For the first time, the leading countries of the West have seriously begun to develop scenarios about what Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity could look like without incumbent entity President Milorad Dodik, which is a clear sign of support for High Representative Christian Schmidt to remove Dodik from the office and ban him from political activity, N1 learned from well-informed international sources.
Schmidt has the full support of the West to increase pressure on Dodik to make it clear to him that he will be removed from political life, and the only way to prevent this from happening is for the RS President and the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) to urgently stop all anti-state activities.
After years of giving him space and time to stop secessionist acts and undermining the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the circle around Dodik is finally tightening. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy are losing patience. Now, for the first time, they are united in the view that Dodik has crossed the red line and that his anti-constitutional moves cannot go unpunished, because with his unreasonable and dangerous actions, he threatens peace and the Dayton structure of BiH, diplomatic sources close to Western powers told N1.
While the official Washington, London, Berlin, Paris and Rome, whose representatives work together within the Quinta, have matured in the belief that the previously adopted American and British sanctions against Dodik did not stop his attempts to overthrow the state and that a new phase of more direct action with the aim of preserving territorial integrity and the Constitution of BiH must begin, the Brussels is still hesitant and does not have a clear position. The European Union did not impose sanctions on Dodik, following the example of the USA and Great Britain, due to internal disagreements, and the prevailing opinion among Brussels bureaucrats is that every new decision of the High Representative moves Bosnia and Herzegovina away from membership in the European Union.
Although Turkey, as the representative of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the Peace Implementation Council in BiH, supports the latest decisions of the High Representative, its attitude towards the dismissal of Dodik is still unclear.
On the other hand, Russia has stopped participating in the PIC’s work and it does not recognize Christian Schmidt as a High Representative in BiH. Still, it supports all the decisions made by the RS National Assembly, including the last one on the non-enforcement of the decisions of Bosnia's Constitutional Court on the territory of the Serb-dominated entity.
Two days ago, Christian Schmidt annulled the Law on Non-Enforcement of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH in the RS, which was recently passed by the RS parliament, and also repealed the Law prohibiting the publication of the decisions of the OHR in the Official Gazette of the RS.
Schmidt also amended the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina in such a way that actions violating the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be treated as a criminal offence.
