There are moments when a political demand reveals more about the system in which it is made than about the event that supposedly triggered it. The demand to abolish the Agreement on Special Parallel Relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska because of Ratko Mladić’s funeral is precisely such a moment, legal expert Ognjen Tadić wrote in an opinion column.
His column follows in full:
If it is possible to demand the abolition of relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska because of Ratko Mladić’s funeral, then another question must also be asked: by the same logic, should Republika Srpska sever its relations and ties with BiH and the Federation of BiH because Rasim Delić was buried in Sarajevo with full military honors?
Principles must apply to everyone
Several thousand people attended the funeral of Rasim Delić, who had been convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Among those present were numerous representatives of the religious, military, political and public life of BiH and the Federation of BiH.
The religious ceremony was led by Mustafa Cerić, then Grand Mufti of the Islamic Community in BiH. A commemoration and honor guard involving members of the Armed Forces of BiH from the Federation of BiH were held at the Armed Forces Hall in Sarajevo. Delić’s wartime role was praised in speeches by then-Defense Minister in the Council of Ministers Selmo Cikotić and then-Chairman of the BiH Presidency Haris Silajdžić.
Like Ratko Mladić, Rasim Delić was not an ordinary soldier. He served as Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Republic of BiH.
The Agreement on Special Parallel Relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska is part of the same Dayton architecture that also encompasses Republika Srpska’s relations with BiH and the Federation of BiH. It should therefore be clear that one cannot accept a logic under which one of these two funerals is used as grounds for dismantling an institutional relationship while expecting the other funeral not to be subjected to the same political criteria and principles.
Moreover, using an individual event as grounds for an attack on the entire political order raises the question: what comes next? Abolishing an institution because of someone’s photograph? Removing competencies because of someone’s political statement? Perhaps abolishing the rights of an entire people because of someone’s speech?
On madmen, every shirt is a straitjacket
Mladić’s funeral is not the cause, but merely another in a long series of pretexts used in a decades-long search for ways to unravel Dayton.
For decades, political Sarajevo has drawn part of its political energy from the claim that the Dayton structure is an obstacle to creating a state according to its own vision. Put simply, it is pathologically incapable of accepting the equality of the peoples in BiH and the existence of Republika Srpska. Its internal unrest is now once again threatening to endanger peace.
It is no coincidence that political Sarajevo developed its now long-standing metaphor of Dayton as a “straitjacket.” When political change is sought by removing one constituent people from an equal position, portraying that people as inherently criminal, or by destroying Republika Srpska, as Zukan Helez is once again advocating, politics inevitably returns to the realm of abnormality that has already led this country once before to a catastrophic outcome and tragic conflict.
Equal or not at all
BiH cannot be kept alive by prohibiting one side from doing what is permitted to another. Even less can it survive through the constant changing of rules to benefit one side or harm another.
Therefore, if Delić’s funeral had to be accepted as it was, then Mladić’s funeral must also be accepted. And if Republika Srpska’s relations with Serbia are being challenged because of Mladić’s funeral, then Delić’s funeral must likewise open the question of Republika Srpska’s relations with BiH and the Federation of BiH.
Source: RTRS
