The new government of the Posavina canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was elected last week, but, as in the previous convocation, there is no representative of the Serb people in the government, which violates the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ojaka City Councilor Damir Ivetić said on February 18 reports “Bosnia and Herzegovina Radio and Television”.
140 of the 500 pre-war Serb families returned to the village of Novigrad, near Odjak. Most of the residential buildings are still in ruins and there are few visible signs of life throughout the town. Drago Radulovic returned to his town twenty years ago and according to him, although there is some progress, it is still not enough to motivate more refugees to return to this town.
Serbian political representatives believe that local and cantonal authorities are hindering the return of Serbs by not investing enough in the reconstruction of infrastructure and facilities. For them, the formation last week of the government of the canton of Posavina, in which there are no representatives of the Serb people, is proof that this policy will not change. They consider the new cantonal government unconstitutional and appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Posavina cantonal Prime Minister Đuro Topić said that the government was formed by the will of the majority in the Assembly, as stipulated in the cantonal constitution, but the constitution states that the composition of the government should be in line with the national composition of the cantonal. population.
Topić believes that behind the challenge to the constitutionality of the new government are the political games of the groups that failed to pass the electoral threshold in the last general elections. He indicated that according to the last census, 1.2% of citizens of Serb nationality live in the Posavina canton. Damir Ivetić, adviser to the Ojak municipal assembly, on the other hand, believes that this is not a strong argument.
“While waiting for the protection of their political representatives of both Bosnia and Herzegovina subjects, several Serb returnees in the Posavina canton realize that time is running out for them. Of the almost 10,000 Serbs who, according to the 1991 census, lived in the territory of the canton of Posavina before the war, fewer than 1,000 remain today.Ivetic pointed out.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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