High Representative Christian Schmidt, by deciding to cancel the meeting in Banja Luka, provoked rumors in the public and doubts about the intentions of the international community towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. Will the Office of the High Representative (OHR) focus only on the Federation and save the decision on state property according to the will of Milorad Dodik, are the key questions. At the same time, earlier decisions show that high representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina mostly stopped the attacks of the RS on the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and state institutions. However, this did not diminish all the public reactions caused by Schmidt’s move. And they mostly range from capitulation to a wise diplomatic move.
The decision of the high representative to cancel the agreed meeting, so instead of going to Banja Luka, to stay in Sarajevo, is still being analyzed. Without hesitation, RS quickly declared Schmidt’s capitulation, Dodik’s victory, and OHR’s escape from the orchestrated show. And all this at the wrong time, is the assessment of the partners from the state coalition. They call for a return to the agreement. And, they say, there is no debate about the legality and legitimacy of Schmidt.
“There is no doubt at all that we look at these processes differently. So, for me personally, Christian Schmidt is the high representative who can replace me today. He fires me, I pick up my things and go do another job. That’s right,” says BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković (NiP).
The move of the high representative was also criticized by the opposition from the Federation. Judging by the relationship between Schmidt and Dodik, the forecasts for the future of the country are not positive. They say that everything indicates that Schmidt is targeting the Federation only.
“They would have to fulfill the obligations they assumed as guarantors of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. If they do not fulfill these obligations and if the high representative abandons the obligation to carry out his mandate on the territory of the entire country, then the Dayton Peace Agreement is called into question, with all the consequences that will result from it”, states the SDA.
NES president Nermin Ogrešević believes that Schmidt was either scared of Dodik or that it was a fake conflict with the president of the RS and SNSD, the ultimate goal of which, as he said, is to numb the reflexes of Bosniaks, stretch their minds and gradually prepare them for the final realization of the Great Serbian idea of dismantling the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
And at stake, as the public is saying more and more loudly, could be a burning issue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is state property. In any case, our interlocutors point out that Schmidt’s move damages the image of the international community.
“I think that OHR and the international community should have shown their strength and resisted these pressures. So, I don’t justify what they did because an overall image was created in BiH that the OHR is withdrawing, that it focuses its activities only on the territory of the Federation”, says Miro Lazović, the first president of the RBiH Assembly.
Professor at the FPN in Sarajevo, Senadin Lavić, is convinced that the high representative will in some way fulfill his goals: “We ordinary citizens see this as a kind of staged game and an agreement about the fact that it can be played, that a big conflict situation is being created now, so that some other work would be done behind it”.
With the public doubting Schmidt’s future decisions, the OHR is preparing the verdict on state property. While the focus is on the canceled meeting, Schmidt’s earlier decisions, as well as those of his predecessors, show that the OHR often resorted to the Bonn powers with the aim of stopping Dodik and preventing him from realizing secession.
“I don’t think that they will work in favor of the RS and Dodik, but they will not work in favor of the implementation of the judgments of the Court of Human Rights, which somehow completely eliminate Dodik’s politics and ethnic politics from these areas,” adds Lazović.
Communication expert Mladen Bubonjić reminds that the decisions of previous high representatives were largely in favor of BiH: “We can assume that what Christian Schmidt did is not final and that, conditionally speaking, the ruling party in the RS is waiting for uncertain days”.
“I think that this time the anti-Bosnian forces were mistaken – they have no more financial resources, they have no JNA and they have no wider favorable context”, claims Lavić.
From the arrest, then the meeting attempt to the withdrawal. Schmidt and Dodik opposed, but for now only on promises and announcements. The decision on state property, which the Office of the High Representative has been working on for a long time, could show whether everything is just part of a larger plan, Federalna reports.
