Bandić sends open letter to PIC Steering Board and UN, warns of Schmidt's biased actions

(Patria) - Member of the Main Board of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina and head of the party's caucus in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton Muamer Bandić sent an open letter to the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board and the United Nations in which he warns about the biased actions of High Representative Christian Schmidt.

We transmit the letter in its entirety:

"To the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board
To the United Nations

Your Excellencies, esteemed ambassadors of the member states of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board,

I am addressing you as the competent institution that appointed Christian Schmidt as High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the institution that pays him to work on building peace and stability in BiH, establishing the rule of law, and achieving all the goals defined in the OHR Mission Implementation Plan.

My need to address you stems from concern for the future of my country and the future of those of us who have no backup homeland due to the deeply concerning actions of Mr. Schmidt, who uses the position of absolute political power in Bosnia and Herzegovina to favor and strengthen the position of followers of dark ideologies and political goals that have been condemned by the highest international judicial instances for Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE), causing war in this country, the most monstrous crimes, ethnic cleansing, and the Srebrenica Genocide.

I sincerely believe that you will agree with me on a basic civilizational level that the fundamental prerequisites for establishing peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina are building state institutions at all levels and establishing the rule of law. Therefore, it is quite understandable that, in the past period, the efforts of our international friends were precisely directed towards building the institutions of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and strengthening its judicial system. Unfortunately, from today's perspective, these efforts have yielded no results due to strong criminal political oligarchies that have been destroying the system from within, blocking all positive processes, and ultimately euthanizing institutions, both executive, legislative, and judicial, all with the aim of proving that Bosnia and Herzegovina is an impossible and non-functional state. The space for such actions was largely provided by the previous High Representative Valentin Inzko, who mostly, in response to continuous, public anti-civilizational and anti-state statements, expressed concern and did not interfere too much in his job.

With the arrival of Mr. Schmidt as High Representative, we hoped that someone was finally coming to our country to establish order and sanction those who threaten the peace, stability, and European path of our country. However, Mr. Schmidt's mandate as High Representative so far has been marked mainly by the strengthening of anti-state elements on the political scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the targeted weakening of pro-Bosnian forces, that is, all those who fought, both in war and peace, for basic civilizational values and for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a normal, European state. I will remind you of the fact that until Mr. Schmidt's arrival in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the formation of government in the Federation of BiH was blocked for a full four years due to the blackmail and arbitrariness of the HDZ BiH. Of course, all this passed without any international reactions or sanctions.

From the very arrival of Christian Schmidt in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, a signatory state of the Dayton Peace Agreement and an active participant in the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, publicly boasted that he agrees on all political moves with Mr. Schmidt. And this proved true when, in the middle of election night and when it was clear that the HDZ BiH and its satellites would not win a sufficient number of votes, the High Representative intervened in the Election Law of BiH and changed the election rules during the election process itself. I believe this was a precedent unprecedented in the history of modern parliamentary democracy. And this, gentlemen ambassadors, passed with your tacit consent.

When even that was not enough, Mr. Schmidt again used his powers and temporarily suspended the Constitution of the FBiH only to establish the government in the Federation of BiH according to the will and desire of the HDZ BiH, completely marginalizing the election results and the political will of the majority people of the Federation of BiH, the Bosniaks. As a lawyer, I really do not understand how the rule of law is established in a country by a gross suspension of the Constitution as the highest legal act, while at the same time not sanctioning those who completely ignored that same Constitution for four years? Unfortunately, this act, which in any normal country would be called a coup d'état, also passed without any reaction from the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board.

As I write this, the blockade of the work of the FBiH Parliament is in full swing, conditioned by the election of the HDZ's candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH, who has no judicial competence or experience in judicial practice, except that he is the HDZ's choice for that position. Of course, there is no reaction to such nepotistic and unlawful actions contrary to all the values and principles you publicly advocate, neither from the High Representative nor from the Peace Implementation Council.

At the same time, on the other hand, we have strong attacks on the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Milorad Dodik and his deeply criminalized partitocracy, from public threats of secession to the adoption of unconstitutional laws to which Mr. Schmidt, as High Representative, does not react even though that is his job! Moreover, in practice we have seen the High Representative flee from any confrontation with such open fascist rampage. What security and what protection should the few returnees in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina expect then? If Mr. Schmidt truly cared about returnees, he would go and visit those who were attacked and provide them with protection through the instruments at his disposal.

However, Mr. Schmidt finds it more important to attend a tennis tournament and take photos in the company of apologists for convicted war criminals.

Because of all this, gentlemen ambassadors, I ask you through this letter: what are threats to peace and stability if not calls for secession and continuous unconstitutional actions and glorification of convicted war criminals? Likewise, I ask you: how long will you remain silent or express concern? How many more returnees need to be attacked or how many institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina need to be dismantled?

With such an attitude towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, you are only opening space and strengthening the most radical elements in our society, killing the European perspective and future of this country. Do not forget that this people and this country have already been brutally betrayed twice by smooth-talking diplomacy that says one thing and does another. Once in 1992, and the second time in 1995.

Now, when the High Representative is openly working in favor of anti-state elements, it is time for you to stand behind your words and sanction all those who are destroying the constitutional and legal order and who are a threat to peace and stability, even if it concerns the High Representative himself. The policy of false neutrality, non-confrontation, inaction, and observation has yielded no results, and this is visible from the fragility of state institutions and the dysfunctional judicial system in which you have invested so much time, money, and energy.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is at a crossroads: to remain forever trapped in the so-called Dayton phase or to move into the so-called Brussels phase. And everything that is happening in practice tells us that a step into the Brussels phase is impossible as long as anti-state elements ravage the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, freely and openly destroy its institutions, ignore laws, and, most dangerously, are actively assisted in this by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

Therefore, I am addressing you with a human plea to act in accordance with the principles and values you advocate. You simply must not leave in the lurch the people who are the most liberal and politically most pluralistic part of Bosnian-Herzegovinian society, and make political concessions to followers of ideologies that have been destroying this state for over 30 years and keeping it in the criminalized darkness of tribal relations. Because if you do not do this now, I think that after everything we, European-oriented Bosnians and Herzegovinians, are experiencing in our own country, it is brutal cynicism to even talk about peace, stability, coexistence, and European integration.

Europe has almost lost its political credibility and ground here because what we see in practice is that European policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is not governed by the values and principles that the EU proclaims, but by sheer opportunism. Only in this way is it possible to understand why the Peace Implementation Council and the High Representative do not act and do not sanction open fascism, glorification of convicted war criminals, attacks on returnees, anti-state and unconstitutional actions of Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, but instead reward them at every step and make all kinds of political concessions to them, while pro-Bosnian forces, who have fought since independence for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a normal European state of equal citizens, are pushed to the political margins.

Your Excellencies, gentlemen ambassadors,

do not forget that if Bosnia and Herzegovina is not possible, then be sure of one thing: the European Union will not be possible either, because the political practices you are implementing here will sooner or later arrive in your own backyard, no matter how high a wall you build around it," the letter states.