Charter Affirms Bosnian Town’s Special Status

More than four years after its status was left in limbo by the Bosnian peace accords, this contested town Wednesday got a new civilian government, a step U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called a clear signal that Bosnia is moving “away from bitterness and toward cooperation.”

The new charter gives Brcko a unique status inside Bosnia’s largely impotent central government but outside the country’s Muslim-Croat Federation and Bosnian Serb entity--each of which controls about half the ethnically divided country.

“Brcko shows that seemingly irreconcilable problems can be overcome if there is a clear enough understanding that failure is simply not an option,” Albright said at a ceremony that drew local and international dignitaries to the town, where almost every building still bears war damage.

Albright flew by helicopter to the town, in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s north, to underline her assertion that the peace agreements negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995 are working despite continuing ethnic hatred.

She lunched with U.S. peacekeepers in Brcko; met privately in the capital, Sarajevo, with the members of Bosnia’s novel three-person presidency; and helped announce a new military aid plan intended to strengthen the feeble central government.

Brcko is of enormous strategic importance to all sides--Serb, Muslim and Croat--because it dominates a 5-mile-wide strip that is the only land link between the two sections of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity. Although the town was ethnically mixed before the start of Bosnia’s brutal war, it was captured and “ethnically cleansed” by the Serbs. At the end of the conflict, its population was almost entirely Serb.

The town’s status was the only geographical dispute that the Dayton conference was unable to resolve. An international arbitration panel headed by American lawyer Roberts Owen decreed that the prewar municipality would be reconstituted as a district to be shared by both entities. That decision was issued a year ago, but it took until Wednesday to work out all the details. U.S. officials said the final charter puts Brcko outside the reach of both entities.

Although neither side was completely pleased by the decision, the Serbs were clearly the big losers because they were required to relinquish control of the corridor.

About 100 Serbs shouted and gestured outside the hall Wednesday, although they didn’t disrupt the ceremony. At a news conference Wednesday night, Albright said that if there was a protest, “I didn’t notice it.”

Brcko has been under the control of an international commission headed by U.S. diplomat Robert W. Farrand. On Wednesday, he formally handed responsibility to Sinisk Kisic, the prewar mayor.

“Today’s event clearly shows the direction this country is headed,” Albright said. “It is away from division and toward more joint activities, away from bitterness and toward cooperation, away from isolation and toward integration among the communities here and with Europe.”

In a similar assessment, Chris Patten, the European Union’s commissioner for external affairs, said Brcko has an opportunity to become a model for all of Bosnia.

“Is it really possible to create that here in Brcko?” Patten said. “My reply to that is, ‘Why not?’ I’m aware of the history; I know the obstacles. But look at the potential.”

Earlier, Albright told the U.S. peacekeeping troops over lunch: “When the Dayton accords were signed, Bosnia was a broken place, filled with mass graves, destroyed cities, orphans, hate and desperate fear. U.S. troops couldn’t fix everything. But you took away the fear. And that made peace work.”

In Sarajevo, Albright joined with Bosnian and Croatian officials in announcing a new procedure intended to funnel military aid through a committee of the central government. The plan covers assistance from Washington and military help from Croatia that previously was made available only to the Bosnian Croat army.

It wasn’t clear if the central government committee could direct the aid or would simply pass it through to the donor’s chosen recipient. But officials said it will make the process more open and transparent.

Albright said the purpose was to assure all sides that “there will be no military surprises.”