“Michael Murphy is trying to assert control over all political processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina through a policy of force, but this won’t pass in Republika Srpska,” said Željko Budimir, Minister for Scientific Technological Development and Higher Education of Republika Srpska. He mentioned that Murphy is acting unlawfully, violating diplomatic conventions by meddling in the internal affairs of a country and infringing upon its sovereignty.
Budimir emphasized that the continuous actions of American, British, and other Western embassies show that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not sovereign. He clarified that one part of Bosnia and Herzegovina is sovereign, and that’s Republika Srpska, which doesn’t permit ambassadors to interfere in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal politics. On the other hand, he criticized that in political Sarajevo, ambassadors and their policies are seen as something that needs to reconfigure Bosnia and Herzegovina into a political community that would suit the Bosniak population.
He pointed out that it’s particularly detrimental that Murphy, at a day-to-day political level, engages in personal conflicts with the highest democratic representatives of Republika Srpska and attempts to involve other foreign policy bodies of the United States.
Regarding the statements made by the Minister of Defense in the Council of Ministers, Zukan Helez, Budimir stated that neither Helez nor the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ramo Isak, could approach serious political positions if Bosnia and Herzegovina were even a slightly normal country.
Budimir further commented that Helez’s claims about the existence of paramilitary camps in Republika Srpska, without presenting any evidence, reduce themselves to certain media harangues and attempts at spinning the narrative. He emphasized that it has no connection to common sense, criticizing the lack of substantial substance in Helez’s statements.
