KARAN: DIALOGUE AMONG DOMESTIC LEADERS, WITHOUT FOREIGN INTERFERENCE, IS THE SOLUTION TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS IN BiH

SAINT PETERSBURG, MAY 19 /SRNA/ - The Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, Siniša Karan, said at the 13th International Legal Forum in St. Petersburg that the only way to resolve the major Dayton constitutional crisis in BiH is through dialogue among domestic leaders who represent the sovereign electoral will of the people, without interference from any external actors.

Karan emphasized that the Dayton constitutional and political crisis in BiH and Republika Srpska has been caused by the undermining of the key principles of the BiH Constitution, above all, the rule of law, constitutional order, legality, and respect for democracy based on open and fair elections. “To make the absurdity clear, this is being done by an ordinary citizen, a foreigner, who falsely presents himself as the High Representative and operates outside the framework of Annex 10, thereby further undermining this international agreement,” Karan emphasized during his address at the panel "The Sovereign and the Universal in the Context of Global Transformation." Karan stated that a clear example of the people being the key holders of sovereignty is the peaceful creation of Republika Srpska on January 9, 1992, during the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This, he said, was based on the constitutional right of the people to self-determination. Republika Srpska functioned as a state with full capacity from 1992 to 1995 and entered the Dayton peace negotiations in that status. "By signing the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, an international peace treaty better known as the Dayton Agreement, on November 21, 1995, a newly established BiH was created as a federal, multiethnic, asymmetrical and complex state union composed of two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH," Karan noted. He said that the Constitution fully affirms the two key holders of sovereignty: the three constituent peoples and the two entities. "The Constitution elaborates the mechanism for exercising that sovereignty through the parity-based composition of all institutions at the BiH level, representing the three peoples and two entities, where compromise is the only method for making joint decisions, serving as a key element of the newly created federal BiH. It also defines the division of jurisdictions following the principles of modern federations, whereby only a portion of powers is granted to the level of BiH, while all others belong to the entities based on the principle of presumption of jurisdictions," Karan emphasized. He said that over the past 30 years, more than 100 key jurisdictions were unconstitutionally taken from Republika Srpska, including the armed forces, finances, parts of the police, and the entire judicial system. “Today, 30 years after the Dayton Agreement, these principles are being constantly undermined by parts of the international community, by all High Representatives, led by the illegitimate foreigner Schmidt, the Constitutional Court of BiH, and the unconstitutional Court and Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, with one exclusive aim: to dismantle the sovereignty of the three constituent peoples and two entities, and transfer it into the hands of a majority Bosniak people, thereby turning the federal, multiethnic BiH into a unitary state,” Karan emphasized. He said that the culmination of this effort by those undermining the Dayton Agreement and the Constitution of BiH is the political persecution of all holders of state authority in Republika Srpska - the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the National Assembly, and most ministers - with the ultimate goal of abolishing Republika Srpska. “One of the reasons for the attacks on the Serbian people and Republika Srpska is our principled, full support for Russia and the Russian people. This is also an opportunity to thank Russia and the Russian people for their support of Republika Srpska and their consistent respect for international law,” Karan said. According to him, no individual or High Representative, especially one not appointed in accordance with the prescribed procedures, can stand above democratically elected institutions, because the will of the people, expressed through elections, is the only true and legitimate source of sovereignty. "Also, unfortunately, and this is difficult to comprehend in the modern democratic world, one of the tools used to pursue unitarist ambitions in BiH is the Constitutional Court of BiH. Although it is mandated to protect the Constitution of BiH, it makes decisions contrary to the Constitution. These decisions are made by three foreign judges who still sit on the Court, together with two Bosniak judges, and they rule outside the scope of constitutional jurisdiction and legal nature, affirming through such decisions exclusively the political demands of only one people," Karan stated. He stated that all of these are absurdities that have forced Republika Srpska, but also made it determined, to defend itself by all political, legal, and democratic means, in order to preserve and protect its constitutional and legal position based on the Constitution of BiH. This is to be done through the constitutional mechanisms of that protection: the principle of parity representing the majority will of all three constituent peoples within joint institutions, consensus as the method of decision-making, and the division of jurisdictions as the fundamental federal principle. “In that sense, dialogue among domestic leaders who represent the sovereign electoral will of the people, without any outside interference, is the only way to resolve this major constitutional Dayton crisis in BiH,” Karan emphasized. According to him, the concept of globalization is showing its limitations, and the era of liberal democracy in international relations has come to an end. Karan emphasized that, despite attempts to change the concept of sovereignty in international law and relations, it remains one of the fundamental principles of international law and the relations between states and other entities. "A new, and I believe fairer, world is being born: a multipolar world in which the sovereignty, integrity, and interests of all countries and peoples will be respected, both the large and the smaller peoples by number. The leaders of this new world, great powers such as the Russian Federation, will, I am confident, continue to base their actions on the principles of respecting sovereignty and the interests of all countries, the right of peoples to self-determination, and will advocate for the respect for and the application of international law,” Karan said. Minister Karan is on an official visit to Saint Petersburg, where he is attending the 13th International Legal Forum, at the invitation of the Russian Federation’s Minister of Justice, Konstantin Chuichenko, and the Executive Secretary of the Organizing Committee of the Saint Petersburg International Legal Forum, Anton Kobyakov. The forum is held with the support of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and is organized by the Russian Ministry of Justice and the Roscongress Foundation. It brings together more than five thousand representatives from the legal community, business, and academic circles from Russia and foreign countries.