SARAJEVO, December 19 (FENA) – Statement of BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik that BiH Presidency consent is needed for deployment of additional military forces has no basis, BiH Presidency member Šefik Džaferović believes, given that the mandate of international military forces is clearly prescribed by the Dayton Peace Agreement.
As he explained in a statement for FENA, the arrangement on international military forces in BiH is defined by Annex 1A of the Dayton Agreement, and later by the Berlin Plus Agreement between NATO and the European Union. NATO has a direct mandate to implement the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
He reminded that, after the end of the IFOR mission, the North Atlantic Council decided on the number of troops within SFOR. Given that the NATO Headquarters, along with the additional Altea mission, is the legal successor of SFOR, it is clear that the North Atlantic Council estimates and decides how many troops will be available to the NATO Headquarters, and given the provisions of the Dayton Accords, BiH Presidency approval is not required.
Annex 1A, adds Džaferović, clearly stipulates that the NATO mission is subordinated to the political control of the North Atlantic Council, and that the military mission command has the authority to do everything it deems necessary to implement its mandate, even without the consent of BiH actors including the use of military force.
“In the end, the decisions on restructuring of military forces from IFOR, SFOR, to EUFOR and NATO headquarters, were made by the international community, and Dodik certainly cannot be the one to decide on that,” he said.
He called on Dodik to stop, as he said, the insane attack on the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, respect the Dayton Peace Agreement in full, which means the General Framework Agreement, all 11 annexes, the European Convention on Human Rights, the OHR, the BiH Constitutional Court and all laws that, based on Dayton, have been passed in the past 26 years.
BiH Presidency member and SNSD leader Milorad Dodik said yesterday that as long as he is the member of the Presidency, he would never give consent for any military forces to come to BiH, emphasizing that no troops can come to BiH without the consent of the competent authorities and according to Dodik, it is the Presidency of BiH.
