Knock on knock

Although until just a few months ago it seemed that Bosnia and Herzegovina was gaining the contours of a stable political society, and that the wounds of war were becoming less painful, and national disagreements were losing their intensity, which was greatly contributed to by the democratic changes in Croatia and Serbia, the country once again found itself in a difficult situation. political crisis. The strongest party of Bosnian Croats - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), dissatisfied with being pushed out of power at the state and entity level - initiated the declaration of Croatian self-government, which effectively created the third entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the Croatian National Assembly held in Mostar on March 3, representatives of the HDZ and delegates from several other smaller parties, as well as representatives of the church and various social organizations, mainly from Herzegovina, formed a parastatal in the territory where the majority of the Croatian people live.

The reason for the unilateral formation of a new entity in BiH dates back to the creation of the Federation of BiH in 1994, a joint entity of Bosniaks and Croats. However, as this creation was created under international pressure, and as it never truly came to life due to the constant clashing of Bosniak and Croat nationalism, representatives of the HDZ always emphasized the desire for a separate - their own - entity, which, in their opinion, would create BiH composed of of three equal national parts; in that case, each nation would have equal rights in common institutions.

HUGE DISORDER: The direct reason for the final realization of this aspiration was the creation of the Alliance for Changes in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a post-election coalition composed of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two other smaller Croatian parties. This alliance took power in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and completely pushed HDZ out of power. It was similar at the state level, where the Alliance teamed up with some Serbian parties. In such a combination of forces, the HDZ was transferred to the opposition at the state level as well.

Going into opposition is nothing strange for uninational and democratic societies. But in BiH, which is a tri-national state and in which the personal national key is applied in the highest authority, the ousting of the HDZ from power must have led to major political disturbances. Namely, HDZ won more than 70 percent of the votes of Bosnian Croats in the last elections. Therefore, it enjoys the enormous support of one of the three constitutive nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the Alliance for Change, thanks to the fact that it has a parliamentary majority and that there are Croatian cadres within it, appointed Croats to Croatian positions in the government who objectively do not have the support of the Croatian electorate.

After that, the HDZ left the highest levels of government in the country, announcing that it would not recognize any government without a representative from this party. This whole process was sponsored by the international community, which openly stood behind the more moderate forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and declared HDZ, SDS and SDA guilty of all the bad things that happened in the last ten years.

At the assembly in Mostar, a number of decisions were made, the implementation of which will seriously threaten the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Above all, the position that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer recognize the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina was underlined. It was decided to declare Croatian self-government headed by a Legislative Council made up of representatives of Croats who won votes in the last elections. Some kind of government will be formed to implement the decisions of this body. The functioning of these institutions, as well as the entire parastatal creation, will be ensured from public revenues that will be redirected to the new authorities. Namely, the areas where the Croats are in the majority, according to the decisions of this meeting, should stop paying taxes and contributions to the budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but redirect them towards the new, Croatian unit. It was emphasized that this type of government will exist until the constitutional transformation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is carried out, in which the full equality of the Croatian people would be ensured. In this sense, the Croatian National Assembly adopted a platform for the reorganization of BiH, which it forwarded to the UN Security Council, American President Bush and members of the European Union. It insists on the creation of a federal state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would consist of several federal units, with equal rights and responsibilities. It is interesting that in each unit one of the constitutive peoples would be the majority, but the other two peoples would be completely equal and constitutive. The new federal state would have common institutions that would operate on the principle of parity, consensus and rotation.

PROHIBITIONS: Immediately after the holding of the Parliament, there were fierce reactions from the international community, which has been warning the HDZ for a long time to give up on the creation of self-government, which is the grossest violation of the Dayton Agreement. The High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petrič, made the harshest political decision so far in his mandate. He dismissed all the leading people of the Croatian Democratic Union from political and state positions. This decision included the president of the party, otherwise a member of the BiH Presidency, Anta Jelavić, member of the BiH Parliament and until recently the President of the Federation of BiH, Ivo Andrić Lužanski, and high-ranking Croatian officials Marko Tokić and Zdravko Batinić. They are prohibited from any political involvement and participation in elections.

The possibility of banning the highest officials of the HDZ from entering the countries of the European Union is also being considered, which was once a measure against Slobodan Milošević's closest associates. There is even an option to ask the authorities in the Republic of Croatia to confiscate the Croatian passports of these officials, because all Croats in BiH have dual citizenship, BiH and Croatian. However, in addition to personal sanctions, the international community is also planning economic sanctions against the Croatian self-government. Although Petrič said that the sanctions will not be directed against the Croatian people, it can be expected that all banks, companies and institutions that support this self-government will be isolated, and that they will be denied any international assistance. It is clear that the international community is determined not to allow the revival of Croatian self-government. The serious political career of high-ranking HDZ officials is definitely buried, and the entire economic system in western Herzegovina, which is otherwise very successful, will be destroyed if it is put on the side of self-government.

SERBIAN THE TURN: Bosniak reactions to the formation of Croatian self-government were also fierce. The leadership of the Party of Democratic Action assessed that the latest Croatian moves were greatly facilitated by the international community with its biased attitude towards the Alliance for Change. However, the creation of the Croatian National Assembly was called "dangerous and illegal". All Bosniak parties and institutions called the Croatian self-government the "reincarnation of Herceg-Bosnia".

When it comes to the Serbian side, there has been a strong turn in relation to this problem. During the post-war years, the Serbian parties, and especially the SDS, were sympathetic to the Croatian demands for the creation of a third entity, because the Croatian demands were essentially decentralist, which suited the Serbian side as well.

Namely, both BiH-Serbs and BiH-Croats had a common position that BiH must be an absolutely decentralized state with a minimum of shared competences. Therefore, the Serbian parties believed that the Republika Srpska would have more independence if the Federation of BiH was divided into two national parts. However, since the Croatian demands for the creation of a third entity did not have any support from the international community, and lately not even from Croatia, the HDZ decided to propose the creation of BiH composed of several federal units, which practically means the abolition of Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. This proposal is based on HDZ's assessment that the international community, as well as the Bosniaks, would rather accept such a reorganization of BiH than a pure tri-national division.

As soon as HDZ officials presented such proposals, they lost all support from Republika Srpska, because all the political forces there are strongly against any idea of ​​abolishing this entity. From yesterday's ally in the decentralization of Bosnia, the HDZ has become the biggest threat to Republika Srpska. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the agreement on special relations between the Republika Srpska and the FR Yugoslavia was almost immediately drawn up and signed. The Serbian authorities wanted to underline the existence of the Republika Srpska with this agreement. If someone even tried to abolish this entity, he would have to oppose the new authorities in Yugoslavia, which have the strong support of the international community.

WORRIED CROATIA: The Bosnian issue once again worried the authorities in Croatia. They did not support the decision on Croatian self-government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but they are asking for an urgent dialogue. The president of HSLS, from the Croatian six, Dražen Budiša, proposed to define the new internal organization of BiH as a state with 10 to 12 cantons, and to abolish the entities as national exclusive territories. Croatian President Stipe Mesić thinks similarly, and it is not excluded that Croatia will soon come out with an official position on the reorganization of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Precisely because of the strong opposition of the Serbian side, it is unrealistic to expect a new conference on Bosnia and Herzegovina, or at least not on the scale that HDZ desires. It is undeniable that the HDZ has somewhat drawn attention to the problem of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For a long time, the international community has been making moves that lead to the relativization of national exclusivities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, they are unlikely to support requests to abolish the entity, as this would open up a crisis of unimaginable proportions. But, nevertheless, increasingly frequent demands from both the Croat and Bosniak sides will cause the Republika Srpska to face increasingly harsh international demands to enable the smooth return of refugees and ensure full equality of Bosniaks and Croats in it. If the authorities in the Republika Srpska understand these demands not as a necessary evil but as an acceptance of civilizational values, they will in the best way oppose the aspirations for the abolition of this entity.