Dodik and Silajdzic in a hurry to adopt a police reform against European principles
National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina
ONLINE NEWSLETTER - International
No. 491
September 27, 2007
http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/
<http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/>
CONTENT
1. Dodik and Silajdzic in a hurry to adopt a police reform against
European principles
2. House of Representatives regarding the continuing effects of the
genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (H. Res. 679)
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1. Dodik and Silajdzic in a hurry to adopt a police reform against
European principles
We are sending this special edition of our newsletter because we may be
about to witness a final blow to any meaningful police reform in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. We have some very interesting news about the process
that may help you decide who is sabotaging the three principles of
police reform.
First, we remind that the three principles are conditions of effective
police reform that the Council of Europe has set for Bosnia and
Herzegovina before the country can join the EU: 1. the police must have
a budget at the state level, 2. the organization of police regions must
be set according to functional (and not ethnic) criteria and 3. the
police must be outside of political influence. The entity "Republic of
the Serbs" (RS) is opposed to the principles because they effectively
weaken RS in favor of the state Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has used all
its faculties to delay and subvert any past steps of the reform,
including refusing to honor the binding decisions of a panel of experts
formed by a past agreement to which the RS was party to. Yet that stance
by the RS is not a surprise to anyone. What may be surprising to some is
who has actually been most instrumental in helping RS to avoid having to
give in to the pressure from Europe to reform the police -- the Bosniak
member of the Presidency, Mr. Haris Silajdzic.
In the past we have written about how Mr. Silajdzic, despite his public
vows to fight for the dismantling of the genocidal RS police, actually
negated the previous agreement and the binding decision by the
commission of experts mentioned above, and returned the process to the
phase of negotiations, restoring the power of veto that RS has. We also
commented on the subsequent proposal by the High Representative to BiH,
Mr. Miroslav Lajcak, which already presented large concessions to RS at
the expense of the three principles, but apparently not large enough.
Therefore, we do not discuss those developments in detail.
Instead we focus on newer developments. First, we have found out that a
negotiator on the Bosniak side, and member of Silajdzic's Party for
Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH), Mr. Damir Arnaut, played a key role in
the police reform negotiations of last week with arguments in defense
against further subversion of Europe's three principles for police
reform. Subsequently, Mr. Arnaut, who is a lawyer, was interviewed on
Bosnian television, where he shed some light on the negotiations, and
made a convincing and publicly well received case as to why any
agreement reached must respect the three principles. The stance that Mr.
Arnaut held both in negotiations and in the public promptly provoked a
response by Mr. Milorad Dodik, Premier of RS, that the only two people
who matter in the negotiations are himself and Mr. Haris Silajdzic, the
Bosniak member of the Presidency (also from SBiH), and if the two of
them reach an agreement, even Mr. Lajcak has to respect it.
Why does Dodik want to push everyone else out of the negotiations,
including Lajcak, and have only Silajdzic as his partner? Clearly,
although Lajcak is bending to the demands by the RS, his proposals at
least offer some progress on the three principles. Therefore, Dodik
would rather leave him out of the talks completely, because he knows
that only Silajdzic will deliver whatever he wants, despite Silajdzic's
hard line public stance.
Lajcak's response to Dodik's statement is that any agreement is
acceptable as long as it is respects the principles set by the European
Commission.
Now, Mr. Arnaut has been taken out of the negotiations and sent off to
the UN, to participate in the global warming discussions, until October
5. Mr.
Arnaut does not hold any official government post in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, other than negotiator for his party and advisor to Mr.
Silajdzic, nor does he have any expertise on environmental policy. Hi is
effectively in exile, so that he does not blow the whistle on the coming
agreement between Silajdzic and Dodik. And the only person who has the
authority to send him there is his boss -- Silajdzic.
"Coincidentally", another person that is under fire, is Mr. Safet
Halilovic, Minister of BiH for Human Rights and Refugees, a VP of
Silajdzic's party
(SBiH) and someone who has been critical of the treatment of non-Serb
returnees into RS by the RS police, and a proponent of police reform
that would take the police out of the hands of the RS. Namely, Mr.
Lajcak has stated, on the weekly TV program in Bosnia named "60 Minutes"
that he has spoken to Mr. Halilovic's party boss (Silajdzic) about his
VP not fulfilling his duties as Minister. Yet, the Ministry for Human
Rights and Refugees of BiH, a country with about one million refugees
and displaced persons, does not have a budget. Mr. Halilovic only has
his empty title at his disposal to help the refugees, and his office --
four walls and a desk. His involvement in the process of police reform
and his desire to ensure a police structure that will not harass and
instead will protect those refugees is about the best he can do for
them.
Yet, in some way, all this is good news. It means that even in his own
party Silajdzic does not have absolute authority, and that people
question and resist when he tries to sabotage the three principles in
favor of the RS.
That gives hope that even if he succeeds in removing the few key players
like Arnaut and Halilovic from the negotiations, he might have trouble
to get an agreement which does not respect the three principles passed
through the parliament.
Dr. Muhamed Borogovac,
Sven Rustempasic,
Amar Delic
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2. House of Representatives regarding the continuing effects of the
genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (H. Res. 679)
U.S. Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey has introduced a
draft resolution H.Res.679 regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
resolution mentions police reform, asking BiH to abolish the police of
RS, which is opposite to what Silajdzic and Dodik have been preparing.
Now we know why they are in such a hurry to reach this agreement by the
end of this month, after years of stalling.
The following is the draft resolution in procedure at the U.S. Congress,
and we remind the readers that it affirms the ICJ Genocide verdict,
which states that the police of the "Republic of the Serbs" committed
genocide
H. Res. 679: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives
regarding the continuing effects of the...
HRES 679 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 679
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the
continuing effects of the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war
crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 25, 2007
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the
continuing effects of the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war
crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Whereas H. Res. 199 and S. Res. 134 (109th Congress) resolved that from
April 1992 to November 1995, Serb forces committed aggression and
genocide against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its
population, with the direct support from authorities in Serbia and
Montenegro;
Whereas the perpetrators and the supporters of the aggression and
genocide, including the Yugoslav People's Army and its Ministry of
Interior, the Army of Republika Srpska, the Police of Republika Srpska,
and other regular and paramilitary forces under Serb control, intended
to destroy, through slaughter, rape, torture, and expulsion, the unique
multiethnic culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina woven through a thousand
years of tolerance, respect, mutual trust, and dignified coexistence of
all of Bosnia and Herzegovina's ethnically and religiously diverse
citizens;
Whereas the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) has found numerous Serb political and military officials guilty
of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of
genocide against the non-Serb population of the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina;
Whereas the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its judgment of
February 26, 2007, ruled that the execution of more than 7,000 civilians
in and around Srebrenica in July 1995 by the institutions of the then
self-styled Republika Srpska entity, and in particular its army and
police, was a crime of genocide, as defined by the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
Whereas Srebrenica and other areas of eastern Bosnia from which the
victims of genocide hail continues to be under the jurisdiction of the
Republika Srpska entity and its institutions, especially the Police of
Republika Srpska, that committed genocide;
Whereas the ICJ also ruled that Serbia had violated the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by failing to
prevent the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and punish its
perpetrators;
Whereas the ICJ's judgment declares that significant sections of the
documents detailing the proceedings of the Supreme Defense Council of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) were
redacted and therefore not available to the ICJ at the time of that
judgment;
Whereas the findings of the RS Srebrenica Commission report
unequivocally stated that Republic of Srpska's Interior Ministry (i.e.
the Police of Republika Srpska) has `failed to provide specific data on
several hundred individuals deployed in Srebrenica in July 1995 under
the direct or indirect auspices of the RS';
Whereas the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
concluded that the Srebrenica Commission `must complete the list of
names, currently standing at 892, of those implicated in the Genocide
who are currently employed in BH or Republic of Srpska institutions, and
forward a completed list to the BH Prosecutor and to the ICTY.';
Whereas all countries are obliged not to recognize as lawful the
situation created by the crime of aggression and the crime of genocide,
as well as to cooperate in the application of measures designed to
eliminate the consequences of such crimes;
Whereas the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (commonly referred to as the `Dayton Peace Accords'), that
was made possible through the strong leadership of the United States,
ended the aggression, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its non-Serb
population, but it failed to achieve its intended goal of reversing the
effects of those crimes;
Whereas due to the failure to ensure sustainable return of refugees and
displaced persons to their homes of origins, as guaranteed by Annex VII
of the Dayton Peace Accords, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Accords) has evolved into an
ethno-territorial arrangement that now institutionalizes the results of
the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and
Herzegovina;
Whereas one of the most ominous of the ethno-territorial provisions of
this Constitution is an entity voting mechanism, which allows a small
number of Serb deputies from Republika Srpska in the Parliament of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituting less than one-quarter of the
Parliament, to block any proposed legislation or decision;
Whereas the entity voting mechanism has been used to block various
crucial State-level legislation, including the proposed changes to the
Citizenship Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina which in its current form
threatens to permanently deny over 500,000 Bosnians their Bosnian
citizenship, effectively continuing the project of genocide and ethnic
cleansing;
Whereas 300,000 Bosnian-Americans live in the United States as fully
engaged citizens with a significant potential to further strengthen the
ties between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina;
Whereas the political leadership of the Republika Srpska entity has
continuously blocked all attempts to move beyond the ethno-territorial
basis of the Dayton Constitution and create a fully democratic and
functioning system of government, as has been demonstrated by, among
other things, the Republika Srpska entity's unwillingness to agree to
the reform of the police force structures within Bosnia and Herzegovina
in line with the standards demanded by the European Union;
Whereas Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the people of
Bosnia and Herzegovina need `a stronger energetic state capable of
advancing the public good' and pledged that the United States will
remain a dedicated partner to Bosnia and Herzegovina as it moves toward
further Euro-Atlantic integration;
Whereas Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns has
unequivocally stated that the Dayton Peace Accords `cannot be the way
that the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina organize themselves for the
next ten years' and that `it is time for [the people of] Bosnia and
Herzegovina ... to go beyond the Dayton Accords and to build a modern
constitutional state';
Whereas the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe have recently adopted Resolutions calling for an
in-depth reform of the Dayton constitutional arrangements, and
particularly for the reduction and elimination of the entity voting
mechanism;
Whereas there continues to be, within Republika Srpska ethnic
exclusivity, which has effectively discouraged and prevented the return
of the ethnically-cleansed non-Serb population to this region of Bosnia
and Herzegovina; and
Whereas the constitutional arrangements of Bosnia and Herzegovina must
satisfy the interests of all of its people by guaranteeing full civil,
cultural, individual, and religious rights to all citizens of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and promoting the integration of the entire region of
Southeast Europe into the Euro-Atlantic political and security
structures: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(A) Bosnia and Herzegovina should begin the process of adopting a new
constitution that is based on civic representation and that fully
eliminates the ethno-territorial arrangements which reflect and
institutionalize the effects of the genocide, war crimes, and crimes
against humanity committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
(B) the new constitution should advance the principles of civic
democracy, full equality of citizens, tolerance and protection of all
ethnic groups, and should reflect the highest standards of individual
human rights and liberties;
(C) the new constitution should eliminate the ethnic power-sharing
principles that reflect the ethnic divisions imposed by the perpetrators
of the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes;
(D) the new constitution must restructure the ethno-territorial
organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and eliminate its division into
entities, cantons, and municipalities with a view to creating a single,
unified economic space and increasing efficiency and sustainability of
the country and its governing apparatus;
(E) the entity voting mechanism, which has proved to be a serious
obstacle to the functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Parliament, must
be eliminated;
(F) Srebrenica and other areas of eastern Bosnia should be placed under
the exclusive jurisdiction of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina
in order to ensure that the situation created by genocide is not
recognized as lawful;
(G) the police reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina must create a single
police structure, replacing entity police forces with a single police at
the state level, and in particular eliminating the Police of the
Republika Srpska entity, which was identified in the ICJ judgment as one
of the institutions of Republika Srpska that participated in the
commission of the crime of genocide;
(H) the Republika Srpska entity cannot persist under its current name
which represents the ethnically-exclusive political philosophy of its
founders and which perpetuates the effects of the genocide and ethnic
cleansing;
(I) Serbia must immediately honor its international legal obligations
towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, stemming from the Convention on the
Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the ICJ
judgment, by immediately apprehending and transferring to the ICTY all
individuals indicted for participating in the commission of the crime of
genocide, particularly Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic; and
(J) it is in the national interest of the United States that all
individuals who are responsible for war crimes, genocide, and crimes
against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be held accountable
for their actions, and the Republika Srpska entity, Serbia, and
Montenegro must therefore fully cooperate with the ICTY;
(2) the United States reaffirms its strongest support for the
independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and supports the transformation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
into a state with governmental institutions commensurate with EU and
NATO membership, as this will ensure a lasting peace and greater
prosperity for all of the people and states of the entire region; and
(3) the House of Representatives calls for an immediate, refocused, and
concentrated diplomatic effort by the United States to achieve the
objectives stated in this Resolution in order to achieve definitive
success in reversing the effects of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina
and building a modern, functional, self-sustainable, and a fully
democratic state.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-679
<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-679>