The strongest Bosniak ethnic party in BiH, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), issued a statement rejecting the criticism of the United States Embassy which said, among other things, that the party’s officials attempted to block corruption investigations.
The US Embassy said on Thursday that the SDA should act in line with its declared objectives, arguing that if the party was truly committed to those objectives, “the party and its functionaries would not be attempting to block or disrupt corruption investigations; they would not be contributing to the dysfunctionality in the Federation (one of Bosnia’s two entities), and they would not preference divisive rhetoric over meaningful attempts at reconciliation.”
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In its statement, the SDA said it was “surprised” by the US Embassy’s criticism.
“None of this is true. The truth is just the opposite, the SDA vigorously opposes policies of blockades and divisions that produce dysfunction of the state and the Federation (entity) of BiH. Of course, it is impossible to avoid clear and strong rhetoric in the political struggle with forces that deny genocide and celebrate war criminals by openly advocating their wartime goals. But this is not opposition to “reconciliation efforts”, but a basic defence of the country's constitutional order and territorial integrity,” the SDA said.
The party stressed that the claims of the US Embassy about “blocking and usurping investigations by the SDA” are without basis, arguing that it is well known that during the term of Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadic, who ended up on the US blacklist, “the entire focus of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH was on areas inhabited by Bosniaks.”
“We did react against such an attitude of the Prosecutor's Office because we believe that the law must be applied equally to everyone and that the judiciary should not be used for political confrontations. The SDA has supported and will always support the impartial and professional work of prosecutor's offices and courts, which apply the laws of the state of BiH equally in every part of the territory of BiH and to every citizen of BiH,” it said.
The party said it expects corruption allegations on the territory of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, as well as in areas where the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) is in power, to be investigated, as well as “secret agreements with Chinese companies in Sarajevo Canton” and the “suspicious spending of more than 100 million Bosnian Marks” in this canton based on abuse of the public procurement procedures, Faktor reports.
