Schmidt: Declaration from All-Serbian Assembly Contains Conclusions Contrary to Dayton Accords

Christian Schmidt (BetaPhoto/European Council/Christos Dogas)

The high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, warned the speaker of the People’s Assembly of Republika Srpska (RS), Nenad Stevandic, on July 3 that the Declaration on the protection of national and political rights and common future of the Serb people, adopted at the All-Serbian Assembly in Belgrade on June 8, contained several problematic conclusions that are in direct contradiction with the Dayton agreement (General Framework Agreement for Peace – GFAP).

The Sarajevo-based paper Oslobodjenje has published a letter, which Schmidt sent to Stevandic on July 2 ahead of the start of the RS Assembly’s session, warning him that the adoption of the Declaration by the entity’s parliament, considering the problematic elements contained in it, would represent “an official act that would put into question the Republika Srpska’s obligations and commitments under the GFAP.”

The high representative stated that certain wording “implies a unilateral interpretation of Annexes 4 (Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 10 (authorization of the high representative) to the GFAP, that is neither compatible with its term nor with the interpretation of it made by the institutions in charge of its implementation and enforcement.”

“This includes the High Representative, which under Annex 10 to the DPA (Dayton peace agreement) is the final authority regarding the interpretation of the Agreement on civilian implementation of the Peace settlement, and the Constitutional Court, which has rendered decisions on most of the issues that are deemed as violations of the GFAP in the Declaration,” Schmidt stated, recollecting that RS was a multi-ethnic entity in which the three constitutive peoples (and Others) are equal, and that its organs of authority “do not represent only Serb people.”