Tuesday, December 2, 2008

#529 Dodik Unilaterally Takes away Bonn Powers from Europe

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

ONLINE NEWSLETTER - International

No. 529

March 2, 2008

http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/

CONTENT

Uvod na Bosanskom

1. Serbia Exports Kosovo Crisis to Bosnia and Herzegovina

1.1 Dodik Unilaterally Takes away Bonn Powers from Europe

1.2 Kosovo is not a legal precedent in international law

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Uvod na Bosanskom

Postovani gradjani Bosne i Herecegovine,

ovih dana se ubrzano unistava drzavnost Bosne i Hercegovine. Poslije Mostarske deklaracije i toboznje “reforme” policije koja zavrsava kao legalizacija Policije RS, ohrabreni tim uspjehom Siljadzic, Tihic i Dodik su krenuli u novi krupan poduhvat, a to je lagalizaciju Republike srpske.

Sarajevski zavjerenicki mediji ne javljaju alarmantnu vijest da je Dodik po povratku iz Birsela u Banja Luku izjavio da "Republika srpska vise ne priznaje OHR-ove Bonske ovlasti". Time Dodik pokusava ukinuti veoma vazan dio politickog sistema daytonske BiH, a da pri tome ne nailazi ni na kakav otpor “bosnjackih” predstavnika, Silajdzica, Tihica, Lagumdjije....

Kao sto je poznato, u Daytonu je RS dobila sve sto je trazila, a Republika BiH bas nista. U Daytonu su “nasi” pregovaraci osnovali Republiku Srpsku i dali joj tolika ovlastenja, da se sada Bosna i Hercegovina drzi o koncu, a to je o mandatu OHR-a, jedinog suverena Bosne i Hercegovine. Mandat OHR-a u BiH je precizno definisan Bonskim ovlastima. Bez OHR-a sa Bonskim ovlastima, ne bi postojao nikakav autoritet u BiH iznad Dodika i ostalih lidera RS, a to neminovno znaci raspad Bosne i Hercegovine, sa nesagledivim posljedicama.

Naime, ako se RS otcijepi iz BiH to ne bi bilo isto kao otcjepljenje Kosova od Srbije, jer “Federacija BiH” nije napravljena da moze funkcionisati. Izlaskom RS iz BiH bi ostala neka nedefinisana teritorija Federacija, a ne kompaktna funkcionlana drzava kakva je Srbija bez Kosova.

Zato mi moramo po svaku cijenu sprijeciti izdvajanja RS iz BiH, jer bi to donijelo nesagledivu nesrecu svim narodima i gradajnima BiH.

Nacionalni kongres Republike BiH je distribuirao u nasem internacionlanom izdanju na Engleskom objasnjenje BH situacije u vezi sa Dodikovim proglasom da "RS vise ne priznaje Bonske ovlasti OHR-a". Ukratko objasnili smo da BiH nije nastala u Daytonu, nego da je Republika BiH bila priznata mnogo prije Daytona i da je samo RS nastala u Dayton. Dakle, bez Daytona nema RS, a ima Republika BiH.

Svojim jednostranim aktom nepriznavanja Bonskih ovlasti Dodik se odrice Daytona tako da se mi sada trebamo odreci priznanja RS. Znamo da to nasi izdajnici Silajdzic i Tiihic nece uraditi, ali mi kao narod mozemo to traziti direktno od Evrope.

Zatim, objasnili smo da Kosovo i RS nemaju nikakve pravne slicnosti buduci da je Kosovo po ustavu Jugoslavije bilo lagalna i legitimna autonomna jedinica, dok je RS nastala genocidom. Objasnili smo i to da je Srbija izgubila pravo na Kosovo kada je nasilno promjenila Ustav Srbije i Kosova u cilju da izbrise kosovsku autonomiju u Srbiji.

Pozivamo vas da saljete taj tekst na Engleskom na sve adrese koje znate, npr. pocev od Lajcaka www.reci.ba

Pokazimo svijetu da Silajdzic i Tihic nikoga ne predstavljaju. Slobodno distribuirajte dalje taj tekst na Engleskom ako se slazete sa njim, a mozete staviti vase ime na njega, jer nije bitno ko ga je preveo na Engleski - bitno je da te istine pripadaju svim gradjanima Republike BiH.

Slijedi taj tekst na Engleskom.

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1. Serbia Exports "Kosovo Crisis" to Bosnia and Herzegovina


1.1 Dodik Unilaterally Takes away Bonn Powers from Europe

Republic of the Serbs (RS) Premier Milorad Dodik, dissatisfied with the decision of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) that the Office of Europe's High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina will to hold on to the Bonn powers, decided to take away those powers himself.

Namely, upon his return to Banja Luka from Bruxelles, Mr. Dodik declared to the press that the RS will reject any attempt by the OHR to use the Bonn Powers: "Absolutely, it will not be allowed, that any individual becomes subject to the Bonn powers of the High Representative, except those involved with war crimes and those being processed by the court system, nor will we accept the imposing of any laws or regulations by the OHR."

This is a huge challenge to the authority of OHR and PIC. If the OHR and PIC simply allow such statements to be made without consequences, it would become very clear that the Dayton process no longer applies. Even by simply allowing such rhetoric in the media, the international guarantors of peace in Bosnia would look weak and foolish in the eyes of the free world, and especially in the eyes of the Bosnian people, victims of genocide, who have thus far put their trust in the same international community.

More importantly, this course of action by the RS government represents a unilateral withdrawal from obligations assumed under the Dayton agreement.

The OHR and PIC have two choices for how to respond. They could try to salvage Dayton and call the bluff of the RS, by using the Bonn powers to remove Mr. Dodik. Or they could accept that Dayton has failed and that this decision by Premier Dodik is just a formal confirmation of that.

If the PIC does give up on Dayton, what becomes the legal situation in Bosnia? Do the entities become states? The answer is no. The Dayton Agreement is not different from any other legal agreement in that if the signers withdraw from it, or refuse to adhere to it, the matter reverts to status quo ante, or the last legal state that had existed before the agreement was signed. In the case of the Dayton agreement, status quo ante is the constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, without ethnic entities.

It is important to clarify further this question. This week's PIC conclusion -- an English language document that has been posted on the OHR website -- states that Bosnia's: "... territorial integrity is guaranteed by the Dayton Peace Agreement". This statement is interpreted by some malicious Bosnian politicians and media that the territorial integrity of Bosnia is ONLY guaranteed by the Dayton Peace Agreement. The implication of that false interpretation is that Bosnia and Herzegovina will cease to exist when Dayton inevitably fails. But the PIC statement above is just a simple paraphrasing of the Dayton Agreement Annex 4. Article I.1., which states that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not ended or begun in the agreement, but continued with a modified internal organization, and that the agreement does not put into question its internationally recognized borders. Therefore, if Dayton fails, or if the signers withdraw from it, Bosnia and Herzegovina will revert to status quo ante -- a state within its internationally recognized borders, and without the ethnic entities.

Both Raffi Gregorian, Deputy High Representative to Bosnia, and Charles English, U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina have both confirmed this in media interviews this past week. Mr. Gregorian said, in Banja Luka's "Nezavisne Novine" that calling into question the Dayton Agreement is calling into question the existence of the RS itself. Mr. English similarly linked the existence of RS to Dayton, while emphasizing that Bosnia and Herzegovina existed before and independently of Dayton.

This is another attempt at blackmail of the international community by Serbia and Serbia’s proxy in Bosnia – the RS. Hopefully, this time the EU and the world will not give in to blackmail.

Finally, we note that Serbia has been using Kosovo’s independence to both inflame the militant nationalist sentiment inside the RS, and to argue for the separation of RS from Bosnia. Yet, the connection and similarity that Serbia cites between the cases of Kosovo and the RS are not grounded in facts. The following is a brief explanation of the legal argument for the independence of Kosovo, from which it is clear why it is a special case that cannot be compared to the status of RS.


1.2 Kosovo is not a legal precedent in international law

According to the last legal constitution of Yugoslavia, the autonomous province of Kosovo had the same right of self-determination that all the Yugoslav republics used in order to gain internationally recognized independence. In fact, it was Milosevic's forcible and illegal change of the constitution regarding Kosovo's autonomy that led the republics to declare independence in the first place. It was illegal, because it violated constitutionally proscribed procedure for amending the constitution.

Later, Serbia’s military attempted to forcibly remove the two million ethnic Albanian citizens of Kosovo by replicating the campaign of violence, rape, intimidation and murder which had been successfully used to create the RS as an ethnically clean Serb territory on half of Bosnia. It did not succeed in Kosovo largely because of NATO intervention.

Therefore, Serbia never had the legal right to hold Kosovo, and a strong moral argument exists for independence of Kosovo.

Regardless of what people think of Bush administration policies in other parts of the world, recognizing the declaration of independence by Kosovo's parliament is one they absolutely got right.

NCRB&H
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