ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 37, No. 1 (BH)

February 2021

Bosnia-Herzegovina political briefing: War crimes and the current politics of Zvonimir Stopić

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

War crimes and the current politics of Republika Srpska

With the beginning of the year 2021, ’s politics completed yet another more or less expected circle. Ever since the end of the war, every year in Bosnia and Herzegovina starts with the controversies surrounding the Day of Republika Srpska, which is persistently celebrated on the date (January 9th) found unconstitutional by the Constitutional court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Every year in Bosnia and Herzegovina thus begins with the reemergence of painful memories of war, which only ad more proof to the continuous realization of both the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s inability to spur internal change and of the depth of political issues which prevent change in the first place. In this briefing we will present some elements of the extremism of Republika Srpska’s leadership, which in the past several months could have been noticed kindling underneath the political surface covered by the COVID-19 and the preparation for the local (municipal) elections.

January 9th

On January 9th, 1992, prior to the proclamation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s independency, the Assembly of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaimed an independent entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in the further step was to separate from Bosnia and Herzegovina and join Yugoslavia. At that moment, Slovenia and Croatia already proclaimed independency, and war was raging in Croatia. Announcement of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s independency, the subsequent creation of a separate Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina on the territory which had mixed population of Serbs and Bosniaks, along with the Yugoslav People’s Army’s (directed from Belgrade) inclination toward helping the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, fulfilled necessary preconditions for war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in which 100,000 people lost their lives and over 2 million were forced to leave their homes. The “Republika Srpska”, formed in 1992, was then headed by Radovan Karadžić, Biljana Plavšić and Momčilo Krajišnik, all three of which would after the war be found guilty for genocide (Karadžić), crimes against humanity (Karadžić, Krajišnik, Plavšić) and war crimes (Karadžić) by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It’s worth mentioning that in 2016, the same year Karadžić was convicted (Plavšić was convicted in 2003 and Krajišnik in 2006), all three were awarded recognitions by the Republika Srpska!s Parliament.

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While the “Day of Republika Srpska” is allowed to be celebrated, the date “January 9th” itself, because of the grim historical connotations which surrounds it, was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 2015. In September 2016, leaders of Republika Srpska, in turn, held a referendum within entity’s borders which showed that 99.8 % of citizens support the celebration of “January 9th” as the Day of Republika Srpska. One month later, the Parliament of Republika Srpska adopted a law on January 9th as the Day of Republika Srpska. The referendum itself, as well as its results, was also ruled to be not in accordance to the constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final verdict on unconstitutional status of “January 9th” was reached by the Constitutional Court in March 2019.

However, despite of the “unconstitutional” status of the contradictory date, Republika Srpska, led by the persistent , the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata, SNSD), continues to celebrate “January 9th” as the Day of Republika Srpska, which often gets enough support from the Republic of Serbia. In 2017, celebrations was joined by the president of Serbia Tomislav Nikolić, in 2019 by the Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić, while in 2020 Ana Brnabić was joined by the Serbian Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin and Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojša Stefanović. This year, the celebrations were not skipped, although due to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemics they did take a different form. There were no ceremonial parade on Krajina Square in , no large gatherings, or the traditional receptions with the Republika Srpska president. However, as Republika Srpska’s President Željka Cvijanović announced, the ceremony will be compensated on Vidovdan this year (June 15th).

The name of Radovan Karadžić

As was mentioned in the text above, Radovan Karadžić was one of the “creators” of Republika Srpska. He was the first president of Republika Srpska, a top ranking Serbian leader during the 1992-1995 war, and the founder the Serb Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Srpska demokratska stranka, SDS), Republika Srpska’s leading party until Dodik’s SNSD took the lead in 2006. In 2008, after more than a decade spent in hiding, Karadžić was arrested in Belgrade and brought to trial by the ICTY. In 2016, he was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which include Srebrenica genocide. Karadžić, together with Yugoslav People’s Army general Ratko Mladić, are today

2 viewed upon as the two main culprits guilty of spreading of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Karadžić and Mladić are currently serving life imprisonment sentences.

However, despite of all what has happened, the name of Radovan Karadžić still holds merit in certain political circles of Republika Srpska, which still tend to use this name for political gain. Such was the case in 2016, when during the campaign for the local (municipal elections) Dodik initiated a placement of a plaque in honor of Radovan Karadžić on the walls of the student dormitory in the city of Pale. Choosing the city of Pale was not a coincidence, since during the war years Pale served as an administrative and military headquarters of Republika Srpska, a place from which world-infamous military operations, such as Siege of , among many others, was coordinated. With this act Dodik showed that SNSD continues to condone the ideas of the war-time SDS, basically ignoring the understanding of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina which exists outside of Republika Srpska. The plaque, as expected, provoked a reaction from various sides from within and outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including that of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko, who in November even gave Dodik a deadline to remove the board by May 2021, threatening him with a travel ban to European Union countries. The situation was finally resolved in December 2020, after Sonja Karadžić Jovičević, Radovan Karadžić’s daughter, despite being present at the time the plaque was revealed four years earlier, requested herself for the plaque to be taken down.

Association of Creators of Republika Srpska (Asocijacija Stvaraoci Republike Srpske)

The creation of Republika Srpska created many issues, almost none of which have been resolved. As we have mentioned in this briefing, the names of core founders of Republika Srpska all carry tremendous weight, which entire Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to feel in many years to come. However, despite of this weight, which can clearly be sensed and observed, certain political circles inside of Republika Srpska continue to ignore it, pretending that Republika Srpska is a “state” as any other. As a result, every once in a while, a new incident occurs which reveals the contradictions between historic and politically constructed present day reality. Such was the case with the request to resolve the issues regarding the Republika Srpska’s “creators”, made by the “Association of Creators of Republika Srpska” in July 2020. The “issues” mostly refers to financial compensation which is requested to be issued to the members of the first assembly of the Republika Srpska’s Parliament, the three members of the

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Presidency and members of the Government of the Republika Srpska active during the war. The problems with such initiatives lies in the fact that convicted war criminals stand among those who are to be compensated. To make things worse, Momčilo Krajišnik himself, due to his service as a member of the Presidency of Republika Srpska during the war years, not only belonged to the group which was to be compensated and honored, but until his death in September 2020, was also the first and only president of the mentioned “Association of Creators of Republika Srpska”. Despite of all that, the initiative initially got support from several parties inside of the Republika Srpska’s Parliament, with SNSD and SDS taking the lead, but was soon after abandoned by several original supporters due to the issues in question. Still, despite of the setback, the initiative still has enough support to maintain the idea kindling.

Conclusion

The creation of Republika Srpska is coated with controversy. The role Republika Srpska’s “creators” played during the war is practically impossible to conceal or in any way embellish. Yet, Republika Srpska’s current leaders continue to glorify convicted war criminals, whose visage is continuously brought back from the past so that it can be used for the creation of a certain mythology, upon which various political gains can be achieved. These distortions and manipulations of history, based on carefully selected pages from history books, reflect on image of Republika Srpska heavily, which deliberately only further prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from reaching any kind of political and social progress.

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