Weekly Briefing, Vol. 25, No. 1 (BH), January 2020
Political development of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020
The beginning of the year 2020 brought little change in regard to the continuous repetitive circle of political crisis’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the fourteen month long paralysis of the government, caused by the inability of the Bosniak, Croat and Serb parties to agree on the formation of the Council of Ministers, ended in December, events in January and February only brought new causes for serious concern over the long term stability of the country. The always controversial celebration of the Republika Srpska Day proved to be only an introduction to a new crisis brought by the constitutional changes regarding the ownership of the agricultural lands, which furthered the animosity between the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As it was the case in the previous years, the Bosnian Serbs once again celebrated the Republika Srpska Day on on 9 January. This celebration stood in a deliberately contradiction to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in November 2015 ruled that the celebrations of “9 January” to be unconstitutional. The date 9 January is controversial because on that day in 1992, a group of Serbian politicians unilaterally proclaimed an entity separated from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their actions is perceived by by Bosnians as an attempt to prevent the proclamation of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia. This act consequently helped escalate the political tensions which quickly after resulted in an open war. The celebrations of the Republika Srpska Day, which took place in Banja Luka, thus both resurrected the issues of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s troubled past and further confirmed that the Serbian entity of Bosnia in Herzegovina is not giving up on the idea of seceding from the country. The parade, consisting of around 2,400 police officers and overseen by the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (Saveza nezavisnih socijaldemokrata, SNSD) Milorad Dodik and the President of Republika Srpska Željka Cvijanović (SNSD), welcomed the special delegation from Serbia, headed by the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, Serbian Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin and Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojša Stefanović, who arrived in order to demonstrate Serbia’s support. The gathered political elite used the opportunity to once again send out messages which did not give much comfort regarding the possibilities of destabilization of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Milorad Dodik, for example, stated that the inevitable future of Republika Srpska lies in its integration with Serbia. In a somewhat milder tone, Ana Brnabić extended Serbia’s support for Serbs by announcing financial help for the Serbs living in other countries of the region outside of Serbia. Aleksandar Vulin expressed hope for unifying the Serbs and stated that the preservation and safety of Republika Srpska is among highest priorities of Serbia under Aleksandar Vučić. His speech did not pass without mentioning of the operation “Storm” which effectively ended the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also caused an exodus of more than 150,000 Serbs from the mentioned territories and the Second World War concentration camp Jasenovac in which more than 80,000 people perished, majority of which were Serbs. During the celebration, gathered crowd could hear anthems of Republika Srpska and Serbia, but not the one of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Although the controversial celebration of the Republika Srpska Day was until now undertaken every year by the Republika Srpska leaders, with more or less similar overtones, the significant difference this year, however, was that the celebration itself ended up being an introduction to another crisis, again revolving around the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At its regular 117th plenary session, held on 6 and 7 February, the Constitutional Court was asked to make a ruling over a simple, but politically highly sensitive question: which political structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina has the right to own the public agricultural land, the state or does this falls to the three political entities? The question itself was unilaterally attempted to solve at the end of 2019 by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska when it decided that all the agricultural lands in public domain in Republika Srpska should be considered as a property of Republika Srpska, and not the property of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in turn ruled that the Law on agricultural lands of the Republika Srpska was not in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agricultural lands in public domain cannot belong to belong to the political entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, but only to the state itself. The reaction of the Serbian politicians was expectedly harsh. Soon after the Constitutional Court complete its work, Milorad Dodik firmly rejected the ruling, stating that “all the land and objects belong to the entities” and that the “Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a political body and not a place of justice, but of speculation.” Dodik’s statements were followed by the diverse accusations on both sides. Republika Srpska politicians and experts followed Dodik’s guidelines and began publicly questioning the legitimacy of the Constitutional Court, which by their accord continuously rules against the Republika Srpska. The other side scorned the Bosnian Serbs for their continuous refusing to pay respect to the decisions of the higher institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The week-long mutual throwing of accusations and the public dissecting of the Bosnia and Herzegovina laws and constitution did not tone down, but went in tho opposite direction. It escalated into a new serious crisis which now has the potential to once again put Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government to a standstill. The depreciation over the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina unified the political parties of Republika Srpska. On 17 February the Republika Srpska Assembly adopted the information concerning the “anti-Dayton activity of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina” with the overwhelming majority (72 votes in favor and 2 against). The information was adopted along with the several conclusions, including the suspension of work of Republika Srpska representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities and the termination of the mandates of foreign judges in the Constitutional Court. The National Assembly of Republika Srpska unequivocally accused the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for deliberately violating not only the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also the Dayton Accords, the cornerstone which ended the war and upon which the today’s state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded.
The escalation’s reached its peak again with Milorad Dodik’s statements, who once again used the current political discrepancies to support his aspirations for independent Republika Srpska. Already at the National Assembly of Republika Srpska’s 17 February session, he uttered the catchy phrase “Goodbye BiH, welcome RS exit.” However, although his phrasing got a lot of attention from media and public, it would be false to claim that all the political circles in Republika Srpska agree with him. Although the political parties of Republika Srpska did unify in the Republika Srpska National Assembly against the decisions of the Constitutional Court, their unification sizes to exist when it come to the long term political ramifications of the current crisis. Leader of the Serbian Democratic Party (Srpska Demokratska Stranka, SDS) Mirko Šarović, for example, stated that at this moment discussions should be confined specifically to the issue that occurred regarding the laws and constitutions, and that at this moment “it’s not wise to talk about the referendum, secession, secession and other issues. There is time for these things, and we’ll talk about it when the time comes.”
Two days after the Republika Srpska National Assembly reached its decisions, a voice of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko was heard. As the overseer of the civilian implementation of the Dayton Accords, Inzko attempted to calm the situation down first by emphasizing the difference between the phrases “territory” and “state property”, which were, as he sees it, blurred and even fused by some people in Republika Srpska. He gave his full support to the decisions of the Constitutional court, clarifying that by this decision the territory of Republika Srpska is not endangered in any way. Secondly, he dismissed all discussions on secession of Republika Srpska, simply because the territorial integrity of Republika Srpska, just as the unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is founded on the Dayton Accords, the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution and international law. Since Dayton Accords does not allow secession of the entities, such an act would be outside of the law.
Conclusion
The events in January and February showed once more just how unstable and non-functional can the political balance in Bosnia and Herzegovina truly be. Inzko’s conciliatory words, true as they can be from the perspective of the law, unfortunately will not be enough to pacify the situation. Current constitutional crisis of Bosnia and Herzegovina will no doubtably persist in the months to come, while the aftermath of it will color the entire year 2020.
https://www.rferl.org/a/bosnian-serbs-celebrate-contentious-republika-srpska-day-/30368355.html
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/ustavni-sud-bosna-hercegovina/30440077.html
https://www.dw.com/hr/čija-je-zemlja-u-bosni-i-hercegovini/a-52362428
https://www.paragraf.ba/dnevne-vijesti/14022020/14022020-vijest3.html
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/sjednica-rs-ustavni-sud/30434924.html