Let's Fix the System Error: Foreigners with Dual Citizenship of Serbia and Croatia Continuously Make Decisions in BiH Institutions!

By: Rasim Belko

Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered the culminating phase of arguably the most difficult crisis it has faced since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The architects of the crisis are well-known names - secessionist Milorad Dodik and his primary political associate Dragan Čović.

A serious blow to this crisis has also been dealt by the three-member partnership of the aforementioned duo, the so-called Sarajevo trio (SDP, NiP, and NS).

The focus of the Dodik-Čović duo's attack is the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically the foreign judges in that court. There are three of them, and Dodik wants them gone so he can bring the Constitutional Court, the last institution that can stop his secessionist processes through the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, under his control.

Dodik's desire is for there to be no foreigners in the Constitutional Court, but for there to be an entity veto, meaning no decision can be made unless at least one Serb judge from Republika Srpska raises their hand. And that means the collapse of the system.

However, there is already a serious error in the system of Bosnia and Herzegovina that actually already serves Dodik, Čović, and their bosses from Belgrade and Zagreb, allowing them to interfere and influence processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

That systemic error is called dual citizenship. The largest number of officeholders in political, judicial, and other positions from the Serb and Croat peoples have dual citizenship, meaning, in addition to the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they also have the citizenship of Serbia or Croatia.

Dual citizenship is not a problem in itself, but in cases where a person in a decision-making position holds citizenship of another country, it becomes an unacceptable absurdity. Even in a largely liberalized Europe, it is not possible for a minister in France, while holding a certain office or position, to also have German or Spanish citizenship.

Therefore, what good European practices do not even consider, has been a continuous phenomenon in our country for years, greatly endangering the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For example, the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina appointed Ljuban Panić, a politician from Serbia, as his advisor. Many ministers in current and previous compositions of the Council of Ministers have dual citizenship, and the same applies to parliamentarians, members of police services, employees of the Intelligence-Security Agency, the Armed Forces of BiH, and so on.

Is it conceivable that, for instance, a general in the Ukrainian army also holds Russian citizenship, or that a member of an American intelligence agency holds Chinese citizenship? Of course not, because the question is whether even in the least developed countries with much more severe internal devastation, there is a case where an official in one country holds citizenship of another, or even an enemy state.

Looking at the facts in accordance with European practices and the organization of developed democracies, it is clear that action must be taken to abolish the option for officeholders to simultaneously hold a passport from another country. It is not too late to change this, although we should have learned a lesson after the case of Ante Jelavić. To remind you, Jelavić, after being dismissed, used his dual citizenship and permanently evaded BiH prosecution. Croatia protects him because he represented that country's interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The question that must be asked regarding the BiH Constitutional Court is: have we, all these years from Dayton until today, actually had seven foreign and two domestic judges? Because, in addition to the three who are not elected by institutions within Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have had many who held citizenship of Croatia and Serbia.

In fact, only the Bosniak judges were domestic judges.

There is no doubt that this practice must begin to change. Because, if Bosnia and Herzegovina truly wants to preserve its statehood and sovereignty, it is time to start applying the practices of organized states.

The first step is to suspend dual citizenship during the term of office and for at least two years after the term expires. This would be the minimum requirement, because if conventions already protect the human right to hold multiple citizenships, then we must achieve a minimum where they cannot be used against the state immediately after leaving office.

One of the steps could also be to insist that the most responsible positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are held exclusively by citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there are certainly such individuals among all three ethnicities.

This way, we would avoid citizens of Serbia and Croatia making decisions about Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens. We have waited too long, but it is high time to try to get rid of installed personnel who, from the depths of the state system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, subversively act in favor of their "other homelands".

And if an official in the entire EU cannot be a citizen of another, especially an enemy state, then it is expected that the EU will support us in introducing the same practices into our system through the legislative framework.