Bosnia clash over international office overseeing peace implementation

Bosnia and Herzegovina's entity, Republika Srpska, has gone a step further as 26 May approved the OHR closure declaration.

The same day, Republika Srpska's deputy entity head Qamil Durakoviq sent his statement against the unconditional closure of the OHR to procedure, stressing that only when conditions for the closure of the Office of the High Representative by the “Program 5+2<18x1> can be discussed.

Likewise, political parties from the other entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ordered that the OHR should remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina with full competence.

The opposing positions of power in Bosnia and Herzegovina, says political analyst Tanja Topic, send the message that the country, even without the OHR, would remain blocked by political drives.

“Today our society is not democratic society, institutions are seized, the space of freedom of expression, freedom of thought, human rights being violated, and only then can we assume to what extent this would be even more pronounced if we did not have the voice coming from international institutions and organisations”, Topic estimates.

The high representative still in office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, warned that by the end of June, he would leave this post “for personal reasons”. He has held the post for almost five years.

It is not yet known who will be his successor.

What do the ruling parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina say?

Republika Srpska's power, led by Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, has continued the policy of rejecting the high representative, adopting the declaration against the OHR in the People's Assembly of the entity.

Among other things, that document says OHR's existence is in direct conflict with Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and aspirations for membership in the European Union.

The declaration also envisions abolishing decisions by former senior representatives, as well as an appeal to international institutions for the closure of the OHR.

The statement, like previous ones, is not legally binding and reflects political attitudes and goals in Republika Srpska.

Seven parties from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the ruling Social Democrat Party and the opposition Party of Democratic Action, responded with the memorandum for the protection of constitutional order, citizenship and the country's Euro-Atlantic path.

They ordered that the OHR should remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the high representative will continue to have Bonn Powers until Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions “have no mechanism for overcoming the blockades”.

Likewise, the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Croatian Democratic Union, Dragan Covovic, told the Federal TVs OHR of a day ago he needed transformation, restriction of competencies, as well as a possible shift to Brussels.

I'd like the new high representative to move into Brussels space, because if our path goes that way, why not? To have limited capacity in competencies and be a defence mechanism for Dayton Bosnia. All the others should be able to solve for ourselves”, Covic said.

“

Tanja Topic estimates that Serbian and Bosniak politicians have so far had a similar but opposite attitude towards the OHR, while HDZ leader has changed the political course.

She adds that even in this case, common relationships have been copied, as well as most other matters.

Topic stresses that the statement under Dodik's auspices is only an act of public relations, with which current power in Republika Srpska tries to be presented as a key factor in the removal of Smidt representative.

According to her, the OHR in Bosnia and Herzegovina has served as a tool in the hands of all political actors for the purposes of daily politics.

“We, in fact, have been able to see how at the same time the Office of the High Representative and that kind of international presence, even though it has been severely opposed, in fact it has been used both in the narrative and in the actions of political actors as reasoning and alibi why they actually don't do anything”, Topic points out.

She also adds that whoever replaces Christian Schmidt, someone in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be unhappy.

Another Political Environment for New High Representative

The new high representative, in all likelihood, will not have free hands like his predecessors.

The United States for three decades has been one of the main pillars of support for the OHR's interventional approach.

Thus, senior representatives, with the green light from Washington, used so - called Bonn competencies, which gave them authorization to dismiss elected officials and impose laws.

However, the United Nations Security Council's recent meeting held on 12 May, at which Christian Schmidt presented the report on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said competencies should gradually be transferred to local leaders.

US representative Tami Bruce stated during the meeting that the future high representative must have the “mandas evidently the most limited”.

At the same meeting, the United Kingdom and France expressed support for the OHR, while the Russian representative called for the closure of the OHR and claimed Christian Schmidt is not the legitimate high representative, repeating his already discredited thesis.

The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), at the two-day meeting scheduled for 3 June and 4 June, is expected to appoint Schmidt's successor, the ninth high representative since the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, representatives of the European Union and the European Commission, as well as Turkey's Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, are part of this board.

This board oversees implementation of the Dayton Agreement and elects the high representative. Russia withdrew from the body in 2021. / REL/