Briefing Paper Thursday, 17 December 2009

Bosnian Serb commentary outlines scenario leading to break-up of state

Text of report by Bosnian Serb privately-owned centrist newspaper Nezavisne novine, on 11 December

[Commentary by Slavko Mitrovic: "Breakup Scenario"]

1. "Sarajevo's constant accusations of separatism against the [Bosnian] Serb Republic [RS] could indeed lead to secession," Milorad Dodik, the RS prime minister and the chairman of the SNSD [Alliance of Independent Social Democrats], said recently.

2. Milorad Dodik is saying now that his goal is sovereignty, although he also accepts the Serb Republic's greater autonomy. The RS Government presented a plan for the Serb Republic to break away from Bosnia-Hercegovina. The prime minister said that independence was the best solution, but he could discuss other options with Sarajevo. The prime minister presented the White Paper entitled "Your Srpska [Republika Srpska -- Serb Republic], Your Vote." This is a draft document about the Serb Republic's future, and Dodik pointed out that only an independent Serb Republic could use its economic potential. The government's plan envisages a referendum on independence. "Time has come for the people to say what they think about Srpska's future," Dodik said. Although the plan says that independence is the best solution, there are other options: unchanged constitutional status; Serb Republic's greater autonomy in the existing constitutional powers; or the broadest possible autonomy, with the exception being foreign policy and defence. Dodik, however, finds status quo unacceptable. "The people have the right to choose their future in a free and fair referendum," Dodik said.

3. The Serb Republic welcomed Serbia's efforts presented by Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. Jeremic said: "The only exception in Balkan history is the Nemanjices' state [Serbian dynasty ruling between 1136-1371]; during their rule the Balkan region was the centre of world politics. This was the golden age of the Balkans. This is a historical fact. We want a new Balkan region, founded on political values, economic interdependence, cooperation, and cultural harmony. This was the Balkans of the Nemanjices. We will restore this Balkans. People call it "neo-Nemanjic." This is the reason why I do not refer to the Nemanjices state as a foreign policy issue. What I emphasize in the title is the Nemanjices' legacy. The Nemanjices' centuries in the Balkans are a success story. We now need to restore it. You are welcome to it! Serbia belongs to you, our brothers and sisters! And we are certain that Sarajevo is ours! When I say that Serbia is yours -- if you want to come, do so! We, however, want you to be safe here as the owners of Sarajevo and Bosnia-Hercegovina. What happens in Bosnia-Hercegovina is our responsibility. In a nutshell, we have a common history. We have a common destiny. We have a common future."

4. Following the Serb Republic's passage of the Declaration of Independence, political representatives of the Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina in the central city of Mostar decided, with full support of the government in Zagreb, to restore the Croat Community of Herceg Bosna.

With this they confirmed their efforts of many years to create the third entity as an expression of the Croats' wish to have legal equality with the other two constitutive peoples. This initiative got the support of Nadan Vidosevic, the third Croatian president, who repeated his proposal that Bosnia-Hercegovina be organized as the Swiss Confederation, a country that was created following a long conflict between the peoples living there.

5. Helmut Tichy, Austria's representative before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, defended Austria's decision to acknowledge the Serb Republic's independence with the following statement: "The Serb Republic's Declaration of Independence was adopted by elected officials who expressed the will of the people living there, and international law does not prohibit this." Tichy made the following allegation: "The unilateral declaration of independence of the Serb Republic does not violate the principle of protection of Bosnia-Hercegovina's territorial integrity and sovereignty, because this principle only applies to cases of other countries violating the integrity of a country, but not to an entity seeking secession."

Author's note: corrections of the text above for the people, places, and circumstances mentioned:

Article 1 does not contain Dodik's statement. This is a modified statement by Jozef Kasa, the leader of Vojvodina Hungarians and former Serbian deputy prime minister and Subotica mayor, which he made in relation to the discussions about the Vojvodina Statute. His statement reads as follows: "Belgrade's constant accusations of separatism against Vojvodina could indeed lead to secession."

Article 2 does not contain Dodik's statements, but those of Alex Salmond, the Scottish prime minister and chairman of the ruling Scottish National Party [SNP], which is seeking independence from Great Britain. Replace "Dodik" with "Salmond," "Srpska" with "Scotland," and "Bosnia-Hercegovina" with "Great Britain." Salmond said that should he not succeed with the independence referendum in 2010, it would once again be the main issue in the 2011 election campaign.

Article 3 is not a statement by Vuk Jeremic, but by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu. He made it during his recent visit to Sarajevo. In the statement he praises the Turkish rule in the Balkans and advocates a return to the Ottoman legacy. Replace "Jeremic" with "Davutoglu," "Serbia" with "Turkey," and "the Nemanjices' state" with "the Ottoman Empire."

Article 4 contains a statement by Nadan Vidosevic, a candidate for Croatian president, who wants Bosnia-Hercegovina to be a confederation modelled after Switzerland.

Article 5 is in fact a statement by an Austrian government official who defended Kosovo's independence before the International Court of Justice, in the hearing on legal validity of Kosovo's independence.

This hearing was requested by the UN General Assembly. Replace "Serb Republic" with "Kosovo," and "Bosnia-Hercegovina" with "Serbia."

Many false statements have been attributed to Milorad Dodik and the RS authorities, with the accusation that they are preparing for secession and independence. Contrary to these lies, the several examples cited above show what political leaders in other countries are saying, although neither Vojvodina, nor Scotland, nor Kosovo have a constitutional-legal status that is anywhere near that of the Serb Republic as an integral part of Bosnia-Hercegovina. No one accuses them of nationalist or inflammatory rhetoric for these statements. Some foreigners tell us that this can be done in other countries because these countries are not threatened by internal armed conflicts. Conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina are fabricated by the OHR [Office of the High Representative] because it wants to maintain its occupation and usurpation of the rights that belong to elected officials. As opposed to the statements of the OHR and Sulejman Tihic, the Italian General Castagnotto, at the end of his ! mandate as EUFOR [European Union Force] commander in Bosnia-Hercegovina, said that the situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina was stable, and that he did not see the possibility of conflicts emerging in the short term or the long term. Other countries have problems and Bosnia-Hercegovina is no exception, Castagnotto said.

Epilogue

After many years of irresponsible violations of the Dayton peace accords through the actions of the international community, implemented by high representatives by imposing laws and inventing Euro-Atlantic integration reforms, which was followed by arguments among the three constitutive peoples -- the Bosniaks [Bosnian Muslims], the Serbs, and the Croats -- Bosnia-Hercegovina ceased to exist as a sovereign state. The end of Bosnia-Hercegovina primarily came as a result of the many years of the Bosniaks' unrealistic policy, which persistently and illegally tried to dominate the Serbs and the Croats in the attempt to create a state solely to the liking of the Bosniaks as the most numerous people. Bosniak political representative did not accept the transformation into a confederation of ethnic entities. This would have been a way for Bosnia-Hercegovina to survive as a single state. Instead of this, the Bosniak parties and the Reis ul-Ulema [grand mufti] as the supreme Muslim! religious leader, with their unitarist policy and pressures on the international community, persistently toppled the Dayton accords and its Annex 7, the Constitution of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Frustrated by this Bosniak policy, officials of the European Union, the United States, Russia, and China accepted to sanction a peaceful breakup, recognizing the Serbs' and the Croats' right to self-determination through the independence of the Serb Republic and Herceg Bosna. The only thing that the Bosniaks could do was to create the bodies of their own ethnic state. All three states were admitted to the United Nations simultaneously, which definitely marked the end of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, which could not survive as a multiethnic state despite having a single-party system and "brotherhood and unity" as the ideology.

Source: Nezavisne novine, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 11 Dec 09

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Senad Kamenica, COM EUFOR Media Advisor

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