the current “constitution” of Bosnia-Herzegovina signed by the three presidents in Paris was never ratified by the Bosnian parliament as a peace agreement.

The acquittal of Krajisnik on genocide charges sparks debate in academic circles on the very definition of this gravest of all crimes.

By Edina Becirevic in Sarajevo (TU No 470, 29-Sep-06)

On September 27, Momcilo Krajisnik, a Bosnian Serb leader accused of being one of the architects of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian 1992-95 war, was found guilty of most of the charges against him and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The tribunal judges said it had been proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was responsible for the extermination, murder, persecution and deportation of non-Serbs during the war, adding that his role in the commission of these crimes was crucial.