On March 24, 2006, members of the Bosniak-American Advisory Council for Bosnia & Herzegovina (BAACBH) met with Mr. Bertram Braun, director for
Southeast Europe at the U.S. National Security Council. Mirsad Hadzikadic, BAACBH President; Tarik Bilalbegovic, Vice-President; Adna Karamehic,
Director of Communications; and Vehid Deumic, Manager, attended the meeting. BAACBH emphasized the importance of a continuing role for the United States in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the need for further progress on the constitutional reform process in the country. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s major political parties reached an agreement on constitutional reform on March 18, 2006, streamlining the Presidency and strengthening the national Council of Ministers and Parliament. The U.S. facilitated the negotiations and led the process from behind the scenes. Mr. Bertram expressed his satisfaction with the signed agreement, but underlined that the reform process is not over and that Bosnia and Herzegovina must make more changes in order to strengthen its national and local governments. Mr. Bertram cited economic growth as the most important task facing the country’s leaders today; specifically, he called on the government to work with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to slim down the size of the public sector and channel more tax revenue to the decimated private sector. Mr. Betram also renewed the United States’ pledge to continue seeking the arrest of indicted war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.