The Serbian Unity Congress expresses its strong disagreement with the latest proposals by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina to fundamentally revise the laws governing the state-level Council of Ministers and Parliament. It is critically important to retract these proposals in their current form for the following reasons:
a) The general attitude of current HR, Miroslav Lajcak, clearly appears to continue, instead of abandoning, the detrimental practice of many of his predecessors in crudely overstepping boundaries of their mandate and thus stifling democracy and responsibility of the local political process, its body politic and elected officials. This threatens to fully discredit the authority of the OHR and their ability to provide any constructive oversight function, concurrently making a mockery of the very democratic institutions that UN presence was meant to facilitate during the past 12 years.
b) The said legislative changes as proposed, irrespective of their source, are clearly unconstitutional in both letter and spirit, as they represent an obvious breach of the US-backed Dayton-Paris accords and their very pillars - the principles of entity and constituent nation parity - that provided the balance between central and regional government needed to end hostilities and usher a prospect of peace for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
c) The said legislative proposals, both in content and method of delivery, have produced in practical terms a very serious crisis that threatens to widen, with unpredictable and grave consequences that directly threaten the very stability that US interests mandate, and its foreign policy has been heavily invested with.
Based on all of the above and the key role that the US has in influencing the OHR, the Serbian Unity Congress calls on the State Department to immediately take positive action to redress the matter, and urges Congress to provide clear guidance and support in this matter.
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The United States dreams of a world goverment , kinda like the E.U. goverment that has emerged in europe . Yugoslavia was a consortium of five countries with three different religions . But of predominatly one ethnic groupe ,south slavs . Communists held these religions down and prevented
them from expanding . NATO and the United States made a awfull mistake , by assisting in the destrucktion of Yugoslavia . These religious groupes were gradually integrating , and could work together as one country ,although with considerable trouble . Communists in Yugoslavia never really took over the land , they passed a communist law that prevented anyone from owning a big block of land . So in Yugoslavia 88 percent of the land is privatly owned . This was kinda of a anticaptalist law . MAybe thats why NATzO attack them ? Yugoslavia kinda produced in a opposite fashion than communist Russia . In Russia the small plots the Russian people ran them selves were highly productive . But in Yugoslavia the small 12 % of land the Yugoslavia goverment ran was the most productive . So you really cant come to a clear conclusion of pvt ownership or public production .
It would seem to me if the desires of the world community are one world goverment . It would have been smarter to keep Yugoslavia as one country rather than seperate them into many independent factions waring with each other . None of these countries now or are heading in the direction of being eligable for entrey into the E.U. community .
In fiew of what has happend we must assume This new world order already has planned who the world leaders will be . and evidently it is not the Orthadox slavs . Becuase in Yugoslavia the Orthadox slavs were the majority . So NATzO was not bringing freedom and democracy to the majority
Now again in Serbia Albanians make up 17 % of the population . Giving them independence is not promoting democracy .
Comment by eric — November 1, 2007 #
Prvo su razbucali Titovu vestacku crveno-crnu tvorevinu Jugoslvaiju,a sada opet se zeli stvoriti crveno-zelena-crna mini Jugoslavija.I da li neko stvarno normalan moze poverovati u zajednicki suzivot i centralizovane vlasti u Sarajevu?Sta predlazu Severno Americki Bosnjaci, kako da se resi vise deceniski konflikt izmedju Izraelaca i Palestinaca?Verovatno da se svi Palestinci vrate u svoju Palestinu.Multietnicka vojska i policija Jevreja i Palestinaca tj,zajednicka drzava.Ah,da ne treba mesati babe i zabe,jer verovatno svaka nacionalna vecina i/ili manjina u Ministarstvu Inostranih poslova u BiH,zavisno ko ce biti ministar ce imati svoj stav po pitanju Izraelskog-Palestinskog konflikta.Eto opet problema za mini Jugoslaviju.
CNAB letter to Miroslav Lajčak
Mr. Miroslav Lajčak
High Representative and EU Special Representative
September 11, 2007
Honorable High Representative Lajčak,
I am writing to you on behalf of the Congress of North American Bosniaks which represents more than 350,000 Bosniaks in the United States and Canada. We are gravely concerned about the lack of progress in reform of the Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina and with your recent proposal for the reform of Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The EU has made police reforms and the cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes the key conditions for Bosnia to seal an association agreement which is the first step on the path toward full EU membership. Among the EU principles for Police reforms are state-level legislation, a federal budget and the establishment of new police regions to create a more functional force. We are requesting that these principals remain in the proposal. Many Bosniaks are still unable to return to their homes since the RS Police remain a body consisting of a single nationality that discriminates against Bosniaks.
Bosnia has a unified armed forces but it does not have a unified police. Bosnia must have a unified Police force in order to avoid future conflicts. Our body rejects any proposal that would allow the continuation of the RS Police in its current form, structure, and hierarchy.
On February 26, 2007, International Court of Justice’s verdict found that the wartime institutions of the political entity Republika Srpska were responsible for genocide in Srebrenica and for other atrocities. This verdict clearly indicated the responsibility of the RS Police for human rights violations and terrorism against civilians during the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This in itself is reason enough to dismantle the criminal Police force that operates within the RS.
The 31st Report of the High Representative for Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Secretary-General of the United Nations states the following:
· In December 2006, the Directorate for Police Restructuring Implementation (“Directorate”) completed its 36-page final report, “Proposed Plan for the Implementation of the Reform of Police Structures in Bosnia And Herzegovina,” as mandated by the October 2005 Agreement on Restructuring of Police Structures (Political Agreement).
· There were numerous delays, stemming largely from the RS government’s obstruction of and objections to the legitimacy of the process, notwithstanding the fact that the RS National Assembly had adopted the Political Agreement and Serb ministers in the CoM had supported the formation of the Directorate.
· As a result of these delays and obstructions, the report was submitted three months after the deadline foreseen in the October 2005 Political Agreement and minus some of the elements specified by that agreement. In particular, it does not include draft legal acts or rulebooks, a timetable for the overall implementation period, or a map of police regions.
· The proposed policing system provides for an organizationally integrated structure with decentralized police operations and decision-making. The consolidation of administrative services (human resources, finance, procurement, IT/communications), which are currently duplicated in each of the existing fifteen police forces, is perhaps the most far-reaching aspect of the report. The new system also envisages a single forensics centre and police academy. The local policing level would operate with fairly extensive autonomy, although the future Director of Police and the Directorate for Police Coordination would provide an operational hierarchy.
· The report also offers concrete solutions designed to implement the three guiding principles set by the European Union:
1. All legislative and budgetary competencies for all police matters must be vested at the state level.
2. No political interference with operational policing.
3. Functional local police areas must be determined by technical policing criteria, where operational command is exercised at the local level.
· As for the first principle, the report clearly establishes that the state should be vested with exclusive legislative competency for all police matters and that other levels of government cannot legislate on police matters. The report also envisages a single police budget to be adopted by the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. Regarding the second principle, the report provides for numerous oversight mechanisms designed to keep politics out of policing, mainly through parliamentary watchdogs and institutions such as the Independent Board and Public Complaints Office. On the third principle, the report enumerates specific technical guidelines and criteria for forming local policing areas, but it does not contain a map suggesting what they should be.
In your speech on September 6, 2007 to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, you made the following statement “isolation or integration - at this moment that is your choice and your responsibility.” By following the basic principles of Police reform this can be achieved. It is more than evident that one side is obstructing all the efforts for unified Police Force, the RS with Milorad Dodik. You have also repeated the three EU principles:
The first EU principle requires that all legislative and budgetary competencies for all police matters be vested at the State Level. This means, among other things, that only this body, the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, can adopt legislation and budgets related to police matters. It means that all police bodies in the future will be legally defined as organizations of the BiH state.
The second principle - that there should be no political interference in the operational work of the police - means exactly what it says: there will be oversight at the policy level, but operational independence must be guaranteed. Getting politics out of the daily work of the police is something that we know the overwhelming majority of BIH citizens agree on.
The third principle - that functional local police areas must be determined by technical policing criteria, where operational command is exercised at the local level is the best way to bring policing to the community that it serves.
Let these principles lead you to a just and fair solution to the Police reform, which would mean a unified Police with a single insignia that truly represents Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens. Anything else would be going against the EU principle and the OHR’s own reports to the UN and previously made agreements. Do not reward Bosnian Serb politicians from RS for their obstructionism. Reward Bosnian citizens with a just solution.
Emir Ramić
President of the Governing Board of CNAB
Comment by Realista — November 2, 2007 #
I think they are purposely trying to provoke trouble-should we say-the continuation of their agenda in former Yugoslavia.The west-sadly the USA along with the other ones(Britain/Germany/Vatican/Belgium etc…) from the beginning covertly supplied and supported the most extreme terrorists in order to fuel the destruction of that country.They have blood on their hands and continue to have.This situation is the biggest event since WW2-and yet gets almost NO mass media coverage.STRANGE?
Comment by Kingsley — November 2, 2007 #
the dayton agreements did not solve the problems only war would have solved the problems . The dayton agreements must be followed to the last detail or the war could start again . A unified army . The Serbs dont want to be governed by muslim police , or tried in muslim courts . I think they want to be seperated from muslims , especially the terrorists muslims who seem to be gaining ground in all area’s of Old Yugoslavia .
Comment by eric — November 5, 2007 #
The Roman Pontiff, A German Nazi Pope Benedict is scheduled to arrive in America April15-20th 2008 at “Ground Zero/ United Nations” the Fourth Reich of Europe IS in motion! The EU/Nato headquarters at NEW Nato HQ in Brussles and United Nations, these three organizations are the Fourth and Final Reich of Europe. Some 35 years ago the General of the UN was class “A” Nazi Kurt Waldheim who served under the Wermacht SS division in BiH and Republic of Srpska region sending thousands of Serbs to the Jasenovac death camp in Vatican terror state of Croatia. Today, we have Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of CA,Pope Benedict and late Kurt Waldheim as UN General from 1972-82 as well late former Minister of Interior, Andrija Artukovic in Seal Beach,CA Artukovic serve as a Knight of Columbus too! During a Nato/EU ceremony for change of command in which a flag was presented with Nato symbol on one side and EU on the other.
Comment by Michael — November 13, 2007 #
Rehn tells Serbia to stay clear of Bosnia
By Toby Vogel
Serbia will not be able to sign a pre-accession pact with the EU if it continues interfering in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Olli Rehn, the European commissioner in charge of enlargement, has said.
The commissioner also urged Bosnia’s politicians not to listen to the “siren calls from Belgrade or Moscow”.
The warning came less than a week after Rehn and Serbian President Boris Tadic put their initials to a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), seen as a first step on the road to eventual membership of the European Union.
In an interview with European Voice, Rehn said that he had conveyed the message to Tadic the previous Wednesday (7 November).
“We have made it clear that we expect that Serbia will not interfere in the domestic politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Rehn said.
Public attention has focused on another condition Serbia must fulfil before it can sign the SAA, full co-operation with the UN’s war crimes tribunal in The Hague. This demands “concrete steps” to apprehend persons indicted for war crimes, above all Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, and to transfer them to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The warning on Bosnia will give bite to the condition of good-neighbourly relations Rehn laid out in his annual enlargement report presented last week (6 November).
Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica of Serbia is a close ally of Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska), and has supported Dodik’s refusal to agree to a reform of Bosnia’s ethnically fragmented police, which is a precondition for the EU to agree Bosnia’s SAA.
Dodik has also suggested that Republika Srpska could seek independence or union with Serbia should Kosovo declare independence from Serbia, a step expected as early as next month. He suggested to Bosnian Serb television that Serbia should be compensated if it lost Kosovo, a clear reference to the Bosnian Serb Republic.
Printers in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka have reportedly been asked by the government to submit bids for the printing of ballots for a referendum on secession.
Rehn has been criticised in the Bosnian press over his decision to initial Serbia’s SAA while holding off on Bosnia’s.
The commissioner said that this was the “last chance” for Bosnia’s leaders to come to an agreement on police reform or else the EU would have to “seriously reconsider” its policy towards the country. Bosnia was in danger of becoming “a failed state” with “failed leaders”, he said.
Rehn also said that the situation in Bosnia would be discussed at next week’s meeting of EU foreign ministers (19 November).
About the difficult accession talks with Turkey, Rehn said that he hoped that two more negotiation chapters will be opened before the end of this year. The opening of new chapters was in effect vetoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who made it conditional on the establishment of a group of “wise persons”. It now appears that such a reflection panel will be agreed at a meeting of EU leaders in December.
Sarkozy told leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups on Tuesday (13 November) that he will not end talks aimed at bringing Turkey closer to the EU during France’s presidency in the second half of 2008. But he said that he would only allow negotiations on policy areas which could lead to a privileged partnership with the EU rather than full membership.
According to Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist group, the French president said that he would stop negotiations in five areas that could lead to membership.
Sarkozy also said that he was the only EU leader who was “prepared to tell the truth” that Turkey would not join the Union.
© Copyright 2007 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.
Comment by Mauno — November 16, 2007 #
Its kinda discouraging hearing the E.U. NATzOs talking about moderization and reforms for the Bosnian Serb police . These are actually regression for Bosnian serbs . NATO just seems to offer to much political correct bad advice . If Serbia’s friend Russia is healthy enough to stand up . Bonsia Serbs probably would be happier with a union with Serbia . If Chinia dared to commit themselves to the the Serbs . Serbia should help all the dissatisfied Albanians return to Albania where they can be more islamic and free .
Then the only thing left to do would be allow the Serb Area in Croatia to to join the rest of the Serbs . This would probably have to be done with another opperation Storm . But the nazi’s should never be allowed to steal the Serbs land in Croatia . Although I certianly wouldnt care if the Serbs took a little more than is rightfully theirs . The Croat nazis never minded taking extra , or even evreything . This is the way I see the best chance for Peace . And this is the way Yugoslavia dismemberment would have ended up without NATzO intervention . AS a matter of a fact the Yugslavia constitution allowed for dismemberment of the Yugoslav People .
United States was involved in nazi expansion in Yugoslavia against Serbia . Like it or not Nato is NAZI more than anything else . they definatly are not christian . United States should get out before we turn nazi too .
Comment by eric — November 19, 2007 #