Fmr BiH Presidency member: Present situation nothing like the 90s

The current situation in Bosnia is nowhere close to the one in the 90s when the war broke out because the country was completely surrounded by the Yugoslav National Army with heavy weapons around all major cities in the country, a former member of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivo Komsic said for N1 Wednesday evening, adding that incumbent Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik’s secession threats are unfeasible because he has neither army nor legal grounds at his disposal.

“We shouldn’t dismiss our concern and politicians should be very careful when making political moves. All of us who care about Bosnia should be careful, but not afraid because Dodik has no army and he can’t have one; this isn’t 1991 or 1992,” Komsic said, adding that he has some hunters’ associations and security firms which he had armed but that they are no match for the NATO and the US interests in the region.

When asked about the persistent silence of the international community’s newly appointed High Representative (HR) in BiH, Christian Schmidt, in charge of overseeing the implementation of the civilian aspect of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-1995 war in the country, Komsic said he suspects that he must be preparing something significant.

“[Former high representatives] Paddy Ashdown and Wolfgang Petritsch and dismissed politicians all the time. The vacuum made by the arrival of the new HR is a bit weird but it can also mean something else. Maybe he’s preparing some new sanctions,” Komsic noted.

Asked if he could be waiting for the US to signal him to start dismissing some BiH politicians, including Milorad Dodik known for his increasing secessionist rhetoric, the former RBiH Presidency member noted that the HR does not need anyone’s approval to do that because that is part of his mandate.

“The Annex 10 [of the Dayton Accords] defined his role, stipulating that he is competent to interpret the Dayton Peace Agreement and to oversee its implementation. He could have made that move when RS entity politicians said they didn’t recognize him as the High Representative because not recognizing him means hot recognizing the Dayton Agreement,” he pointed out.

Over the past several months, Bosnian Serb ministers in the State government and officials employed in state institutions and bodies began boycotting the work of these institutions over the appointment of Christian Schmidt as new High Representative in BiH, and the former HR Valentin Inzko’s decision to impose a ban on genocide denial and glorification of war criminals in the country.

After the blockade failed to accomplish their main demand – the abolition of the imposed HR decision, the leader of the RS ruling party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) Milorad Dodik said this entity would withdraw from the agreement on the formation of the state-level judiciary, army, tax administration, special police and the intelligence agency, forming its own intelligence agency.

Komsic reiterated that the Serb-dominated RS entity cannot withdraw from the Dayton Peace Agreement because the Agreement states that without Bosnia, there are no entities and their position is therefore sealed with this document.

“Now the opposition is saving the RS from Dodik. He is acting like he’s in a panic not knowing what he’s doing. He can neither do anything nor abolish the Armed Forces of BiH. All he can do is make unilateral decisions. And it’s good that he’s doing all this cause he could provoke sanctions against him,” Komsic concluded adding that Dismissal wouldn’t even faze the RS or threaten its existents the slightest.