Konaković and the "Troika" used the story of "veiled judges" to cover for Dodik and the real reasons for not adopting the Law on Courts

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

It didn't take long for us to finally realize that the opposition parties were completely right when they claimed that ‘wearing a headscarf’ was not the key problem, but rather that the envisaged law reduces state competencies, and that for this reason the Law on Courts of BiH is not on the agenda of the Council of Ministers of BiH.

Although Elmedin Konaković, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, assured the public on August 23 that only these provisions were discriminatory and that 'it still needs to be harmonized', after the Law on Courts was again removed from the agenda of the Council of Ministers of BiH yesterday, Konaković himself admitted that there were indeed other disagreements.

„We have additional consultations regarding the Law on Courts. They don't seem particularly demanding to me, but they are not unimportant either. Today, for example, I saw a potential problem in one article related to religious symbols, which could mean that female judges of Islamic faith who wear headscarves might not be able to be judges or hold those judicial positions in some disputed interpretation. So, we have requested some additional interpretations to avoid that kind of discrimination. The agreement is that we will adopt those things that still need to be harmonized at the professional/technical and partly political level by the end of tomorrow or Friday morning, so that according to the agreement and our plan, all these agreed documents will be adopted at another session of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH on Monday and thus be ready for confirmation in the House of Peoples on the 30th of this month“, Konaković said shortly after the Law on Wine and the HJPC were adopted.

Since then, several Fridays and Mondays have passed, and it will soon be September 30th, but the Law on Courts has not been agreed upon, and we have also learned that the 'headscarf' was apparently Konaković's shield from potential public criticism, as not all 'agreed' laws were adopted, and they promised that everything would go as a package.

The game with emotions officially ended yesterday, September 14, when Konaković also admitted that besides 'headscarves', there are other problems. Of course, they are much bigger and more significant in the context of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Namely, after the new withdrawal of the Law on Courts from the session of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Konaković stated that, among other things, thanks again to the writing of journalists (he could not praise the opposition), some shortcomings were noticed in the first draft of the law which provides for the establishment of a Higher Court.

„We also have our remarks, the issue of the court's jurisdiction, the court's seat. We agreed that it should be in the BiH entity of Republika Srpska, but we don't see why it has to be in Banja Luka, exclusively for practical reasons. Why would detainees have to be transferred from Istočno Sarajevo to Banja Luka“, said Konaković.

The veiled judges have disappeared, and it has been definitively revealed that the problems are indeed fundamental, and Milorad Dodik is again issuing threats.

This was also an excellent opportunity for the parties of the "Troika" to point out the fact that the base for the accommodation and training of the Special Support Unit located in Istočno Novo Sarajevo should be moved to the Federation, because the headquarters of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) is also in Istočno Sarajevo.

However, apparently no one is interested in that, not even the fact that the Sarajevo Regional Office is located in the SIPA building in Lukavica. Correcting a long-standing injustice and violating the law apparently interests no one, not even on such an important issue. That is why Dodik knows very well what he wants, and the insincerity of his partners further confuses the public and further protects Milorad Dodik and his secessionist policy.

Thus, through this example, we also learned that the pace of work of the Council of Ministers of BiH is determined by Dodik and SNSD ministers, who, as a reminder, have threatened to withdraw from the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.