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Turning the clock back

I received this long letter (only slightly edited for spelling and other minor errors) from a group of people listed at the end. I was amused by its accusation that I favor Republika Srpska, since the authorities in that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina regard me as one of its sworn enemies. That said, the letter raises interesting questions about the validity of the Dayton constitution, without however offering any practical alternative in my view.

We are writing to you following the interview you gave to Aljazeera Balkans of June this year where you made a number of claims and statements in relation to Bosnia and Herzegovina that we find unacceptable, and some of them also untrue and incorrect.

As you also used a pronoun ‘we’ in the same interview, we would like to ask you to confirm to us if you were speaking on behalf of the US State Department or if it was just a ‘slip of the tongue’? The way you presented your views and analysis to the critical judgement of the public in the interview left us under the impression that you were trying to impose them on the public as the only possible solutions. One would have expected you to act as an independent and well-meaning analyst. However, given the way you made your claims we felt that you were favoring Serbia and its interests of safeguarding the genocidal creation called Republika Srpska (further referred to as RS).

We would like to reflect on some of the claims you made during the interview:
– You claimed that the genocidal entity called RS was in the state of ‘transitional democracy’. We have never known a language where ‘transitional democracy’ is synonymous to Fascism and Neonazism, neither of which bear even a slightest resemblance to even the most primitive form of democracy. Therefore, apart from that claim of yours being untrue and incorrect, we find it also to be a very damaging and unacceptable promotional stunt favoring RS.

– You claimed that the Dayton Constitution has to be amended (or ‘reformed’). As someone who worked closely with Richard Holbrooke on creating Dayton Peace Accords one would expect you to reflect on it over the time, and to admit to yourself, at least from this time distance, what we all already know. And we have known for long that Dayton Peace Accords are a criminal agreement in that it rewarded genocide, war crimes, and aggression, and suspended the only legal Constitution – the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina that had already extsted. It was a move that nobody had either a moral or legal right to make. We believe that you are familiar with the fact that the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was confirmed by the majority vote of the Bosnian citizens at the referendum of 29 February and 1 March 1992 as an expression of the highest level of democracy.

On the other hand, Annex IV of Dayton Peace Accords, which is considered to be the Bosnian Constitution at present, is illegal as it has ever been endorsed by the Bosnian Parliament, and as it is being breached by everybody, and in particular by Dodik on a regular basis.

We believe that you are well aware that Dayton Peace Accords, and Dayton ‘Constitution’ alike, are completely dysfunctional. Therefore, we are struggling to understand why you still continue to persist on it? The only reason we can see behind it could be that it is the only way to preserve the genocidal creation called RS as Serbia’s criminal war gain. So, we would like to ask you to put forward the arguments in your response to us that would prove us wrong with respect to those intents.

One cannot talk of any changes or ‘reforms’ to the Dayton ‘Constitution’ as the ‘Constitution’ itself is contrary to the basic international laws, Conventions, and the UN Charter. Such a ‘Constitution’ is contrary to the human rights and freedoms which explains why it has been defeated, and in effect, terminated several times at the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

It may be that due to the way you feel about Dayton Peace Accords as its co-author you don’t seem to want to concede that Dayton Peace Accords, and ultimately Dayton ‘Constitution’, are the main and only obstacles to any progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina including the progress towards the Euro-Atlantic integrations which, at the same time you yourself (sic!) seem to be favoring.

– It is an unbeatable fact that Dayton ‘Constitution’ has to be terminated, and not changed or ‘reformed’ as you say, as it is morally and legally unacceptable, and as much as the whole of Dayton Peace Accords, it is the main obstacle to any progress of our country. Besides, the International Community have meant [the] Dayton Peace Accords to be only a temporary solution that was to stop the war. Please don’t try to affirm it as a permanent solution.

– In the same interview of June you were staunchly defending the April Package of the constitutional changes that you also co-authored. That was a ‘package’ of requests made by Milorad Dodik which the US State Department tried to push through via McElhaney and some of our politicians led by Sulejman Tihic. Its one and only aim was to preserve the genocidal RS, and to give it a right to veto as well as the decision-making powers that would be based on ethnicity which would have copper-fastened the genocidal entity, and made Bosnia and Herzegovina dissolve.

Although the Bosnian Parliament rejected the April Package, given your criticism of Haris Silajdzic in your interview of June this year, it appears that you still intend on continuing to pursue the April Package. And, we believe that you are well aware of the facts that the April Package would have copper-fastened the genocidal apartheid called RS. Therefore, all of us who took part in preventing an attempt to copper-fasten the genocidal creation called RS, strongly condemn and fully reject any such criticism of yours.

We would like to invite you to work hard on terminating the genocidal creation called RS, being led and guided by the international laws and Convention on Genocide Prevention and Punishment. Although we believe that you are well familiar with the International Court of Justice Judgement of 27 February 2007 which declared RS guilty of act of genocide, we would still like to remind you of it. Anything that has been created on genocide cannot continue to exist as it is legally invalid and void. Article 297. of the Judgement reads as follows:

297. The Court concludes that acts committed in Srebrenica, which fall within Article II(a) and (b) of the Convention, had been carried out with a specific intention to destroy in part a group of Bosnian Muslims as such; and accordingly, those represent acts of genocide which were committed by the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) in Srebrenica and the surrounding area starting on 13 Juy 1995.

Based on that Judgement the genocidal entity RS is legally untenable – bearing in mind the ius cogens principle, the UN Charter, and the Convention on Genocide Prevention and Punishment, and with genocide having been committed in all of the country, and not just in Srebrenica. The fact that Annex VII of Dayton Peace Accords has been breached due to the Fascism and apartheid that is being carried out by the genocidal creation RS, only means that genocide continues. The fact that one of the key conditions of Dayton Peace Accords continues to be breached makes Dayton Peace Accords legally void and voidable as per Contract law.

According to both the country’s and international laws, the citizens have every right to revert to the previous Constitution which is the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is no need to reform that Constitution as it is a civilian and European one, and as it is based on civil rights and freedoms.

– At 13:57 minute of your interview of June, speaking of the ‘constitutional reforms’ you contradicted yourself by saying:

‘We need to strengthen the government in Sarajevo’, and ‘That also means devolution of powers to entitites, cantons, and municipalities’.

Do not those two statements exclude each other?

Your statement on ‘devolution of powers’ led us to conclude that you support not only the preservation of the genocidal RS, but that you are also very much in favor of further decentralization of the Federation, which is unacceptable, and leads to the total destruction of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and gettoization of its Bosniak-Muslim majority population which would be squeezed to live on 24% of its territory till they finally disappear. At the same time RS would remain unitarian, monoethnic creation built on genocide of Bosniaks and Bosnian Catholics.

– In the same interview you also stated that you would ask Serbia for help with devolution of powers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is both unacceptable and illegitimate for anyone to ask or encourage a foreign country to interfere or intervene in our internal affairs. And, to make it sound even worse than it already is such an ‘invite’ is being made to the country that committed an act of aggression on us, and occupied half of our territory having also committed genocide in the process. Is not inviting Serbia to interfere in our country in any way, including ‘help with devolution of powers’ an act of aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina? Having signed Dayton Peace Accords, both Serbia and Croatia in effect admitted to committing an act of aggression on our country. By signing Dayton Peace Accords they both agreed to respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, and not to continue the aggression on our country. Or, perhaps you are inclined to interpret their signatures as their right to intervene and interfere in our country any way they want- be it as they please or with the help and encouragement of the international community? Does that not constitute an act of aggression in international law?

Never in its 1,000 years old history has any part of our country been part of Serbia. But Sandzak which is now part of Serbia historically has been part of our country. Applying the same logic of ‘asking for help with devolution of powers’ would mean that we have even a much greater (and historically well founded) right to interfere in the internal affairs of Serbia and the way it should be organised as a state. Finally, given that for us Serbia is an aggressor, and still a Fascist country (judging by who sits in its government and Parliament), we would like to ask if you would find it acceptable for Nazi Germany (if it, hypothetically, still existed) to be a ‘tutor’ to one of the countries with the majority Jewish population, that it had occupied, and where it had committed Holocaust and war crimes?

– We would like to remind you of the historic fact that no Serbs or Croats ever lived in our country until the second half of the 19th century. There was only one people- Bosniaks of three different confessions that also welcomed Sephardic Jews from Spain who settled in our country, and have been living with us since. And our country was never part of either Croatian or Serbian territory. Unlike Serbia, we do not base our history on myths and lies, but on the actual historical facts and documents that nobody has any right to either deny or disregard.

– Paragraph by paragraph of Annex IV of Dayton Peace Accords is being made void by the European Human Rights Court. But despite all of that you still continue to insist on ‘constitutional reforms’ of such a bad and rather ill-conceived illegal ‘Constitution’ so you could help take us to the EU. Is that not rather the way to Hell for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the sake of preserving the genocidal creation RS as part of a sick, mythological and genocidal dream called ‘Greater Serbia’? That way the great majority of the Bosnian population, Bosniak-Muslims, would be brought on the verge of extinction having been pushed into a ghetto of 24% of the Bosnian territory so it could disappear.

– In your interview of June of this year you were referring to the ‘relations’ between Belgrade and Banja Luka as if the genocidal RS was a state, and not an entity. Would you consider it acceptable if anyone spoke of the same type of ‘relations’ between e.g. Vienna (on behalf of the Austrian government and country), and some French town? Would that not mean that the sovereignty and integrity of France were being breached, and that no such thing would ever be acceptable for the French government, and country as a whole?

– We would like to consider your claim that we have ‘good politicians’ as sarcasm. However, if there is anybody who really believes that they are ‘good’ we suggest they get places as the members of the US Congress, or even get put forward as US Presidential candidates.

The Balkans media refer to you as to someone who is very familiar with the situation in the region, and we would like to ask you to remain as such. That considers your analytical and well-minded presentation, and not an approach that would leave anybody under the impression that you are the creator and Spokesperson of the official US State Department politics. And, also not to act as a self-styled tutor to the Balkan politicians and public, and in particular not for Bosnia.

It appears that since your first involvement when the State Department was paying you, and up until now you seem to be very sympathetic of the Serbian interests. We find it difficult to understand that anyone could be sympathetic, in any way, shape or form, of any interests of a country that has been declared guilty at the International Court of Justice for failing to prevent genocide which is equal to committing it.

You are aware that Serbia has taken part in genocide in Bosnia and Croatia in all ways possible – scientifically with the help of SANU, politically with Milosevic, and by way of the JNA military and logistics. Therefore, one would expect someone like you to work on abolishing and disbanding the genocidal entity called RS, and not on preserving it.
You are most certainly familiar with the fact that the ICTY in the Hague hid the documents incriminating Serbia in genocide in Bosnia, and which Serbia has to be punished for before the World Court following the law suit revision that is being prepared, so the RS would be terminated, and the war damages would be claimed from Serbia. The very fact that those documents were hidden is very telling of the extent of Serbia’s involvement and its role in the aggression on our country, and in genocide which had been committed in the UN safeheavens and other parts of our country, while the USA and EU stood by and watched.

We understand that in the Court case ‘Croatia v Serbia’ you took Serbian side, which is a disheartening revelation for us. Our country cannot be helped by anybody who is in favor of preserving and safeguarding the genocidal, fascist creation that runs the worst apartheid in the world. We need help from all the well-meaning international representatives and forces who will work hard for justice, work on terminating the genocidal entity, and help with re-integrating our country and reinstating the original Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is also the only way that could take us to the Euro-Atlantic integrations.

We, the patriots of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, strongly oppose the reform of the illegal Dayton ‘Constitution’ as it is not founded on justice or legal practice, and we demand that it gets terminated with immediate effect. We would like to refer to the Constitutional law of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina which defines an option to reinstate the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina if the Dayton ‘Constitution’ is proven to be dysfunctional which it is.

Bosnia was a nucleus and an example of different people living together- a model that the EU has been aiming for. But both the EU and the USA took part in the destruction of that nucleus, and now after all you as a self-styled US State Department Spokesperson claim that you would want to take us to the EU and NATO? Isn’t that absurd?

If you consider that the monstrous Dayton ‘Constitution’ should be ‘reformed’, then we suggest you do it, but not for us. Do it and use it as such in the USA. Nobody has the right to impose on us something that they would not consider to be good enough for their own homeland.

We would not let anybody, neither the countries including the USA nor the individuals coming from any of those countries, to get us used to the injustice and the results of genocide as something that we have to accept, and to deny us the right to justice and our legally valid Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Based on the aforesaid, we- 65,500 citizens gathered around the FB Group demand that the only legally valid Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina be reinstated. And, we shall continue our legal struggle to annul the results of genocide, and to have the genocidal creation terminated. As someone rightly put it: ‘RS is the Auschwitz of the Balkans and has to be turned into the museum of shame and disgrace.’

It’s worth mentioning, from the perspective of the international politics, that supporting the preservation and existence of RS means supporting the strengthening of the Russian influence in that part of BiH as well as in Serbia which goes against the Euro-Atlantic integrations that the West keeps insisting on. Terminating genocidal RS, and reintegrating our country would bring it quickly into the NATO, limiting Russian influence to Serbia only which would be surrounded by NATO member states.
We are writing this letter in good faith to remind you that we shall never give up our rights, and to ask you to also comply with those universal rights.

We see the ‘reforms’ you were proposing during your interview of June to Aljazeera Balkans as yet another open attempt to save the genocidal creation RS.
We would like to ask you to give up pursuing any such attempts, and to make it clear whenever addressing the public that anything you say represents your personal views and opinions, and not those of the official State Department and its politics. And, we would ask you to be true to that both in your speeches and your actions. We as the patriots of our country will always resist any attempts that would seek to interfere in the internal affairs of our country, and to preserve the genocidal gain called RS.

Yours Sincerely
Dzenana DELIC, MA, Business Studies and Law Lecturer (retired) (refugee from Travnik, lives in the UK)
Ibrahim HALILOVIC, former journalist (refugee from Mronjic Grad- Varcar Vakuf, lives in Canada)
Marjan HAJNAL, MA, refugee from Sarajevo, lives in Jerusalem
Selma CEHIC, former Senior Advisor in evnironmental and energy Statistics and food safety Statistics, PhD student in interdisciplinary study on ‘Environmental Protection’ (born in Sarajevo, lives in Slovenia)
Anto TOMIC, NGO Civilan Monitoring Director, survived concentration camps Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje (born in Banja Luka, lived in Ljubia, worked at Imarska mines, lives in Hamburg, Germany)
Bedudin GUŠIĆ, freelance publicist and journalist (refugee from Bannja Luka, lives in Boston, USA)
Nihad FILIPOVIĆ,publicist, ex-detainee of Manjaca concentration camp (captured in Kljuc- his place of birth as a civilian, lives in the UK)
(Members of the FB Group and its Leadership)
FB Gruop: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ustavrbih/?fref=nf

When I objected to the allegation that I had taken the Serbian side in a lawsuit involving Croatia, I was told this was based on a comment I had made in an email concerning Bill Schabas, who was an adviser to the Serbian side.  One of my correspondents responded that what I said was this:

I know Bill Schabas as a truly dedicated scholar and fine intellectual even if I don’t agree with him on Bosnia and other things.

I’ll leave to my readers the judgment whether that corresponds to the letter’s characterization.

Let me add for the sake of clarity: I do not now work for the State Department and have not since October 1999. I have not tried to give the impression to the contrary and frequently urge all those who want an official point of view to talk directly to State Department officials. I doubt however that the authors of this letter will find a more sympathetic ear there.