Trojka sticks to the agreement despite new US sanctions, indictment against Dodik, and state humiliated on Day of Mourning

Written by: Amra Vrabac

On Tuesday, August 22, a session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be held, and on the same day in East Sarajevo, the presidents of the parties that make up the state government will meet. The host of the meeting will be Milorad Dodik, president of the SNSD, and it will also be attended by the president of HDZ BiH Dragan Čović, as well as the presidents of the Trojka parties Nermin Nikšić, Elmedin Konaković and Edin Forto. A day later, a session of the Council of Ministers of BiH is scheduled, but the agenda has not yet been published. So it is still unknown when the appointment of the new Minister of Finance and Treasury Srđan Amidžić (SNSD) is planned.

As the president of the NIP, Elmedin Konaković, said today, nothing has changed since the last meeting and agreement on July 24 regarding the activities they agreed upon.

“We basically have an agreement from our last meeting that we will go with this set of European laws to the session on the 22nd and to the session of the Council of Ministers of BiH on the 23rd. As far as I know, nothing has changed. I expect colleagues to respect the agreement. Within that agreement is the adoption of reform European laws as well as the confirmation of the Minister of Finance, with whom I have no problem because that is the position of the SNSD. I remind you, this is the topic of the entire agreement that should bring completely new energy to BiH when it comes to the EU path, which should affect our report that should be adopted sometime in October with much more positive tones than was the case in the past,” said Konaković.

However, in the meantime, a lot has changed. The US Department of the Treasury on July 31 added Željka Cvijanović, Nenad Stevandić, Radovan Višković and Miloš Bukejlović to the 'blacklist' due to responsibility for encouraging the adoption of a law in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NSRS) that declares decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH inapplicable in the RS, thereby obstructing and jeopardizing the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

An indictment has been filed against Milorad Dodik for failing to implement the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt because, despite the annulment of the Law on the Non-Application of Decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Dodik signed a Decree by which the law passed in the NSRS enters into force.

After the indictment was filed last weekend, Dodik announced the homogenization of the Serbian people and that he would no longer announce the activities that the RS will carry out, but that they are not giving up on their plans. The Court of BiH has not yet confirmed the indictment, and from the RS they attacked the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH, as well as the US Embassy, accusing them of attacking Dodik and the President of the RS. In his Saturday address, Dodik also said that now is a good opportunity to open talks with partners about the judiciary and the Constitutional Court of BiH, from which they want to eliminate foreign judges. However, there was no reaction from the Trojka. For them, apparently, nothing has changed.

Also, in the meantime, Dodik's ministers refused to support the Day of Mourning throughout BiH on August 16 because they did not declare themselves at all, even though the Minister of Security of BiH, Nenad Nešić, announced that he would support the decision. Shortly before the end of the voting at the telephone session of the Council of Ministers of BiH, information was published that the Government of the RS had already declared a Day of Mourning and called on the Government of the FBiH to do the same. In this way, the RS mocked the state of BiH once again and forced the partners from the Trojka to blindly follow them.

During the upcoming weekend, Dodik, together with Željka Cvijanović, will be in Hungary where they will meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as well as the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. Whether a new plan for the further dismantling of BiH will be made there or an earlier one confirmed will be seen as early as next week.