SNN: Oct 2, 2006

October 02, 2006

Bosnians Split on Whether to Unify

Bosnians Split on Whether to Unify

By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/AMEL EMRIC
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Bosnians appeared sharply split Monday in key elections on the country's future, reflecting the deep ethnic divisions that persist more than a decade after the country's civil war.

In Sunday's election, Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats supported politicians who want to unify the Balkan nation, according to a partial count, while Serbs backing a candidate whose party advocates ethnic division.

The vote was Bosnia's attempt to decide who should lead the country as it tries to free itself from the ethnic divisions that remain from its 1992-95 war and move toward European Union membership.

Since the end of the war, important decisions have been made by an international administrator. But that office recently announced it will close next year if newly elected leaders find ways to put in place reforms that will bring the country closer to joining the EU.

Voters cast their ballots Sunday for a state parliament and the country's three-member presidency, as well as leaders of the two mini-states - a president and parliament of the Serb republic and a president and parliament of the Bosniak-Croat federation, as well as parliaments of the federation's 10 cantons.

With up to 50 percent of the vote counted, officials said it appeared that Nebojsa Radmanovic - whose party chief recently proposed a referendum that would allow Serb territories to secede - will represent Orthodox Christian Serbs in Bosnia's three-member presidency.

Based on the partial count, they said Haris Silajdzic, a strong advocate of a united Bosnia, won election to the Muslim Bosniak seat, and that Ivo Miro Jovic would be re-elected as the Croat representative.

The German diplomat who is the top international administrator in Bosnia said the election went well.

"One must give these people a chance now," Christian Schwarz-Schilling told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. "One should not bring these parties into disrepute for being in part nationalist."

The race for the Croat seat was close. The election commission announced hours after polls closed, that Jovic of the Croat Democratic Union had 11.84 percent, narrowly ahead of Social Democrat Zeljko Komsic, who had 11.41 percent in an incomplete count.

However, votes from a major Bosnian city traditionally favoring the Social Democrats had not been submitted in time and Komsic announced that according to his party's count, he has won the seat of the Croat presidency member.

Jovic admitted Monday that Komsic may have won.

Muslim Bosniaks, the largest ethnic group, generally back a united country, as do their Roman Catholic Croat allies. Their ultimate hope is that Bosnia - currently divided between a Bosniak-Croat federation and a Serb republic - will join the EU when its political and economic reforms are completed.

But many Serbs still cling to beliefs that sparked the war - namely, that their half of the country can secede and become independent.

The complex political setup is confusing even for Bosnians, but was a compromise reached in the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war. Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1 million were driven from their homes during that conflict.