Nikšić, Komšić and Bajrović Send Open Letter to Jens Stoltenberg

Leaders of the SDP, DF and the Civic Alliance Nermin Nikšić, Željko Komšić and Reuf Bajrović have sent an open letter to Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, which Patria transmits in full.

Allow us to express our satisfaction with your visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the difficult moments of our shared history. Our country is in the deepest political crisis, which poses a threat not only to efforts for NATO membership but also to the stability of the region and the entire continent.

We are certain that you are aware of the events of September 2016, which, despite a clear ban by the Constitutional Court of BiH, occurred after the holding of an illegal and unconstitutional referendum organized by the authorities of the entity Republika Srpska. Given that there was no response from the relevant mechanisms of the international community, in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement, the illegal referendum was followed by a series of political crises and attacks on the constitutional order.

The authorities in the entity Republika Srpska, with the direct responsibility and order of the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Mladen Ivanić and Minister of Defence Marina Pendeš, participated in disrupting the chain of command in the Armed Forces of BiH by using part of the units illegally.

What is particularly concerning and what we wish to emphasize is that Anto Jeleč, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of BiH, also participated in this violation of the law. Furthermore, almost the entire civilian and military command of the Armed Forces of BiH took part in these events, and you will have meetings with them during your stay in BiH.

Therefore, we can say that we justifiably consider that some of these individuals openly oppose BiH's membership in NATO, while others clearly lack the necessary level of integrity, determination and professionalism to successfully lead the process of BiH's accession to NATO.

You are certainly also aware that the commander of the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo, Brigadier General Giselle M. Wilz, reacted to these events and sent a letter to the Minister of Defence of BiH, in which it was clearly stated that "the participation of any member of the Armed Forces of BiH in any part of the program marking the 'Day of Republika Srpska' on 9 January would constitute a violation of the Law on Defence.

Those persons would be subject to disciplinary measures, including dismissal from military service. Their participation would also constitute a violation of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH and could be considered in the context of Annex 1A of that Agreement."

We have most strongly condemned this attack on the legal order in our country. We hope that you will do everything in your power to support the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the punishment of those responsible for disrupting the chain of command in the Armed Forces. We believe that the intention of this illegal act was to prevent BiH's entry into the NATO pact, which is also a publicly proclaimed goal of some of those responsible.

We wish to inform you that for the aforementioned reasons, the largest opposition bloc, namely the Social Democratic Party of BiH, the Democratic Front and the Civic Alliance, has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor's Office of BiH due to reasonable suspicion that a series of abuses of position were committed during the illegal engagement of part of the units of the Armed Forces of BiH in marking the unconstitutional Day of the RS entity, held on 9 January 2017.

We have no illusions that all these activities, related to the disruption of the chain of command, were deliberately calculated and carried out also to further slow down or stop BiH's further progress towards membership in the NATO alliance.

We decided to address you in this way and inform the public of this letter and our views, because we believe it is high time to stop the duplicitous policy pursued by numerous officials within BiH when it comes to BiH's path towards the NATO alliance.

We, as signatories of this letter, are fully committed to achieving this goal, because we firmly believe that for the stability and further progress of BiH, membership in the NATO alliance is an absolutely indispensable element.

We wish to confirm this commitment to you once again, and at the same time ask you to also contribute to the final exposure of this duplicitous policy and ultimately its cessation, all in the interest of achieving the goal we have stated. We, in the Atlantic-oriented political forces in BiH, need clear and unambiguous support from our allies more than ever since the end of the war in 1995 and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

We believe it is high time that political forces in BiH become completely serious when it comes to NATO accession, because otherwise, instability in our country could deepen, which would inevitably produce undesirable consequences for the region and especially for NATO member states, such as the Republic of Croatia. Bearing in mind the specific situation in BiH, our state structure and history, we believe that overcoming such relations and the progress of the state and region would also be helped by a certain easing of the conditions that NATO prescribes for our country.

Our intention is to continue doing everything in our power to integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into NATO and we hope to have your unambiguous support in that – the letter signed by Nikšić, Komšić and Bajrović states.