Pettigrew: Schmidt supported Russia, Serbia and Croatia to complete the genocidal intent in Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Patria) - Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crime of aggression: the crisis of BiH sovereignty - was the topic of today's session of Krug 99, where the introductory speaker was Professor Dr. David Pettigrew.

"As we celebrate the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we also recognize a crisis of sovereignty. This crisis is partly caused by Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called for the formation of an ad hoc international tribunal to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression committed by the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation. It is important to note that the invasion of the Russian Federation and the crime of aggression against Ukraine is motivated by the ideological concept of the 'Russian world'. This is a vision that is partly imperialist, partly fascist, and partly genocidal. According to this 'Russian world', Ukraine does not exist but represents merely something like a buffer zone or soft tissue between Russia and the West," Pettigrew points out.

He adds that the "Russian world" has its echoes in the Balkans through the 'Serbian world', which is a renamed Greater Serbia, possessing similar imperialist plans regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The idea of Greater Serbia was supported in the 1986 SANU Memorandum, which claimed that persecution and cultural genocide against Serbs was underway and called for their unification. While the 'Russian world' launched aggression in Ukraine, the ideology of Greater Serbia was a rallying call for aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s. The imperialist impulse of Greater Serbia led to the creation of the territory of Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which resulted in nothing less than a genocidal undertaking in the service of Greater Serbia. Former Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin promotes the 'Serbian world', stating that the creation of the 'Serbian world' is a process that cannot be stopped and emphasizing that all Serbs, regardless of where they live, need to be united. The 'Russian world' and the 'Serbian world', formerly called Greater Serbia, have led to aggression, both ideological and real, against the sovereignty of Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively. But, there was another world threatening Bosnia and Herzegovina - the 'Croatian world'. It has been established that Croatian nationals participated in atrocities committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina within what was adjudicated as a Joint Criminal Enterprise and an armed conflict of an international character. The aggression committed from Serbia and Croatia against Bosnia and Herzegovina was not prosecuted as the crime of aggression because the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia did not have jurisdiction for that," Pettigrew points out.

He states that although it was not prosecuted as the crime of aggression, two former High Representatives, Valentin Inzko and Christian Schwarz-Schilling, warned in a joint letter that "Serbia and the RS have not achieved their goals from the 1990s, they nurture very close relations with Russia," therefore we fear that the current aggression against Ukraine could spread to the Western Balkans, primarily to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

"HAZU reminded us in May 2020 of aggressive plans towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a document reminiscent of the SANU Memorandum, the HAZU Memorandum states that Bosnian Croats are being persecuted and their basic human rights are being violated. The Memorandum states that the right of Bosnian Croats to elect a legitimate Croatian member of the Presidency must be protected. The HAZU Memorandum insists that the equality of the Croatian people must be ensured through a third entity and all rights arising from that. The Croatian call for legitimate representation was supported by the Russian Federation in its ongoing efforts to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is precisely in this context that the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt, published on October 2nd, are problematic. As Schmidt himself says, part of his reform was designed to satisfy the Ljubić case, which raised the issue of legitimate representation of Croats. Schmidt's decision seems to have been implemented in the service of the nationalist party of BiH Croats, HDZ, and in the service of the vision described in the Memorandum of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

It seems that the Bosniak vote has been devalued as a result of Schmidt's electoral reform, while the vote of the Bosnian Croat has been overvalued. There is also a general deficiency in that the High Representative's reform was organized with constituent peoples and vital interests in mind, instead of enabling democratic voting according to the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, including the Sejdić-Finci or Zornić cases, which have been completely ignored. Bosnia is prevented from being a normal democracy; ethnic voting blocs deepen ethnic divisions, giving additional influence to the nationalist parties of Bosnian Serbs and Croats, potentially isolating the Bosniak majority in the continuation of work on the genocidal goals from the 1990s. The recent announcement of the partnership between Dodik and Čović will ensure such a situation. Schmidt's recent decisions can be seen as ideologies that support this and seek to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina today.

Through its support for Serbia and Croatia, the Russian Federation is actively undermining the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The crisis of sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina is more acute than ever, as Republika Srpska renews its threats of secession, seeking to position itself as a second Donbas. While the US, EU, and NATO continue to respond to the aggression against Ukraine, they must also oppose the efforts of Serbia, Croatia, and the RS to realize their plans from the 1990s. The international community is obliged to support the democratic world in BiH in a way that responds to the voices of citizens demanding their right to a civic state and thereby bring BiH even closer to the EU and NATO," concluded Pettigrew.