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SARAJEVO, January 21 (FENA) - Considering general elections will be held in BiH in October this year, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH Ambassador Bruce G. Berton called BiH politicians to step away from rhetoric of divisions and narrow political interests because it is time for BiH to make significant progress, he said in an interview with FENA.
By: Jelena Marković
“Political leaders have responsibility to create a favorable political climate and work on meeting the real needs of citizens of this country,” he said.
Reflecting on activities of the OSCE Mission to BiH over the past year, he noted their purpose is achieving higher degree of prosperity and security in BiH, which should lead to better quality of life of all citizens of BiH and that cannot be achieved in only a year, he emphasized.
“I personally, as well as all other employees in the Mission, are committed to achieve those goals and tasks, and judging by reactions of the citizens and our partners, we can say we are pleased with results achieved over the past year. Of course, we can always do more,” said Berton.
He emphasized that every event that the OSCE Mission to BiH organizes in a certain way contributes to better quality of life in BiH, which is their primary goal.
He said that some of those activities is their support to initiative of secondary students from Jajce towards preventing further divisions in education, and successful completion of Project of enhancing capacity for processing war crimes cases, whose aim was increasing quality and efficiency of processing war crimes cases.
“These are only some of the examples, and there are many more. Great part of our activities has been realized on local level and it makes a difference in everyday life of local communities,” he emphasized.
He mentioned some of the priorities of the OSCE Mission to BiH for this year, which includes further support to BiH authorities in strengthening rule of law, fight against segregation and discrimination in education, improving overall human rights situation in the country, promoting tolerance and human rights in local communities and preventing corruption and protecting freedom of the media.
“Of course considering this is the election year our attention will also be directed to the election process in BiH,” he added.
He stressed that BiH cannot become a prosperous state unless it secures inclusive, quality education for future generations.
He also mentioned amendments to the Election Law of BiH.
He added that the international community supports political leaders in finding the compromise, but it will not impose any solutions.
“It is political leaders, not the international community, that are responsible for making progress in this country,” he underlined.
Head of the OSCE Mission told FENA there is also another important issue, which is freedom of the media, which was endangered on several occasions in many ways last year.
“Every attack on journalists is attack on freedom of speech. Safety of journalists must be guaranteed in every democratic society, including BiH,” said Berton.
(FENA) A. B.
