Almost 15 years ago, the then prime minister of the Republika Srpska (RS), and today the president of the entity, Milorad Dodik, demanded the departure of foreign prosecutors in the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Prosecutor’s Office. Just like today, he threatened a referendum and demanded the departure of the High Representative.
Reading Milorad Dodik’s numerous statements, it is clear that his policy has not changed significantly in the last decade, even longer. He was constantly against foreigners, the interference of the international community, and the Office of the High Representative (OHR), even though they brought him and kept him in power.
To this day, Dodik demands the departure of three foreign judges from the Constitutional Court of BiH, does not recognize the High Representative, and belittles foreign diplomats.
Looking today at the statements from, for example, 2009, it is as if time has stood still.
Thus, the then Prime Minister of RS, Milorad Dodik, called the decision to extend the mandate of foreign judges and prosecutors “legal violence.” The mandate was abolished for all foreign judges and prosecutors except for those in war crimes departments (extended until 2012).
“Citizens of the RS should have their say on whether they want to accept legal violence imposed on them by the High Representative”, Dodik told reporters at a press conference on December 14th, 2009.
Just like today, Dodik said then that the RS believes that the arrival of foreigners such as the High Representative must be prevented, and he called on the political representatives of Bosniaks, Croats, Serbs, and Others in BiH to end, as he said, “the long-term tyranny and legal violence perpetrated by the High Representative and other international officials.”
After this decision of the then High Representative Valentin Inzko, Dodik called an emergency session of the RS Government and threatened to hold a referendum in the RS. Two years later, Dodik again threatened a referendum on the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
After a meeting with the European Union (EU) High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, in May 2011, Dodik gave up on the referendum.
It is planned that at the first referendum in the RS, citizens will have their say on the question “Do you support the laws imposed by the High Representative in BiH, especially the laws on the BiH state court and the prosecutor’s office?”
High Representative Valentin Inzko gave Milorad Dodik seven days to withdraw the decision or else he will use the Bonn powers, cancel the decision and impose sanctions on RS officials. RS then threatened to block the work of state institutions.
Today, Dodik openly announces new attacks on the institutions of BiH – the court and the prosecutor’s office, in such a way that the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) will pass a decision to ban the activities of these institutions on the territory of the entity of the RS, and, he says, he is preparing the same for the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).
Because of the decisions on the non-implementation of the decisions of the High Representative and the Constitutional Court of BiH, the High Representative Christian Schmidt has already reacted by canceling those laws and decisions and amending the Criminal Code of BiH. Now it is the turn of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the Court of BiH, and SIPA, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
