Croat Nationalists To Gather To Push For Autonomy In Bosnia
SARAJEVO, March 2 (News Agencies) - Representatives of Bosnian Croat nationalist parties will meet in the southern town of Mostar Saturday to map out plans for autonomy for their ethnic community within Bosnia, an official said Friday.
Led by the nationalist Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), some 600 Bosnian Croat officials will be asked to sign on to a document on setting up a new council made up of Croats, said Veso Vegar, an advisor to HDZ leaders.
"An inter-regional council made up of the areas with Croat majority would probably be established," Vegar said adding that such a council would have its own parliament and government.
Croats, who made up about 12% of Bosnia's post war population, are the smallest of three ethnic communities.
Croat member of Bosnia's presidency Ante Jelavic who also heads the HDZ has sharply criticised the Muslim-Croat federation as not meeting the aspirations of Croats in Bosnia.
Jelavic's criticism escalated at a rally Wednesday in support of Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez who have been sentenced to prison by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for their role in the massacre of hundreds of Muslims between 1991 and 1994.
