Through Bosnian Eyes: The Political Memoirs of a Bosnian Serb

XXI Constitutional Change

M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES XXI. CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE The Washington Agreement ended hostilities between the Bosniaks and Croats and created a new political entity, the ,~ Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.90 This was a major step forward in securing a broader peace for Bosnia. Coincidentally, the agreement was in the process of being considered for approval by the Bosnian Parliament just at the time the Serbian Civic Council was created at the first Assembly of Citizens of Serb Nationality, held on March 27, 1994. The Washington Agreement left unresolved the status of those Serbs who lived on the territory of the Federation. Many Serbs, rejecting the separatism of the SDS, had remained and fought with the Bosniaks and Croats against the military might of the Republika Srpska. During the war those Serbs helped to preserve the common life, mutual trust and tolerance that was fostered through the centuries in the regions that now make up the Federation. But they were ignored in the Constitution drafted for the proposed Federation. Various specialists had monitored the development of the draft Constitution, and they pointed out that Article One, Point One of the Constitution failed to provide that the Serb nation livi.ng in the Federation would have equal, constituent status \vith the other nations.91 Other constitutional provisions fo110w'c~d this pattern, setting aside ~1ate offices for Bosniaks and Croats but 90 "FrameworkAgrementfor the Federation," 1March 1994,SneZanaTrifunovska (ed.), Former Yugoslavia Through Documents From its dissolution to the peace settlement (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1999), pp. 83-93. Hereafter cited as Former Yugoslavia Through Documents. 91 In the "Proposed Constitution" of the Federation, Article 1, Point 1 stated that the "Bosniacs and Croats, as constituent peoples (along with Others) and 233 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES d,' ~~' making no provision for' Serb participation. The House of Peoples was to have two chambers, one for Croats and one for Bosniaks, but none for Serbs. The Serb Civic Council therefore proposed an amendment to the draft Federation Constitution. The amendment stated that the Serb nation should be recognized as an equal constituent nation, on a par with the other two nations of the Federation, regardless of the unresolved status of Serbs in Bosnia overall. Of course, at that time no final solution to this question could even be guessed at, for war was raging under its own impetus between KaradziC's territory and ,the Federation. The proposed amendment was endorsed at the first Assembly of Citizens of Serb Nationality. It read, "In Article One of o the Founding of the Federation, Point One, Item one, instead of the words Bosniaks and Croats, the words used should be Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs." Two days later, acting as the ConstituentAssembly of the Federation, the Bosnian Parliament took up the amendment for discussion but neither passed it nor rejected it,92 deciding only that it should be placed in the context of a total peace solution for Bosnia. The Parliament went on to approve ,unanimously the Federation Constitution at its session on March 30, 1994. The war dragged on for another twenty months, including some of the most brutal shelling' of Sarajevo and the slaughter of over 7 000 Bosniaks at Srebrenica. The peace process led step by step to the Dayton peace negotiations, and the Dayton Agreement was signed at the end of 1995. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Annex 4 of the Dayton Agreement, refers to '''Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs, as constituent peoples (along with Others}." The Constitution of the Dayton Agreement, in recognizing three constituent nations, set up a direct conflict with the constitutions citizens of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the exercise of their sovereign rights, transform the internalstructure of the territories with a majority of Bosniac and Croat population in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina into a Federation.II Point 2specified that "Decisions on the constitutional status of the territories of the RepUblic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a majority ofSerb population shallbe made in the course of negotiations toward a peaceful settlement..." Former Yugoslavia in Documents, p. 95. 92 The SGV document was noted and attached as "Additional Information" in the form of Enclose I to UN Document 5/1994/382. Former Yugoslavia in Documents, pp. 119-2L 234 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES of the two entities that were defined by the Agreement. The Federation Constitution, of course, recognized only Bosniaks and Croats...