The departure of the illegitimate High Representative and foreign judges from the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina after March 21st. This was conveyed by the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, in Vienna at the Diplomatic Academy to participants of a panel discussion on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of its European path. He emphasized that the false High Representative, Christian Schmidt, makes decisions on laws, which is unprecedented anywhere in the world, and that Republika Srpska refuses to live in an unconstitutional Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The President of Srpska was clear at the panel on the European future of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vienna. Following March 21st and the EU’s decision on negotiations, Bosnia and Herzegovina must cease to be under international administration.
“In accordance with European standards, the false High Representative should disappear by March 23rd, and the foreign judges who do not reside in Bosnia and Herzegovina and participate in this judicial process should leave the Constitutional Court,” Dodik said.
We should thank foreigners for their help, but key decisions must be made by ourselves, agreed the First Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Čović.
“We are confident that we will receive a positive response by March 21st. We must prepare Bosnia and Herzegovina for a process that must be based on parliamentary democracy,” stated Čović.
Dialogue and compromise on the European path have no alternative. The goal is the same, to be where we belong, with the hope of the European Union’s green light to start negotiations.
“We are facing serious work after the opening of chapters, but it is encouraging that the European Union has recognized the efforts made and that a series of legal solutions on the EU path have been successfully negotiated,” stated the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Nikšić.
However, there are still laws that are not harmonized, such as the Law on the Court, which is primarily contested over the location of the Appeals Council.
“We believe that it is a compromise not to call it the Higher but the Appeals Court and that its location in East Sarajevo is a compromise. Why not in Banja Luka? Well, it can be in Banja Luka,” Nikšić said.
“If we have agreed that it be in Republika Srpska, then the people, the representatives of the authorities in Republika Srpska, should define where it is most suitable,” Čović was clear.
It is also necessary to define changes to the Electoral Law without unpacking the Constitution, without which, even after four electoral cycles, Croats will not have a legitimately elected member of the Presidency.
“The Croatian people have not appointed their representatives in the diplomatic corps four times already; currently, there are 14 representatives who could not speak on behalf of the Croats in the world,” Čović added.
At the panel, the question was also raised – whether Dodik will cease to meet with the President of Russia if negotiations with the European Union open. He will not, was Dodik’s response. Speaking about the conflict in Ukraine, he stated that he does not justify the war and that it is not about aggression. This, he says, is not a relationship between Ukraine and Russia, but between the West and Russia through Ukraine.
“Russia is a witness to the Dayton Agreement. Imagine us, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is regulated by Dayton and has received a constitution, we need to impose sanctions on Russia because someone in Vienna, Berlin is angry, and so we must do the same, this is absurd,” emphasized Dodik.
On the European path, we want a constitutional and Dayton-regulated Bosnia and Herzegovina, not governed by foreigners, reiterated the President of Srpska, despite the label of separatist that they are trying to affix to him, especially not through usurped powers. No president or king, says Dodik, has the authority to impose laws, as Christian Schmidt attempts to do.
“Milorad Dodik and Republika Srpska advocate for a constitutional Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. We oppose an unconstitutional and anti-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. We resist decisions made by illegal foreigners who refuse laws. These should be made by three peoples in two entities,” Dodik emphasized.
Whether Bosnia and Herzegovina will strictly adhere to Dayton and the constitution or will revise it, whether it will be a state of two entities and three peoples or a state of citizens, for attorney Anto Nobilo, are questions that, instead of being resolved through the agreement of three peoples, are attempted to be resolved through unilateral action by Christian Schmidt through criminal proceedings against the President of Srpska, whom
Schmidt wishes to remove from the political scene.
“Schmidt has judged that by removing him, he will achieve all political goals. How he removes the problem – he himself amends the Criminal Law, determining that the criminal offense is disregarding his decisions – Dodik goes to prison and cannot be involved in politics,” believes Nobilo.
Despite such objectives, Dodik’s message today is that the European path, which is used to change the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is always the property of the country and not the imposition of decisions from outside.
“Either Europe will say that it can move forward with international administration, that this is the new standard. Or it will have to abandon this international administration and let the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina sovereignly decide about this process,” concluded Dodik.
Source: RTRS
