CLAC APPROVES BRCKO AMENDMENT; ALL EYES ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SARAJEVO 000239

SIPDIS

EUR/SCE (HYLAND, FOOKS); NSC FOR HELGERSON; OSD FOR BEIN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR KDEM BK
SUBJECT: CLAC APPROVES BRCKO AMENDMENT; ALL EYES ON
PARLIAMENT

REF: SARAJEVO 190

Classified By: DCM Judith Cefkin. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

CLAC Votes Yes
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1. (C) The Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee
(CLAC) in Bosnia's state-level House of Representatives (HoR)
on February 26 approved the proposed amendment on Brcko
District (Reftel). Eight of the nine CLAC members -- all but
Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) caucus
chairman Drago Kalabic -- were present. (Note: Kalabic and
three other CLAC members were attending a lunch with the
German Ambassador at that time, and CLAC chairman Sefik
Dzaferovic from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA)
postponed the meeting for 30 minutes to wait for them, citing
the importance of full participation in the Brcko vote. End
Note.) The CLAC put the amendment to two votes, both of
which needed a simple majority -- five delegates -- to pass.
On the first vote, all eight members voted in favor of the
constitutional basis for the amendment. On the second vote,
six members voted in favor of the principles of the
amendment. Ekrem Ajanovic of Party for BiH (SBiH) and
Momcilo Novakovic of the Democratic Party (DS) voted against
the second vote. The other SBiH CLAC delegate, Adem Huskic,
voted in favor on both votes. As expected, the delegates
from SDA, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)-BiH, HDZ-1990,
and SNSD also voted in favor.

SBiH May Be Waffling
--------------


2. (C) The CLAC vote underscored uncertainty within SBiH on
the amendment. Although this CLAC vote did not address the
substance of the text, it was clear that the SBiH leadership
expected its delegates to vote against it. An advisor to
SBiH VP Safet Halilovic attended the CLAC session and, prior
to the vote, urged his delegates not to support the
amendment. Huskic retorted that he would vote as he pleased.
Shortly thereafter, Ajanovic called Beriz Belkic -- SBiH
official and HoR Speaker -- asking for guidance on how he
should vote.

Next Steps
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3. (C) The amendment is already on the HoR agenda for a first
reading on March 4. It will require a simple majority to
pass in the first reading (Reftel). The House of Peoples
(HoP) plans to convene its CLAC on March 5, followed by a
discussion of Brcko at the full HoP session later that day.
The two houses plan to jointly conduct the public debate from
March 5 through 20. We will continue to engage
parliamentarians over the next week to ensure that those who
have already pledged to support the amendment will in fact do
so. We also will engage SBiH delegates in hopes of
exploiting the rifts that may be emerging within the party
over the amendment, although we are not counting on their
support.
ENGLISH