Mostar United?

[Ivo Skoric]

For decades in Mostar, just as in the other cities of former 
Yugoslavia, kids went to school together, studying the same 
curriculum, regardless of their ethnicity.

Then came the war. And for the last decade kids of different ethnic 
groups go to different schools, learning from the different 
schoolbooks.

As it was before, people got used to the new situation, and are 
terrified of change.

Yet, the international community is determined to break the ethnic 
barriers and re-unite Bosnia once again. City of Mostar is the petry-
dish for the country-wide reforms.

Once a Bosnian Muslim majority town, it is now divided between Croat 
part on the West bank of Neretva, and Bosnian Muslim part on the East 
bank on Neretva, with Serbs being mostly expelled. Overall, after the 
war Croats constitute the 60% majority of population.

Paddy Ashdown wants a lean administration of 35 (15 Croats, 15 
Bosnians, 4 Serbs, 1 other) representatives to run the new city after 
the German build "Old Bridge" re-opens next month.

Unsurprisingly, everybody is opposed to the idea: Croats, yammering 
that they are going to lose their violently won majority, Bosniaks, 
scared that they are going to lose their little fief at the East end, 
and Serbs, for whatever reason they find fit (after all in Mostar 
they CAN say they were the victims - but, hey, that's why Ashdown 
lets them be the umpires now).


From: www.iwpr.net

DISCORD OVER MOSTAR UNITY PLANS

Croat and Bosniak politicians fear they will lose out under plans 
unify city administration.

By Maria Vlaho in London Vladimir Maric in Mostar

Bosnia's western governors hope plans to reopen Mostar's ancient 
bridge later this year will crown their efforts to unite the city 
politically, but few citizens expect the resumption of foot traffic 
across the Neretva to herald an end to the divisions.

A unified city administration is expected to start work from March 15 
at the latest. After 12 years of wrangling between politicians from
ethnic-based parties, the High Representative Paddy Ashdown in 
January ordered an end to the political segregation of the city into 
Bosniak and Croat zones.

The Ashdown ruling means one city council will replace the current 
six municipalities - three Croat, three Bosniak - while the total 
number of councillors will fall from 194 to 35.

Though some citizens will rejoice at seeing their parallel city
governments scrapped, nervous parties on either side of the Neretva 
have voiced opposition.

For different reasons, both the main Croat and Bosniak parties worry 
that they will lose power under the Ashdown reforms.

Most discord centres on a complicated system of ethnic "weighting",
designed to ensure that no one community can outvote the rest.

A two-thirds majority will be needed for the council to change 
Ashdown's rules - or even the names of streets -  a sensitive issue 
in former Yugoslavia.

Of the 35 councillors, not more than 15 can come from any one party.
Mostar's Serbian community - a shrunken and marginalised force since 
the Bosnian conflict - will have four, while one will be reserved for 
others.

But what looks like a benign safeguard to some, is viewed by others 
as discrimination. The Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, representing 
the largest ethnic group in the city, says the safeguards attack 
their democratic rights.

"The Croats make up 60 per cent of the electoral body, but will have 
only 42 per cent of seats on the council," complained Josip Merdzo, 
leader of the HDZ caucus on the council.

The Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA, which rules the eastern 
half of Mostar, is equally discontented.

"They stand to lose control over what they now hold," said the editor 
of Start magazine Ozren Kebo. "It's probably the least worst 
solution."

The SDA once demanded a united Mostar. Its stance altered as a result 
of the demographic changes that the city experienced in the 1990s.

Bosniaks were the largest single ethnic group before the Bosnian 
conflict erupted in 1991 but have since lost ground to Croats - now 
an absolute majority.

In the meantime, the HDZ and SDA barons have consolidated their power 
in their respective zones on either side of the Neretva.

Over 12 years, people have got used to living and working in their 
own sector and rarely cross over. A new generation of children has 
been raised in ethnically pure schools and does not even remember 
when mixing was the norm.

After getting used to life in insulated communities, many citizens on
either side of the river now look on the prospect of unity with a 
kind of dread.

"It's a disgrace!" said one Croat.  "The Serbs have gained most [ a
reference to the fact that they could hold the balance of power]. The
Croats are systematically abused. If the international community 
really wants peace here, Mostar should be divided into three."

"The Croats are discriminated against again," agreed another Croat. 
"We are the majority in this city but we will not have majority in 
the city council."

For the exact opposite reason, Bosniaks polled by IWPR took much the 
same line.  "Of course, we are against a unified Mostar," one Bosniak 
said. "The Croats have only become the majority as a consequence of 
war and because they expelled all the Serbs and at least 20,000 
Muslims."

"Because of the High Representative's decision, both the Croats and 
the Bosniaks from now on will have to lobby Serbs to have majority in 
the City Council," another Bosniak said.

Ashdown has warned that his decision was bound to appear 
controversial and to disappoint many.

"Not everyone will be satisfied, but everyone will find something for
himself," he said in a televised appeal on  January 28.

"In the end, whether Mostar succeeds in overcoming its divisions and 
the bitterness of the past is not up to me, but up to political 
leaders, no one else."

Maria Vlaho is an IWPR intern in London and Vladimir Maric a Mostar-
based freelance journalist.
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Ivo Skoric
19 Baxter Street
Rutland VT 05701
802.775.7257
ivo at balkansnet.org
balkansnet.org