Western violations of the Dayton Peace Agreement began even before it was signed and have continued for three decades, speakers emphasized at the international scientific conference “Dayton 30” held at the Russian House in Belgrade.
Participants agreed that Republika Srpska continues to fight for the letter of Dayton, for peace, and for the protection of its institutions. They stated that Dayton remains sustainable — but only through full respect for the equality of the three constituent peoples and the parity of the two entities.
For all 30 years since the agreement was signed, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional structure has been undermined in attempts to impose unitarism. The process, said Minister of Science, Technological Development and Higher Education of Republika Srpska Siniša Karan, has been driven by high representatives who have issued 913 decisions and imposed 166 laws that stripped Republika Srpska of its competencies. He linked this to the latest interventions by Schmidt and the Constitutional Court of BiH.
“By doing so, he has fully exposed and unmasked all those who are dismantling the constitutional order of BiH and the equality of its peoples. They seek domination instead of consensus, compromise, and parity — but domination can never succeed,” Karan stated.
Bosnia’s ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Vranješ, said the Constitutional Court had shown itself to be a political body serving a protectorate-like colonial administration, unaware of its true constitutional role.
“The entire case against President Dodik was fabricated. There is no constitutional basis for a non-parliamentary criminal offense imposed by some German tourist in BiH, under which the president was prosecuted,” Vranješ noted.
Vice President of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Anja Ljubojević, added that the Constitutional Court has been one of the main sources of political crises in BiH since the beginning.
“We had almost forgotten about it amid figures like Murphy and Schmidt, who keep creating problems in BiH. But the Constitutional Court was the root of many of them,” Ljubojević said.
Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Bocan-Kharchenko stated that Western countries began violating Dayton even before the ink had dried on it.
“Right after it was signed, a series of tricks and manipulations followed. The gravest violation — which marked the beginning of a permanent crisis in BiH — was the introduction of the so-called Bonn Powers for the high representative, a year and a bit after Dayton was concluded,” Bocan-Kharchenko said.
Participants concluded that Dayton has been desecrated, while Republika Srpska continues to fight for peace and the preservation of its institutions. They warned that without dialogue and internal consensus, Bosnia and Herzegovina risks disintegration.
Academic Vitomir Popović emphasized that Dayton can still endure — but only under strict adherence to its founding principles.
“It can survive only if there is full alignment on the basic premises on which it was created — respect for the complete equality of the three constituent peoples and the parity of the two entities,” Popović stated.
The conference, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement, was organized by the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Foundation in cooperation with the Russian House in Belgrade and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Serbia.
Source: RTRS
