Bosnian Serbs Condemned Over Blockade of State Institutions

Bosniak leaders have harshly criticised Serbian representatives for suspending work in state institutions, accusing them of violating the 1995 peace agreement and even of committing a crime.

The building of the parliament and Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Photo: EPA/Fehim Demir

Bosniak leaders on Wednesday accused Bosnian Serb officials – who have stopped work on deciding any state-level matters, pending adoption of a new law on the Constitutional Court – of breaking the law.

Since almost no decision in Bosnia can be made without the consent of all of its three constituent peoples, Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, the Bosnian Serb strike effectively blocks much of the work of government.

This decision to stop work follows a meeting on Wednesday of all the main Bosnian Serb parties, including their representatives in state institutions, with the Zeljka Cvijanovic, the RS President, and the Serbian member of the Bosnian state presidency, Milorad Dodik, in Banja Luka, the RS administrative centre.

That followed a February 7 ruling of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which declared the RS Law on Agricultural Land – which stipulated that public agricultural land by law should become the property of the RS – unconstitutional.

The Court ruled that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not the RS, should be the owner of such land. It acted upon the motion filed by seven Bosniak delegates to the RS Council of Peoples, the chamber that represents the interests of the three constituent peoples.

Adding to the sensitivity of the matter, the judging panel of the court is made up of three foreign judges as well as two Bosniak, two Croat and two Serbian judges.

Bosnian Serbs have long objected to the court – and especially to its foreign judges. “For years we have continuously got decisions of the Bosnian Constitutional Court that are damaging to the RS and very often go beyond the jurisdiction of the … court,” RS President Cvijanovic said after the meeting, adding that the Constitutional Court had gone from intruding on identity issues to territorial issues.

Dodik, Serbian member of the Bosnian presidency, said that the Constitutional Court “is the occupation court, as far as RS is concerned”. He also called a session of the RS parliament for Monday. He also said the Serbian judges should quit the court. “We think that [Serbian] judges in the Constitutional Court should withdraw. If they fail to do so, the RS parliament, which appointed them, will decide to withdraw them … so, we will either just renegotiate, or there is nothing left of this country,” Dodik said.

Bosniak leaders meanwhile condemned the Bosnian Serb action. Sefik Dzaferovic, Bosniak member of the state presidency, said disrespect for the decisions of the Constitutional Court was a crime and a direct violation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia.

“They question peace and stability and inevitably end the Dayton Peace Agreement,” Dzaferovic said on Wednesday, adding that, “the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which existed before Dayton, will continue in existence. Only what has emerged in Dayton will be questioned – and these are primarily the entities”.

Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic said he hoped RS politicians would realise that by blocking the work of state institutions, they also punish RS citizens.

“The anti-constitutional habit of the RS, to interfere with the exclusive competencies of the state of Bosnia, acting as the supreme arbitrator and interpreter of all constitutions and laws, is a classic example of arrogant disrespect for applicable laws, leading to new tensions and legal anarchy,” he stated.

Denis Zvizdic, speaker of the lower house of the state parliament, said: ”I urge the representatives of … Republika Srpska to get serious and not to block the work of the institutions, which will cause great harm”.

Disputes over who or what owns former state land go back years in Bosnia. The Office of the High Representative, OHR, Bosnia’s top international overseer, in 2005 imposed a rule that prevents local authorities from using land that belonged to the former Yugoslav state until a state-level law is passed on it. That law has never been adopted.

The RS government has meanwhile said that, according to its own view of the constitution, that property belongs to the two entities of Bosnia, the RS and the Federation. In response to the court’s decision, it noted that the same court, in three cases, in March and April 2017 and in October 2018, confirmed that agricultural land, as a matter of general interest, was not subject to privatization and was owned by the Republika Srpska.