The Government of Republika Srpska today delivered its 20th Report to the UN Security Council and a special report entitled, The Subversion of the Dayton System. The sections of the two reports are summarized below.
RS’s 20th Report to the UN Security Council
Section I of RS’s 20th Report to the Security Council examines the results of BiH’s eighth general elections since the Dayton Accords. RS voters have given the RS’s current governing coalition an unmistakable mandate to govern based on the positions and goals it laid out during the campaign, including the full implementation of Annex 4 of the Dayton Accords, the BiH Constitution. The coalition’s sweep, moreover, must be seen as a rejection of attempts at foreign meddling in BiH’s elections. The election of Šefik Džaferović to be the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency is highly disturbing to Serbs and an affront to the rule of law and reconciliation, because he has been credibly linked to war crimes by the El Mujahid Detachment. The regrettable result in the election for the Croat member of the BiH Presidency demonstrates why it is essential that each Constituent People, including the Croats, be allowed to choose its own representative in the BiH Presidency. Reforms are also necessary to implement the European Court of Human Rights’ 2009 Sejdić-Finci decision. The RS governing coalition’s clear victory at the BiH level means that Serb officials from opposition parties in Sarajevo will no longer frustrate RS interests.
Section II emphasizes the RS Government’s willingness to work with all stakeholders in BiH for a better future on issues important to all peoples. Among these issues are EU integration, reintroduction of democratic elections in Mostar, judicial reform, fair and equitable investigation and prosecution of war crimes, and the fight against terrorism.
Section III expresses the RS Government’s desire, as the new term approaches, for closer relations with all interested members of the international community. The RS, in particular, looks forward to working with the incoming U.S. ambassador to building a stronger relationship with the United States based on shared respect for the Dayton Accords and international law.
Special Report: The Subversion of the Dayton System.
The RS’s special report to the Security Council, The Subversion of the Dayton System, carefully examines the wisdom of BiH’s Dayton structure, created through treaty more than 20 years ago, the relentless unlawful attacks it has sustained since its creation, and the legal and political need for its full implementation. With RS voters having resoundingly renewed the RS Government’s mandate to pursue full implementation of the Dayton Accords, including the BiH Constitution, now is an excellent time to examine these issues carefully.
Section I explains the nature of the political and legal structure of the Dayton Accords. It sets forth how this structure was carefully created to take account of the reality of BiH and what was necessary for sustainable peace. The Dayton Accords provided, in the BiH Constitution, for a consociation model of government in which three Constituent Peoples share power. The BiH Constitution, which establishes various mechanisms to protect BiH’s two Entities and three Constituent Peoples, is a delicate compromise that is necessary to ensure stability and democratic government.
Section II examines the systemic failure to implement the Dayton structure. The SDA and other Bosniak parties have refused to respect BiH’s Dayton structure and sought, with the assistance of illegal actions by the international High Representative (HR), to steadily transform BiH into a centralized, unitary state. The unlawful centralization of power in Sarajevo creates dysfunction in BiH by maximizing the scope of contentious decisions required at the BiH level.
Section III outlines how the HR centralized BiH through fictitious “Bonn Powers.” There is no legal basis for the dictatorial authorities through which the HR has imposed hundreds of laws and constitutional amendments and decreed hundreds of extrajudicial punishments. Please see Attachment 1 to the special report, which lists 461 laws and regulations decreed by the HR, Attachment 2, which provides the text of 111 constitutional amendments decreed by the HR, Attachment 3, which lists 249 extrajudicial punishments imposed by the OHR (some of which apply to multiple individuals), and Attachment 4, which lists 98 appointments decreed by the HR. The information in these attachments is derived solely from the OHR’s own publicly available records. Extrajudicial punishments, which have been an important tool to help the HR coerce public officials, flagrantly violate international human rights conventions. Using his dictatorial powers, the HR has systematically centralized power in Sarajevo in defiance of the BiH Constitution. Moreover, the HR prevented any curb against his lawlessness by dominating the BiH Constitutional Court and other courts in BiH. Now that the damage to BiH’s Dayton structure has been done, the same constitutional safeguards that should have blocked centralization now enable Bosniaks parties to block the Dayton structure’s restoration.
Section IV examines how, even in the years since the HR lost the political ability to rule by decree, some states have continued to meddle BiH’s domestic affairs, including its elections. The United States, for example, has supplied more than $100 million in funds to the media without transparency in BiH—funding that the U.S. Government acknowledges affects local politics and elections.
Section V explains how the BiH-level government, as it has unconstitutionally accumulated greater powers, has performed poorly and engaged in unlawful actions. The new BiH agencies created by the HR have been plagued by waste, abuse, and inefficiency. The HR-created BiH Prosecutor’s Office has served as a political weapon against the SDA party’s opponents while protecting SDA politicians from war crimes investigations. Meanwhile, the HR-created BiH justice system has demonstrated a pattern of discrimination against Serb victims of war crimes. The BiH Agency for Statistics, under a threat of prosecution, adopted a unified processing program for the census that favored the Bosniaks in violation of the census law.
Section VI examines the need to replace the BiH Constitutional Court’s foreign judges and reform BiH justice institutions. The presence of foreign judges on the Constitutional Court is incompatible with BiH’s sovereignty and democracy. The court suffers from a deep legitimacy deficit because of its foreign judges and political nature. All Serb and Croat leaders in BiH support ending the foreign judges’ role on the Constitutional Court, but the SDA has blocked this necessary reform. Reforms to BiH justice institutions, such as the Court of BiH, are also necessary, as EU experts have agreed.
Section VII outlines how centralization and SDA domination undermine BiH’s security and stability. The SDA party’s policies and actions during and since the 1990s war have turned BiH into a sanctuary for jihadists. The leaders of the SDA and other Bosniak parties, moreover, often threaten violence in response to political disputes. The SDA frequently attacks the RS’s very legitimacy, as it did when it tried to prevent the RS’s annual celebration of the date of its founding. In addition, the SDA has been obstructing the implementation of key decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights concerning elections. What’s more, in a provocative move in a flagrant breach of the Constitution, the SDA’s president attempted unilaterally to revive BiH’s lawsuit against Serbia.
Section VIII explains why it is proper for the RS to declare its position with respect to NATO membership and, potentially, to hold a referendum on the subject.
Finally, Section IX outlines how the RS is seeking to implement the Dayton Accords through legitimate political and legal means. The RS has no plans for secession, but it insists that the Dayton political structure be fully implemented. As EU officials have frequently made clear, BiH’s decentralized constitutional structure is not a barrier to EU membership. The RS will continue to seek necessary reforms through political dialogue, but it also has a right to a remedy for material breaches of the Dayton Accords.
The Dayton Constitution provided a structure for a sustainable political system in a polity with three cohesive and distinct peoples. Attacks on that structure, unfortunately, have resulted in endemic dysfunction, frequent political crises, and domination by a single ethnic group. The RS Government is committed to making BiH work by pursuing the full and faithful implementation of the Dayton Constitution.
Read the full reports here.
