The agenda planned during Vučić's visit to Sarajevo needs to be changed: Dodik is once again deceiving Serbia

Written by: Muharem Cero

That Dodik – Vučić's meeting last Saturday was not just within the framework of what was presented to the public, and above all the announced Serbian-Serbian Declaration, could be seen almost the same night, but from the mouth of Mladen Ivanić, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina who was not present at the meeting.

The primary reason for Vučić's official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina is not the Declaration, which was thrown like a bogeyman before the eyes of Bosniaks, but a much more important interest for both Vučić and Dodik. Namely, behind the scenes of the Declaration, the candidacy of the infamous "territorial exchange" between the BiH entity Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbia was taking place.

The genesis of the story looks like this: Despite the ruling of the Constitutional Court of BiH U1/11 and the Law on Prohibition of Disposal of State Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National Assembly of RS unilaterally passed two laws: the Law on Forests of RS and the Law on Agricultural Land. With these laws, the entity Republika Srpska declared the state property of Bosnia and Herzegovina (forests and forest land, and state agricultural land) as the property of the entity, and by applying the Law on Real Rights of RS, it registered itself as the holder in the ownership books, while the actual holder, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was erased from ownership.

This unconstitutional legal situation, although not challenged so far, is legally null and void by the Law on Prohibition of Disposal of State Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The silence of the state Prosecutor's Office of BiH, and the Prosecutor's Office of RS, continues, although they are precisely the ones competent to initiate annulment proceedings for such null and void actions. They are obliged to do so by the valid laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It should be noted that the unconstitutional actions were tolerated by both the OHR and those who are constitutionally authorized to submit assessments of the constitutionality of laws (let the SDA stalwarts recognize themselves).

The drafting of interstate agreements on a possible exchange of territory between the Republic of Serbia and BiH must be preceded by a return to the previous state, i.e., the return of the disputed territory to the state of BiH. Only then would the possibilities for drafting valid interstate agreements be created. Any other approach would not produce legal effects, would be destructible, and ultimately would produce a status of legal uncertainty for both contracting parties.

It seems that Dodik did not inform President Vučić at Saturday's meeting that his hands are deeply in the jam of unconstitutionality in this story.

The other side – the authorized institutions of BiH – is not blameless in this story either. Whether it is an oversight, ignorance, or something else, they will have to explain to the public. It is expected that nothing more will emerge from diplomatic negligence, so the proposed agenda planned during Vučić's visit to Sarajevo should be changed.