Responsibility to be determined: State officials misleading European officials

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Since Borjana Krišto (HDZ BiH) was prevented from officially traveling to Bleiburg last year, and because the then Collegium member Mladen Bosić stated that the trip was her private matter and that the BiH Parliament had nothing to do with that event, Krišto reacted furiously and angrily, threatening that she would no longer sign official travel orders for anyone.

And such a practice has continued. Krišto has continued the same story in the new Collegium with Denis Zvizdić (SDA) and Nebojša Radmanović (SNSD).

Recently, the Collegium of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina refused to approve the participation of MP Damir Arnaut of the Alliance for Better Future (SBB) in the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which, according to this MP, has caused great damage to the reputation of BiH.

Arnaut is only the third rapporteur of PACE from Bosnia and Herzegovina in more than 15 years since Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a member of the Council of Europe. However, this was not enough for him to get approval from the Collegium.

Precisely for this reason, Arnaut, as well as some other MPs, appealed to the secretary of the joint services of the PS BiH, who recently initiated a review of diplomas of all employees, to also raise the issue of the justification of participation in international gatherings of all MPs. Investigating this topic, Arnaut also established shortcomings of state officials and requested a reaction from the competent authorities.

Before the last ban, Arnaut was banned from a trip for which he was appointed by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to represent PACE as an expert at a high-level conference on the future of the European Convention on Human Rights, held in November 2018 in Kokkedal (Denmark).

"Although the government of the Kingdom of Denmark bore absolutely all the costs of my planned trip (transport, hotel, daily allowances, travel insurance), the Collegium of the House of Representatives refused to approve that trip. I informed the Committee about this fact during the session held on December 13 in Paris, and it was concluded that an explanation would be requested from the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH on this issue. After my official request, officials from the Sector for International Relations and Protocol of the PS BiH provided me with copies of their email correspondence with the Secretary General of PACE Wojciech Sawicki, who requested an explanation on December 19," Arnaut stated.

The answer to Sawicki's inquiry, which Sevda Valjevčić, secretary of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, sent on January 18, clearly indicates that Sawicki was misled regarding the details related to the non-approval of participation in the mentioned conference.

"Namely, in that response to Sawicki, Valjevčić claims that approval was not issued because the Collegium did not meet in the specified period, although Valjevčić herself sent me an email on October 25 stating that there was no consent from Borjana Krišto, while the other two members of the Collegium agreed," Arnaut's letter states.

Considering the overall seriousness of this issue, Arnaut requested that the Joint Service of the PS BiH and the secretary immediately determine all relevant circumstances and take all appropriate measures.

"The Secretary General of PACE was clearly misled, therefore it is necessary to establish all the facts in order to protect the reputation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the international stage," Arnaut added.