The decree signed yesterday by the President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik on the promulgation of the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations of the RS is the penultimate step towards the suspension of the publication of the decisions of the High Representative in the smaller Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) entity.
The last step is the publication of this decision in the Official Gazette of the RS, whereby this law, which was adopted by the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) at its seventh special session, held on June 21st, 2023, officially begins to be applied in the RS.
However, in the meantime, the high representative in BiH annulled the aforementioned decisions of the NARS, which actually invalidated the law, and Dodik’s yesterday’s signing of the decree is actually “returning the ball” to Schmidt’s half of the court.
What options are now available to the high representative in BiH? Basically, Schmidt has already done what the rules say. He used the Bonn powers, annulled the law and made certain changes in the Criminal Code of BiH that concern the sanctioning of non-publication of his decisions.
But experience teaches us that this does not affect Dodik too much, and one of the indicators is yesterday’s signing of the decree, as well as the statement of the president of the RS that Schmidt’s letter that arrived at his address “was returned unread”.
BiH judiciary certainly presents a further problem in the implementation of Schmidt’s decision, which is essentially in charge of implementing Schmidt’s changes to the Criminal Code and sanctioning Dodik and associates. According to past experience, this is also illusory to expect, given that the Prosecutor’s Office has had numerous opportunities to sanction Dodik and his associates, but this has never happened.
Last week, Dodik showed what he actually thinks about the prosecutor’s office, when, according to his own admission, he filed a complaint against himself with the state prosecutor’s office.
All in all, it seems that the international community is slowly running out of options when it comes to sanctioning Dodik’s attacks on the constitutional and legal order of BiH. When the Official Gazette of the RS publishes the controversial law, and it is certain that it will, it will be too late to try to repair the damage caused. Not reacting in time will only give Dodik an additional wind at his back.
The only thing that can have a more concrete effect are the announced sanctions that are being prepared in the European Union (EU) and certainly the reaction of the BiH judiciary. Experience has shown that everything else did not yield any concrete results, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
