OHR GROSSLY DISTORTS REAL SITUATION IN BiH

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 28 /SRNA/ – All parties in BiH, as well as all international stakeholders operating in the region, must respect the Dayton Peace Agreement and work to restore functional democratic processes, full sovereignty and the rule of law in BiH, reads the 36th report of the Republika Srpska Government submitted to the UN Security Council.

The report states that the Office of the High Representative /OHR/ continues its destructive activities and the submission of formulaic reports that grossly distort the actual situation in BiH and misrepresent the causes of its dysfunction.

“This is hardly surprising, given that the OHR has always been the principal cause of that dysfunction, rather than a source of solutions. BiH has become an example of a failed state-building experiment conducted by foreign diplomats through their persistent interference, with little knowledge of the culture and history of this region and no understanding of, or regard for, the Constitution of BiH agreed upon in Dayton,” the report states.

Their interventionism, it adds, has undermined the rule of law at every level of society, seriously damaged BiH’s constitutional order and deepened mistrust among its constituent peoples.

“Unfortunately, this practice of state-building continues, contributing to centralising tendencies that the OHR persistently supports, thereby violating the Dayton Peace Agreement, the Constitution of BiH and the Constitution of Republika Srpska.

“By openly trampling on the clear provisions of the Constitution of BiH, which stipulate that all laws in the country must be adopted exclusively by local legislative bodies through established procedures, successive High Representatives, including the self-proclaimed Christian Schmidt, have so thoroughly distorted the country’s political culture and political processes that even calling BiH a colony would be an understatement, since even a colony is governed by a colonial administrator who is accountable for their actions somewhere and to someone,” the report stresses.

SECURITY COUNCIL URGED TO SUPPORT ANNULMENT OF ALL ACTS IMPOSED BY HIGH REPRESENTATIVES

It stesses that the illegitimate rulers who have subjected BiH to arbitrary rule through reckless decisions have never recognised the oversight of any legitimate international body.

“This foreign interference has distorted BiH’s judiciary and turned it into an instrument of political retribution, criminalised freedom of speech, led to the removal of democratically elected leaders and facilitated the usurpation of public property by institutions at the state level, in flagrant violation of constitutional provisions stipulating that such property belongs to the entities,” the report states.

It emphasises that the only way to address the root causes of this dysfunction and restore the rule of law in BiH is to remove from the country’s legal order all acts imposed by High Representatives and Christian Schmidt that are contrary to the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of BiH.

“The UN Security Council should give its full support to the annulment of these unlawful acts. This would create the conditions for BiH local institutions to focus on resolving the country’s issues. All Republika Srpska has ever asked for is that the Constitution of BiH, signed in Dayton, be respected both within the country and internationally, and faithfully implemented by legitimate, democratically elected institutions,” the Republika Srpska Government report states.

It emphasises that calls for respect for the rule of law in BiH do not constitute obstruction, intransigence or separatism, but rather a principled commitment to the rule of law.

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA VOTERS SENT UNEQUIVOCAL MESSAGE AT THE ELECTIONS

“At the October 4 elections, which are widely recognised as having been free and fair, the citizens of Republika Srpska sent an unequivocal message. By securing a convincing victory, the ruling coalition in Republika Srpska received a clear democratic mandate to continue its existing policies, including insisting on respect for Republika Srpska’s rights under the Dayton Peace Agreement and ending the unlawful and dictatorial actions of the High Representative in BiH,” the report stresses.

The victory, it adds, was achieved despite Schmidt’s tyrannical decision prohibiting the two largest parties in the ruling coalition from receiving public funding to which they are legally entitled.

“The victory of the ruling coalition in Republika Srpska confirms that Serbs, as a constituent people, firmly support the preservation of the entities’ competences and the power-sharing mechanisms guaranteed by the Dayton Peace Agreement, including the permanent and legally established status of public property as an inseparable part of Republika Srpska’s territorial and constitutional integrity,” the report states.

It notes that, following his victory in the election for President of Republika Srpska, outgoing Prime Minister Savo Minić called for unity.

According to the report, Minić said he would be the president of all citizens of Republika Srpska, regardless of their religion or nationality.

Republika Srpska and its leadership, the report adds, remain firmly committed to the Dayton Peace Agreement and are ready to cooperate with Bosniak and Croat parties that share this commitment.

“Although deep political and national divisions persist in BiH, Republika Srpska believes there are also many issues on which agreement can be reached. For example, Republika Srpska supports measures that advance BiH’ss progress towards EU membership, while preserving the entities’ competences guaranteed by the Constitution of BiH. The Republika Srpska leadership is willing to work with Bosniak and Croat representatives to contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous future for all citizens of BiH.

“Republika Srpska hopes that its partners will also seek to end the practice of obstruction that has delayed the implementation of numerous development projects,” the report states.

The report also stresses the importance of Željka Cvijanović and Darijana Filipović, elected as the Serb and Croat members of the Presidency of BiH, respectively, representing parties that advocate restoring the country’s sovereignty and democratic constitutional order by ending the unlawful assumption of unlimited, despotic powers by the High Representative.

“The peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections demonstrates the strong democratic capacity of our citizens and leaves no doubt about the legitimacy of the support enjoyed by Republika Srpska’s governing institutions among voters. However, the successful conduct of this democratic process cannot erase the serious and unlawful abuses of authority that marked the pre-election period and undermined the constitutional order established by the Dayton Peace Agreement,” the report states.

The Government notes in its report that Republika Srpska remains deeply concerned about Christian Schmidt’s illegitimate interference in BiH’s electoral system.

The report recalls that Schmidt, who was not appointed with the required consent of the UN Security Council and does not have the support of the signatory parties to the Dayton Peace Agreement, imposed undemocratic decisions that resulted in millions of convertible marks from the Central Bank of BiH being allocated to unverified electoral technologies, contrary to the Constitution.

“Bosniak politicians directly contributed to this overreach by international stakeholders, including officials in the Ministry of Finance and Treasury at the Council of Ministers, where the Bosniak deputy minister, bypassing the minister appointed from Republika Srpska, signed the payment orders,” the report states.

CEC - INSTRUMENT OF CENTRALISATION

The report further states that the structural integrity of the electoral process itself has been seriously undermined by the actions of the Central Election Commission /CEC/, whose composition legally invalid due to irregular parliamentary procedures that bypassed mandatory public recruitment procedures and the selection of candidates through the competent commissions.

The report emphasises that the CEC has been turned into a partisan instrument of centralisation by appointing former advisers to opposition politicians to key positions designated for Serb representatives, alongside Bosniak members openly linked to Sarajevo-based political structures, while retaining members who, contrary to the law, remained in office after reaching the mandatory retirement age.

“The CEC’s objective is to deprive Republika Srpska of its constitutional right to independently organise and conduct elections at the entity level. This concern is further heightened by the forced introduction of electronic voter identification and ballot scanners purchased from the Smartmatic Company, without the consent of local political stakeholders or transparent testing, creating serious risks to digital sovereignty and data security,” the report recalls.

Such concern, as it adds, is not unique to Republika Srpska, as similar doubts about the reliability of Smartmatic’s systems have frequently been raised in the EU and the USA.

“Furthermore, indictments filed in the United States against senior Smartmatic executives over bribery and financial misconduct aimed at securing election-related contracts further reinforce widespread international distrust of these systems and justify Republika Srpska’s refusal to place blind faith in unverified electronic systems operated by foreign entities, particularly a system that allows a company unrestricted access to public databases, including citizens’ biometric data,” the report states.

Although the election results unequivocally confirm the support enjoyed by Republika Srpska’s leadership among citizens, these systemic violations constitute an unacceptable precedent that must be addressed through legal and political means to safeguard the country’s future, reads the Republika Srpska Government report submitted to the UN Security Council.