CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT'S ILLEGAL AND DESTABILIZING RULE

BANJALUKA, NOVEMBER 3 /SRNA/ - A retired German politician named Christian Schmidt has ravaged the rule of law and jeopardized BiH's political stability by repeatedly using his illegal despotic authority since his arrival to BiH, it was stated in the Republika Srpska's 30th Report to the UN Security Council.

"In 2021, a retired German politician named Christian Schmidt arrived in BiH falsely claiming to hold the title of HR and preposterously claiming authority to rule BiH by decree, even though such dictatorial authority is plainly forbidden by BiH's democratic constitutional order, by the Dayton Accords, and by the most basic principles of international law," the Report emphasized. The Report stated that no neutral, informed observer could possibly conclude that BiH has become more stable during Mr. Schmidt's tenure and perhaps the only opinion that BiH's Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats agree on is that Mr. Schmidt has been damaging and destabilizing to BiH. "Bosniaks have held large street demonstrations against Mr. Schmidt's rule, and BiH Presidency member Željko Komšić in September called Mr. Schmidt a `disoriented clown,`" it was noted in the Report which the Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Višković sent to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the member states of UN Security Council, on behalf of Republika Srpska, as a signatory of all annexes of Dayton Accords. In its third part, the Report added that Schmidt quickly amassed a record of one destabilizing blunder after another and, instead of helping to resolve crises, he has repeatedly created them and then escalated them. "Schmidt is not the solution to political instability in BiH, but its primary cause. He has no training, no experience, and no skills suitable for the task he has taken up as the author of BiH's future. As he so often reminds members of the press, Mr. Schmidt is not a diplomat, and his lack of diplomatic skills is, unfortunately, woefully apparent. He is temperamentally, culturally, and professionally ill qualified for the role he has been assigned by the handful of countries that illegally chose him," the Report stated. In the document, it was stated that Schmidt's political career, and his association with groups and individuals celebrating the military heroes of Germany's past, have been marked by what can most charitably be described as extreme insensitivity to the wartime victims of Nazi Germany. "The many commentators who have called Schmidt a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer are perhaps unfair; however, it is clear from his associations that Schmidt is not offended by Nazis the way any right-thinking person is, must less a person who has assumed for himself the power to rule a country ravaged by World War II. For any person to act as a dictator of BiH is unconscionable. For a person of Schmidt's background and proclivities to act as a dictator of BiH is sickening," the Report noted. The document stated that even observers among Schmidt's own countrymen have been extremely critical of his tenure and role, such as the Europe's largest news weekly Der Spiegel columnist Maximilian Popp wrote last year that "many BiH citizens perceive /Schmidt/ as a dangerous interference in the affairs of the country" or Michael Martens of the leading German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who summarized earlier this year that "Christian Schmidt is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time," adding that "a colonialist structure like the Office of the High Representative has no place in modern Europe." "Leaders in the region have also recognized Schmidt's pernicious role. For example, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic characterized BiH under Schmidt as `a clumsy, sloppy, incompetently managed colony.` Milanovic said that "in order to protect his backside and his reputation, he /Schmidt/ changed the criminal law according to which what Dodik did is a criminal offense. That's called colonial administration and it's destroying that country." Milanovic asked, "Is this a way of calming the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of deescalation?" the Report stated. The Report added that in July 2023, a new darkness descended on BiH as Mr. Schmidt, deeming his word to be law, imposed on BiH a criminal statute establishing five-year prison sentences for "Failure to Implement Decisions of the High Representative," and that Schmidt’s attempt to criminalize failure to implement his illegal decrees marks a dangerous and despicable escalation in foreign repression of BiH that, in effect, turns BiH into a police state commanded by an unelected German despot. It was also added that the BiH Prosecutor's Office, ignoring the fact that Schmidt's new criminal prohibitions were not duly enacted in accordance with the Constitution, recently brought indictments against two RS officials for failing to do Schmidt's bidding. The Report emphasized that the indictments are a shocking attack on democracy and the rule of law, piling illegality atop illegality, in a tyrannical effort to disable the Republika Srpska's democratically elected and legally appointed public servants. The Srpska's document to UN Security Council stated that the "law" the Republika Srpska's officials are accused of violating, which criminalizes failure to comply with a decision of the HR — is not a law at all, because it was never enacted by the BiH Parliamentary Assembly as is explicitly required by the BiH Constitution. Instead, this ersatz "law" was handed down in July as an edict by Schmidt. Making this assault on the rule of law even more egregious, Schmidt has not even been legally appointed to the position that he claims to hold. "The recent indictments against RS officials are based on the officials' carrying out formalities they were constitutionally and legally bound to perform. Each is accused of breaking Schmidt's `law` by implementing two laws adopted by the Republika Srpska National Assembly that Schmidt later pronounced — illegally — to be null. The indicted officials, however, legally had no choice but to implement the acts of the democratically elected Republika Srpska National Assembly," the Report noted. It was also noted that the prosecutor's office that proposed the indictment and the court that confirmed it were both illegally created by the decrees of former HRs in flagrant violation of the BiH Constitution — both its legislative procedures and its clear division of competences between the BiH level of administration and the two Entities. Besides, the Report added, the preliminary hearing was presided over by a judge with a clear conflict of interest – a former OHR attorney standing in judgment of defendants charged with disobeying OHR orders. Moreover, the judge assigned to the trial in the case is a former officer in the wartime Bosniak army. "In short, the Republika Srpska's officials are being prosecuted under a fictitious law by an unconstitutional prosecutor's office, in an unconstitutional court, presided over by conflicted judges, acting to enforce a tyrannical, anti-democratic, illegal decree of a foreigner, against legally elected and appointed officials who simply carried out formal procedures they were legally required to execute. The indictments are an intolerable attack against BiH's sovereignty and democratic constitutional order and a rejection of rule of law in favor of rule by one man backed by foreign power," it was written in the Report. The Report emphasized that by claiming unfettered power to decree what is law in BiH, Schmidt puts himself entirely above BiH's legal and constitutional framework and makes a mockery out of the rule of law. "For a man who persists in ranting about the rule of law, no one has ever done more harm to the rule of law in BiH than Mr. Schmidt and his handful of supporters in the international community," the Report reads. The Report reminded that in June, the Republika Srpska National Assembly acted to uphold democracy and the rule of law by approving a law to end the publication of OHR decrees in the Republika Srpska Official Gazette, and that Republika Srpska National Assembly rightly refused to be a parliament of collaborators selling out democracy and the rule of law in favor of foreign dictatorial rule. "Republika Srpska hopes all countries that value, freedom, democracy, and sovereignty will condemn Schmidt's illegal and tyrannical decrees and make clear that BiH must be governed by its own citizens in accordance with its democratic constitutional order rather than ruled by a reckless German autocrat. The path of EU integration on which BiH is embarked demands no less. Srpska is confident that BiH, notwithstanding its current political tensions, can succeed and achieve EU membership if the Dayton Accords, including the BiH Constitution, are faithfully implemented, including through upholding BiH's constitutional structure and restoring democratic self-rule," the Report stated.