Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić today, at the session of the United Nations Security Council in New York dedicated to the situation in our country, expressed satisfaction with the Council’s decision to extend the mandate of the EUFOR mission for the next year. In his address, Komšić devoted the most space to the current six-month report of the High Representative Christian Schmidt on the situation in our country, expressing his support for the work of the OHR, as long as, through the implementation of the so-called “5+2 conditions” does not create an environment for its closure.
Komšić said that the reason for his address was the past six-month period presented in the Report of the Office of the High Representative, with special emphasis on several very important facts that shape political events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the activities of the High Representative.
He reminded that the legitimate goal of the General Framework Agreement for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the so-called of the Dayton Peace Agreement was the establishment of peace, which was certainly achieved in the previous 28 years. He also pointed out that, after the establishment of peace, Bosnia and Herzegovina entered the process of its transition to a modern democratic state, which is the next goal and to which full attention should be paid.
“Unfortunately, after 28 years since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina still has not gone through the entire path of its democratic transition, and has remained imprisoned in the vortex of ethnically based policies and different ethnically projected goals. We should certainly add to that the fact that the Dayton the peace agreement became a tool for different geopolitical competitions of different players on the geopolitical scene,” Komšić assessed.
He also said that in these geopolitical contests, one can notice a common denominator that is the same for different geopolitical actors, and it refers to the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not actually allowed to transition towards a modern democratic state, and therefore it remains stuck in ethnic policies that they aim at the complete collapse of the political and social system in the country.
“Actually, ethnic politics and ethnic groups are used to create tension and destabilization, in order to achieve short-term and long-term geopolitical goals in an easier way. I consider such geopolitical behavior towards Bosnia and Herzegovina absolutely unacceptable,” said Komšić.
The Chairman of the BiH Presidency stated that we look at this and all subsequent reports of the Office of the High Representative through such a prism.
That different geopolitical games are being played in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can simply show through the efforts of various actors and political groups, to challenge the legitimacy of the High Representative, thus trying to create space for the implementation of planned geopolitical interests, assessed Komšić, stating that he, from his side supports the existence of the Office of the High Representative, as long as through the implementation of the so-called “5+2 conditions” do not create an environment for the closure of OHR.
“I don’t want to participate in that unnecessary discussion about whether the High Representative is legitimate or not, because Bosnia and Herzegovina has no role in the appointment of high representatives, and only the person who appoints the High Representative can give an answer. The interpretation of his own appointment cannot, not even the High Representative himself, because he does not appoint himself,” he said.
Speaking about the current report of the High Representative’s report, Komšić highlighted several very important elements, which the High Representative himself did not mention or did not present in an appropriate manner.
“First, the current High Representative is the first to face mass protests by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who on two occasions protested in front of the Office of the High Representative expressing their dissatisfaction with his behavior and announced decisions. The number of both gatherings of citizens, in which no political parties participated, it tells us that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are aware of all the important issues in their country, but also that they are aware and unhappy about some bad decisions made by the current High Representative,” said Komšić, adding that he believes the High Representative will appreciate and respect this in his future work, especially in the domain of making future decisions.
Komšić assessed that some decisions of the High Representative, which sought to protect the constitutional order in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were good, but that they were unfortunately insufficient and vague, which contributed to the growth of political tensions, as well as efforts to further ethnically divide Bosnia and Herzegovina. share, until its complete dissolution.
“Unfortunately, it is noticeable that the High Representative deals relatively poorly with such political efforts. It is necessary to emphasize that there is a great disproportion between the views presented in his report in relation to what the High Representative is really doing to overcome these problems. His diagnosis of the problem, which concern the behavior of actors from the Republika Srpska entity, in which they talk about some alleged peaceful separation,
peaceful dissolution or entity competences, is certainly correct, but his diagnosis is not accompanied by adequate activities. Whether this behavior of the High Representative is caused by the lack of his capacities or the cause of it is the lack of support from the international community, is a question that deserves a clear and precise answer. The citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina expect such an answer, especially in the new geopolitical context,” Komšić believes.
He also particularly emphasized that he appreciates every effort of the High Representative that, when there are blockages in the functioning of state institutions, he tries to solve the resulting blockages with his role as a mediator, which is also his obligation, prescribed by Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
“However, the action of the current High Representative is most often not in the role of a mediator, as required by Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, but towards one entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is set as pro-active, while towards the entity Republika Srpska it is set as reactive. Such different treatment and treatment of difficulties in the functioning of the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, puts the High Representative in a very unenviable position, because this creates a possible sense of his political insecurity and bias,” said Komšić.
The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thirdly, expressed special concern with the statement of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia “that they lobbied the High Representative to impose such changes to the entity constitution and the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which correspond to the political interests of the neighboring country, and to the detriment of the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
“This can be a significant proof and indicator of the bias of the High Representative, which then opens up many other questions. One of those questions relates to the fact that the creation of ethnically pure territories in Bosnia and Herzegovina is under the de facto control of neighboring countries, which the High Representative did through imposed model of elections for the upper house of the legislative body in the entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such a thing is certainly not a good or appropriate practice,” Komšić assessed.
Komšić particularly emphasized one sentence from the Opinion of the European Commission on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s request for membership in the European Union, which states that the election for the House of Peoples, based on ethnicity and place of residence, is not in accordance with European standards.
“Unfortunately, it was the High Representative who based the elections for the entity’s House of Peoples on ethnicity and place of residence, giving living people an ethnic coefficient or a different mathematical value, which is an expression of extreme discrimination and is in complete contradiction to the key priorities that the European Union places on Bosnia and Herzegovina as obligation. With this, the High Representative slowed down the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina within European integration,” Komšić believes.
“Whether something like that is an expression of his political will, possible clumsiness, ignorance, or whether he is possibly implementing the policies of part of the international community, remains an open question,” he added.
According to Komšić, this is particularly evident when one looks at the extent to which the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which order Bosnia and Herzegovina to change the entire political paradigm and harmonize it with democratic standards, are being circumvented.
He said that there are two groups of judgments before the European Court of Human Rights: the first is the “Sejdić-Finci and other related cases” group, which seeks the protection of the passive right to vote, while the completely different case is the “Kovačević” case, which seeks the protection of the active right to vote. and the rejection of the ethnic concept in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the removal of all those elements that undermine democracy, but also the equality of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The judgment of the European Court in the ‘Kovačević’ case opens up the space for the necessary transition towards a normal democratic state, harmonized with European standards and democratic values. Therefore, I consider the comments of the domestic public on the ‘Kovačević’ verdict inappropriate, especially since the efforts of domestic and international political actors to maintain the ethnic concept and ethnic divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the same political ambition of the neighboring countries,” claims Komšić.
He also said that it is not possible to avoid the fact that the High Representative showed his bias by allowing a political group to form a new government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, contrary to the election results, by suspending the entity constitution for 24 hours.
“This was an unprecedented attack on the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the suspension of any constitution cannot have its legitimate goal. These are also not good practices, because the High Representative is portrayed as a biased person, which he, for the sake of the work he performs, does not should never be,” said Komšić.
The Chairman of the Presidency of BiH expressed great concern about the High Representative’s efforts to solve the issue of state property, as he said, in a strange way, they imply and the need to distribute state property.
“His ideas about state property deviate from the practice and environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because property is not territory, nor is territory property, so that anyone would have the right to treat it that way,” said Komšić.
“Finally, I want to emphasize again that, for my part, I support the existence of the Office of the High Representative until the ‘5+2 conditions’ are met and I call on the international community to cooperate in the realization of these conditions. We are fully aware that the ‘5+2 conditions ‘ made very broad and vague, and that their fulfillment is difficult to show statistically, but again, it is about very important conditions that make Bosnia and Herzegovina a normal democratic state, which must be able to manage all internal processes. For these reasons, I am asking for the support of the international community to finally establish complete democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as complete rule of law and complete protection of individual human and civil rights,” said Komšić.
He assessed that on that path, the main priority should be the implementation of all judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
“Only in this way will we make a significant step towards stabilization in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the stabilization of the entire region of the Western Balkans and thereby respond to the existing geopolitical challenges. Everything else represents a path to possible uncontrolled situations, which will be very difficult to manage and for which it is difficult assess how badly they can end,” concluded the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić in his address.