The special envoy of the United States (U.S.) Government for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, sent several messages from Croatia in just one day, which can be quite clearly interpreted as Lord David Owen’s messages from the beginning of the nineties that we should not dream of an intervention.
Twenty-eight years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, which, although an unfair agreement towards the victims, ended the war and was agreed to by all, Milorad Dodik, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, decided to continue the path started by his political predecessors in the early nineties and try to destroy Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NARS) controlled by Dodik passed laws prohibiting the implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH and thus made an unprecedented move in the post-war political history of BiH.
And while patriots and pro-Bosnian forces are calling on their Western friends to act in accordance with their promises, the words of the State Department envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, came as a cold shower, which in their spirit had the undertone of “don’t dream dreams”.
“If it really happens, we will react very harshly. There will be no disintegration of BiH. The U.S. will not abandon the Dayton Peace Agreement and our obligations towards that country. We hope that Dodik will not go that far and that it is only political rhetoric. But if not, we are ready to react with political means such as sanctions and Bonn powers,” said Escobar.
A long process
With these words, Escobar actually ignored a very important historical and legal fact. The disintegration of the state is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process, and with Dodik’s decisions the process of disintegration of BiH began, and BiH’s friends are already late, but they still have time.
Therefore, the question arises, where is the line that Dodik needs to cross in order for a reaction to occur if it is not already the adoption and entry into force of a law rejecting the Constitutional Court of BiH in one part of the country?
Escobar continued, probably to save his “project” in the Western Balkans, which is crumbling before his eyes. Thus, in a guest appearance on Croatian radio and television, he interpreted Dodik’s behavior as a domestic phenomenon from which Russia only indirectly benefits.
In the manner of bad political analysts, Escobar said that Dodik’s goal is to protect corrupt connections. And yes, corruption is one of the biggest problems in BiH, but the destruction of the state and the attack on the constitutional system is a much more serious matter than mere “protection of corrupt connections”.
Such repetition of phrases, without a serious reaction and even diminishing what Dodik is doing, can only be interpreted as the fact that Escobar, for the sake of his own political career and agenda, is blind to the fact that the Western Balkans has found itself in one of the biggest crises since the end of the war, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.