High Representative in Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, suspends funding for Dodik's party

The High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, has decided to suspend budget payments at all levels in Bosnia to the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, led by Milorad Dodik, and to the United Srpska political party, which is a coalition partner with Dodik's party in the Republika Srpska entity.

Speaking in Sarajevo, Schmidt said on Thursday that the funding suspension applies to budgets at all levels – from state, entity to municipal – stressing that “actions against the Dayton Agreement have consequences and that he will reconsider his decision once they stop.”

“All funds for these parties, at all levels of power, will be suspended and redirected to a special account at the Central Bank of BiH,” Schmidt said.

The High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia has powers, confirmed by the Bosnian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to impose laws and dismiss officials. He has also amended the Bosnian Criminal Code and made his decisions binding.

Dodik, along with the Speaker of the RS Assembly and leader of the United Srpska party, Nenad Stevandic, and the RS Prime Minister, Radovan Višković, are suspected of attacking the constitutional order in an investigation that the Bosnian Prosecutor's Office has been conducting since late last year. Central arrest warrants were issued for them in March after they failed to respond to a summons for questioning.

This means that each of the 16 police agencies at all levels of government in Bosnia must arrest them, which has not been done to date.

Schmidt stressed that with the decision he has imposed, he aims to support the efforts of Bosnian institutions to counter "the flagrant attacks of the RS ruling coalition, led by the SNSD and United Srpska, on the fundamental principles of the Dayton Agreement and the constitutional-legal order of Bosnia."

He stressed that the leaders of the SNSD and United Srpska are at the forefront of anti-Dayton activities and that this is contrary to their declarative commitments to respect the provisions of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

"The SNSD and United Srpska are constantly instrumentalizing the RS institutions to prevent Bosnian institutions from effectively implementing decisions and powers throughout the territory of Bosnia," Schmidt said.

He also stressed that the leaders of these parties are inciting the institutions of the RS and the citizens of this entity to commit criminal acts, threatening them with sanctions if they show resistance and disobedience. The decision, as he said, comes into force immediately.

"State institutions are based on the Dayton Agreement and any failure to respect the decision I have made is subject to criminal liability and may result in further measures," he said.

Schmidt made the decision to suspend budget funding a day after members of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and police officers from the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs prevented them from entering the Administrative Center building in East Sarajevo, at a time when Dodik was holding a meeting with representatives of the City of East Sarajevo.

SIPA confirmed to REL that members of this agency intended to act according to the order of the Bosnian Court, and that there was no use of force.

At the end of February, Dodik was sentenced in the first instance by the Bosnian Court to one year in prison and banned from political activity for six years, for failing to comply with the decisions of the High Representative and signing the decree promulgating laws that Schmidt had previously annulled.

A day after Dodik's conviction, the RS People's Assembly adopted an unconstitutional law on February 27 to ban the functioning of the Court and Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia (VSTV).

The RS authorities stated that they are not abandoning this law, even though the Bosnian Constitutional Court temporarily suspended its implementation on March 7.

In mid-March, the RS People's Assembly also adopted a new draft RS constitution, with which the authorities aim to define this entity as a "state of the Serbian people", grant it the right to self-determination, create its own army, and abolish the Council of Peoples and vice-presidents from the other two constituent peoples.

Due to actions that pose a threat to the constitutional order of Bosnia, Germany and Austria imposed sanctions against Dodik, Vishkovic and Stevandic in early April. Along with members of his family and important political associates, Dodik is now on the United States sanctions list./ REL