Mijović: Radončić and Izetbegović clash again

By Vlastimir Mijović / Fokus.ba

This week is absolutely marked by the Dautbašić – Šahman affair. Besides the fate of two prominent activists of the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB), especially Bakir Dautbašić, who is nominated for a minister in the state government, there are several other factors that, like a magnet, attract public attention.

The course and consequences of this affair are very important for the outcome of the trial of Naser Keljmendi, the uncrowned "king of narcotics" in BiH and the region, as many have called him for years, who is being tried in Pristina (Kosovo). Through this court process, an answer is also expected to the nine-year-old question: Who killed Ramiz Delalić, known as Ćelo, and why? He was a wartime commander in the Army of BiH, who after the war was known as one of the "lords of the Sarajevo underworld", also known for his "controversial role" in the events related to the beginning of the war in BiH.

Given that Dautbašić has been ordered into one month of detention, this affair also directly affects the structure of state government, because due to this, who knows for how long the Council of Ministers of BiH will remain incomplete, without the planned completion of representatives from SBB. However, the main interest is still sparked by the consequences of the arrest of Dautbašić and Šahman on the relations within the Bosniak political leadership, between SDA and SBB, Fahrudin Radončić and Bakir Izetbegović.

The public and analysts quickly identified three possible versions for why the affair became so complicated. In the first version, it is concluded that the Prosecutor's Office has come to convincing and documented findings that Dautbašić and Šahman have indeed committed a criminal offense.

Both prosecutors and the court are professionally obliged to initiate appropriate proceedings. In this regard, after a wave of political reactions, the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH stated in a joint press release today that "they will not allow dissatisfied individuals, using powerful media, to question the impartial and independent work of these institutions".

The statement added that "it is completely inappropriate for political parties to exert pressure on the work of judicial institutions in such an open manner and to lead a media lynching of state prosecutors and judges", assessing that so far the Court and Prosecutor's Office "have never been exposed to this kind of open pressure". Finally, it is promised that the criminal proceedings will be conducted independently and according to the highest judicial standards, with the message that "no one will be able to influence its final outcome through political pressure".

This message primarily concerns SBB and SDA, but also international officials in BiH. The responsible prosecutor Božo Mihajlović revealed his findings to the public that Radončić promised Dautbašić and Bilsena Šahman that he would intervene, through the head of the OSCE Mission in BiH, Jonathan Moore, to stop the investigation in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. Although Moore is considered by many to be "the most important person of the international community in BiH", the Court and Prosecutor's Office continued to work as they saw fit.

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Either they ignored the American's urgency, in the first version, or there was no such urgency at all, in version two.

It is likely that the latter is closer to the truth. I think our judiciary is nowhere near independent and resistant to external influences to ignore the "request" of such a powerful foreigner, if it were made to them.

But what about SBB and SDA, Radončić and Izetbegović? Both claim it is a political setup. The former immediately went public with accusations of political sabotage, expressing suspicion that SDA and its leader Izetbegović are framing him, through his man in the Prosecutor's Office, Dubravko Čampara.

Peace between the coalition partners was seemingly achieved after Izetbegović publicly assessed that all of this was a scheme by certain forces who want to break the newly established unity of Bosniak politics, thereby indirectly validating Radončić's anger.

However, everything returned to mutual suspicions after the Court ruled that Dautbašić and Šahman must remain in detention. SBB reacted fiercely with a public statement, in which Radončić again fired poisoned arrows at Izetbegović and SDA.

This is evident from parts of the statement which emphasize:

1. No one will be able to pass off their political corpses and murders onto others.
2. SBB appeals to the Court of BiH to stop the attempts at political eliminations that have been coming from certain prosecutorial-family centers for a long time.
3. SBB will continue not to allow the coalition that has stabilized the Federation and BiH to be divided, even if it is eventually determined that individuals from the top of SDA have been working on this scenario for a long time.

In "translation", by mentioning prosecutorial-family centers, SBB refers to Izetbegović's friend Dubravko Čampara. Bakir, and perhaps someone else from his circle, must recognize themselves in "individuals from the top of SDA". Finally, when we remember that, during a fierce mutual fight, the standard accusatory sentence against Izetbegović was precisely in the style of "passing off his political corpses and murders onto others", it is clear, at the very least, that the relationship between Bakir and Fahrudin has once again soured over this matter.

In an affair that could leave extremely deep traces on the political currents in the country, something significant has been clarified for now. It is clear that no one from the outside has planted the seed of discord among the Bosniak leaders! After SBB's accusations yesterday, any probability of the truthfulness of Izetbegović's version, according to which all of this is the product of the work of national enemies who fabricated the Dautbašić – Šahman affair to break the growing political unity within Bosniak politics and its elite, is ruled out.

Everything else remains in play. And there are only two options.

First, that the Prosecutor's Office and the Court are actually doing their job, that they really have evidence that Dautbašić and Šahman, acting on Radončić's orders, committed the criminal offense they are accused of; and second – that everything was fabricated, or ordered to the judiciary by Bakir Izetbegović or some other powerful people from SDA.

Whatever the outcome, it will be an unprecedented rift in the Bosniak political scene.