Between a European BiH and the Dayton status quo: The departure of the OHR could be a positive shock, its stay changes little!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

Do you remember what the leaders and cadres of the Trojka project parties, beaming with joy, told us during the period of receiving the recommendation and later the negotiations for EU accession.

In unison, they told us: New generations of politicians have secured a historic opportunity to move from Dayton's Bosnia and Herzegovina to Brussels' Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Three months after the negotiations, the Trojka project parties are issuing a statement in which they deny themselves and call for the preservation of Dayton's Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“In light of recent developments, Trojka expresses its full support for the work of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a fundamental institution of the Dayton Agreement and the most significant formal social authority and corrective,” they told us from SDP, NIP, and Naša stranka, adding that anyone who says or does otherwise plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation.

One thing is that the Sarajevo tricolors themselves were "playing into the hands" of Putin when they boasted about false successes and the story of negotiations, and quite another, and much more dangerous, is that these tricolors consider the OHR and Christian Schmidt to be the "most significant social authority and corrective".

Where, then, in all of this, is the Constitution and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina? Of course, this is not an important issue for the Trojka project, because they, like their creator – the US Embassy, at all costs, even at the cost of our country's future, want to preserve the OHR and the High Representative, i.e., the Dayton arrangement.

And the OHR and High Representative Christian Schmidt have come under fire from Europeans because they have begun to establish an anti-democratic practice of changing electoral rules on the night after the elections, which violates the code and essence of the European Union, its values and rules. Even then, some European countries criticized Schmidt, and criticism was also directed in reports stating that Schmidt's suspension of the FBiH Constitution had actually jeopardized the legal security of BiH:

However, these criticisms did not stop Schmidt, so, strengthened by the backing of the US Ambassador to BiH, Michael Murphy, he went on solo actions, which further fueled opposition in the European Union, leading to the idea of reducing his powers, and even withdrawing him.

This was the reason for questioning the role and survival of the OHR and the High Representative, which we have been able to read about in recent days.

Well-informed sources of Patria claim that the European Union has warned Schmidt twice not to impose decisions. First, when he imposed new electoral rules on election night, which was interpreted as a direct blow to democracy, and then the suspension of the FBiH Constitution.

Also, as we learn from sources in Brussels, EU member states objected to Schmidt's bias towards HDZ, which is notoriously contrary to his function. This bias particularly emerged after the statement by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković that Croatian diplomacy and he personally lobbied Schmidt to impose changes to the electoral rules in October 2022 and April of the following year.

All of this was more than enough for the leading EU member states to question the role of the OHR, especially after BiH was granted negotiations for EU membership. And that question more than needs to be placed in public discussion, because it is clear that Dayton's BiH cannot join the European Union until it becomes Brussels'.

Here, some standard and somewhat stale views and arguments that the High Representative and his Office are guardians and saviors of something need to be demystified. Because, that is simply not true. The OHR and High Representatives have not succeeded in their basic mission of civilian implementation of the Peace Agreement for the past decade.

The destabilizing factors whose policies hold this country captive have often been allies of the OHR and High Representatives, who, with their decisions, have given wind to those policies. Such practice has led to deviations in the system and institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is directly contrary to the mission of the OHR and the High Representative.

Nevertheless, we can rightly say that the current High Representative Christian Schmidt, under the banner of Murphy's policy, made decisions that most affected the processes and are controversial according to several rules.

Because, for example, Schmidt amended the Election Law and thereby protected himself by amending the Criminal Code. Likewise, Schmidt annulled the electoral will of citizens who make up 50 percent of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to favor a political minority and enable it to rule. In practice, he has proven that his mission is to establish a deviant mechanism in which a minority rules the majority, which is anti-democratic and anti-European.

Because Schmidt comes from a background that does not want democracy to prevail where Muslims are the majority. And translated, that would mean a permanent status quo in which Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot become an EU member without some new genocide. Because, only through genocide like the one in Srebrenica in July 1995 and ethnic cleansing like the one we witnessed in BiH can the demographic picture of our country be changed, i.e., brought to a state where democracy is possible when the number of Muslims is reduced.

And therefore, there is no need to defend the OHR and Dayton at all costs; for three decades, we have witnessed the powerlessness of the OHR and the untranslatability of Dayton. Perhaps it is time for a new page, a European one, so to speak, a democratic one!