“After the inappropriate and brazen adventurous attack by Milorad Dodik and the regime under his control on all the values of the Bosnian society and the state, pronounced at the sessions of the National Assembly of the RS on March 27/28, 2024, it is the duty of the democratic, especially academic, public to point out the overall concept of Greater Serb politics and all its disastrous consequences for peace and stability in the country, the region, and even beyond,” was said at today’s press conference of the Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals.
The VKBI accuses Dodik of “continually using the war propaganda of the Great Serbian state project, which was the product of the aggression of the 1990s against all the neighboring states of Serbia, especially the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to the unprecedented expulsions, ethnic cleansing , the most terrible crimes against humanity committed and the crime of genocide against Bosniaks”.
“In the attempt to realize those goals, he considers Bosniaks to be the biggest obstacle and hindrance. That is why he is trying to, based on completely untrue historical facts, contrary to all final judgments of the UN courts, international resolutions, declarations and positions, update the narrative about the “Bosnian Islamic factor” as a threat to peace and stability in Europe, the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica, despite the judgments of the highest international and domestic courts, thus “digging” the deepest wound of the Bosniak people, deliberately reducing Bosniaks, as an ancient European historical people, to the concept of “Muslims”, thereby insulting, belittling and insulting a culturally and historically autochthonous people of Bosnia, with schizophrenic, anti-civilization and almost Nazi statements. projects a “Bosniak ghetto” on 25% of the territory of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accuses the Bosniaks, that is, the Bosniak and Bosniak political establishment, without a single argument or valid fact, of destroying the Dayton Peace Agreement and of abandoning its implementation,” the VKBI said.
They point out that “Dodik knowingly, deliberately and plannedly presents completely twisted facts and pure lies, but this is not a project that he designed, but the darkest minds of SANU, which are publicly, without major challenges from democratic forces, in the “Serbian world”. publicly established the motto of the Serbian lie”, quoting Dobrica Ćosić.
They state that the RS authorities are accusing others of violating the Dayton Agreement, while in fact they are the ones doing it.
“This can be precisely determined by analyzing the application of its provisions.
1. In Serbia and the RS, it is constantly said that Serbia is the guarantor of the Peace Agreement, even though it is obvious and quite clear that Serbia is one of the signatories of that agreement, which assumes the prescribed obligations and responsibilities in its implementation. It is clear from the first sentence of the Agreement that this is an interstate armed conflict in which, obviously, Bosnia and Herzegovina did not attack either Serbia or Croatia.
2. Serbia and Croatia have undertaken an explicit international obligation to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Contrary to this obligation, the neighboring states interfere daily and to the greatest extent in the internal affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
3. In the first sentence of the first article of the Constitution of BiH, it is prescribed that BiH is a state with international legal and internal legal capacity. Its state borders and membership in the UN and other international organizations, as well as signed international treaties, are guaranteed. The Constitution guarantees international and internal legal continuity between the Republic of BiH and BiH.
4. Entities are not given the character of statehood by the Constitution, nor by any legal document. Entities are a creation of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and cannot exist outside of that framework. The regime in the RS has been trying for many years to give the entity the character of a state. The secession plan has been worked out in detail, which is a direct anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional action and which can only lead to new conflicts, including armed ones.
5. The Constitution and Annex 6 of the Agreement guarantee the application of the highest international standards of human freedoms and rights. Instead, the regime in the RS continues the systematic ethnic cleansing of the non-Serb population, which was mostly accomplished during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
6. The Constitution and Annex 3 of the Agreement stipulate that the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH adopts the Election Law of BiH. The attempt to pass a “parallel” electoral law in the RS is a direct anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional action of the secessionist regime in the RS.
7. Article III. The Constitution of BiH specifies the system of distribution of competences between the state and the entities. In addition to the expressly stated competences of the state, the institutions of BiH can also assume competences when it is necessary to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, as well as when it comes to the implementation of Annexes V to VIII, which means when it is necessary to implement the protection of human freedoms and rights as and the return of refugees. There is also the possibility that entities transfer some responsibilities to the state by agreement. The RS regime deliberately does not include the application of these additional constitutional powers.
8. The so-called campaign of unilaterally returning jurisdiction to the entity is also anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional action that is a function of secessionist politics.
9. The President of Serbia, who is an obvious co-creator and mentor of the anti-constitutional policy and practice of the regime in the RS, deceives the public when he claims that there is no provision in the Constitution that would call into question the property of the RS. He is not interested in the provisions on state continuity, the International Agreement on the succession of the former SFRY, several decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH and other relevant facts. The Constitutional Court of BIH is defined by the Constitution, so all the decisions it makes are in the area of Constitutional jurisdiction. Vučić knows this very well, but out of his own obviously malicious interests, he ignores it and disavows the domestic and international public.
10. The Constitution prescribes the general principle that institutions of public authority will proportionally reflect the national structure of the population. Parity representation of constituent peoples, but not of others and citizens, is prescribed only for the BiH Presidency and the House of Peoples of the PS BiH. In practice, this exception turned into the rule. According to the Constitution, this right does not apply to any other institution – but the proportional representation of the national structure of the population applies.
11. Foreign judges in the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Office of the High Representative are especially disturbing in the destructive attack on the state in the RS regime. Since these institutions are part of the Dayton and constitutional order, an attack on them is a direct anti-state and anti-Dayton action. Fighting against the so-called foreign factor, the regime in RS knowingly and maliciously replaces theses because the existence of these institutions is justified as long as there is a threat of secessionist and anti-constitutional activities, and that is precisely what they are doing.
12. The regime in the RS has consistently opposed all attempts at democratic reintegration of society and the state. An example of this is ignoring the implementation of Annex IX on public corporations. Truth and other factors did not show excessive readiness to implement this annex.
13. In attempts to realize their secessionist anti-constitutional project, the authorities from the RS abundantly abused the tools intended for the protection of national and entity equality in order to stop laws and projects of general interest. For this reason, among other things, the minimum requirements for the country’s progress on the Euro-Atlantic path are also difficult to meet,” the VKBI states.
They say that they expect a decisive and quick reaction from domestic and international actors because “Dodik and his mentors from Serbia can cause a disaster, which we thought was behind us, which befell the former Yugoslavia in the nineties”.
“The democratic and civilized world, the leading democratic states of the European Union, Great Britain, USA, Canada, Japan, Turkey and many others, urgently need to support the democratic institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and deal with the dark political leaders of today. We expect the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to immediately file a case and promptly file a criminal complaint against Dodik for denying the genocide against Bosniaks in and around Srebrenica in July 1995, as provided for by the amendments to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and based on the statements made at the session of the National Assembly of the RS. We request the Members of the BiH Presidency to immediately intensify negotiations with the NATO alliance in order to implement Article 84 of the Law on the Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is in force and was adopted by the PSBIH. That provisions on the employment of the non-Serb population in the entities of the RS should be immediately implemented through the OHR. That the international forces stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina be engaged immediately and without delay, by deploying them on the border with Serbia, as well as in the RS entity where Bosniak returnees live, which will provide the necessary protection to the Bosniak population. Otherwise, we demand that SIPA members be deployed in Bosniak returnees’ places in the RS entity. We demand from the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in BIH a statement about Dodik’s statements in the National Assembly of the RS, especially in the context of presenting Bosniaks because of their Islamic faith as a security threat in the region. The statement is necessary due to the fact that the ambassador of R Turkey represents the countries of the Islamic Conference in the PIC”, according to the VKBI.
They remind that in the previous few months they repeatedly appealed to domestic and international representatives, especially OHR, to “stop the anti-Dayton, anti-constitutional and political rampage of the RS regime because the threats, announcements and illegal actions of Dodik and his coalition partners create a general insecurity for the people and nations living in BIH”.
“The leadership of Serbia absolutely stands by the RS regime, as it did in the nineties. The geopolitical and geopolitical situation clearly shows that Bosnia and Herzegovina is in an extremely dangerous area (both politically and territorially), and that it is once again the subject of games that it certainly cannot influence on its own. The Bosniak people, as well as all others who consider Bosnia and Herzegovina their homeland, if security is not provided to them, will be forced to organize themselves and all patriotic forces for the sake of biological survival and the survival of their state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina is possible as a state with full human rights and freedoms, of all peoples and citizens throughout its territory, but not as a state in which to establish et non-national territorial division”, said VKBI, N1 reports.