THE Muslim Croat assembly in Mostar unanimously elected a Croat mayor and his Muslim deputy at its first joint session yesterday in a bid to reunite the bitterly divided southern city.
After a lengthy session that lasted more than seven hours, a deputy of the 37 seat body read out the result of a secret ballot which appointed a Croat, Mr Ivan Prskalo, as the town's mayor and a Muslim, Mr Safet Orucevic, as deputy mayor.
The outcome of the vote in the council, where Muslims hold a five seat edge, was agreed last week after marathon negotiations that settled a crisis threatening Bosnia's peace process and the watershed September elections.
"We have been working on this for two years and I hope this is the beginning of something new," the European Union spokesman, Mr Dragan Gasic, said.
The EU head of mission, Sir Martin Garrod, was present but did not chair the session, whose successful ending was a precondition for the EU to continue its mission in Mostar.
Electing the mayor and the deputy mayor on the basis of June 30th Mostar elections was also seen as a crucial step towards holding country wide elections in September. Croat nationalists initially refused to accept the results of the elections, complaining of irregularities at the polling station in Germany. An EU ombudsman ruled them too insignificant to affect the final result.
"We are well aware that both sides have been considerably compromising otherwise we wouldn't be here now," Mr Garrod said before the vote.
Almost simultaneously with the grand finale of the six week Mostar drama, presidents of Croatia and Bosnia struck a deal to dissolve a Bosnian Croat statelet that threatened the fragile Muslim Croat federation.
At a summit in Geneva chaired by the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, they agreed on a series of measures to immediately disband Herceg Bosna.
A joint statement issued after the talks said from August 31st administrative areas under Bosnian Croat control will "cease to exist".
The Croatian President, Mr Franjo Tudjman, came under severe pressure from the US and its Western allies to rein in his proteges in western Bosnia on both issues.