Schmidt plays Konaković, doesn't care about BiH: They have Plenković and Vučić, let them sort it out!

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

The implementation plan of the OHR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina set six key tasks for this organization:

1. Establish the rule of law;

2. Ensure that extreme nationalists, war criminals, and organized crime networks cannot stop the implementation of peace;

3. Implement economic reform;

4. Strengthen the capacities of BiH authorities, especially at the state level;

5. Establish civilian command and control over armed forces at the state level, reform the security sector, and chart the path for integration into Euro-Atlantic structures;

6. Promote the sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons;

The current High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, is working on very few of the mentioned six key tasks. Because there is no rule of law, extreme nationalists and their criminal structures are breaking up Bosnia and Herzegovina and threatening peace, the BiH economy depends only on the FBiH entity, state-level authorities are in a blockade, the BiH Armed Forces are being deprived of funds needed for modernization, and the return of refugees is best illustrated by the numbers of attacked returnees and the degree of unresolved cases.

There is, therefore, no doubt that Christian Schmidt absolutely does not adhere to the key tasks of the implementation plan of his mission as High Representative. And it has been that way since he arrived in this position.

We have already written about it, so we will just remind that before coming to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Schmidt stopped for "consultation" in Croatia, where tasks of interest to the official policy of Zagreb were dictated to him. Everything after that, we would say, is history.

Schmidt unquestioningly carried out the Zagreb orders dictated on a cruise ship near Dubrovnik and at numerous meetings with Croatian officials. Schmidt also met with the political establishment of Serbia, most notably President Aleksandar Vučić.

And there is no excuse for that, because neither the OHR mission nor the implementation plan of that mission implies diplomatic activity of the High Representative in the region and beyond.

However, as long as he sails the wilderness of Bosnian-Herzegovinian issues under the American flag, Schmidt knows he can do whatever he pleases and does not have to worry about the consequences. So he behaves more like the head of diplomacy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more correctly of Herceg-Bosnia, than a High Representative who should preserve and implement Dayton.

Therefore, no matter how bitter it is for Elmedin Konaković, we must ask the question who is actually the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Konaković or Schmidt. And no matter how much Konaković publicly populistically claims that he has returned BiH to the epicenter of world interest, we are more inclined to see the bigger picture in which Schmidt had far more meetings and at a much higher level than the official Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH.

Schmidt traveled across Europe and the world, whenever he and his partners deemed it necessary.

For reasons known to himself, Schmidt said that if necessary, he would travel to the tune of Emir & Frozen Camels' "Sarajevo - New York - Roma", but also with the possibility of going to Japan or Moscow.

He just did not explain what could be the reason for him to travel the world, when his job is related exclusively to Bosnia and Herzegovina, not diplomacy. Either Schmidt does not understand his job, or, which we are more inclined to believe, he uses the position of High Representative to "push himself" as a candidate for some future head of diplomacy of his native Germany. Of course, on our backs.

Because Schmidt went to the security conference in Munich and there spoke more about the challenges facing the EU than about Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Budapest, he spoke about a "genocide-like situation", causing yet another scandal.

Schmidt also walked around Prague, where he received a "diplomacy order" from the Czech government as High Representative. In Brussels, at the highest diplomatic level, he spoke with diplomats from Belgium, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Italy about BiH's Euro-Atlantic integration.

None of the above is within his mandate, so the question is why the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council allows such activities, unless the most important thing is that Schmidt evidently has American support.

Be that as it may, someone from the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which by law must take care of the interests and implementation of the foreign policy of our state, should stand before Schmidt and explain to him that he has no right to engage in diplomacy on behalf of BiH during his travels.

The first called to do so is Minister Konaković, because if this practice continues, Europeans and the rest of the world will stop inviting the official head of diplomacy, instead of whom Christian Schmidt will travel the world under the flag of BiH.

And ultimately, Bosnia and Herzegovina will lose, because Schmidt does not care about Dayton anyway, just as he will not care much about our interests in the world. His only goal is obviously to return to the German scene as head of diplomacy, and for Bosnia, more or less, they have Plenković and Vučić, so let them sort it out!