Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan GrlicRadman spoke about the upcoming conference in Dayton on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the peace agreement, as well as the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
In an interview, Grlic Radman said that Dayton remains the foundation of BiH’s structure and that its essence is based on the equality and constitutiveness of the three peoples.
Grlic Radman will be a participant at one of the conferences to be held in Dayton this week.
He also said that he believes that “one people should not elect representatives for another people.”
“We have, therefore, two entities, Republika Srpska (RS), we have the Federation of BiH (FBiH); the Bosniak-Croat one, which was conceived already in Washington. In fact, it reached its epilogue through the Dayton Peace Agreement. That means that the Bosniak-Croat Federation implies that both peoples have equal rights and that one people cannot elect the political representatives of another people,” said Grlic Radman.
In response to the claim that Bosniak politicians are seeking intervention from High Representative Christian Schmidt to unblock some processes in BiH, with particular emphasis on the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Elmedin Konakovic, Grlic Radman said that political leaders in BiH bear absolute responsibility for the functioning of BiH.
“They need to become more actively involved and truly recognize the moment and the time for action, to recognize all the efforts that the Republic of Croatia is investing in order to ensure BiH’s European path. It is precisely thanks to our strong support that BiH obtained candidate status. Now the negotiating framework needs to be defined,” said Grlic Radman, explaining that every form of interventionism in some way diminishes the value of democracy.
Grlic Radman emphasized that there is a democratic deficit in BiH and that it is crucial for political actors to take responsibility and commit to reforms, including amendments to the electoral law.
He also said that the foundation of BiH’s stability lies in an agreement among domestic political leaders.
“BiH is our ally, BiH is our partner. But the foundation of security, the foundation of stability, precisely lies in an agreement among all political actors – leaders in BiH to find a solution so that each people can realize all the rights guaranteed to them by the Dayton Peace Agreement,” said Grlic Radman.
Grlic Radman added that he does not dispute the principle of “one person – one vote,” but that along with that principle, the collective rights of the Croatian people must also be protected in bodies intended for the protection of collective rights.
He holds the view that Croatia has the right to react if the rights of the Croatian people are violated.
When asked about the possibility of armed conflict in the region, Grlic Radman assessed that such a scenario is not realistic, Klix.ba writes.
