Izetbegović wrote to PIC Ambassadors: Stop the destruction of Dayton, Dodik is leading us into lawlessness and chaos

Chairman of the BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegović sent a letter today to the ambassadors of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) Steering Board and the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was announced from the BiH Presidency, reports the Patria News Agency.

-Bosnia and Herzegovina is going through an extremely difficult legal and political crisis caused by the decision to call an entity referendum adopted by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska on July 15, 2016.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, referring inter alia to the opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, as the highest authority for democratization through law in Europe, determined in its final and binding Decision No. U-3/13 that "January 9", as the date of the Day of Republika Srpska, violates the fundamental constitutional values of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska on the implementation of the entity referendum on this issue does not constitute a public opinion poll, as the Law on Referendum and Civil Initiative of the Republika Srpska entity obliges the authorities in that entity to implement the referendum results.

This referendum is the most serious blow to the constitutional and legal order and the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The implementation of this referendum represents an active, open and aggressive rejection of both the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. U-3/13 and the fundamental legal principle that court decisions must be respected and implemented. 

This referendum not only negates the institutions of state judicial power but also aims to strip them of state prerogative, with the intention of introducing the factor of de facto power in place of the standards of a legal state and democracy. This is actually a referendum on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or rather on whether the decisions of the Constitutional Court are final and binding for the Republika Srpska entity.

The obstruction of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. U-3/13 indicates two elements that make the current situation different from all previous ones and thus require your decisive intervention. Namely, this is the first time since the entry into force of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Annex 4 to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that an entity has expressed an open boycott of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and has proactively moved to establish a situation contrary to a court decision.

This boycott of state judicial power by the Republika Srpska entity, as an anti-Dayton, anti-constitutional and anti-state legal and political precedent, is sought to be legitimized by the will of the citizens expressed in the form of a referendum scheduled for September 25.

Therefore, any subsequent declaration of the held referendum as anti-Dayton or unconstitutional, or the legal annulment of its results, will not annul the political consequence I have just mentioned. In other words, regardless of the future legal consequences of the held referendum, the basis for endangering the political future of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be neutralized.

Political forces in the Republika Srpska entity, led by Milorad Dodik, have been very aggressively and actively endangering the rule of law and the constitutional-legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina for years, questioning the authority of state judicial institutions such as the Constitutional Court, the Court and the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These activities lead to lawlessness, chaos, and legal and political insecurity.

I remind you that at the 5th Congress of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats held in East Sarajevo on April 25, 2015, a Declaration titled "Republika Srpska – Free and Independent Future and Responsibility" was adopted, which states that "if by the end of 2017 there are no visible processes and measurable results of establishing the positions of Republika Srpska in accordance with Annex 4 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska should call a referendum on the independent status of Republika Srpska during 2018."

The referendum scheduled for September 25 is clearly a test balloon for the repeatedly announced referendum on the secession of the Republika Srpska entity from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the beginning of the destruction of the Dayton Peace Agreement, and thus peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Domestic and international institutions tasked with protecting the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the constitutional-legal order, the rule of law, and the sovereignty of state institutions, by their lack of institutional response, passivity, and failure to do what they are obliged to do and undertake, encourage the forces of destruction that are trying to destroy the Dayton Peace Agreement and peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Things are quite clear and should be called by their real name and stopped before they gain momentum when they will be difficult to stop.

The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council provides political guidelines to the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is precisely your role as the collective political director for the implementation of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina that should enable an adequate international political response to the dangerous and unacceptable referendum scheduled for September 25. The situation in which Bosnia and Herzegovina finds itself requires your political support for an international legal reaction from the High Representative to stop the implementation of this referendum.

Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration, with the hope that Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens will soon have more reasons for a sense of peace and a secure European future, reads Izetbegović's letter to the PIC.