On the occasion of the announced address of the Chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željka Cvijanović, at the session of the United Nations Security Council, where the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be discussed, Denis Bećirović, in his capacity as a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, addressed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
He stated that the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not make a decision on the departure of Chairperson Željka Cvijanović to the UN Security Council session and her performance on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, therefore her address does not represent the official state position of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The views of Željka Cvijanović represent exclusively her personal opinion, which does not bind either the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the United Nations. Any presentation of views that are not in accordance with the adopted strategic foreign policy goals of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an abuse of the position of the chairman of the BiH Presidency.”
It is particularly unacceptable that during her address before the UN Security Council, the chairwoman of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović, instead of official state views, presents the views of an administrative-territorial unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bećirović wrote.
“It is important to remind that the practice of submitting a report by the Government of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska to the UN Security Council has no legal basis. Like the provisions of the United Nations Charter, the Dayton Peace Agreement does not provide that administrative units in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can address the United Nations. Namely, the Charter of the United Nations stipulates that the members (which are always states, not their administrative-territorial units) address the organs and bodies of the United Nations. The primary subject of international law is the independent, sovereign and indivisible state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities are not authorized for the independent creation and implementation of foreign policy.”
Conducting the foreign policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the exclusive responsibility of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is responsible for determining and conducting the foreign policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he emphasized.
“Members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina are obliged to act in accordance with the adopted state laws, strategies and other acts which establish that the strategic foreign policy goals of Bosnia and Herzegovina are membership in the EU and NATO.”
He particularly drew attention to, as he stated, the extremely worrying anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional activities of the authorities of the Republika Srpska, and especially the president of this entity, Milorad Dodik.
“The dangerous policy of unilateral violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement carried out by the authorities of the entity Republika Srpska seriously threatens, among other things, the basic goals of the United Nations: the maintenance of international peace, regional stability and security. The latest anti-Dayton conclusion of the National Assembly of the entity Republika Srpska, in which judges are called of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina from among the Serbian people to resign from the position of judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, represents an unfathomably dangerous attempt to repeat the unconstitutional methods used by the legally convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic in 1992. Unfortunately, Milorad Dodik, after many years of anti-civilizational denial of court verdicts of the United Nations on the committed genocide against Bosniaks and the public glorification of legally convicted war criminals, it is beginning to apply the methods of war criminals in the destruction of the state and constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Bećirović points to the fact that a much stronger engagement of the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina is needed in stopping the anti-Dayton activities of the ruling leaders of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska, which threaten peace and security in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The justified warnings of prominent people from Bosnia and Herzegovina on the possible consequences of separatist politics should be understood and treated as an attempt to prevent endangerment of the peace process, but also as a determined readiness of the vast majority of citizens to preserve the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the provisions of international law and in the way that other members of the United Nations do when they are threatened.”
In the end, he concluded that it is necessary to stop underestimating and tolerating Dodik’s anti-Dayton and warmongering policy because it has evidently transformed from a political one into a serious security threat.
“We are talking about the only politician in Europe who, at the beginning of this year, awarded the President of Russia Vladimir Putin with the highest order of the Republika Srpska entity. The fact that he did so in the midst of Russian aggression against Ukraine speaks volumes about the danger of this policy to wider areas than Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. Finally, I use the opportunity to express my high respect for the UN Security Council, my gratitude for the past support to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the expected
