| Sarajevo condemns Serbian SAA signing |
| 30 April 2008 | 14:56
| Source:
B92, Tanjug |
SARAJEVO --
Chairman of the Bosnian tripartite Presidency Haris Silajdžić has criticized the EU’s decision to sign the SAA with Serbia.
Silajdžić said that “she (Serbia) is refusing to arrest those indicted for genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina.”
By signing this agreement, the EU has once more ignored the verdict of the International Court of Justice, “which Serbia is flagrantly violating by refusing to bring to justice the people responsible for the massacre of more than 8000 civilians,” reads a statement from Silajdžić’s cabinet.
“Although the EU’s practice is to strictly insist on the fulfillment of given conditions before intensifying relations with potential members, this last act proves that Serbia enjoys privileges like no other state,” he fumed.
He said that “some countries are lagging behind in the European integration process because of far less important conditions than the arrest of individuals responsible for the only genocide in Europe since the Second World War.”
Meanwhile, International High Representative Miroslav Lajčak said that the EU’s appraisal that Bosnia-Hercegovina had made satisfactory progress and that it should sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) as soon as possible was “good news.”
Lajčak stressed that the EU had reached such a conclusion just two weeks after the law on police reforms had been adopted in Bosnia-Hercegovina, a condition for the signing the SAA, stressing that the European Commission had been called on to open dialogue on visa relaxations.
"The EU has waited three years for Bosnia-Hercegovina to settle this matter. Now the time we have until the signing ceremony should be used to prepare the implementation of this international, legally binding agreement," he stressed.
“I hope that the current impatience to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement will translate into activities to complete the reforms that will quickly lead to full EU membership,” Lajčak concluded.
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