Baroness Helich: Dodik's dismantling of BiH must not entertain the international community

Sarajevo, (Patria) - Baroness Arminka Helich, a member of the House of Lords for the Conservative Party and former advisor to Foreign Secretary William Hague, lectured Milorad Dodik during a BBC Radio appearance this weekend. 

Previously, member of the Presidency Milorad Dodik reiterated his earlier stated positions on withdrawing from the BiH Armed Forces and that the BiH Constitution does not recognize the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina but only the Armed Forces, calling Christian Schmidt a private individual, and stating that Schmidt's report for the UN Security Council was written by a "Muslim intelligence service in Sarajevo".

- To begin with, if you allow me, I would clarify a few false statements made by Mr. Dodik. First of all, Mr. Schmidt is not a private individual; he was appointed by the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board, and the UN Security Council may or may not confirm him. Therefore, he is the legitimate representative of the international community and the final interpreter of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Secondly, there is no Muslim intelligence service in Sarajevo.

Thirdly, if I may say, when we talk about genocide, that was ruled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia when it convicted Ratko Mladić for genocide in Srebrenica; genocide was not committed by one person. It was committed, unfortunately, by the Army of Republika Srpska. And this in no way, shape, or form means that all Serbs are guilty of genocide; Serbs themselves were victims and are victims today of the policies and people like Mr. Dodik. So where are we today?

We are in very uncertain times today because Mr. Dodik, as I would call it, is carrying out a kind of legal terrorism and attacks on Bosnian-Herzegovinian institutions that have been ongoing since 2006. The international community has been quite lenient towards such behavior, hoping that he could be reasoned with through dialogue. And I think the time has come to draw a thick red line and say that border redrawing in the Balkans ended in the 1990s.

We cannot afford instability and war in that part of the world. And I think we need to become strong as an international community, NATO, the EU, and the United Kingdom, and ensure that this kind of adventurism does not entertain us, that we are inclined towards what Mr. Schmidt said, the fact that 70 percent of young people from both parts of the country want to leave. Not because they feel they cannot work here, but because they feel fear and because their lives are filled every day with threats and fears of another breakup. What politicians should be talking about are the highest levels of COVID-19 infection in the world, that there are no jobs for citizens. That is what they should be talking about, and covering up problems with such adventurism will lead us nowhere - said Helich.