ACADEMICIAN SUAD KURTĆEHAJIĆ: IF WE GIVE IN TO THE PRESIDENT OF RS DODIK, BIH IS ONE STEP AWAY FROM PARTITION
SARAJEVO, JANUARY 5 (ONASA) – Academician Prof. Dr. Suad Kurtćehajić calls on all lawyers and politicians in the RS entity to say which provision or article and position of either the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina or some other annex of the Dayton Agreement on which RS President Milorad Dodik and his political establishment are basing their claim and spreading the lie that the Dayton letter real estate was given to entities trying to sell the world a horn under a candle.
He reminds us that Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of succession and the Agreement signed in Vienna on June 29, 2001, by the successor states of former Yugoslavia, which entered into force in 2004 as one of the successor states of former Yugoslavia, according to the same principles and legal grounds, belongs to the ownership of all that which belongs to other successor states as well.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, by the letter of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is clearly stated in Article 1, paragraph 1, is the only one with legal continuity, which means that it continues to enjoy the rights of the former Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Dodik’s politics does not reconcile with that. It tries in every way to dispute what belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina to other states created by the breakup of former Yugoslavia. In this sense, legal interpretations are adjusted to Dodik’s political demands. Accordingly, the first lie goes that the entities in Dayton created Bosnia and Herzegovina and transferred external sovereignty to it while retaining internal sovereignty,” Kutćehajić said.
Academician Kurtćehajić debunks this lie and points out that until Dayton there existed a parastate Republika Srpska as an unrecognized creation and a provisional state called the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the creation of which another parastate the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna disappeared from the scene. Only with the letter of Dayton was the internal structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina modified and in Article 1 paragraph 3 it is stated that it consists (and not that it is composed) of two entities.
“The term state stands only next to Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the term sovereignty, which is not mentioned in any part of the Constitution of BiH for entities. As for the signatures in Dayton that stand next to the RS and the attempt to say that the entity’s international legal subjectivity is recognized, that is the most common hoax. The General Peace Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an international treaty was signed only by the representatives of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The entities signed the annexes but as subjects of domestic law, thus assuming the obligation to respect and execute them”, the academician states.
He believes that the story that the immovable property was given to the entity of the RS by the letter of Dayton, which Dodik and his like-minded people constantly chant, is not based on any provision on ownership, but on jurisdiction.
He points out that in Article 3, paragraph 1, the competencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina are exhaustively listed, he adds that there are ten of them, however, the question of the competence of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also determined by the general provision contained in Article 3, paragraph 5. Additional competencies: Bosnia and Herzegovina will assume jurisdiction in those matters in which the entity’s agreement is reached, matters that are provided for in Annexes 5 – 8 of the General Framework Agreement, or that are necessary to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and international subjectivity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with by the division of competences among the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Kurtćehajić notes that additional institutions can be established as needed to exercise these competencies.
So, according to the academician, all the competencies that have been given to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the consent of the entities were given on the basis of the first part of this provision, which also foresees in its third part the acquisition of jurisdiction and all those issues that are necessary to preserve its sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and international subjectivity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the High Representative has the main say, who is designated by Annex 10, Article 5 as the final interpreter of the civilian part of the Dayton Agreement.
This part of the provision on additional competencies has unlimited potential when it comes to the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina and has not been used at all, academician Kurtćehajić points out.
“Dodik and his establishment behave as if the provision on additional competences does not exist, and they base the story that immovable property belongs to the entities on Article 3, paragraph 3 a) of the Constitution of BiH, which states: all government functions and powers that are not expressly entrusted to the institutions of Bosnia by this Constitution and Herzegovina belong to the entities. Here, the fraud of Dodik’s policy is based on an attempt to interpret competencies as ownership, which are two different legal concepts. Namely, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be the owner of the forest, agricultural, or water land and give the same to entities, cantons, or municipalities on use and management under the conditions it determines while retaining the right of ownership. However, the essence of Dodik’s policy is to make Bosnia and Herzegovina an empty shell that does not have its own property, and all under the pretext that it is the entity that is an empty shell without property. However, the RS entity was given in Dayton to the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a form of guarantee that there would be no preg lasani and that they can exercise their rights in the greatest capacity and with full equality, although after Dayton in 2007, the judgment of the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the de facto creation of the RS was responsible for the genocide in Srebrenica, which in fact means that the existence of the RS after that verdict is a reward for the committed genocide,” said Kurtćehajić.
But, he adds, even despite this, the mere existence of the RS was not enough for Dodik, who repeatedly hinted at the secession of the RS entity and made statements that Serbia and the RS would one day be the same.
He underlined that without ownership of immovable property, it is an impossible mission.
“The High Representative is on the move, which is based on Article 3, paragraph 3. b) where it is stated: b) the entities and all their administrative units will fully comply with this Constitution, which repeals the legal provisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the constitutional and legal provisions of the entities that do not agree with it, as well as the decision of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The general principles of international law are an integral part of the legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its entities. This provision clearly indicates that the state is superior to the entities and requires the entities to respect the Constitution of BiH and the institutions of BiH, and above all the Constitutional Court, whose decisions are final and binding according to Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution of BiH, as well as respect for international law and, in this sense, the succession agreement signed by the successor states of former Yugoslavia. The question of ownership of immovable property is to be or not to be for Bosnia and Herzegovina and giving in to Dodik would bring the country one step closer to division,” concludes academician Kurtćehajić.