COURT ORDERS SEVERAL BOSNIAN SERB TOWNS DROP "SERB" FROM THEIR NAMES

[Ivo Skoric]

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COURT ORDERS SEVERAL BOSNIAN SERB TOWNS TO CHANGE NAMES
2004-03-27 11:06 (New York)


Sarajevo (dpa) - The Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina 
Saturday ordered Bosnian Serb authorities to change the names of 13
Bosnian Serb towns, a high court official confirmed in Sarajevo. The
towns, located in the Bosnian Serb entity the Srpksa Republic, have
been ordered to remove the prefix ``Srpski'' (Serb) from their names
on the grounds that it may be offensive to Bosnian Croats and Moslems
also living in the region. Chairman of the country's Constitutional
Court Mato Tadic said the current names, mostly adopted during the
1992-1995 war in Bosnia Herzegovina, directly violate ``core
constitutional rights to non-discrimination.'' The Bosnian Serb
National Assembly, according to Tadic, have been given a three-month
deadline to comply with the court's ruling and either restore the
towns' pre-war names or adopt new ones. Bosnian media speculated that
similar changes could also happen to the Srpska Republic itself. The
Bosnian Serb-dominated region was created under the Dayton Peace
Agreement that ended the war. The court refused to speculate on the
matter, but said that such a request could be considered if it came
before it as per regular procedure. The Constitutional Court is the
highest judicial instance in the country and its decisions are final
and binding. It consists of nine judges, two from each of the three
main Bosnian ethnic groups and three from the international 
community.
dpa zl ch 


-0- Mar/27/2004 16:05 GMT