On, June 22, 2020, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Kathleen Kavalec, has held online meetings with the Mayor of the Brčko District of BiH, Siniša Milić, and the President of the Assembly, Esed Kadrić.
The meetings focused on the importance of adopting key laws of the Brčko district before the upcoming elections, such as the Law on Associations and Foundations, the Law on Public Assembly and the Law on National Minorities. Ambassador Kavalec has expressed hope that the adoption of these laws shall be realized in the first reading in July, and that they shall be finally adopted by September.
She has also pointed out that the OSCE Mission to BiH supports the District authorities in their activities on drafting the Law on Conflict of Interest, as well as other measures in the fight against corruption.
The importance of establishing the Anti-Corruption Office of the Brčko District and appointing the acting director of that office were also discussed at the meeting. “Such an Office would have a positive impact on the implementation of anti-corruption laws in the District,” stated Ambassador Kavalec.
Of course, a very sensitive topic for the Brcko district Assembly members and politicians is “FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION”. Why? Well, because Brčko district is a small town with its surroundings where everything is publicly known. Although many actions take place pell-mell and under a black hat, such as construction contract bid rigging, issuing building permits, open competition rigging, playing monopoly with the District, etc.; all this is very well connected and veiled, because after all, it is the Assembly that makes the laws and decisions.
The pillars of the District are:
THE ASSEMBLY,
THE MAYOR,
THE COURT
THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE and
THE POLICE.
Each institution we have listed has its own chief. Therefore, the assembly majority, under the influence of a political party, elects a chief for each stated position through an open competition. So, the citizens do not elect, because the citizens do not even have the right to elect a mayor.
Whoever the citizens vote for to be a mayor, it immediately falls into the water because the mayor and chiefs are appointed by the Assembly, i.e. the ruling majority. Not to mention the ministers. When you have all these institutions under the influence of the Government, then how do you expect one of those heads of the mentioned institutions to go against those who appointed them to that position? That would mean going against themselves, right?
In some democratic, better times, a situation in which the chiefs ignore the dubious and inadmissible moral actions of those who put them in the same position would be called NEGLECT OF DUTY. However, that term has been changed to another meaning that is very flexible today.
So, if SDXXX Party or e.g. “ALLIANCE OF A BETTER FUTURE OF ROCCA SIFFREDI” Party appointed me as a chief, it means that if I notice suspicious illegal actions, I have to keep quiet because if I decide to report it to the authorities, whatever they are, there is a high probability that I will lose my job or be framed for something I did not do. None of the politicians in the Brčko District have ever borne responsibility or served a prison sentence for corruption or nepotism and that probably won’t happen for a long time. Those who are arrested will be released because, what they did cannot be proven. Logically, right? But, let’s not play stupid, everyone knows everyone in the District.
A good example is a former director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration FAHRUDIN SOLAK, one of the main protagonists in the RESPIRATORS affair and against whom the legal proceedings have been brought. His former colleagues and employees claim that, on the first day he came to work, he said: “I AM NOT APPOINTED HERE BECAUSE I AM SMART! I AM APPOINTED HERE BECAUSE I OBEY WELL”. We can deduce a lot from these words of the suspect FAHRUDIN SOLAK, who is currently on pretrial release.
It will also certainly be interesting to look at the proposed names that would make up the announced anti-corruption office, if there are some new people, party unaffiliated or foreigners at best. Only then could something positive be done. Brčko roguery has an impact on everyone, but the sore point is FOREIGNERS, because they have no influence on foreigners, primarily because 99% of Assembly members do not know the basics of English or any other foreign language for that matter, not to mention French, as the first diplomatic language. I don’t even know why, but every person born in Brčko would say to that: “It’s all Greek to our Assembly members”- whatever that might mean.
However, if names that have been circulating for years appear or those who just nod their heads be appointed, then it will be a waste of money on another inefficient office. We would not be surprised to find the names of politicians who decided to leave their parliamentary careers and rush into the anti-corruption office to protect themselves from the past sins.
But we will leave that topic for another time. What we are interested in now is the law that was envisaged in July, namely, the Law on National Minorities. The head of the mission strictly emphasized this law. Probably because of the obvious problem that threatens real national minorities.
This law will be of great importance if it should cover the election law and the election process and specify who is and who is not a national minority, and in what way they can be elected to the Assembly as a national minority. It would be fair for only those who have been regarded as a national minority for more than 18 years to acquire the right. This would give those born as members of a national minority the right to engage in politics at the age of 18, that is, when they reach adulthood instead of Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats in their late forties becoming Chinese overnight.
Thus, for instance, in the Brčko District for the first time we got Turks who have not been represented in the past. Speaking of Turks, it is interesting that, after we got the Turk representative, the Embassy of Turkey in BiH never came forward to praise this act. I wonder why and whether they even know that they have a countryman in the Brčko Assembly. We will contact them by email and ask why they have never pointed this out in their statements.
After the Turks, it shouldn’t surprise us if, by October, the Vlach would also appear, why not, I’m for it. What does it matter? When everyone else can, why can’t the Vlachs? Think how cool that would sound, say, a former Bosniak who decided to opt for a national minority. Imagine his pre-election poster in the city: an inscription with a picture, e.g. (caricature) Mujo Dervišić- VLACH. Isn’t that cool? I would vote for him right away.
But, let’s get back to the point. This law is very important because its abuses must be stopped in order to bring justice to the real national minorities who have been harmed by this omission or abuse of the law. We remind you that the condition for entering the Assembly of the Brčko District for the peoples of BiH, i.e. party candidates, is 700/800 votes, depending on the turnout in the elections, while only 300/350 votes are enough for the national minority.
Former members of national minorities are usually extended hands of the heads of the ruling parties, who haven’t had three political debates in the Assembly of the Brčko District BiH in the four years of their mandate. In short, they are servants of the big parties, and later, in a way, they become a part of those political parties as well.
We hope that the OSC, in cooperation with the OHR BiH, will influence prevention of the abuse of law and violation of rights of the real national minorities that have been abused for years.
Otherwise, the citizens will only be left with hope and to say the ancient words: “In God We Trust“.
For TIMES.BA: Gallileo DaVinci