Bosnia Croats delay self-rule

Jelavic was sacked for threatening self-rule

SARAJEVO, Croatia (Reuters) -- Bosnian Croat nationalists have delayed claims of self-rule in Bosnia.

They were to have declared the move on Saturday, but have set a new deadline for two months' time.

But some were quoted as saying that preparations for a separatist administration, which have already begun, would continue.

On March 3, a self-styled Croatian National Congress threatened to break away from a joint federation with Muslims unless Western peace officials withdrew a controversial election rule within two weeks.

Former Bosnian Croat leader Ante Jelavic, sacked by the top international peace overseer on March 7, said on Thursday that self-rule would automatically start on Saturday, when a Croat deadline to the West to begin talks on Croat rights expires.

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But Marko Tokic, elected to be future president of a self-declared Croat administration after being sacked along with Jelavic by international overseer Wolfgang Petritsch, said on Friday that the Congress would extend for two months the time frame for negotiations with the international community.

Western peace envoys repeatedly invited Croat politicians to take part in the creation of new election law, where they would address their concerns in a legal way.

Some unnamed officials from the Congress said the new 60-day deadline was meant to be a transitional period for Croat self-rule, Croatian Hina news agency reported.

The Congress established on Friday what it called a co-ordinating body between Croat-controlled regions, or cantons, instead of an earlier announced inter-cantonal council, local media reported on Saturday.

Congress officials were not immediately available for comment on the move, but Hina quoted analysts as saying that the decision meant "gradually stepping back from the permanent establishment of Croat self-rule."

Members of the congress, which was masterminded by the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), have come under pressure from international officials anxious to prevent a move that would hit at the heart of their efforts to reunite Bosnia.

A joint Muslim-Croat federation was formed in 1994 after a short and bitter 1993-4 war between the two peoples, and confirmed by the 1995 Dayton peace agreement which also legalised a Serb republic in Bosnia.

Croat nationalists, who dominate the minority, stepped up their separatist moves after new governments were formed in Bosnia without their participation.

Earlier this month, they called on Croat officials not to recognise a new federation government dominated by a multi-ethnic party.

The new defence minister later said he had discovered that his predecessor, an HDZ member, had ordered the Croat component to pull out of the joint federation army with Muslims.

The minister overturned the decision and officials appealed to soldiers to obey the new order.

Eight Croat officials resigned from the Federation Defence Ministry on Friday, quoting as the reason their support for a separate Croat administration in Bosnia.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Bosnian Croats defiant on autonomy
March 8, 2001

Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina

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