Republika Srpska President Željka Cvijanović expects a constructive and high-quality debate on Monday, February 17, in connection with the latest decision of the BiH Constitutional Court, and a stance good for the citizens of Srpska to be taken.
Cvijanović emphasizes that the Srpska National Assembly is the central and only relevant place where the Dayton and constitutional position of Republika Srpska should be defended.
She noted that the top Srpska officials unanimously concluded today that the Republika Srpska representatives in the BiH institutions should suspend work on any decision-making under the jurisdiction of BiH authorities until a law on the BiH Constitutional Court without international judges is adopted.
Cvijanović recalls that Republika Srpska has been suffering major damage for years.
“We have suffered attacks on Republika Srpska’s identity, insignia, the Republika Srpska Day, and now on the ownership and property issues,” Cvijanović told RTRS.
She emphasizes that earlier decisions were made by high representatives to the detriment of Srpska, and that the Constitutional Court of BiH took over that practice.
According to her, instead of building trust within BiH, increasing distrust is being created towards certain institutions that are not credible but making political, instead of legal decisions.
“We are in a way scared and concerned about a particular practice of the BiH Constitutional Court,” Cvijanović said, noting that international judges in the BiH Constitutional Court serve to outvote judges from Republika Srpska and harm the interests of Srpska.
Cvijanović says the question is what kind of country is it where the international judges do the job that the local judiciary should do and what is the credibility in that situation.
“The third thing is that instead of protecting constitutionality, the court makes decisions that change the Dayton system,” she said.
Asked if Bosniaks would agree to pass a new law on the BiH Constitutional Court, Cvijanović says that Bosniak politicians break any deal.
“I am of the opinion that we should all sit down together and arrange relations in this country in a way that is tailor-made for everyone. It will be a difficult task. Unfortunately, so far we have not had a partner within the local corps of the three constituent peoples to deal with these things because this is not what Bosniak politicians want,” Cvijanović said.
She added that Bosniak politicians were encouraged to behave this way by a part of the international community, primarily by the high representative.
“All that is being done now is aimed at dissolving Srpska,” Cvijanović said.
She emphasizes that the Srpska institutions do their job well, there are no deviations like in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/, citing the example of failure to conduct the elections in Mostar and implement a number of BiH Constitutional Court’s decisions in FBiH.
Cvijanović emphasizes that the Constitutional Court of BiH has several times exceeded the limits of its basic mandate by making decisions that cause legal uncertainty.
“We want to create an environment where we can all live together in such a way that we will not oppress each other’s lives or challenge each other, but focus on priority issues for citizens – to improve the economic, social, infrastructural image, quality of life,” said Cvijanović.
However, she notes, crisis-causing is constantly present in BiH.
“I regret that this is often produced by the Constitutional Court of BiH, siding with the political demands of the Bosniak parties, meeting their requirements. I am of the opinion it does this with the intention of changing the Dayton system, which was earlier done by high representatives,” Cvijanović said.
Cvijanović says this is a dangerous situation and that what the OHR has done so far is being taken over by the BiH Constitutional Court.
“We do not want the courts that are influenced by politics and internationals, but the courts that will be accountable to the judiciary in general, so the citizens of both Republika Srpska and FBiH will be sure they will be protected,” the Republika Srpska president said.
Source: srna
