Bosnia: Croat party proposes four federal units

No group in Bosnia should dominate over another and this is an excellent suggestion by this gentleman in order to ensure long term stability there.A voluntary confederation should be the goal and the Europeans must understand that if Yugoslavia could not exist as a strong centralized unitary state then it is foolish to expect this in Bosnia.

"a fully reintegrated BiH -- largely because they don't want to see ethnic cleansing rewarded."

No, they want to see themselves rewarded with ethnic cleansing. They did ethnically cleanse Serbs and Croats wherever they could, and the continued treatment and obstacles towards non-Muslims is a continuance of their way, which is how they act in an "independent" Bosnia.

Since the west is keen on rewarding Albanians for ethnic cleansing and already did reward Croatia for making its country more ethnically pure, there is no reason why Bosnia can't be made up of ethnically pure statelets. Keeping people who hate each other out of each others hair is good and keeps the murders and oppression down. This also allows people to shape their own territory towards their own desires without the whining of others and this will force them to accept responsibility instead of scapegoating others all the time.

This is not a bad idea. Certainly, it's better than dissolving the Republica Srpska administrative boundry. Than BiH will be a miniturized Yugoslavia only this time the Muslims can have their ethnically pure province. What was the reason for BiH breaking away for Yugo in the first place?

Agreed upon solutions are always a good thing.

Which begs the question, why didn't we settle this all peaceful in the past. The bloodshed should have been avoided.

Vrnjak,

The story goes that BiH left for two main reasons: (1)Izetbegovic didn't want to cede his power to Milosevic in a Belgrade-dominated rump Yu; and (2) the Bosnian Croats wanted to join up with Croatia proper, which anticipated getting Western Hercegovina (and probably some small chunks of Bosnian territory) per the alleged handshake agreement between Tudjman and Milosevic at Karadjordjovo circa March 1991. As for this latest proposal by the Bosnian Croats, I doubt it would ever succeed, because the Muslims seem to want just the opposite: a fully reintegrated BiH -- largely because they don't want to see ethnic cleansing rewarded.

Ida,

I agree with your point -- naturally, the Muslims are guilty of ethnic cleansing, too, and of course they're keen to safeguard whatever territorial gains they made in the last war. I was merely stating their official line of the past few years, which is that RS should be dissolved because in their view, it validates, among other things, the Serbian massacre at Srebrenica. Presumably, the Muslims would have to give their assent to any alteration to the Bosnian map that would enable the creation of a third ethnically pure ministate. Why on earth would they do that when they're hoping for the eradication of all ministates? Your argument about the Albanians getting Kosovo and the Croats getting Krajina and the Slavonijas is irrelevant. For this proposal in Bosnia to have any chance of working, it would have to meet first of all with Muslim agreement, and mark my words -- it won't.

The problems of Bosnia are now internal. The external attempts to annexe sections of it through the overt and covert manipulations of various military and social engineering strategies has been judged by history as failures. Sadly Bosnia is left with the legacy of this failure and must address the consequential issues of justice and equity. To suggest that the Bosnian historical reality was an experiment like the jugoslav federation is a nonsense. Bosnia's dilemma is compounded by its monocultural neighbours and their refusal to support a neighbour rather than constantly undermine it.

Ida,

I agree with your point -- naturally, the Muslims are guilty of ethnic cleansing, too, and of course they're keen to safeguard whatever territorial gains they made in the last war. I was merely stating their official line of the past few years, which is that RS should be dissolved because in their view, it validates, among other things, the Serbian massacre at Srebrenica. Presumably, the Muslims would have to give their assent to any alteration to the Bosnian map that would enable the creation of a third ethnically pure ministate. Why on earth would they do that when they're hoping for the eradication of all ministates? Your argument about the Albanians getting Kosovo and the Croats getting Krajina and the Slavonijas is irrelevant. For this proposal in Bosnia to have any chance of working, it would have to meet first of all with Muslim agreement, and mark my words -- it won't.

This is not a bad idea. Certainly, it's better than dissolving the Republica Srpska administrative boundry. Than BiH will be a miniturized Yugoslavia only this time the Muslims can have their ethnically pure province. What was the reason for BiH breaking away for Yugo in the first place?

Agreed upon solutions are always a good thing.

Which begs the question, why didn't we settle this all peaceful in the past. The bloodshed should have been avoided.

No group in Bosnia should dominate over another and this is an excellent suggestion by this gentleman in order to ensure long term stability there.A voluntary confederation should be the goal and the Europeans must understand that if Yugoslavia could not exist as a strong centralized unitary state then it is foolish to expect this in Bosnia.

Vrnjak,

The story goes that BiH left for two main reasons: (1)Izetbegovic didn't want to cede his power to Milosevic in a Belgrade-dominated rump Yu; and (2) the Bosnian Croats wanted to join up with Croatia proper, which anticipated getting Western Hercegovina (and probably some small chunks of Bosnian territory) per the alleged handshake agreement between Tudjman and Milosevic at Karadjordjovo circa March 1991. As for this latest proposal by the Bosnian Croats, I doubt it would ever succeed, because the Muslims seem to want just the opposite: a fully reintegrated BiH -- largely because they don't want to see ethnic cleansing rewarded.

"a fully reintegrated BiH -- largely because they don't want to see ethnic cleansing rewarded."

No, they want to see themselves rewarded with ethnic cleansing. They did ethnically cleanse Serbs and Croats wherever they could, and the continued treatment and obstacles towards non-Muslims is a continuance of their way, which is how they act in an "independent" Bosnia.

Since the west is keen on rewarding Albanians for ethnic cleansing and already did reward Croatia for making its country more ethnically pure, there is no reason why Bosnia can't be made up of ethnically pure statelets. Keeping people who hate each other out of each others hair is good and keeps the murders and oppression down. This also allows people to shape their own territory towards their own desires without the whining of others and this will force them to accept responsibility instead of scapegoating others all the time.

The problems of Bosnia are now internal. The external attempts to annexe sections of it through the overt and covert manipulations of various military and social engineering strategies has been judged by history as failures. Sadly Bosnia is left with the legacy of this failure and must address the consequential issues of justice and equity. To suggest that the Bosnian historical reality was an experiment like the jugoslav federation is a nonsense. Bosnia's dilemma is compounded by its monocultural neighbours and their refusal to support a neighbour rather than constantly undermine it.