Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Zlatko Lagumdzija reflected in an interview on his work so far, but also on the current political situation in BiH.
The first topic of the conversation was Milorad Dodik, i.e., the decision of the authorities in Republika Srpska (RS) to withdraw the conclusions and laws that the Constitutional Court of BiH earlier declared unconstitutional.
“Milorad Dodik is the best example of domestic nationalists who constantly hide behind national interests, state interests, while their goal is only personal gain of all possible kinds. By doing that, he showed that nothing is more important to him than RS, except himself. He sold RS for his freedom and to manage some processes, no longer officially, but according to the model of his role models, who on Sicily have a long tradition. He is slowly officially moving to the other side of the law. Essentially, he showed what I know from personal experience cooperating with him: he goes and takes everything while he sees he can take it. The moment someone opposes him in any way and puts a barrier, he withdraws like a little mouse as if he never sold anything,” Lagumdzija said.
He further emphasized that these are conclusions of capitulation, referring to what the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) adopted at the special session last weekend.
“The election of a new president is not so important, okay, a new president was elected, there will be elections for a new president, then for an even newer president, there will be elections for the newest president in a year, that will be less important, because, after all, Milorad Dodik as president of RS, his power did not stem from that institutional function, but from his management of the party and the overall processes, managing the RS Government, because it was treated as his working group. Most importantly, from the perspective of this state, NARS withdrew laws that were already declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of BiH,” he said.
He added that this is a “great victory” for state institutions, and he especially praised his party colleague and member of the Presidency of BiH, Denis Becirovic.
For Lagumdzija, there is also “no doubt” that Dodik and the NARS were under pressure from the international community.
“The international community helps us only when we help ourselves. If it weren’t for the moves by the Presidency member toward the Constitutional Court, if some adventurism, some populism, some gathering of people had started – we gather 1.000, 10.000, 20.000 people and protest – we would fall into a trap without end, and the international community would not help us. Who are the two people Vucic constantly attacks here by name? One is usual, that is, Denis Becirovic. And the other man he lashed out at in rage is the director of the Intelligence – Security Agency (OSA) of BiH, Almir Dzuvo. We have two people who used their institutional capacity to get the institution to do its job,” Lagumdzija believes.
Asked what Dodik is like privately, i.e., whether he is a nationalist or an “actor,” Lagumdzija said both are true.
“Both, because he is truthful in what he does at a given moment, not in what he says, and especially not in what he thinks. Now I could enter into an analysis of what he really thinks, whether he is a light Chetnik, a partisan, or a hardcore Chetnik, but it doesn’t matter what he thinks. What matters is not only what you think, but what you say and whether that reflects what you think, and even more important is what you do. By what he does, he is a textbook Chetnik, or a nationalist from the bottom of the barrel. I will use one of our mutual friends, who is no longer with us. He said: ‘Come on, Mile, this is not Dolac (the market in Zagreb) for you to carry peppers from Lijevce Polje to Zagreb.’ And there he earned money as a student selling peppers, which is an honorable job, but ‘this is not Dolac to stuff peppers with water using a medical syringe and sell them more expensive.’ That’s very important: he is a cheat, a small, petty cheat on a big stage, and he uses the moves of a small cheat on a big stage, and that has worked for him all these years,” he said.
On the question of lobbying by RS authorities in Washington, Lagumdzija joked about his own lobbying expenses.
“I also have a monthly representation expense, I must not complain, 400 dollars every month, so I can take colleagues, ambassadors out and lobby. It’s not important how much money you have – I mean it matters, but you cannot kill the truth with millions, with trucks, if the people behind the true truth work in an organized way and without money,” Lagumdzija said.
He commented on leaving the UN General Assembly hall during the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It was very important for us to be there so we could leave. Thanks to being there and then leaving, some others could not sit in our place. When you see the General Assembly hall and see that there are very few people, it seems that there are still some. There are many people who sat in the seats of other countries that did not come; they sent some people because they were ashamed of how lonely they would be,” he said.
He added that on the issues of Gaza and Ukraine, BiH stands on the right side of history.
“That is the defense of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. With regard to Gaza, from the first to the last day we have stood where we stand now, and that is that the only solution is two states living side by side in peace and security, Palestine and Israel, and that every other policy, every other terrorism, whether it is Hamas terrorism or state terrorism on the other side, is something that should be condemned,” he emphasized.
He also spoke about the conflict with Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian diplomacy over this decision.
“Obviously, the Vucic of the nineties has returned to the scene. The declaration of the all-Serb assembly is nothing else – I said in the UN Security Council that I would not present our evidence about what he intends. Here is the publication of their declaration, this is an indictment for what he did,” he said.
He referred to Zeljka Cvijanovic, a member of the Presidency of BiH, having called him a “renegade.”
“Since I am a renegade, according to her words, I am a renegade among renegades; they are renegades. I really do not work with renegades of this state of BiH, and I never will cooperate. As for Dodik-Cvijanovic, I think that with Dodik’s departure, there will be a scramble in the penalty area, that there will be quite a few ‘little Dodiks,’ between his current henchmen, who all recognize him, and none recognizes one another beyond him,” said the head of the BiH mission to the UN.
Lagumdzija commented on the appointment of Ana Trisic-Babic as acting president of the RS, noting that they had worked together before.
“In my second ministerial term, from 2010 to 2014, she was my deputy. We appointed her head of the Committee for Cooperation with NATO. Those were the star moments of our cooperation with the NATO pact. Let me remind you that that was a different Milorad Dodik era. It was Dodik who, when Joe Biden came here as the United States (U.S.) Vice President and gave a speech in the Parliament of BiH, calling us party leaders. Dodik immediately took the floor and said: ‘Mr. Vice President, I heard someone is accusing me here of being against NATO. Please, don’t let anyone lie to you! I am a man who is soul and heart for the NATO pact. If needed, I will sign it now for us to join the NATO pact tomorrow.’ It’s a pity Holbrooke wasn’t here; he would immediately take out a paper and put it in front of him to sign,” Lagumdzija said.
Finally, he said that nothing spectacular will happen at the UN Security Council meeting on BiH, and that Dodik could flee BiH, Klix.ba writes.
