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The leader of Bosnian Croat nationalists has blamed the West for Friday's violent clashes with peacekeepers and warned they will continue to pursue self-rule until their demands are met. Ante Jelavic said international officials should not have used force to enter branches of a bank in southern Bosnia, where riots left up to two dozen NATO-led peacekeepers injured. Mr Jelavic was sacked a month ago from Bosnia's tripartite presidency by the international peace overseer, Wolfgang Petritsch, after attempts to organise illegal Croat self-rule. Friday's violence began after international officials, backed by peacekeepers, moved into several branches of the Herzegovacka Bank, believed to be the financial life-line of a month-old Croat separatist campaign. The bank is a controlled by Jelavic's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. It was the worst violence in years in Bosnia, whose Muslim, Croat and Serb communities have lived uneasily side by side since war ended in 1995. Mr Petritsch, who ordered the bank takeover, has said some international officials were held hostage by the rioters and one was threatened with execution before being released. But Mr Jelavic said in an interview with Reuters late on Saturday that force should not have been used to enter the bank, adding some of those involved in the action wore black hoods over their heads. "There was no sense to come into a bank with black hoods," he said, adding that any irregularities in the bank's work should have been dealt with by the relevant institutions. Petritsch said on Saturday that the operation to take over the bank had been entirely legal. One of his spokesmen said on Sunday that financial police in the inspection team had been in hoods for their own protection, since they would have been in danger if recognised.
Jelavic also repeated a call for negotiations on Croat rights he said were flouted before elections in November, when the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ended ethnic exclusivity in voting for the upper house. The nationalists argue that since Croats are outnumbered by Muslims in their joint federation, their votes will be diluted. "We are only asking for what belongs to us as a people," Jelavic said. New election rules are being negotiated, but Petritsch said on Saturday he would not hold any dialogue with "extremists who use violence and criminal methods to gain their ends." Jelavic's HDZ party said it had nothing to do with Friday's violence, which it said was a "spontaneous gathering of citizens". Jelavic told Reuters he would do everything he could to stabilise the situation. "On our part we also think it is not in our interest to have any incidents, conflicts, any violence," he added. "We are not talking here about any kind of radicalism, extremism or separatism, these are all the inventions of the international community. For us self-rule is only a temporary measure." Jelavic said there had been contacts with international officials, "but they are not at a sufficient level and there is no assumption this dialogue could bring significant results". Earlier on Saturday, he told a gathering that actions such as "new sanctions, suspensions, removals and scare-tactics" would only strengthen the determination for self-rule. "Our response is the full establishment of Croat self-rule," he said at a ceremony marking the ninth anniversary of the Bosnian Croat military HVO, which fought against Bosnian Serbs and, briefly, against Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-5 war.
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