|
Muslim MP Threatened in Bosnian Serb Parliament
SARAJEVO, Dec. 29 (News Agencies) - A Bosnian Muslim member of the Bosnian Serb parliament has demanded police protection at forthcoming debates after he was threatened by a gun earlier this week, news agencies reported Saturday.
Sulejman Tihic said Saturday that a bodyguard of the parliament speaker in the Bosnian Serb entity (Republika Srpska, RS), pointed a gun at him in the RS parliament building in Banja Luka Thursday December 27, 2001.
"As I walked to my office, I spotted Dragan Kalinic's bodyguard standing in the hallway. He reached under his jacket... I walked by and then I heard him pull out a gun and load it," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Tihic as saying.
The incident reportedly occurred while lawmakers were taking a break from debating changes in the RS constitution aimed at giving equal rights to all three Bosnian ethnic groups, Croats, Muslims and Serbs.
The current constitution of the Republika Srpska (RS), the Bosnian Serb entity, says the republic is "a state of Serb people and all other of its citizens", which means only Bosnian Serbs are a constituent people.
Tihic said that the bodyguard, angered by his speeches in which he called for the equality for Muslims in the RS, had already threatened to kill him on Wednesday in front of a number of legislators.
"I will continue my work in the RS parliament... but I will ask for strong protection," added Tihic, who had been escorted by police to Sarajevo after the incident.
His Party of Democratic Action (SDA) informed other delegates and the Bosnian Serb Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, of the incident.
The reform became necessary after Bosnia's constitutional court ruled that all three groups must form a legal part of each Bosnian entity - the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
However, after lengthy discussions which failed to bring together the diametrically opposed views of Muslim and Serb deputies, parliament voted to open a public debate that would run until February 15 on the more than 80 proposed amendments.
The amendments would then go back to parliament, by the end of February at the earliest, for a final reading.
Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has comprised two semi-independent entities - RS and the Muslim-Croat Federation - each having its own constitution, parliament, government, police and military force.
Muslims and Croats demand that executive, judicial and local authority power be shared between Serbs, Muslims and Croats, according to the percentage of each people in the 1991 census.
But Serbs claim that power should be shared according to the results of the November 2000 elections.
The deputies also could not agree on official language and alphabet to be used in Republika Srpska.
Tihic has on Thursday told reporters that Muslim deputies were basically satisfied with the public debate and believed that it would give time for parliament to reach a compromise.
RS Prime Minister, Mladen Ivanic, described as wise the decision to open the reforms for debate.
|
