Weekly Briefing, Vol. 45. No. 4 (BH) November 2021
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal issues on the international stage
Summary
Milorad Dodik, the leader of the strongest party of Republika Srpska, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata, SNSD) and the Serb representative in the tripartite presidency of the country, and Christian Schmidt, the current High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina disagree on the most relevant political issues, to say the least. Schmidt sees Dodik as the largest threat to the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dodik simply rejects the Office of the High Representative as lawful institution. In late October and early November, the conflict between Dodik and Schmidt extended itself from the domain of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal affairs to the international stage, namely the United Nations Security Council.
Introduction
Ever since the end of the war in 1995, the rift between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutive peoples has never been wider. The former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko’s imposed changes to the country’s criminal law, aiming to sanction “the glorification of war criminals convicted by final and binding judgments and the denial of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,”[1] set a chain of events which quickly led to Republika Srpska’s politicians’ boycott of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s institutions. Within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, the discord between Croats and Bosniaks, which currently revolve around the problematic election law, only made the overall political situation even more unstable. Due to the involvement of the international actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which continuously exist since wartime and the Dayton agreement, the new developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal affairs have now reached the point that they cannot pass without heavy involvement of the international community. Serbia, Croatia, the United States, the European Union, Russia, China, the United Nations, to name only some, all are involved in what is occurring in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. The last episode occurred in the United Nations Security Council where Russia and China, acting as protectors of the Serbian positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, effectively prevented the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt from speaking. In this briefing we will present the issues that currently exist between the Office of the High Representative and Republika Srpska, as well as how this issue closely connects the internal politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the adversaries which exist between the world’s powers on the global scale.
Schmidt speaking in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliament
Valentin Inzko’s initiative to put more pressure on Milorad Dodik’s incentive of Republika Srpska’s independency, which is adjourned by glorification of war criminals, was quickly followed up by the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt. On October 28th, Schmidt came for the first time to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliament to make an official statement regarding the ongoing political crisis, created partly by the Republika Srpska politicians’ boycott of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s institutions, and partly by the inconstancies of the election law which has been creating frictions between Bosniaks and Croats within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Speaking in the Parliament, Schmidt did not hide his resentment towards open challenges of both the sovereignty of his position and the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He emphasized the need to preserve the fixed entity-based political structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, set by the Dayton Agreement. He distanced himself from using the so-called “Bonn powers”, which allow the High Representative to remove public officials who violate legal commitments from office, and called out the irresponsible politicians who boycott the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s state institutions, including the Parliament itself which is supposed to be the “proper place for discussions”. As a final show of his support for the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in its current form, Schmidt gave his full support to the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional court, because of decisions of which are constantly being challenged, ignored or discarded by the Republika Srpska’s political leadership. To make his statements sound more firmer, Schmidt called upon the “international community” which, when it comes to preservation Bosnia and Herzegovina’s integrity, “will not stand aside”.
Christian Schmidt’s speech, which was basically composed as a series of messages to Dodik and the rest of Republika Srpska’s political leadership and failed to have any effect on the designated recipient. As expected of him, Dodik calmly repeated that, when it comes to Republika Srpska, Christian Schmidt is not accepted as High Representative, the Office of the High Representative has no jurisdiction over Republika Srpska whatsoever, and that Republika Srpska will ask the United Nations Security Council not to appoint anyone else to this position. Furthermore, while describing to the press the status that Republika Srpska de facto has in regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik once more emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s institutions cannot reach any conclusions that would be effective to Republika Srpska.
Schmidt not speaking at the United Nations Security Council session
As mentioned above, Christian Schmidt’s speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliament was a message aimed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s undesirable political factors. However, the purpose of Schmidt’s speech was not only to relay a message from the Office of the High Representative to Dodik and thus confine the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s issues to itself. Schmidt’s speech was also a demonstration of a joint European Union and United States policy toward Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed toward their international opposition, namely the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China. Therefore, it was carefully timed.
Schmidt’s speech took place approximately one week prior to the United Nation Security Council meeting regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, during which Schmidt was scheduled to personally file a report on Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, Russia and China found Schmidt’s report not to be constructive and helpful enough for the improvement of circumstances regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the first time they managed to prevent the High Representative from making an appearance at the United Nation Security Council session on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Taking the lead in this initiative, the Russian representative Vassily A. Nebenzia explained that Russia finds Schmidt’s report to be “extremely biased and anti-Serb document aimed at destroying the glimmer of peace and cooperation among people in Bosnia”. The Chinese representative Geng Shuang supported Russia’s position, further elaborating that the Dayton Agreement should be implemented “to the letter”, without imposing external solutions. Although Schmidt did not speak in front of the United Nations Security Council, many of the countries did publicly acknowledge issues that Schmidt had put forward in his report. Further more, several of them, namely the United States, France, Ireland, Estonia, and Croatia, openly supported the Office of the High Representative, creating a diplomatic counterweight to Russia and China.[2]
After a lively discussion, the United Nation Security Council meeting on Bosnia and Herzegovina ended with a decision which basically only prolongs the status quo. The final Resolution 2604 (2021) determined “that the situation in the region of the Former Yugoslavia continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security,”[3] and therefore prolonged the mandate of the multinational stabilization force (EUFOR Althea) for another twelve months. At the insistence of Russia and China, any mention of the High Representative was dropped out from the resolution.
Conclusions
Although the High Representative did get more than enough support within the United Nations Security Council, Dodik still managed to score a major victory. For the first time, High Representative did not speak at the Security Council session and for the first time countries insisted that the mention of the High Representative is left out from the final resolution. Even though such novelties affected general attitude and solutions of the Security Council toward Bosnia and Herzegovina very little, they did provide a certain boost to Dodik’s position at home. Supported by Russia and China in the opinion that the existence of the Office of the High Representative is counterproductive for reaching viable solutions for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik immediately continued to push his attitude forward. Just one day after the Security Council session, Dodik announced that Republika Srpska will find a mechanism to sue Christian Schmidt for false representation. The conflict between Dodik and Schmidt is to be continued.
[1] http://www.ohr.int/high-representative-valentin-inzko-introduced-today-amendment-to-the-bh-criminal-code/
[2] https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14685.doc.htm
[3] https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N21/320/06/PDF/N2132006.pdf?OpenElement