How We Normalized the Unconstitutional January 9th: Silence of the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Institutional Capitulation!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Although the High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt, after the marking of January 9th, 2023, as the unconstitutional “Day of Republika Srpska”, categorically stated that such events would not happen again next year, reality quickly and brutally proved him wrong.

During 2024, the authorities in this entity organized identical events, with parades, ceremonies, and political messages that openly trample on the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH. The same will happen this year. The only difference is that the violation of the Constitution has become routine without outcry, without scandal, and without reaction.

Since the last Peace Implementation Council (PIC) session, held in early December, Schmidt has practically disappeared from the political reality of BiH.

Instead of the announced decisive actions and the use of Bonn powers, the High Representative has been reduced to a protocol figure, to statements without consequences and meetings without results. Institutional inaction has replaced political responsibility.

The snowstorm that hit Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent days has metaphorically frozen even the little authority that Schmidt has shown so far. Schmidt only 'thaws' when the southeast wind blows from Zagreb!

However, the greatest and heaviest responsibility does not lie solely with the OHR or the international community. It lies within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and has a name, and that is the Prosecutor's Office of BiH.

For years, the unconstitutional marking of January 9th has been taking place before the eyes of judicial institutions, without a single serious investigation, without a single indictment, without a single attempt to protect the constitutional order of the state. Decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH can be ignored without any consequences.

Such systemic inaction by the BiH Prosecutor's Office has directly contributed to the normalization of January 9th. What was once an open legal and political incident has today been turned into a “technical issue”, into a day that is practically treated as a legal holiday.

The fact that this normalization has gone too far is evidenced by conversations with employees of state institutions. They quite uncritically state that employees of Serb nationality do not come to work on January 9th, while heads of institutions adjust work schedules to that fact, as if it were a legally recognized holiday, not an unconstitutional date.

Almost no one questions responsibility anymore. And without responsibility, there is no state.

In this silence, in this institutional capitulation, January 9th has been normalized not because it has become legal, but because those who should have stopped it decided to do nothing. They are led by Milanko Kajganić, who came to head the BiH Prosecutor's Office thanks to the current authorities, who consequently also bear part of the responsibility for normalizing the celebration of January 9th!