Serb entity leader announces coalition with Croat party

Serb entity leader announces coalition with Croat party

BANJA LUKA/SARAJEVO -- RS President Milorad Dodik has announced he would propose a coalition to the Croat HDZ BiH party, in the state institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dodik is the leader of Bosnia's Serb entity, the Serb Republic (RS); the country has a second entity, the Muslim (Bosniak)-Croat Federation (FBiH).

Bosnian Presidency member Bakir Izetbegović, who represents Bosniaks, said that the Croats will have to accept the reality that Bosnia will not have a third entity.

Izetbegović, who until recently served as chairman of the Presidency, said that Bosniaks would have to accept the reality that "the RS will not be abolished," while Serbs must accept that "Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be abolished."

"Within these realities we will all, living with the two entities and a strong group of other citizens, have to find some middle-of-the-road solution," Izetbegović told the BHRT broadcaster.

According to him, "Croat representative in the Presidency Dragan Ćović will have to reduce his demands to realistic boundaries and to something that is also acceptable to Bosniaks." That, he explained, is a mechanism that will allow Croats to choose whom they want, "but not with help of a drawn map or a constituency that would lead to segregation of someone."

On the other hand, Dodik, who heads the SNSD party, said there was "no doubt" that his party and Čović's HDZ BiH will make up the authorities on the state level, and added that he will meet with Čović in Mostar to discuss their cooperation in the common institutions.

As he said, the two strongest Serb and Croat parties will afterwards declare a coalition.

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