Bosnia kurtly

Yesterday’s Helsinki Commission hearing on Bosnia is already up in video.  I thought Kurt Bassuener’s statement so well crafted that I asked his permission to post it in writing. I recommend it highly.

Kurt will not be surprised that I have doubts on several of his points, but less on principle than on practicality.  Before we have an American Hirep I would want to see a policy worthy of one, and the commitment to back her or him at the highest levels.  The prospect of U.S. troops for Brcko is dim to zero, but that should not prevent the U.S. from urging EUFOR to do the right thing and beef up its presence there.  International judges and prosecutors back into Bosnia’s court system?  I’m all in favor, but I’m not sure how to get it done.

The main thing is to recognize that we are looking failure in the face in Bosnia.  Republika Srpska President Dodik is serious about a maximum degree of autonomy, and eventual independence if he ever gets the opportunity.  He may never get it, but in the meanwhile he has made the state dysfunctional in order to prove his point:  Serbs should not be expected to live in a state where they are not the majority.

The Hirep has responded with admirable clarity and forcefulness to Dodik’s latest efforts to diminish Bosnia’s sovereignty and to call into question its territorial integrity.  But words in a press release are not enough.

What we need is a permanent fix for Bosnia’s congenital problem, which is the advantage its constitution gives to ethnic nationalists committed exclusively to the welfare of their co-nationalists.  Kurt is good at explaining how we got into this mess.  He also has some good ideas about getting out.  Well worth a read if you are following the Balkans.