STOP THE CRISIS: If the international community does not plan to partition Bosnia, Schmidt must declare extraordinary general elections in October!

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

The international community, whose effective power is sublimated into the strength of the OHR and the High Representative, has itself largely caused what is definitively the biggest crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this time not only political but also security-related.

Before, and especially after the 2022 General Elections, we witnessed an unprecedented pressure to make a change in the state government. And while alleged analysts were convincing citizens before the elections that this change meant removing ethno-nationalist policies from the state government, everything we have witnessed since October 2022 indicates that an imbalance was actually created. It was done in such a way that policies following Belgrade and Zagreb, i.e., the war policies of those centers, were opposed by policies that have neither the capacity nor the strength to counter such policies.

At the same time, these new policies, created in international community circles by feigning a "new political approach," allowed the crisis to develop into a complete breakdown of authority along the vertical line.

These domestic imposed policies are responsible, but the blame lies with Schmidt and his mandators. The blame because today we live in a time when Dodik is openly working on finalizing secession, while the same process is being carried out by Čović in a different form.

If such an approach by the international community through Schmidt's powers was not purposefully created to collapse and then partition the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then it is time for concrete action to neutralize and repair the damage. And there is no excuse, because after the General Elections we saw how brutal they can be in acting through that power.

So, if their plan is not the partition of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mandators from the international community and the implementer of their ideas, Schmidt, must unquestionably act to primarily stop the crisis, and then steer Bosnia and Herzegovina onto the Euro-Atlantic track.

To return to the story of integrations and reforms, it is necessary for Schmidt, with the consent of key segments of the international community in BiH, to URGENTLY make a decision to include the institute of extraordinary elections in the Election Law of BiH and issue an order to the Central Election Commission to call, alongside the 2024 Local Elections, extraordinary General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Because, given that the Troika has given unlimited power to Dodik in the upper house of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that thanks to Schmidt, Čović is "key" along the vertical line, it is impossible to expect the crisis to be stopped through regular political decisions and dialogue. Dodik is aware of this, and even more aware of the fact that he will probably never have a better opportunity if Bosnia survives.

It is clear then that the need for extraordinary General Elections in October this year is more than urgent, and even clearer that only in this way will we stop Bosnia from sinking into new chaos, and possibly into a new armed conflict.

In recent days, it has been written that the policy of the United States of America towards the Balkans and Bosnia is changing, so it is to be expected that, as a key factor in this region, they will have enough understanding of the need to urgently change the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Primarily because their previous policy enabled Schmidt to create the current distribution of power at the state level, and even more visibly in the entity of FBiH. The USA is a country of democracy, which likes to see itself in the mirror as the cradle of democracy, so we expect that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a friendly state, they will help restore that democracy. Especially since their ambassador Michael Murphy, for reasons known to him, was key in Schmidt's moves after the 2022 elections.

If the Western embassies, the Peace Implementation Council, and Schmidt continue to behave as before, without the desire to correct their own bad actions, then it is clear that they are pushing Bosnia and Herzegovina into conflicts and perhaps disappearance.

And no resolutions on the genocide in Srebrenica can correct that, because the international community today in our country is behaving like the Dutch UNPROFOR forces and the UN itself at the time when genocide was committed in a UN protected zone.

Schmidt has the possibility, the West has the strength to order him to do so, and their motives and intentions will be clearly known to us if action is absent.