Ahić: For the Situation in BiH, the Proposer Cvijanović and the Voters Are Responsible - Tadić and the Prosecutor's Office Are Now on the Move

Interviewed by: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

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Professor Jasmin Ahić from the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies said in an interview for the Patria News Agency very clearly that the institutions of government in BiH, supported by the international community, must react in the new situation of undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement and the announced blockades of elected representatives of Republika Srpska in BiH institutions.

Professor Ahić's scientific areas of interest are political sciences, security, private security, terrorism...

Prof. Ahić, it is evident that we have actions by elected officials who are committing a criminal offense, not respecting the decisions of the Constitutional Court, calling for secession, threatening referendums, blocking the work of state institutions, while the BiH Prosecutor's Office is silent. What kind of message is that and what is this about?

AHIĆ: I absolutely agree that BiH, together with all its internal and regional problems, has entered a phase in which the previous application of soft measures, soft diplomacy, can no longer be applied. We saw this in the past three days, especially yesterday, in a situation where the international community, primarily with the institutions that are guarantors of the Dayton Peace Agreement, such as the PIC, but also the Quint embassies and the US ambassador to BiH, adopted an approach that enters the form of hard diplomacy - sanctions.

The constant calls for separatism, secession, and the public highlighting of anti-Dayton categories and direct confrontation with criminal offenses have led both the international community and our society to the point where sanctions must be applied.

Who, how, and in what way?

AHIĆ: It is clear that the judicial authorities, primarily the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić, regardless of everything, must first initiate an investigation, and then determine or dismiss what can be charged in all these events. I refer to the experience related to the referendum on the Day of RS, in which the heads of the electoral, i.e., referendum commission, were treated by the judicial authorities, i.e., the BiH Prosecutor's Office.

And in which no result was achieved, i.e., no sanctions that are clearly positioned in the Criminal Code of BiH. Referring to previous experience and the procedure itself that occurred, I am convinced that this will be the case now as well in the unconstitutional actions of actors in the institutions of the RS government.

At that time, members of the Referendum Commission were treated. From whom should the judiciary start working in its investigations today?

AHIĆ: I am sure that the investigation will institutionally and officially include those who acted unconstitutionally in the situation where they presented or proposed such unconstitutional conclusions adopted by the NSRS.

So that is Željka Cvijanović?

AHIĆ: That is certainly Prime Minister Željka Cvijanović, among other responsible persons, who positioned such conclusions for a vote in the NSRS, or those who voted. She, as the proposer, is responsible, because the president of the Referendum Commission on the Day of RS was the only one indicted.

Is Milorad Dodik then being absolved of responsibility? In public, we hear more and more that he knows what he is doing in a calculated manner, but public incitement is also a criminal offense, isn't it?

AHIĆ: In any case, the judicial profession must say that, i.e., the judicial authorities. It is clear that a call for separatism of any part of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an unconstitutional category. Incitement to commit a criminal offense, orchestration, preparation - all these are very serious elements of criminal responsibility.

If we do not get an epilogue in the form of an indictment, what will that say about BiH's judiciary, and what should we expect from the international community?

AHIĆ: It will say that they are inefficient and that we, as a society and citizens, are aware that the judiciary is like that, inefficient, and that the judicial system in BiH does not function.

The international community, regardless of the report by Reinhard Pribea, which we can call soft diplomatic, is aware that it will have to radically reform what it has created and put it within frameworks in which it can function, regardless of who it suits or not.

Let's return to Dodik. The meeting in East Sarajevo is over, the decision has been definitively confirmed that the blockades in state institutions will continue. Your comment?

AHIĆ: The strategy implemented by Milorad Dodik is quite confusing, and he is trying to hide the shortcomings, both from the public opinion in the RS and on the regional level, because it is clear that the Reform Program sent to Brussels for NATO was the drop that spilled the glass, and now it is necessary to maximize the situation in which he will justify himself before his voters, but also regional and global players.