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Muslim Named Among Nationalists To Bosnian Serb Cabinet
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (News Agencies) - A Bosnian Muslim was named to the Bosnian Serb cabinet Friday to serve alongside several nationalists from the political party of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.
Fuad Turalic was chosen by Prime Minister-designate Mladen Ivanic to head external economic affairs in the new government. The appointment is an unprecedented move for the Serb republic in the aftermath of the Bosnian war.
The new government, however, has yet to be confirmed by the parliament.
All previous governments in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska (RS), which along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up postwar Bosnia, were made up exclusively of ethnic Serbs.
Several other members of the new cabinet are from the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS), whose return on the political scene caused concern of the international community.
Ivanic refused to specify the political affiliation of his 18 ministerial candidates. A 19th appointee to the defense portfolio is to be named later.
But parliamentary sources said five of them are members of the SDS, the big winner of the November 11th elections.
The comeback of the party founded by Karadzic, under indictment from the U.N. war crimes tribunal, has sparked worries notably from the outgoing U.S. administration, which threatened to halt its support if the SDS entered the government.
SDS leaders pledged after the elections, in which they won the RS presidency and 31 of 83 seats in the parliament, to cooperate with the international community on crucial issues such as the return of refugees, cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague and strengthening of federal institutions.
In his speech to the Bosnian Serb parliament, Ivanic said economic recovery would be his priority.
He stressed the seriousness of the economic situation in the RS, which has a total debt - including all debts, non-paid salaries and pensions - of 3.4 billion German marks ($1.6 billion, 1.7 billion euros) and inflation at 16% in 2000. The annual income in the RS is just $850 (893 euros) per capita.
Ivanic also pledged to wage a merciless fight against corruption.
The prime minister-designate also pledged to help other non-Serbs participate in the entity's government as deputy ministers and counselors.
He promised that the RS would work on consolidation of Bosnia's central institutions and cooperate with the Muslim-Croat Federation.
However, Ivanic stressed his opposition to any attempt to redesign the Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war that could weaken the RS position.
Ivanic has an outright majority of some fifty votes in the parliament, besides those of the SDS and 11 of his Party of Democratic Progress (PDP); four Socialists (SPRS) MPs and three of the Democratic People's Alliance (DNS) support him as well.
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