The director of the International Institute for Middle Eastern and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) from Ljubljana, Zijad Becirovic, commented in an interview on the topic that has arisen in recent days in connection with the “review” of the Dayton Peace Agreement after the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
How well-founded are such claims and how dangerous is it in the current geopolitical situation to give such messages?
You can make different statements, but it is important who makes such statements and what their content is. They do not come from official representatives of the state of Croatia. It is indisputable that the Dayton Peace Agreement is an agreement imposed by the will of the great powers, primarily the United States (U.S.). Croatia is a co-signatory of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Croatia secured the role of co-signatory because it participated in the aggression against BiH and the joint criminal enterprise, which was later confirmed by five final judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague and one final judgment on the joint criminal enterprise. Do you think that under international law with such a mortgage you can be a reliable and credible partner in international relations and respected in the international legal order, let alone offer key solutions for the most important state issues for BiH? In other words, such statements just show that“anything is possible with imagination ”. The European Union (EU) is based on the rule of law and the aforementioned Croatian mortgage should be taken into account when it comes to BiH.
Is it even possible to unilaterally withdraw from international agreements such as the Dayton Peace Agreement, is it practically feasible and what would it mean for the organization of BiH?
Of course, it is possible, Dayton Peace Agreement is not a membership/belonging to the Roman Catholic Church that you cannot withdraw from. You have the case of withdrawing from the Climate Agreement, the Nuclear Agreement, and other international agreements. You had the case of China withdrawing from the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) in BiH, recently Russia also withdrew from the PIC. All such moves call into question the reliability and credibility of partners in international relations. Such moves would not mean anything for the arrangement of BiH at the moment, but they would send an ambiguous political message. The Republic of Croatia permanently and seriously violates the rule of international law established by the Washington and Dayton Peace Agreement, which is also the legal acquis of the EU. Acceptance, respect, and fulfillment of obligations from the aforementioned agreements were also part of the conditions for the accession of the Republic of Croatia to full membership in the EU. A unilateral withdrawal from the Dayton Peace Agreement carries with it great international risks, which Croatia cannot afford at the moment, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
