BOSNIA: SERBS: PARLIAMENT REJECTS REMOVAL OF PRESIDENT скачать в хорошем качестве

BOSNIA: SERBS: PARLIAMENT REJECTS REMOVAL OF PRESIDENT

(8 Mar 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat In a setback for normalisation efforts in post-war Bosnia, the Bosnian Serb parliament has rejected the removal of their ultra-nationalist president by international peace coordinator Carlos Westendorp. The deputies, hardliners and moderates alike, also denounced an international arbitrator's decision to place the disputed, Serb-controlled town of Brcko under neutral control. Republika Srpska deputies voted in an emergency session which started late on Sunday and went on into the early hours of Monday morning for the withdrawal of Bosnian Serb representatives from the country's joint central bodies, including the state parliament. The Serb republic makes up half of Bosnia, a Moslem-Croat federation the other half. Serb parliamentarians said they did not accept Friday's sacking of Bosnian Serb President Nikola Poplasen by Carlos Westendorp, the top international peace envoy in Bosnia, saying it was against their constitution. Despite Westendorp's move, Poplasen attended Sunday's parliamentary session, suggesting that he would only step down if parliament so decided. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat) "I don't mind if a new president of Republika Srpska is elected, but according to the constitution and not by a decision made by Westendorp". SUPER CAPTION: Nikola Poplasen, sacked Bosnian Serb President Westendorp, who has sweeping powers to implement the U-S-brokered Dayton peace treaty that ended the 1992-95 war, has made clear that his decision stands because Poplasen was obstructing steps to solidify peace in Bosnia. He has suggested that he may even ask the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia to enforce it, as a last resort. The assembly also said it was necessary for talks to begin among political parties on the formation of a new government following Friday's resignation of Western-leaning incumbent Prime Minister Milorad Dodik over the Brcko ruling. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat) "Carlos Westendorp must suspend the Brcko arbitration decision until it is discussed by the Bosnian constitutional court. I will not give up my decision to resign until the Republika Srpska declares its view on my offer to resign." SUPER CAPTION: Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska Prime Minister The vote on Poplasen signalled that the Western-backed Sloga (Unity) coalition was in disarray as the Socialist party voted for the hardline president while Dodik's Independent Social Democrats abstained. In its resolution on Brcko, whose non-Serb population was driven out early in the war in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing", the assembly said it did not accept the ruling to turn it into a self-governing neutral district. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...