In response to Komšić, Dodik lied about the Constitution

The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Željko Komšić, confirmed for Radio Free Europe (RFE) that criminal charges will be filed against those responsible, after the text of the Law on Medicines and Medical Devices was published in the Official Gazette of Republika Srpska (RS) RS.

Komšić also stressed that if the RS authorities continue like this and the Prosecutor's Office of BiH does not react, they will eventually have to respond by force.

‘Obviously, the RS authorities do not care about any warnings from the international community. Now, more than ever, the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is on the move. If this continues, the same will happen tomorrow with the BiH Armed Forces, with the judiciary, and when that happens, we will have to respond by force. Failure to respond will mean that we have agreed to what they call peaceful dissolution’, Komšić said.

Although Komšić did not mention the Serb member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, he (Dodik) felt compelled to respond to Komšić, thus admitting that he was behind the attack on the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina more than the RS authorities.

Apart from telling Komšić that he did not ‘mentally come out of the war’ and the BiH Army even after 26 years, Dodik reiterated his basic lie, i.e. that the moves he is making are in accordance with the constitutional order and the Dayton Agreement.

‘If what Komšić says is the best he knows, I inform him that the war is over and that Republika Srpska got its rights on the basis of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which it defends in a peaceful and democratic way. If he continues to threaten, I expect the FBiH judiciary to start doing their job’, Dodik said.

The Dayton Agreement did not give the RS any rights that would allow the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska to adopt laws by which the competencies of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina are taken away. Nor did it get the right to form para institutions under the same agreement. Quite the opposite.

Article III, item 5 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly states the following:

‘Bosnia and Herzegovina shall assume jurisdiction in matters agreed upon by the Entities; matters provided for in Annexes 5 to 8 of the General Framework Agreement; or necessary to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and international subjectivity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the division of competencies among the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Additional institutions may be established as necessary to exercise these competencies.’

Therefore, according to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken over the competencies of the entities by the decisions of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. The return of these competencies is possible only through the Parliament and not through the entity assemblies. Therefore, Dodik's answer to Komšić is completely meaningless, and in the function of lies that Dodik uses by default, and in that, as in the attacks on the state, Dodik must be prevented, because the state has no price.