A decade after a three-year war in Bosnia gave way to an ethnically divided government, all signs pointed yesterday to a constitutional overhaul that could erase divisions and set the stage for the Balkan country's entry into the EU.
The clincher was likely to be applied under the supervision of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was presiding over a lavish luncheon to celebrate the 1995 Dayton Accords, that were engineered by president Bill Clinton's administration and negotiated and signed at Dayton, Ohio.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, then the US spokesman and now the chief negotiator, foresaw late Monday an accord that would replace a three-presidents arrangement with a single president and potentially point the way to a strong prime minister and a strong parliament.
Burns said the idea is to have political party leaders work out details before elections next year.
Six months ago, while Burns was in the capital Sarajevo, a major step to reform occurred when a single defense ministry was formed out of two armies, two defense ministers and two chiefs of staff.
With leaders of the Bosnian, Serb and Croatian communities all in Washington for the anniversary celebration of the Dayton Accords, Burns said that having come all the way to Washington, he believed they would come together tomorrow on a statement.
"We're not there yet. We don't have an agreement yet," Burns said. "But I'm confident that they're heading in that direction."
Bosnia currently has a weak government. For example, it has 14 education departments. European leaders have warned that the situation must be revised before Bosnia can enter the EU.
In rare tribute by a Bush administration official to its predecessor, Burns praised the accords reached in Dayton, Ohio, "as a seminal moment in American diplomacy."
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
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