The regular semi-annual session of the UN Security Council on Bosnia and Herzegovina will be held in New York on May 12, at which High Representative Christian Schmidt and Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Bećirović will speak.
As every year, the authorities of Republika Srpska also sent a parallel report to the UN Security Council.
Their report is dominated by anti-Dayton narratives and accusations against the High Representative. What will the diplomatic offensive at UN headquarters bring to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
New paper, old topics. Schmidt on secessionists, Dodik against Schmidt. With the Russian hand in the Council, and regularly the Chinese hand as well, the expectation now is – not a dismissal, but a return to the initial settings of Schmidt’s decisions.
Dodik: Schmidt is illegal
SNSD President Milorad Dodik stated: “The session that will be held in two or three days at the Security Council in New York will certainly have a definitive and rigorous position of the Russian Federation. We have demanded and said that this Schmidt is illegal, that he cannot make any decisions, so it would be necessary for all his decisions to be declared null and void through the Security Council.”
Political interpretations and international context
In translation – the political freedom of the convicted Milorad Dodik, who is simultaneously seeking the annulment of Schmidt’s decisions in Washington and Moscow, primarily those on amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, which were also the legal basis for his criminal prosecution. In addition to Russia, which withdrew from the work of the Peace Implementation Council due to disagreement with Schmidt, the question is whether lobbying attempts have also influenced the course of the USA, whose representatives in this UN body previously said that they are in favor of local, not international, solutions in BiH.
Political analyst Tanja Topić assessed that Milorad Dodik’s wish list will not pass the Security Council for the simple reason that it can be counted on to be vetoed by Great Britain and France. This wish, which was emphasized in Moscow, will simply not get the green light. This does not mean that Christian Schmidt will not leave BiH, but the annulment of his decisions would represent a political catastrophe and a defeat for the international community.
RS Focus and Political Narratives
Instead of blocking reforms that lead the country towards the EU, which is part of Schmidt’s overview of the situation in BiH, the focus of the Republika Srpska authorities has shifted to creating a campaign about an alleged conspiracy against Republika Srpska. With the same narrative, but at a different address, they talk about the secession of the entity and a “failed state”.
“This is how Milorad Dodik shows his outsmarting of American politicians: he did not make any substantial concessions, but he won a major change in American policy, and now he is even reneging on his commitments to political moderation, given with a handshake,” said political scientist and international relations expert Jasmin Mujanović.
This is the expected outcome of a months-long lobbying campaign whose goal is not to portray the systemic discrimination against Bosniaks in RS, but rather to portray this people as radical, whose domination Europe should fear,” warned Bosniak representatives in the Republika Srpska government.
SDA representative in the RS National Assembly Ramiz Salkić said: “We are denied the right for our children to learn the Bosnian language in schools, we are denied the right to get a job and to be part of the public administration and health care system. The system, therefore, glorifies war criminals because schools teach that Karadžić and Mladić are heroes, not war criminals, and denies genocide because schools teach that genocide was not committed in Srebrenica.”
This has been repeated for years, in this hall every time. This is now a test for the international community: will it, like Schmidt, identify those responsible for denying genocide, promoting secession, blocking state institutions and violating Dayton, or will it be a saving hand for a convicted person without a position.
