TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

Friday, 13 August, 2004Vlado CuljakDeputy Prime MinisterCanton of Hercegovina NeretnaMeeting summaryThe Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vlado Culiak welcomed us to the Canton andgave the Prime Minister's apology for not being able to meet with you asplanned - he had a family matter.The feeling here was that the past is the past and it is over, the war endedmany years ago .The Government, post-1996, encouraged reconciliation . The first City Councilwas created and has been functioning ever since . It had six municipalities,two with a Bosnian Croat majority and the others had mainly BosnianMuslims . These do not exist anymore . The city administration became unifiedvery recently . Municipality elections were to take place in October, 2004 toelect a new Government . Due to the decision to unify the city government,imposed by High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, there is a proviso that noone ethnic group can have a majority .Many improvements have been experienced as a result of the internationalcommunity . When the war ended in 1995, Mostar was divided into westernand eastern sections . to move from one side of the city to the other specialpermits were needed, now there is total freedom of movement . The city usedto have two water supply companies, two electrical power companies etc ., butnow it is all unified . There used to have quotas so, if the Minister was a Croat,a Muslim deputy was required, but this is no longer the case . This has beendifficult and it has not been as quick as hoped .Industries like the aluminium plant employ 1,500 workers . There was a textilefactory that was destroyed during the war, the Germans invested in this postwarto rehabilitate into a smaller entity . There is an aeroplane factory thatused to employ 7,500 workers before the war, it now employs 600 . Agricultureis a priority for the Canton, mainly vegetables . The region is famous for wineproduction - Blatina and Zilva are well known names .For tourism there is a small coastline at Neum, Medjugorje being the mostvisited Catholic sight in the region . It was almost as if there was no war inMedjugorje during the war years . Neum has hotels and although the processof privatisation started, it is yet to deliver the improvements hoped it wouldbring . There is some capacity for foreign investment . If there was more timeand no pressure by the High Representative to privatise, the area would havebeen more able to develop strategic partnership .As for the process of population return, they are doing their utmost to havepeople return by investing time and money . There is still a refugee serviceTravel Report, Hon. Michael Atkinson, M.P. and Ms . Vlni Ciccarello MP., August, 2004 82