In 1995, the Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian War by dividing Bosnia into two regions: Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation. A weak central government, led by a council of three presidents, oversees the country, with a High Representative, appointed by an international body, functioning as a sort of colonial governor. The High Representative has the power to impose laws, remove officials, and maintain stability. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will become independent of Western supervision when the West says so, based on conditions in the Dayton Agreement.
Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska (RS), was convicted after a trial last month for ignoring the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt, which has led to a new period of uncertainty in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this interview, we discuss the consequences of this trial for the Balkans and Europe.
You were sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding public office. You have pointed out that this is a political trial. Could you explain the reasons for this trial and why you have been convicted?
The beginning and the end of the rigged political process that has exclusively doomed Bosnia and Herzegovina is Christian Schmidt. A below-average German diplomat, falsely representing himself as a High Representative, tried to convince someone here that his will is above all of us. Serving the Muslim-Sarajevo political scene and their insatiable desire to make Bosnia and Herzegovina a unitary state, he managed to nullify Bosnia and Herzegovina to its foundations, the Dayton ones.
It is truly unbelievable to see a country in which an illegal and illegitimate foreign official comes and imposes amendments to the Criminal Code according to which those who do not respect his authorized decisions and oppose the policies of majoritarianism are tried.
The thing here is actually simple—it is unbelievable for a civilized world, but simple: the illegitimate Schmidt imposes changes to the law and prescribes a criminal offense, and the unconstitutional Prosecutor’s Office and the Court conduct the procedure and, in this way, try to humiliate the Republic of Srpska and its institutions. It was not a trial of Milorad Dodik, but of the institutions of the Republic of Srpska.
After the verdict, you said there was “no reason to worry.” Why?
I will remind you that the Dayton Peace Agreement is an international agreement whose signatories are the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (as a state authorized by the Republic of Srpska), the present Republic of Serbia, the so-called Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Croatia, and the Republic of Srpska is a signatory to all 11 annexes to the Dayton Agreement and signed them directly on its own behalf.
Therefore, the Republic of Srpska, which was established on January 9, 1992, was an independent state until it joined the state union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We brought our sovereignty into Bosnia and Herzegovina and handed over part of our international sovereignty to the common level. We agreed to and signed the Dayton Peace Agreement. Everything after 1995 that was changed and imposed by legal violence can be neutralized, because it does not belong to Dayton as an international agreement, nor is it in the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Srpska is stable, politically, legally, and financially, and has a unified and cohesive leadership, as well as clear policies that it advocates and with which it strengthens its positions.
That is why I said there is no reason to worry—because the Republic of Srpska will preserve its status despite all attacks.
Before the verdict, you announced “radical measures” in case of a conviction. What will be your next steps?
The Republic of Srpska has clear policies. They are state-building and constitutional, based primarily on respect for the Constitution of BiH and the Constitution of the Republic of Srpska. Republic of Srpska unanimously and resolutely rejects any action carried out by the illegal Christian Schmidt and part of the international community who, for over 30 years now, have been trying, through force, pressure, and legal violence, to make BiH a state according to their “unitary-civil” measure, that is, only according to the measure of Muslims in BiH to the detriment of the other two, Christian, peoples. Dozens of conclusions, decisions, and state-building laws have been adopted in the National Assembly in order to repel all unlawful attacks on the Republic of Srpska—that is our response.
In our parliament, we adopted the Law on the Non-Application of Laws and the Prohibition of the Activities of Extra-Constitutional Institutions of BiH, which is in accordance with the Dayton Constitution and the Constitution of the Republic of Srpska. With this law, we have protected the Republic of Srpska and its institutions from the malicious actions of extra-constitutional institutions that have been undermining our position and the Dayton Peace Agreement for years. Any undermining of the Constitution of the Republic of Srpska is undermining BiH itself.
Is a definitive break-up of the Republic of Srpska with Bosnia and Herzegovina possible?
It is a matter of process. The Republic of Srpska is in favor of preserving the Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, the one we agreed to and the one we signed. However, decades of extensive and insidious intervention by the international community, international factors, and Bosniak politicians have, through their actions, brought BiH to a position where it finds itself at a crossroads between two dialogues. A dialogue on returning to the Dayton BiH or a dialogue on peaceful separation.
The war in the Balkans is still a vivid memory and the international situation, with a war raging in Europe and what many see as a new “Cold War,” is very unstable. Don’t you fear that a break-up of Bosnia and Herzegovina could start a conflict? Could such a conflict be encouraged from outside to drag in the rest of Europe?
Republic of Srpska exclusively advocates for peace and dialogue. With the loss of political being, the national being is also lost over time; a people that does not have its own state disappears. It must be understood that these are complex political times that imply a struggle by peaceful and democratic means. We are fighting to preserve the rights of the Republic of Srpska and the Serb people. We will fight for them with words and pen!
Why has Bosnia and Herzegovina failed as a state?
Because from the first day after the signing of Dayton, Bosniaks—that is, Muslims—with part of the international community, destroyed it. Piece by piece, act by act, because that was what they were promised. Blind and deaf to all calls to come to their senses, to all calls for dialogue, they persistently pushed their great Bosniak policy, hating and undermining everything that is Serbian. They ignored the basic principles on which Dayton’s BiH is based, which are the constitutive nature of the people and the equality of the entities. They abused the institutions, built a unitary Bosnia, and thought they could do that indefinitely. They simply tried to usurp every part of the state union. They did not agree to talk, they did not agree to an agreement. Christian Schmidt is a special dimension. The farce. An unelected, substandard diplomat who falsely represents himself as a High Representative, tries to impose and make laws, intervenes in the Constitution… and with that and such a Schmidt, BiH will be a successful country? It is impossible! Well, he made criminal laws according to which I, as a president elected by the will of the people, was tried for an act that I committed just because I was only exercising my constitutional powers. It is unreal for any civilized country, but not for BiH, which is under the tutelage of some ambassadors and rejected low-ranking diplomats.
You have a good relationship with the Croatian government and even a friendship with the Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Čović. Is there any chance of finding a three-way solution to the impasse in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The partnership between the SNSD and the HDZ is continuous and I know that this does not suit many, especially the Bosniaks who are pushing the idea of a “civil Bosnia and Herzegovina”. We mutually understand and respect our positions as legitimate representatives of the constituent peoples. Let me remind you that at the end of 1992, three state-forming entities were created and existed in parallel on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the so-called Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Muslim, i.e., Bosniak part), the Republic of Srpska (Serbian part) and Herceg Bosna (Croatian part). All three entities had the characteristics of a nation-state, each with its own territory, organization of government, army, police, currency, and other state institutions and symbols.
Since the unconstitutional attempt to secede from Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina has never functioned as a unified state, because its institutions were divided along ethnic lines and did not exercise effective government over the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A sovereign government, as an essential feature of every state, did not exist, so there can be no talk of state-legal continuity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These are historical facts that should be considered maturely, responsibly, and calmly.
