The Bosnian Serb authorities will accept a border agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia on condition that the borderline near Kostajnica runs along the middle of the River Una, Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday.
Speaking to the press while on a visit to Belgrade, Dodik said he could not see any problem in Croatia building a bridge between the mainland and its peninsula of Peljesac, but that the border on the Una should be determined by applying international standards.
"There's no agreement yet and it cannot be reached without us participating in it," Dodik said, stressing that the possibility of the borderline running along the Una was still disputed. "We believe that international criteria will be applied and that the middle of the river will be taken as the borderline," he added.
A member of the Bosnian Borders Commission, Vladimir Lukic, told Bosnian media that the border in the Bay of Neum could not be disputed because the islets of Veliki Skolj and Mali Skolj and the tip of the Klek peninsula were part of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. "Croatia is offering a piece of territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to gain concessions at Kostajnica," he said.
According to Seval Kovacevic, vice-president of the Bosnian Maritime Society, the question of ownership of the Adriatic Sea off Neum and Sutorina was settled in the past when the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Bosnia at the time, bought those areas from the Dubrovnik Republic.
"The borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been unchanged since the Vienna Congress of 1815. They were defined then and were confirmed by the Berlin Congress of 1878. They were also confirmed by the Dayton Peace Agreement (of 1995), and Sutorina and the waters off Neum are within those borders," Kovacevic told the Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni Avaz.
