Išerić to Milanović: What you advocate was done when tribes chose their chiefs!

By: Enver Išerić

---

To the President of the Republic of Croatia, Mr. Milanović

Take the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Milanović, and read it carefully. Let your lawyers help you. You will not find anywhere that the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina are elected by Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.

It states that one member of the Presidency (a Serb) is elected in Republika Srpska, and two members (a Bosniak and a Croat) in the Federation of BiH. What you advocate was done in the pre-state organization of social communities when tribes chose their chiefs.

If you are for such a principle, then do not allow anyone but Croats in your country to vote for the President of the Republic of Croatia, because it may happen that they become the deciding factor in the majority will of Croats. And one more thing, Mr. Milanović, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a civic state, regardless of what you and Dodik mean by that.

And science says that a civic state is any state in which its citizens can elect and be elected to all state bodies.

Yes, that is a civic state, but it does not exclude other rights (of certain social groups, national minorities, or constituent peoples). If someone were to ask you, and they never will, whether you would agree to Bosnia and Herzegovina having one president, and let the majority of citizens of the entire country elect the best candidate, regardless of whether they are Bosniak, Serb, or Croat. And in that case, you could agree with Dodik on who it would be.

The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Milanović, could also elect the President or members of the Presidency, and Bosniaks, as far as I know, would agree to such a solution. You just need to agree on this with Dodik, or rather, convince him that this resolves the issue you called legitimate representation or Željko Komšić. I know you have a constitutional obligation to care for Croats outside the Republic of Croatia, but the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia cannot create obligations for other states, Mr. Milanović.

And finally, this method of electing members of the BiH Presidency was agreed upon in Dayton, among others, by the President of the Republic of Croatia, which grossly violated the UN Charter, because the Republic of Croatia, together with the Republic of Serbia, grossly interfered in matters (adoption of the BiH Constitution) that are within the exclusive jurisdiction of each sovereign state – a member of the UN. And that will never happen again and must not happen. And because of that, there is nothing to discuss with you and the President of Serbia regarding any internal matters of BiH.