SNSD President Milorad Dodik is not giving up on the political and infrastructural appropriation of the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the attempt to register the property of the Brčko District in the Republika Srpska, the illegal installation of the sign “Serbian House” and the inclusion of the Brcko Captaincy in the regulations of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the RS, the SNSD leader presented a new proposal related to the route of the future Belgrade-Sarajevo highway.
New route proposal
The recent moves of the RS, which an increasing part of the professional public evaluates as attempts to entityize the Brčko District of BiH, did not bear fruit, so the SNSD leader Milorad Dodik came up with new moves. It was the turn of the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway, more precisely the route through Brčko.
“That we will direct the route from Bijeljina to Brčko to the current bypass, in the part where it starts, and that we will do the same for this part that comes from Modriča. The RS owns 50 percent of this District and we understand that we have an obligation,” said Dodik.
The agreement has been in place since 2022
Although the route of the highway through Brčko was agreed upon in September 2022, the obstruction and demolition of that proposal by individual representatives of the government has been going on for four years. But concerns remain.
“We also understand the concern of the RS regarding the lack of an agreement on the continuation of the highway route from the direction of Banja Luka towards Bijeljina and Belgrade through the Brčko district. We also heard the announcement that some other solutions will be discussed if there is no agreement in the Brčko area, which is completely understandable,” said Siniša Milić (SNSD), mayor of the Brčko district of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The District decides on the route
And while some believe that there is no agreement, others warn that the route of the highway through Brčko is decided exclusively by the Government and the District Assembly, without interference from the entities.
Damir Bulčević (NiP), President of the Brčko District Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, recalls that the route has been discussed for years and that the previous agreement has not been abandoned.
“During the negotiations… in 2019, we had certain signatures when it came to the route of the highway through Brčko and that route has not been abandoned. That route is being discussed. It is true that we reached an agreement at one point and we needed to technically see how we would adopt that amendment to the Spatial Plan with the additions that I mentioned a moment ago. We are still on those terms,” said Bulčević.
The highway is still pending
So, the agreement in principle has always existed, and everything after that can be interpreted as a political game without borders. There is a route, then there is not. The District is the initiator, then the brake, everything as needed.
In the meantime, four full years have passed since the official agreement on the route of the highway through Brčko. And so the mandate is over, the elections are new, and the highway is waiting for new opportunities, agreements, and maybe routes. Everything according to the well-known BiH scenario, Federalna writes.
