It is hypocritical to say that the lack of courage among Sarajevo politicians to solve the border issue with Serbia was an obstacle to the solving of a series of issues between Bosnia and Serbia, said Sefik Dzaferovic, Bosniak candidate for the state Presidency, reacting to the statement of Serb member of the Presidency.
Mladen Ivanic, the Serb representative in the state presidency, said a day before it was “a grave mistake” of politicians in Sarajevo who did not accept to discuss the border demarcation with Serbia. According to him, it was only necessary to make some corrections on the part of the border near the eastern town of Rudo.
Dzaferovic strongly objected Ivanic’s words.
“The border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia was determined. That border was internationally recognized and confirmed by the Badinter Committee and by the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA). It can change only with the approval of both states. Recognizing these facts, Serbia demanded from Bosnia and Herzegovina a border change at three locations, not only near Rudo as Ivanic claims,” said Dzaferovic adding that the Serb member of the Presidency failed to mention other two disputable locations near the hydropower plants Bajina Basta and Zvornik.
This is where, Dzaferovic continued, Serbia is using parts of the Drina river and artificial lakes on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina without the consent of that country and adequate reimbursements.
A solution that Serbia proposed, added Dzaferovic, which Ivanic failed to mention too, was putting the territory around the power plants under “the international easement.” In other words, he explained, this would mean allowing Serbia to use Bosnia’s water resources for the next 100 years without any reimbursement.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is harmed in both cases and this is why Mladen Ivanic’s need to subordinate his role of the Presidency member, which obliges him to protect the interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the interests of Serbia is shameful,” Dzaferovic said.
Exchange of the territories in line with the metre-for-metre principle, which Serbia proposed and Ivanic advocates, is, stressed Dzaferovic, an attempt of deceit at expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“If Ivanic sees the protection of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s interests as a mistake, then he is yet to see many of such mistakes on my part if I am elected in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he concluded.
