Bećirović: OHR should not withdraw until Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a member of NATO and the EU

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Instead of respecting the Dayton Peace Agreement, the leaders of SDA, SNSD, and HDZ decided to expel the OHR from Bosnia and Herzegovina contrary to Annex 10, before our country becomes a full member of NATO and the EU.

This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous!

This was stated by Denis Bećirović, delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and vice-president of SDP BiH, on the occasion of the latest, as he assessed, "harmful agreement of the leaders of the three ruling ethnocratic parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Such a policy represents bowing to the forces that want to weaken and break up the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such a rotten agreement of ethnocratic parties can have unforeseeable consequences. We must not allow a series of new bad compromises to be made on the foundations of unhealthy compromise, which - through this negative compromising inertia - lead to the destruction of the state, the misfortune of society, and the degradation of universal values," said Bećirović.

He emphasized that more than two decades after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, it is imperative that the international community and its High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina move from the field of politics to the field of law in the practical application of this agreement.

"Until the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is harmonized in all its elements with international law, the High Representative should use his powers under Article 5 of Annex 10 of the Dayton Agreement - to be the final interpreter of its content. We should not forget that Annex 120 was signed by both entities, in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and the FRY, which was succeeded by Serbia, thereby agreeing to accept this interpretation as legally relevant, and thus binding on all signatory parties. Therefore, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a signatory to the Dayton Peace Agreement, must not allow the OHR to leave it until the BiH Constitution is harmonized in all its elements with international law and until Bosnia and Herzegovina fulfills the conditions for admission to the EU and NATO."

Bećirović said that the international community is obliged to enable Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a normal and functional state, so that as an international legal subject it can assume its responsibilities before that international community, which every independent and sovereign state has.

"We must not allow the OHR to lose its powers and end its mandate as long as Bosnia and Herzegovina does not become a full member of NATO and the EU," Bećirović stated, among other things.

The agreement signed on Monday by the presidents of SDA, HDZ BiH, and SNSD states 12 principles of action for the future government in BiH.

One of the principles is that in the process of BiH's progress towards EU membership, conditions should be gradually created for BiH institutions to assume full sovereignty and for the mandate of the OHR in BiH to be concluded."