HDZ and SNSD Have Their Way: Border Control Bill Fast-Tracked Without Bosniaks

(Patria) - The Council of Ministers of BiH's request for consideration of the Bill on Border Control will be processed under an urgent procedure, after delegates from SNSD and HDZ outvoted the entire Bosniak Caucus and Zlatko Miletić.

Namely, seven delegates supported the urgent procedure – four from the Federation and three from Republika Srpska. Delegates from PDP and SDS, Nenad Vuković and Želimir Nešković, abstained.

Delegates from the Bosniak Caucus warned that this law, firstly, is not harmonized with the Dayton Peace Agreement, and that the EU demands that we primarily respect this agreement.

Precisely for this reason, it was requested that the law be considered under a shortened or regular procedure in order to correct ambiguities and the bill itself.
Šefik Džaferović, a delegate from the Bosniak Caucus, warned of a serious issue and stated that he cannot support this law because of it.

„Within BiH, there are demarcation lines. Dayton stated that these lines exist, but they are only in maps, in a certain scope. They must not be marked. We saw 'Welcome to RS' signs daily, which is contrary to Annex 2 of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The EU demands that we respect the Dayton Peace Agreement, and here we have gone further. If you say they cannot be within 50 meters, and then you move them, now we have welcome signs appearing at 51 meters. I cannot support this law because of that, regardless of the fact that I am for BiH's path to the EU,“ said Džaferović.

Zlatko Miletić noted that it is devastating that the law does not precisely state where the borders of BiH are.

"It's as if the border of BiH is imaginary. Article 10, Paragraph 1 speaks of the local office having the right to allow passage in special situations with the Indirect Taxation Authority, which contradicts the Law on the Border Police. This is completely superfluous. Article 16 is very important and talks about the protective belt. That has been removed! In this way, everything that has been done illegally so far is being legalized, where the signs are the problem,“ said Miletić.