Even if the Bosnian Serb Presidency member manages to block a potential lawsuit against Croatia over the construction of the Peljesac bridge, his Bosniak colleague said on Tuesday that he would continue pursuing it to protect Bosnia’s interests.
The Peljesac Bridge is intended to link the Croatian mainland and the Peljesac Peninsula, bypassing a 15 kilometre-long strip around the city of Neum that represents Bosnia and Herzegovina’s only coast on the Adriatic Sea.
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Bosniak political parties oppose the construction of the bridge, saying it might prevent large vessels from entering the country’s bay of Neum and threaten its access to the open sea.
When the Bosniak and Croat members of the country’s tripartite Presidency agreed to adopt a proposal that could mean that Bosnia could submit a lawsuit against Croatia over the issue, the Serb Presidency member, Milorad Dodik, said he would not agree to it. He said he would submit a request to protect the vital entity interest of Republika Srpska (RS), the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity within the country, in order to stop it.
The vital entity interest mechanism means that Dodik can now veto the decision to sue Croatia if two-thirds of the lawmakers in the RS support it.
Dodik is the leader of the ruling party in the RS.
“Bosnia is not asking for anything that is not normal and I don't know what the RS entity's interest would be when it comes to the demarcation of Bosnia and Croatia in the Neum bay area,” Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic said, adding that he believes it should be in the interest of the RS for Bosnia to have unobstructed access to the sea.
Dzaferovic said the key of the proposal which he and Komsic supported was to confirm that Bosnia is a maritime country and that it “calls on the Republic of Croatia to seize the construction and enter negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Should this not work, then Bosnia should bring the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, he said, adding that “Bosnia is not asking for anything that doesn’t belong to it.”
Should Dodik secure support for his opposition to the proposal in the RS, Dzaferovic said that he will continue pursuing it.
“Whatever the entity decides, we will not back down on fighting for the rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
“We are obligated to do so, as this is Bosnia's Presidency and our top obligation is to protect the sovereignty and integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he concluded.
