Reform in Bosnia paves way to EU entry

BOSNIA:INTERNATIONAL OFFICIALS hailed Bosnia's decision to implement long-awaited police reform as a step towards European Union membership yesterday, but critics called the changes purely cosmetic and warned of further inter-ethnic disagreement ahead.

A small majority of Serb, Muslim and Croat deputies in Bosnia's parliament finally agreed late on Thursday night to support changes to the federation's police service, opening the way for the still deeply dysfunctional country to sign a pre-accession deal with Brussels.

"I am sure that will enable the European Commission to consider a positive recommendation for Bosnia-Herzegovina to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in the coming weeks," said Miroslav Lajcak, the chief international envoy to the country.

The EU's Slovenian presidency said in a statement that it hoped to clinch such a deal "as soon as possible", and called police reform "the crucial step" that Bosnia had to make to move closer to membership of the bloc.

Officials from the EU initialled the SAA - which is essentially a trade and aid pact for would-be member states - last December, but refused to formally conclude the deal until police reform was agreed upon.

Serb politicians have repeatedly blocked a merger of the police forces of their Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat federation, the two so-called entities that constitute the Bosnia that was formed by the Dayton peace accord, which ended a 1992-95 war.

Bosnian Serbs claim the dis- solution of their police force would place them at the mercy of Bosnia's Muslim majority, and lead to the destruction of Republika Srpska. Muslim and Croat leaders broadly supported the creation of a multi-ethnic police service.

Critics of the police reform deal say it has been watered down so far as to be merely cosmetic. It provides for the creation of several federal oversight bodies to control and co-ordinate nationwide police work, but they will not interfere with regional police operations and the forces in Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat federation will not be merged.

The reforms will also be put on hold until after agreement on a new constitution, which is potentially another major bone of contention between Bosnia's ethnic groups.