Sattler and Escobar should push for NATO integration instead of supporting reduction of BiH Armed Forces

By Ernad Metaj

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The Armed Forces of BiH are under attack by member of the Presidency Milorad Dodik, and it seems to be his lifeline to get out of a dangerous secessionist game with which he wants to divide BiH. His new proposal is to halve the BiH Armed Forces so that Republika Srpska does not form its own army. Representatives of the international community would gladly support him in this, as it would also make their job easier.

According to Patria's findings, Gabriel Escobar, the special envoy of the US Secretary of State for the Western Balkans, indirectly advocated for this during a meeting with representatives of the BiH Ministry of Defence. This would fulfill Escobar's public promise that Republika Srpska will not form its own army.

Johann Sattler, Head of the European Union Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been much more direct on this issue in the past. He has repeatedly emphasized the reduction of the Armed Forces in discussions with local politicians. If Escobar and Sattler are well-intentioned, they should convince Dodik that BiH should first become a NATO member, because in that case, the reduction of the BiH Armed Forces would be a realistic option. This was even adopted through the Defence Review in an earlier period, and as a NATO member, BiH would have around 5,000 soldiers.

Without this, everything comes down to further provoking nervousness and fear among citizens due to possible conflicts, but also playing with the livelihoods of members of the BiH Armed Forces. These are people of flesh and blood, with families, with loans. For many of them, losing their jobs would mean a blow to their existence.

A security officer of the BiH Armed Forces from the Serb people recently realized that people are afraid of how they will survive. He lobbied in church for signatures from Serbs expressing their readiness to leave the BiH Armed Forces. Since he had no answer to the question about what their official position would be and what their salary would be in the army of Republika Srpska, the lobbying was unsuccessful. This also refutes the claim of Deputy Minister of Defence Mirko Okolić that 80 percent of Serbs are ready to leave the BiH Armed Forces.

Lies seem to have become one of the main weapons of proponents of dividing BiH. Just as Okolić does not tell the truth, Milorad Dodik is even further from it, who yesterday from Belgrade stated that the BiH Armed Forces are a burden of 370 million marks. Dodik knows well, because his policy has long stalled any development of the BiH Armed Forces, that the budget is less by more than 80 million. This claim of his is a continuation of the attempt to have donations secured by the Ministry of Defence treated as a military budget in order to show that they cost more. Fortunately, the BiH Minister of Defence Sifet Podžić does not agree to that, and he clearly showed it after the BiH Armed Forces were approved 10 million euros for demining by the international community.

Dodik's claim that Serbs do not want to join the BiH Armed Forces is also disproven by his claim that Serbs do not want to join the BiH Armed Forces. 63 applications for recently announced competition for 19 positions belonging to Serbs contradict him. Worse than that is Dodik's attempt to radicalize the situation by saying that Bosniaks, or as he calls them Muslims, fill the vacant Serb and Croat positions.

Sattler and Escobar, before any solution, should know that Dodik does not speak the truth, and that he is the main culprit for the public perception that the BiH Armed Forces are not effective. In his madness, Dodik went so far as to not allow helicopters to be used to extinguish fires, thereby directly endangering human lives. The exercises with NATO regularly show how capable the Armed Forces are, where BiH soldiers reach and even surpass the standards of this military organization without problems.

What Dodik is silent about in public is that there is no money for the reduction of the Armed Forces. There isn't because SNSD is blocking the budget that would have to provide funds for severance pay for those who are laid off. For years, SNSD has been an obstacle for about 5,000 people to earn something in their lives by engaging in the reserve component of the BiH Armed Forces, which is provided for by law.

It is clear to everyone that Dodik needs an exit ticket, but Sattler and Escobar, who are usually concerned about people leaving BiH, should not let him do it on the backs of military families whom he plans to leave without bread. Therefore, instead of dirty tricks, Sattler and Escobar should help BiH become a NATO member, and then the BiH Armed Forces will not be a problem, and Dodik even less so.