The sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina is mentioned nine times in the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all nine references refer to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and not once to the entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said today the member of the BiH Presidency, Denis Bećirović.
In his statement, after the continuation of unfounded claims that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina “does not have sovereignty” or that the state “only has a part of derived sovereignty” from the entity, he also pointed out that sovereignty is mentioned twice in the main part of the Dayton Agreement and twice in Annex 1-A, which refers to military issues, and five times in Annex 4, i.e. the Constitution of BiH.
“It is directly mentioned five times, but they also have two ‘indirect’ mentions in Article I 1. which refers to continuity, which is very important, and Article II 7. which refers to international agreements, in which it is emphasized that BiH will remain or become a contracting party to the international agreements listed in Annex 1 to the Constitution of BiH. It is a direct confirmation of state sovereignty,” he noted.
He points out that it is particularly important that the main text of the Dayton Agreement and Annex 1, in addition to Annex 10, are parts of the Dayton Agreement signed by the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia is the legal successor.
“Serbia, just like Croatia, through the main part of the Agreement and Annex 1 of the Dayton Agreement, committed itself four times to respect the sovereignty of the Republic of BiH (whose legal existence was continued by the same state under the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina). What’s more, in Article I of the Dayton Agreement, Serbia committed itself that ‘the parties will fully respect each other’s sovereign equality’,” he added.
Considering the “sovereign equality” of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which Serbia recognized with its signature, the thesis, says Bećirović, that Bosnia and Herzegovina derives its sovereignty from the entity or that the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina is diminished to any extent or at all, is completely untenable in any way different from the sovereignty of Serbia.
He added that Article 10 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina omits Croatia and focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, stipulating that these two countries “recognize each other as sovereign and independent states”, and Bećirović points out that the recognition of sovereignty these two states either mutually and identically.
“Annex 1 then explicitly prescribed that all armed forces on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina will act in accordance with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, and this then included the forces of neighboring countries that did not withdraw from the state territory of BiH within 30 days,” concluded Bećirović in a statement.
