Covic responds to OHR, embassies' statements on CPC

HDZ BiH

Croat Democratic Union’s (HDZ BiH) Leader and Bosnia’s Presidency Leader Dragan Covic wrote a public letter to embassies of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the OHR and OSCE saying he was unpleasantly surprised by their unacceptable qualifications of him and his party.

Four days ago, the embassies of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the OHR and OSCE said they are deeply concerned about the evident lack of genuine interest by HDZ BiH and SNSD in implementing the decision of the Bosnian Constitutional Court on the Bosnian Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

In their joint statement, they marked the HDZ BiH and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) as the main culprits for inability to adopt changes to the CPC.

Covic, on the other hand, said the allegations were false and that preparations for the said Law were no different than for any other law.

During the preparations, they gathered all the necessary opinions from all the relevant institutions and according to their data, the opinions were completely positive.

He also claims that foreign embassy representatives also observed their work on the amendments, therefore making sure that all the procedures were respected and in accordance with the regulations.

Thus the proposals for amendments to the Law were not and cannot be proposals of a single party, but proposals of competent Government bodies.

“I feel obliged to inform you that your statements, based on incomplete information, unnecessarily contribute to the creation of a negative perception in the public, and that you are taking part in the politicization of an important internal state issue during an election campaign which is outside of all standards, making you part of the campaign, which is absurd,” Covic said.