NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed on March 10 in Sarajevo that NATO will not allow the hard-won peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be jeopardized and a security vacuum to be created in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Rute arrived on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina where he will meet with the highest political leadership, at a time when the authorities of Republika Srpska, threatening secession, attempted to ban the work of state judicial and police institutions on the territory of this entity.
After meeting with members of the BiH Presidency, Rute stressed that NATO fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, that the Dayton Peace Agreement - which ended the war in 1995 - is a cornerstone that must be respected, but also that it supports the activities of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) responsible for its implementation.
"Of course, I am concerned about the security situation, but this is not 1992 and we will not allow a security vacuum to be created. I know that EUFOR is fully prepared to maintain a stable security environment in BiH. We will not allow the hard-won peace in BiH to be jeopardized," said Rute.
Three members of the BiH Presidency, two different positions
Chairwoman Željka Cvijanović, who comes from Republika Srpska, said that for her and the political representatives from this entity, the territorial integrity and preservation of BiH's multiethnicity and cooperation with NATO are not disputable, but that membership in this military-political alliance is disputable to them.
"My colleagues believe that it is normal for a foreigner to impose laws, I do not believe that it is normal for someone to create such a big circus based on the Bonn Conference. In the RS, there is a belief that this country has been privatized through various speculations to the benefit of one people, to the detriment of the other two peoples," said Cvijanović.
Cvijanović welcomed the increased presence of EUFOR and NATO in BiH and said that she thought it was good for the entire country "because of the various verbal threats that we had the opportunity to hear."
"High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt cannot save BiH, but the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH can, and I think we have to work on that, reach agreements and live a normal and democratic life," said Cvijanović.
Presidency Member Denis Bećirović said that it was important because Rute said that NATO would not allow a security vacuum and because he expressed full support for the mandate of the High Representative in BiH.
"These are the most difficult moments since 1995. We had a brutal constitutional coup on BiH. The dangerous destabilization must be stopped. The only benefit from destabilization would be Moscow," said Bećirović.
The third member of the BiH Presidency, Željko Komšić, said that he was "ready to sign immediately" everything they heard at the meeting with the NATO Secretary General.
Komšić said that responsibility for BiH "will fall on us here" and that it is their duty to "deliver the majority of good news to the citizens of BiH."
"The thing that no one mentions is the need for BiH to allocate a larger amount of money for the defense sector, given that BiH wants to become a member of NATO. The amount envisaged in the budget we are adopting today is not even close to two percent of the gross domestic product (GDP)," said Komšić.
After this meeting, Rute will have a meeting with the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto.
In the afternoon, he is scheduled to address students at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo.
At what point did Rute come to BiH?
The NATO Secretary General arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the adoption of unconstitutional laws in the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska.
The RS Assembly previously passed a law banning the activities of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) of BiH, the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, which is responsible for appointing all judges and prosecutors in BiH.
The Constitutional Court of BiH issued a temporary measure and stopped the implementation of the law adopted by the RS National Assembly on February 27, the day after RS President Milorad Dodik was sentenced by a first-instance verdict before the Court of BiH to a year in prison and a six-year ban on holding office.
He was found guilty of disrespecting the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt and signing a decree promulgating laws that Schmidt had previously annulled, which attempted to prevent the implementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH and the High Representative on the territory of the RS.
NATO has repeatedly stated that this military-political organization supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it will not allow a security vacuum or endangerment of the hard-won peace.
The European Union Force (EUFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced on March 7th that it would temporarily increase the size of its forces as a preventive measure, following increased tensions in the country.
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