BiH Ambassador to the UN Zlatko Lagumdžija stated in today’s press statement that an hour before the vote, he had a repeated and final statement from the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Željko Komšić, that he was against us being co-sponsors of the Resolution, which was requested by the Gulf countries (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and Jordan, and that he could not conclude the Presidency session and their internal consultations before the following day, by which time the fate of the Resolution would be decided even without us.
– This was stated after I presented detailed facts about the positions of other key actors in the UN, and that by then over 120 co-sponsors had already been registered (that number eventually amounted to 137). I told him that, among others, they included all 27 countries, the EU, 32 NATO members, all candidate countries for EU membership, 21 out of 22 member states of the League of Arab States, the vast majority of OIC countries and ultimately about 90 percent of the countries that were in the initial Group of Friends for the Resolution on the Genocide in Srebrenica, as well as a similar percentage of those that ultimately voted for our Resolution on 23.5.2024. in the UN General Assembly – said Lagumdžija.
He explains that on the other side, on the “Russian List”, led by Russia, were, among others, Israel, Iran, Belarus, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and North Korea.
– Let me remind you, Bosnia and Herzegovina is not some lonely island in the middle of an ocean. We are a country in the heart of Southeast Europe. All Southeast European countries, all EU countries, all candidate countries for EU membership, and 32 NATO member states were co-sponsors. Therefore, I am asking a few precise questions that can be answered simply with yes or no. Is Bosnia and Herzegovina the only country that should not belong to this society? Are some of us, who should defend the interests of our country and its citizens, aware of what it would mean if we were not in this society? I am convinced that our absence from that list would please those who do not think well of Bosnia and Herzegovina – said Lagumdžija.
According to him, given that the letter, which Željka Cvijanović knew about through the MFA for two weeks, was so timed that it could be delayed in its response, I concluded that a transparent “trap” had been set for us.
– If for any reason we do not join the co-sponsors, Dodik will immediately use this as a crowning argument in his statements that he is a defender of Christianity who has been trying to oppose the “radicalized Muslims” based in Sarajevo, which he has been calling Tehran for years. I understand the motive of Mr. Cvijanović, who in Dodik’s plans wants to present us as a radicalized part of the “Russian List”. That is why I asked the logical question of whether we have the political and legal right to give up co-sponsorship at all and why we would put ourselves on the opposite side of the EU, NATO and other mentioned friendly states.
I did not receive an answer that would lead us together towards the goal. Therefore, in order to avoid the set time “trap”, the Mission completed the usual procedure of several days of sending the latest consolidated information to the Ministry with the latest overview of the situation and an assessment of expected relevant activities with a request for instructions to be co-sponsors of the Resolution. I went through all of these issues in detail once again with Minister Konaković, who, based on all of the above, gave instructions to join the list of co-sponsors.
Our obligations arising from the peace agreement, adopted foreign policy documents, commitment to membership in the EU and NATO oblige us to harmonize our security and foreign policy with the EU. Therefore, I would like to remind you that since my arrival as Permanent Representative of BiH to the UN, we have used this “algorithm”, agreed upon with the Minister and two members of the Presidency, in similar votes related to the Resolution on Genocide and the Flower of Srebrenica monument, as well as for resolutions and statements of support for Ukraine, Gaza and Palestine.
Without this approach, which we have literally applied in recent days, we would not have the Resolution on the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide today, nor the Flower of Srebrenica monument in front of the UN building in New York, nor would we have our vote recorded in the documents of support for Ukraine, Gaza and Palestine. The Presidency’s decision could not be waited for because in the previous two and a half years I have not received a single official instruction to vote on similar issues based on the Presidency’s decision, but we have acted in the manner that I have described to you in detail.
Chairman Komšić clearly told me that I did this without a decision from the Presidency and that from now on it is my problem. I must admit that I was surprised, not very much, but still somewhat, that he did not remember that I had never received such decisions in similar situations since I was appointed. Naturally, the Presidency can make a decision contrary to principles, laws, the constitution and international obligations, but for that they would need full consensus and a lot of serious work afterwards.
However, I do not believe that I should have assumed that right now, after all these years, he has decided to interpret the Constitution and laws in such a way that he wants to paralyze our activities in the United Nations through operational instructions exclusively on the basis of decisions adopted by consensus by the Presidency. In order to avoid any dilemmas in this case, we should find answers to questions that are not for me: Why, for example, did the Chairman not conduct any consultations with colleagues in the Presidency on this topic even though they had the time, information and the procedural prerequisites to do so? Why did the Chairman not, for example, convene a session in accordance with the Rules of Procedure on time or at standard consultations and resolve the problem they created?
Or since he has already done none of that, why did he have to wait for a Resolution co-sponsored by 137 states, our strategic partners, to express his position, to create a dilemma for us, NATO and the EU or the “Russian List” with Iran and Israel – which the Presidency will “untangle” for us when it meets according to the Rules of Procedure? Has the damage been done? You can answer for yourself whether it is a pity or not that we almost “fell” into the prepared Dodik/Cvijanović “trap” and now we logically wonder how or with what goal they almost brought us to the situation of explaining to the world and ourselves that we are not on the side of Russia and North Korea, but that we are together with the members of NATO and the EU? If you know the facts that I have presented to you, then it is perfectly clear that it would have been a disaster if we had “made a decision by not deciding according to the Rules of Procedure” and thus ended up on the “Russian list”.
When I informed him about the results of the vote, as I had predicted in the last few hours before the decision on co-sponsorship, that the Resolution was adopted without a Russian veto, in the UN Security Council, Chairman Komšić told me that from now on it was my problem and that I would have to justify myself in Bosnia. I admit that it surprised me a little, because I thought that he was also relieved when he saw which countries were among the co-sponsors, which were not, and that, unexpectedly, the Resolution was adopted without Russian opposition.
I told him then and I can repeat it to everyone now: I am lucky to “defend” such a decision made by responsible people within their institutional capacity; I am lucky that we did not fall into the Dodik/Cvijanović trap and have to justify ourselves for not being able to stop those who would, knowingly or unknowingly, lead us in the wrong direction and leave us in the embrace of the “Russian List”. Thank God, today we are receiving congratulations and gratitude from a large number of co-sponsors. The largest number are those with whom we were in this together on the Resolution on Genocide and on the Srebrenica Flower monument.
At today’s regular weekly briefing at the premises of the EU Delegation to the UN for the candidate countries for EU membership, EU representatives specially thanked all candidate countries for co-sponsoring yesterday’s Resolution. It was noted that this was a rare opportunity for all EU member states as well as candidates, including us, to be united in the face of such a geopolitical and security challenge. Together we came to the adoption of a Resolution that will lead to further calm instead of spreading war in the wider region.
I don’t need to explain to you in particular what it could mean for prosperity if we were the only country from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and Ukraine that remained on the “Russian list”. I don’t believe that anyone can be unclear about what a gift it would be to Dodik and what a positive effect it would have in his projects as a false fighter against “radical Islamists” if we had not been among the 137 co-sponsors in the UN Security Council yesterday and thus, without consultation and without a word, “sent a message” that we do not belong to the family of European member states of the EU and NATO – Zlatko Lagumdžija states in a statement.
