Milorad Dodik, the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) emphasized that there is no second Dayton Agreement as far as Republika Srpska (RS) is concerned and that it should not exist for the United States (U.S.) Ambassador to BiH, Eric Nelson as well, “whose state has worked hard to achieve exactly what he calls retrograde.”
“If we had all adhered to the original text of the Dayton Agreement, BiH would have now closed chapters on its European path, and would not be in the waiting room for candidate status,” said Dodik to agency Srna when asked to comment on Nelson’s author’s text stating that some politicians want to return “to retrograde ‘original Dayton'”.
Dodik said that the U.S. has the undisputed role in mediating and creating the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war, but also “established a political system that legalized a new internal organization in BiH, according to which, as the Constitution itself says, BiH is composed of two entities and three constituent peoples. “
The fact that it was initialed in Dayton, and later signed in Paris, as Dodik stressed, was a measure of what RS agreed to sign all the annexes to that agreement.
“That is why the coin used by Ambassador Nelson on retrograde original Dayton sounds rather clumsy and intense since the Dayton Agreement is one and it was signed by all parties in BiH with the mediation of the U.S.,” as the chairman of the BiH Presidency assessed.
He stated that the talks on the future of BiH, initiated by RS, “serve the same goal that Ambassador Nelson talks about, and that is – how to get an answer to the question of what kind of state will satisfy the needs of all three constituent peoples.”
“These are not the 1990s, no one is calling for conflicts here, the call from RS is a call for dialogue, which is lost in BiH largely thanks to the interference of foreign diplomats whom we welcomed but did not give them the mandate to regulate our lives as they would like. Ambassador Nelson should not speak on behalf of the citizens of BiH, which he often does, because he was not given the mandate to do so by the citizens,” noted Dodik.
As he added, the remarks regarding “filling the pockets” of domestic politicians “go beyond the framework of good diplomatic practice and prove the claims that foreign diplomats in BiH have taken over the role of domestic political actors, without electoral legitimacy.”
“Such declaration in any other country in the world would put any ambassador in an unenviable position, but BiH is obviously not enough serious state for Ambassador Nelson if he carelessly presents such difficult qualifications in this way,” emphasized Dodik.
He said that “RS stays committed to peace, development, and dialogue with everyone in BiH and will not give up its efforts to reach an agreement not with the U.S., but with its Bosniak and Croat neighbors, with whom they will continue living.” He pointed out that Ambassador Nelson should look forward to any dialogue and agreement between domestic politicians, Klix.ba writes.
