PIC fears for Schmidt: All parties are to blame, not just Mile!

By: Rasim Belko

The diplomatic war within the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board has refuted all the stories we've been hearing lately that Milorad Dodik's current destructive campaign is his last.

They couldn't agree on what to write – Europe won't allow Dodik to be criticized, America clearly wanted that along with praise for the Sarajevo trio. In the end, they wrote something and signed it as ambassadors of the PIC Steering Board in a joint statement.

What they managed to agree on was defending the High Representative Schmidt, but the problem is that the statement lacks substance, not a single argument or piece of evidence that the High Representative has legality. The PIC's support for him won't hold much water if legal and judicial analyses of Schmidt's legality are undertaken.

Dodik has clearly, with the help of the EU, managed to shake the international community in BiH, which no longer speaks with one voice or as rationally as it once did.

This is also clear from the call in the joint statement to Milorad Dodik to “immediately cease his policy of non-recognition of the High Representative and non-cooperation with the High Representative, which is detrimental to the interests of Republika Srpska”.

If they had the strength of arguments and evidence, the ambassadors of the world's most powerful countries on the PIC Steering Board would clearly present Dodik with the choice to accept Schmidt or leave, meaning he would be dismissed otherwise.

The fact that the EU prioritizes some semblance of progress related to European integration over defending Schmidt clearly indicates that a polarization is slowly emerging, which could ultimately threaten not only the OHR but also the stability of BiH.

On the other hand, the question arises as to why the PIC Steering Board is calling on Dodik to recognize Schmidt for the interests of Republika Srpska? Aren't the ambassadors on the Steering Board there to implement the Peace Agreement? Where does the concern for the interests of Republika Srpska come from, and why isn't there, for example, concern for the existence of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, the last two sentences of the joint statement by the ambassadors will explain this: “The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council calls on all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to consistently work towards achieving the European perspective of this country and to spare no effort in implementing the reforms necessary for BiH to progress on its Euro-Atlantic path, rather than raising unnecessary tensions,” say the PIC Steering Board.

Which parties are the ambassadors calling on? Which parties are raising tensions to be equated with a separatist and the key destabilizer of the region? We have already concluded that polarization has occurred and that for the sake of some kind of statement, the PIC Steering Board ambassadors have decided to lie to us and make fools of us.

The story about parties raising tensions is another attempt at a long-seen balancing act and Solomon-like solutions to shift blame to all sides. They lie for their own reasons, because clearly the PIC cannot address only Milorad Dodik.

You are lying, gentlemen ambassadors, that anyone besides Dodik has raised tensions. Dodik has banned the functioning of the Constitutional Court of BiH and the High Representative in the territory of Republika Srpska, introduced defamation as a criminal offense, will declare your organizations as secret agencies, has prepared a new law on state property, and announced immediate secession in case of Schmidt's decision on state property.

What else has any other party or leader done similar to this?

Unless you mean Dodik's messages that his secession will not pass, whatever his stopping entails. Or perhaps you mean the tensions within the state government, which you, led by Murphy, created? If so, then Dodik is causing the most tension there, blocking those European laws, NATO has already blocked it, announcing the withdrawal of SNSD cadres…

That spin story that everyone is to blame no longer works, gentlemen of the PIC. You, led by Murphy, found three characters in Sarajevo who formed a coalition and started saying that Dodik is now someone else, a European, a reformer. This is your government, gentlemen of the PIC, you created it at the state level, Schmidt in the Federation, and Dodik with Schmidt's help in Republika Srpska.

Ah, yes, so you mean those who have escaped your plan and did not see a European reformer in Dodik, but rather what he has been for a long time. They cannot be to blame, Schmidt annulled them, whom Dodik will now annul.

And the story that all parties are to blame, not just Mile, can no longer pass!

Just as it cannot go unnoticed that in your joint statement you stated: “The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council also reaffirms that the international community is fully committed and retains the necessary instruments to support the GFAP, including the territorial integrity of BiH”.

Did you forget sovereignty in your haste and arguments? Because without sovereignty, there is no territorial integrity. And that sovereignty is part of the international recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Or did you perhaps omit it to appease the bogeyman from Banja Luka.

You have completely failed with this statement, gentlemen of the PIC Steering Board, you have not and will not defend Schmidt, because Dodik will not stop until he brings him down. That process was started by his boss Putin, and Dodik will finish it.

And this is who knows which crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the epicenter has always been Milorad. And the international community has never been able to do anything to him, not because Dodik is powerful, but because the powerful created him and clearly have no interest in bringing him down.

Therefore, it must be clear to every citizen and politician of this country that it is not peaceful because of the PIC, but because of Bosnian blades, which Dodik fears the most. Otherwise, he would have moved long ago and would not care about the PIC, nor about Schmidt, nor about any other international deception!