The Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Belgrade, Aleksandar Vranješ, reacted after BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković announced the withdrawal of people from the BiH Embassy in Belgrade and after he gave 48 hours for two employees of the Serbian Embassy in Sarajevo to withdraw.
Konaković announced this as a reaction after Belgrade buried the war criminal Ratko Mladić with the highest state honors, and Vranješ believes that this move is “a cheap attempt to score political points in a game that he is already losing.”
“As far as his rights are concerned, he obviously does not know the legal framework, and so lightly expresses such views. So, when it comes to employees in the Embassy, they are civil servants who are protected by the legal framework that defines the position of civil servants in the public administration of BiH. He cannot deny their decisions either, he cannot determine their mandates. So, the moment they found themselves in the Embassy with the decision they received, they have certain rights based on that. and that person were to, for example, submit a complaint to the Appeals Committee, as a higher instance that in this case is above the ministers, they could prove without any problems that the minister tried to politically abuse them, to instrumentalize them, which the political sphere should not instrumentalize civil servants,” Vranješ pointed out.
He adds that in that case, Konaković’s press conference would be “primary evidence of an attempt to politically instrumentalize civil servants.”
“So, that would be sufficient evidence for the Appeals Committee to accept their appeal, to reject its solution, and for these people to remain where they are, based on the solution they have. He thinks that with such bombastic statements and such threats, he will achieve some kind of better rating in the Bosniak public, where it is clear to him that he is losing these elections and grasping for any straw of salvation, and obviously in the political sense, he no longer has the possibility of surviving politically,” added Vranješ.
He states that it would be an even bigger “slap” for Konaković if a higher instance annulled all the decisions he wrote.
“Only then would he show the Bosniak public how not only unprofessional he is, but how politically powerless he is, and that hurts him the most. So, from that point of view, this could have turned into a big fiasco for Elmedin Konaković, the very end of his political career, so that he, in essence, ends his mandate with this fiasco,” says Vranješ.
He points out that as far as civil servants are concerned, the Presidency decides on the functioning of the Embassy, as well as all decisions.
“This is pure populism, where he tried to collect some points in a game that he is already losing. And, if nothing else, he upset people. You know, people started coming to us this morning who were afraid that the consular department was going to be closed,” says Vranješ.
