He seems to be running away from them, they want to arrest him

Za "Time" from Banja Luka

Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomes the thirtieth anniversary of peace with the confirmation of absurdities, which have become a trademark of dominant policies and an insult to the common sense of the few inhabitants that are still left in the country.

The political leadership of Republika Srpska, apart from vain hope in American President Trump, is doing everything to return Dayton to its original settings, cancel the state judicial institutions, expel the High Representative from Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopt a new entity constitution that plans military alliances with Serbia and Hungary, and all this while swearing by the Dayton Peace Agreement.

In fact, Milorad Dodik convinces the domestic and international public that by demolishing Dayton he is saving Bosnia and Herzegovina while at the same time calling for dialogue, it is understood according to his rules. No one wants to talk to Dodik, at least publicly.

In addition, Trump has not lifted the sanctions against the entity president and his family, but he has not yet thought of appointing a new ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has more important work and ambitions - to prevent a nuclear war, annex Greenland, end Russia's years-long aggression against Ukraine in one day, raise and lower customs duties at will... It is none of his business.

Part of the political leadership in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina calls for patience and faith in domestic judicial institutions that should arrest Milorad Dodik, Nenad Stevandić and Radovan Višković. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a warrant for these officials from Republika Srpska after they did not respond to the invitation to the hearing of the Prosecutor's Office, which charges them with a series of criminal offenses that amount to an attack on the constitutional order. At the same time, he also hopes that EUFOR will do the "dirty and risky job of arresting" for them or that Interpol will issue a red warrant for "fugitives from the BiH judiciary".

Sead Numanović, editor of the Politiki.ba portal, tells "Vreme" that "the state is running away from Dodik".

CALLS FOR VOLUNTARY EXILE

At the same time, Dodik emphasizes that it does not occur to him to leave Republika Srpska, marking the process against him as "political persecution": "If I leave it to the young people here, everyone will leave. For the sake of young people, we must fight so that Republika Srpska is not dismantled", because "SNSD has no intention of losing".

The security and police agencies are supposedly arresting Dodik, and they are praying to God to run as far away from them as possible. Likewise, some politicians in Banja Luka and Sarajevo are calling for Dodik's flight out of the country. In the meantime, Dodik flies freely, travels, crosses borders where no one stops him and threatens to respond with fire to the armed special forces guarding him, because it is their "constitutional obligation" to attempt to arrest him.

That other part of the police and security services, which works wholeheartedly for Dodik's protection, thereby exposes itself to the commission of criminal acts. The other part of the political elite in the second Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity, while at the same time criticizing Dodik for disrespecting state institutions and calling this adventure of his an attack on the constitutional order, holds him firmly in a political embrace and saves him from being thrown out of power at the state level. Dragan Čović and HDZ BiH are obstructing all attempts to expel the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats from the Council of Ministers and to replace ministers from this party with opposition ministers from Republika Srpska.

With the wholehearted support of neighboring Croatia, Dragan Čović presents himself as the greatest European in the region. Namely, official Zagreb is lobbying for speeding up BiH's European path by blackmailing Brussels bureaucrats by amending the Election Law in BiH, which would cement HDZ BiH's position as a member of the BiH Presidency. At the same time, Croatia is not thinking about following some of the European Union members such as Germany, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, sanctioning the leadership of Republika Srpska. And Dragan Čović obviously supports Dodik's journey to Europe via Moscow.

The opposition Troika from the RS - the Serbian Democratic Party, the Party of Democratic Progress and the Movement for Justice and Order - set out to destroy Dodik at the state level. It turned out to be an almost impossible mission both because of the blockades from the SNSD and HDZ BiH, as well as shooting itself in the foot. Because while they fiercely criticize Dodik and his two-decade rule, which they say was a raid on public resources and goods, at the same time they must try to remove the stigma that they are traitors and foreign mercenaries.

BATA GAŠIĆ IN ACTION

There are rumors in the political circles that the opposition in the RS is playing to the notes from Serbia and that this is the reason why they add a belt every time to save Dodik's power in the entity parliament. Namely, the opposition fulfills telephone orders from Belgrade when it is ordered. And all this for the sake of protecting "Serbian national interests, evil foreigners and political Sarajevo".

By the way, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been announcing apocalyptic scenarios from the very beginning of Milorad Dodik's trial, and a few days ago he warned that "there will be a lot of trouble and problems".

"I have a great fear about the situation in BiH, I will not comment further, lest I behave like them, because there are many, let's call it, irresponsible people in Sarajevo," said Vučić. "And that's why I'm going to keep quiet and I'm not going to answer them for everything they do on a daily basis, and I'm afraid that many people don't understand the essence of things, who blame everything on President Dodik."

Critical self-reflection on the moves of the authorities from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the consequences and reactions to the agenda of the "Serbian world" was, as usual, absent from Vučić's presentation. That's why the action of the Minister of Defense of Serbia, Bratislava Gašić, who sat down while the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina was being played, was considered by many to be the move of an irresponsible and rude politician. Nevertheless, Gašić followed the actions of his hosts Milorad Dodik and Nenad Stevandić, who by sitting during the playing of the national anthem only confirmed what they have been saying for years - that they do not respect their own country. True, fighting for the Dayton BiH.

"The Dayton Agreement contains the right of the RS to special ties, but they do not include military issues or military cooperation in any form of participation of military personnel from Serbia and their presence at celebrations in the RS is not in accordance with the Dayton Agreement, and it is problematic from the aspect of relations between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina", Radomir Nešković, doctor of political science and one of the best experts in the political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, explains to Vreme. "Military representatives of one country can stay in uniform on the territory of another country only if there is an agreement on military cooperation between the countries that includes it. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia have an agreement on military cooperation, training, repairs and servicing of helicopters, demining, joint exercises. This is the cooperation of two countries and does not include military representatives coming whenever they want to the territory of another country. And sitting while the national anthem of one country is being sung is an expression of disrespect for that country."

BiH Defense Minister Zukan Helez announced an internal investigation and "rigorous measures against those who disobeyed his order to ban Milorad Dodik, the President of the RS, Nenad Stevandić, the President of the National Assembly of the RS, and Radovan Višković, the President of the Entity Government, from entering the 'Kozara' barracks to celebrate the anniversary of the Third Infantry Regiment of the Armed Forces".

Helez warned against the violation of the Law on Defense and Hierarchy, disappointed in the Serbian officers who promised him one thing and did the other. The minister did not exclude any option of sanctions. At the same time, the mentioned trio toasted in the barracks in honor of Heleza, who then ordered the suspension of all activities from the Bilateral Cooperation Plan with the Republic of Serbia, except for the already started schooling.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

The international community, which is still an important part of the legal and political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, elegantly leaves domestic structures and institutions to solve their problems, hoping in vain that millions of taxpayers' money of their countries have not been wasted by building supposedly institutions free from political influence and professional integrity.

It is clear to everyone here that for decades the leaders of the parties in power have recruited party people loyal to them to leadership positions. This was unequivocally and publicly demonstrated by the director of SIPE, the state agency for investigations and protection, Darko Ćulum. He was among the first, but also the few, to respond to Milorad Dodik's order to leave this agency and move to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS. The agency was thus left beheaded, given that his deputy Zoran Galić is on the run in Croatia due to abuse of his position and ties to the criminal milieu and receiving a gift. It is believed that he had the wholehearted help of certain links in the system. Among other things, there is a suspicion that information is leaking from the BiH judiciary.

The Council of Ministers did not relieve Ćulum of his duties, so he is still at the head of the institution, where he has not come to work for three months. In return, he advises the entity's minister of internal affairs. And to make the absurdity even greater, Ćulum expressed his desire to return to the director's chair, even though, according to the Labor Law, he should have received a work card a long time ago. It is obvious that he will be more useful to his party leader in his new/old position, and that he is only using the wide opportunities that the insane legal solutions allow him.

Only the Ministry of Security of BiH has not had a minister since January of this year, because at that time Minister Nenad Nešić was in pre-trial detention. It is fortunate that Nešić resigned on his own, otherwise he could have returned directly to the minister's chair after five months in prison.

Nebojša Vukanović, an opposition member from Republika Srpska, was proposed for this position. However, as expected, the chairwoman of the Council of Ministers maneuvered politically and did everything to prevent this appointment, while at the same time violating the Law on the Council of Ministers. Because it turns out that laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina are passed primarily so that those who passed them would violate them when they need to.

Thus, Borjana Kristo did not appoint a candidate for that vacant position within the legal deadline of 15 days. And while the representatives of the so-called federal troika (SDP BiH, Naša stranka and Narod i Pravda) are openly calling on the High Representative to unblock the appointment of the Minister of Security, pointing out that this is an obvious violation of the law and abuse of Borjana Krišto, HDZ BiH leader Dragan Čović supports Dodik's thesis that "no one appointed Šmit", and that he cannot impose anything.

photo: armin durgut / ap photo

SERBIA-CROATIAN UNION AGAINST SCHMITT

SNSD and HDZ BiH consider the possible interference of Kristijan Šmit as "gross interference" and "trampling the constitutional order", which, by all accounts, is exactly what these two parties are doing. Namely, instead of Borjana Krišto, Šmit would send the candidate's name for verification to the competent institutions, and in the case of a "green light", after verification, the candidate's proposal would go to the House of Representatives. The High Representative would thus remove the blockade, so the political decision would be exclusively in the hands of the legislature. All this is not enough for the political elite from the RS to stop insulting this "unnamed foreigner" and to threaten him with arrest on the entity's territory. In the meantime, experience was gained by expelling Šmit's co-conspirator, State Secretary Ana Luhrman, from Banja Luka at the request of Milorad Dodik and despite the fact that the entity is not responsible for foreign policy relations.

Thus, BiH hangs neither in heaven nor on earth, in a state of anticipation as to whether the law will begin to apply to everyone without exception, or whether the well-known tactic of a part of the international community will be continued to swallow a new political frog for the sake of peace and stability at home and continue to sell colorful lies about European values ​​and legal acquis. And in fact, it supports breaking the law, corruption, stifling the freedom of media and opinion, while domestic politicians compete in who will list more millions of taxpayers in arbitration disputes - the Federation or Republika Srpska.