CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT OF B&H

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT ARRESTED

AIM Sarajevo, 8 May, 1997

Just as the federal Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic expressed his satisfaction with the work of the Chamber of Representatives of the parliament of B&H Federation, although the representatives had done practically nothing in the course of the two-day session, democracy in this institution was badly shaken. The arrest of the representative from the Democratic National Community (DNZ-party of Fikret Abdic), Ibrahim Djedovic, is a disgrace for the federal parliament which is unfit for European, democratic world, and which is, as Ambassador Michael Steiner, deputy High Representative, said equal to a scandal.

The seriousness of the incident which occurred in front of the assembly building during one of the session breaks, when Djedovic was arrested although he had representative's immunity, is all the greater because it could have been avoided. The commission in charge of immunity and mandates had considered depriving Djedovic of his immunity before, based on the allegation of the cantonal court from Bihac that he had committed war crimes. By a letter of the Hague Tribunal it was confirmed that suspicion about Djedovic's violation of humanitarian law was founded, but this did not create conditions for depriving Djedovic of his freedom in the manner in which it was done and before the decision of the commission for immunity and mandates. The incident would have had even greater and more serious consequences if the chairman of the Assembly, Enver Kreso (SDA), having learnt that Djedovic had been arrested (or taken into custody, as the police claimed), had not interrupted the session and gone to ask what was going on. After the arrest, however, representatives of IPTF arrived, then Michael Steiner in the organization of whose Office representatives of DNZ used to come to sessions of the parliament.

It is true that none of the parliamentarians, not even federal Prime Minister Bicakcic himself tried to conceal that this event violated the Constitution and that errors had been made in the procedure. Especially because representatives from the HDZ did not agree with the work of the commission, claiming that they had not participated in its work. In any case that is why they abandoned the session, but also due to the fact that Chairman Kreso had not allowed Steiner to present his proposals in connection with this case. They were soon after joined by two representatives of the Croat Party of Right.

Suggesting to the parliament not to be the courtroom for Djedovic, Bicakcic aksed the representatives not to start a discussion. All instructions after that went in the direction of depriving Djedovic of his immunity, in an emergency procedure and without much pomp. That is how it happened that the decision about it was reached unanimously by representatives from the SDA (A.Izetbegovic) and Party for B&H (H. Silajdzic). The oppositionists from the Associated List did not agree with the procedure according to which everything was happening, and they were of the opinion that deprivation of imunity should be postponed until additional explanation from the Hague Tribunal arrived, which Steiner had asked for immediately after Djedovic had been arrested. Bildt's deputy also insisted that Djedovic be guarded by the international and federal police until additional explanations arrived, and that he be returned to the assembly hall. Especially because his Office had enavbled and escorted his journey to Sarajevo.

Along with everything that was happening in the assembly hall at the time, ethnic composition of the representatives in the hall was the immediate cause for one of the representatives of Silajdzic's Party for B&H to "jokingly" address one of the abstaining oppositionists (non-Bosniac) with the following question: "Why don't you simply go out and let the Bosniacs try a Bosniac".

The haste in the procedure of depriving Djedovic of his immunity was explained by the parliamentarians of Izetbegovic's and Silajdzic's party with the fact "that trials in the Hague Tribunal take a very long time", and that this case "should be a contribution to a faster and more efficient arrests and punishment of war criminals". Whether the incident with Djedovic inflicted damage not only to B&H Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also the Parliament of B&H Federation, that is, whether it had threatened the Dayton accords and shaken confidence established with great difficulties, and therefrom B&H itself, remains an open issue. It is true that in this case the Bosniacs have accused a member of their own national group. But, Djedovic's arrest disturbed other deputies who had all the reason for suspicion that something like that might happen to any of them, as the President of the HDZ, Bozo Rajic, said!

Djedovic who had been taken into custody from the assembly session yesterday about 15.00 hours, appeared escorted by Michale Steiner in the same hall at 21.10 h. He said about his assembly card "Now I can throw it away", and he left the assembly building escorted by IPTF. This session of the federal assembly will not be remembered only for the Djedovic case, but also for a specific beginning of the election campaign from the assembly platform. The federal partners have obviously changed the skillfully veiled manner of toadying their voters they applied so far and chose to play the game with the cards on the table. It was started by Bozo Rajic, President of the HDZ of B&H, evidently provoked by speeches of his Bosniac partners. The immediate cause for all that were discussions concerning Draft Law on Municipalities divided by the interentity borderline, but also the newly established ones about which the federal partners have wrangled over and crossed swords for quite some time. And while Croat representatives in the authiorities do not conceal that they are greatly interested in this law, especially the part which enables them to legalize the newly established Usora municipality, Bosniac representatives are not concealing fear of new, purely ethnic municipalities.

Discussing in the name of the SDA, Irfan Ajanovic rebuked the HDZ that it wished to carry out its strategy of winning one municipality at a time in order to round off the pure entity territory and create preconditions for a new Dayton. "The intention is to create a corridor Doboj-Tesanjka-Teslic-Banja Luka with this law, as a basis of a new division of B&H", said Ajanovic. In this context he mentioned agreements which the SDS and the HDZ had in Pale. Admitting that all the mistakes were not only on one, Croat, side, Ajanovic proposed that the partners reach an agreement about implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton accords on return of everybody to their own homes, and enable at least the minimum of the Federation come to life.

Ajanovic's words stimulated first Ante Bosnjak (HDZ) to state that the Croats were constantly blamed to be against the Federation. Demands of Croat representatives for establishment of new municipalities were assessed as their obligation to their voters who believed they would be safe in these municipalities.

Although he claimed that he had not been provoked by previous discussions, Bozo Rajic (president of HDZ B&H) revealed in his discussion that he was not indifferent to what had been said. Rajic began his longish discussion which reminded of a pre-election presentation, but also the beginning of a new dialogue between partners, with the following words:

"The Bosniacs have introduced certain new elements into the discussion. Time has come for the truth, there is no time for selling anyone a pup. We must put all cards on the table."

He resolutely stressed that B&H could by no means be constructed by the model of former Yugoslavia, but not as a civil B&H either, nor could there be any secession. According to his opinion, the ones and the others, the Bosniacs and the Croats, spoke about municipalities from positions of distorted consciousness.

"The municipality, apart from psychological, has no other practical value. The Croats expect too much from it, and the Bosniacs believe it leads to secession", declared Rajic and advocated that the truth be looked stright in the eye, and that it showed that "the Croats look at the strategy of the SDA in the light of emigration of the Croats from all territories north of Kupres and Rama, which is supported by the so-called opposition, as well. There is a fear of cheating policy. The federation is a political goal for us. We will by no chance agree to talks about a civil state which will operate according to Milosevic's principle: one man, one vote. There is no bargaining about that", said Rajic and then replied to speculations about talks between the HDZ and the SDS:

"I am publicly taking the HDZ to Pale, and I will go to Banja Luka, too. You are the ones who are doing it secretly", Rajic accused his party's partner - the SDA.

Federal Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic who is also the vice president of the SDA, reacted to the challenge, stating the strategy of his party:

"Our strategy is B&H by the model made in Dayton, without an afterthought about Yugoslavia. We are persistently advocating the Federation as a prosperous model, and return of people to their homes, as part of it. We see federal and cantonal authorities as elements of safety. We see the germ of return in Zepce and Jajce. What we demand for the Bosniacs, we by no way deny to anyone else", said Bicakcic. Not with a single word, however, did vice-president of the SDA deny Rajic's remarks about the behavior of the Bosniac national party and the policy it pursued, which obviously differed from the proclaimed one.

And while the federal partners were squabbling in their usual manner, they did not forget to drop an accusation of the opposition here and there. The SDP was criticized, for example, that it had prevented founding gatherings of national parties in Tesanj by trickery, such as cutting car tyres. It is interesting that none of the SDP representatives used the assembly platform for defence against these accusations. Obviously, when not quarrelling with each other, the SDA and the HDZ will continue to build their image jointly, against all their opponents.

MIRJANA MICEVSKA