Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mme.President,
We thank ASG Jenča for the briefing and his insights.
We welcome the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Republic of Srpska, Ms. Željka Cvijanović, as well as Special Envoy of the President of Serbia, Mr. Marko Djurić.
Mme.President,
The reason why Russia has requested this meeting is the dramatic worsening of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The already fragile situation in that country is fraught with further deterioration in the near future. The Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, has addressed a written communication to members of the Security Council, including Russia, requesting that an urgent meeting of the Security Council be convened, as critical developments are taking place in her country, a part of which she is representing, that could undermine the functionality and stability of BiH. This letter is not a usual event at all, because Ms. Cvijanović is not the head of state at the moment. But what is not usual either is the political structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the responsibility for the future of the country rests with the three-member Presidency with the head of state rotating once every eight months. It is obvious that Ms.Cvijanović's letter is a signal of particular concern of the Serb population of BiH and an attempt to prevent a negative scenario. As members of the Security Council, we cannot remain indifferent to such calls for help.
We often hear in this Chamber that the Security Council must prevent conflicts, and many states declare this topic to be at the top of their agenda. The UN Secretary General often speaks about this too. In our view, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the case where the Council can prove its worth in terms of prevention. The Bosnian war claimed the lives of 100,000 people and was one of the most controversial pages in history as far as the reaction of the international community, i.a. with regard to the unacceptable and criminal behavior of UN forces on the ground. This war did not have a party that was "white and fluffy", and its opponents were not evil and bloodthirsty. Each side had accounts to settle with the other, and the events in Srebrenica were not the only bloody episode of this war.
We believe that the UN should not repeat its mistakes, and the Council should react to this situation. As a guarantor of the Dayton Agreements, a member of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, and member of the UN Security Council, Russia has no right to turn a blind eye to this. In this regard, we are grateful to the Maltese Presidency for convening this meeting.
Mme.President,
Almost 29 years ago, the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina put an end to a deadly inter-ethnic conflict. For almost thirty years, it has safeguarded security in the region.
However, the events of recent years, and especially of recent months, have clearly demonstrated a systematic and brazen violation of the fundamental provisions of the Agreement. Such incidents occur constantly. We have raised a number of them in the Security Council. This is also what we heard Ms. Cvijanović say in her remarks just now.
To begin with, Bosnia and Herzegovina has now been largely deprived of the status of a sovereign and independent state. Frankly speaking, it is hard to fathom that in the twenty-first century, in the center of Europe, given democratically elected institutions, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany, posing as a "high representative", has the final say on whatever events take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. De facto, Mr.Schmidt acts on behalf of a small group of foreign states, in whose interests he does not hesitate to use the so-called Bonn Powers. With their help, he can repeal any law or, on the contrary, make its application compulsory. He behaves like an absolute monarch, and the Western fighters for democracy not only fail to restrain, but even encourage him. Over the past two and a half years, he has managed to divide the country to an unprecedented extent. By the way, it was the United States and Great Britain that demanded the presence of this self-appointed "Bosnian autocrat" at this meeting to impose his expertise on the members of the Security Council. We will talk more about the discouraging situation surrounding Mr. Schmidt at a separate meeting in the middle of May.
I give you another example. Foreign judges who have been arbitrarily appointed from abroad continue to sit on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2023, the statute of the Constitutional Court, which required at least one judge from each constituent nation to participate in decision-making, was rewritten by a simple manipulation and in violation of the effective law. Now there are only six judges instead of nine. There are no Serbs at all, and Croats are represented by only one member. Whatever the qualifications of foreign judges, such external tutelage over a sovereign state looks like the worst colonial practices. We suggest that Security Council members and all those present here should take a moment to reflect how they would feel if such a scheme were implemented in their countries.
Mme.President,
The situation in BiH (which is already extremely tense due to the points I have mentioned) risks getting completely out of control because of the activities that the Permanent Representative of that country to the United Nations has been engaged in. Everyone gathered here is aware that he and a number of his Western patrons are now promoting in the United Nations General Assembly a draft resolution on the events in Srebrenica. The draft was initiated without the necessary consent of the Presidency of BiH, which is a violation of the Constitution, and therefore of Dayton Accords, which the supreme law of the country is part of. According to the Constitution, which has been shamelessly trampled on, foreign policy issues must be decided by consensus of all three members of the Presidency.
It is outrageous and unacceptable that two members of the BiH Presidency, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, suddenly "forgot" about the need to obtain the consent of all three constituent peoples when they started to promote this more than provocative initiative. Almost one third of the population of BiH, as we could hear from Ms. Cvijanović today, is categorically against it. This is also evidenced by the many Serb rallies in the country with thousands of participants. There is no doubt that these actions are of an exclusively political nature, a deliberate violation of the peace agreement and a gross usurpation of the Dayton functions of the Presidency of BiH. Their consequences for the country are hard to even imagine, and we cannot rule out that they may reach beyond BiH and trigger destabilization of the entire Balkan region.
It is extremely cynical that the lead in promoting this extremely dangerous document has been taken by Germany, the country that committed the largest genocide in the history of mankind during the Second World War in the twentieth century. This monstrous fact will forever remain in world history. It is hard to overlook the fact that Germany was actively engaged in the collapse of Yugoslavia. After all, German aviation made its first after WW2 combat flights in 1995 to bomb Sarajevo.
The draft UNGA resolution on Srebrenica is one-sided and politically biased. It has nothing to do with the stated goal of commemorating the victims of the 1995 tragedy with a view to achieving, as they say, national reconciliation. Through this document, the authors of the draft seek to qualify certain historical events in a way that meets their interests. The proposed document does not meet the objectives of promoting inter-ethnic reconciliation in BiH in any way. Not to mention the fact that, if put to a vote, it could provoke a "chain reaction" across the world, for lots of peoples worldwide have "skeletons in their closets", as well as wounds and grudges against one another that have not healed so far.
We call on the countries that initiated and promoted the draft resolution to think of the responsibility they bear. The wounds of Bosnian society are too fresh and the problems in the country too serious for raising this draft in the General Assembly. The peoples of BiH must first come to a consensus on their own assessment of their history. We categorically oppose this draft and call on all sober-minded states to do the same.
Mme.President,
We anticipate fierce criticism of our position from Western states today. We would like to believe that their sly speeches and beautiful words will not mislead anyone.
There is a plenty of examples of Western interference in the affairs of sovereign states. It is worth recalling that in the Balkans alone NATO members bombed the territory of the former Yugoslavia twice - first in 1995, which is directly relevant to the issue under our consideration, and then in 1999. However, when it comes to NATO’s responsibility for the crimes committed, international law, according to the logic of Western capitals, ceases to exist. No one has yet been held accountable for the aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia. But to be on the safe side, Western countries try their best to avoid even touching upon this topic. We could all observe this in March, when Western colleagues cowardly blocked the holding of a Russia-requested Security Council meeting on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. Was this a procedural issue? Obviously, no. It is also a perfect illustration of Western hypocrisy. Our French colleagues, ignoring the implications of those events for the region, called to leave "history to the historians". But when it comes to the resolution on Srebrenica, which refers to older events, we hear no such calls from them.
Mme.President,
The essence of the problem for which we have proposed to convene today is that the Dayton postulates of Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and independence, to which Sarajevo and Western capitals are so fond of referring, have long started to be violated. Now they are pushing for centralization of the country, which is at odds with the polycentric model of the multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina, as provided for in the UNSC-endorsed Dayton Accords. The Dayton principle of coexistence among the constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and their equality in decision-making is fundamental to the post-conflict structure, the internal administrative architecture and the system of balancing the interests of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.
It is hard to ignore the fact that Western actions to undermine these foundations have led to an unprecedented increase in inter-ethnic contradictions, and post-conflict settlement was brought to a standstill. Western mediators have put on "sheep's clothing" and in fact are working to exacerbate the conflict, pursuing their own geopolitical interests at the expense of the Balkan peoples. In this way, multilateral efforts to ensure lasting reconciliation are discredited and the future of BiH as a state is jeopardized.
Colleagues,
The Security Council must prevent such a dangerous development. The international community as a whole should encourage and support equal and respectful dialogue among the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and not impose its own approaches and scenarios. We hope that our meeting today will make it possible to stop the process of BiH sliding into an abyss of escalation with unpredictable consequences for the entire Balkan and possibly European region. A clear message is needed that the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina is solely in the hands of its peoples. It is them (and not Western countries or their appointed "Gauleiter of Bosnia") who should determine their own future. We must do everything we can to give them the opportunity to agree, and create all the necessary conditions for that, rather than foment contradictions and drive them apart.
Thank you.
Right of reply:
We have listened carefully to the statements by our colleagues on the Security Council and have come to the disappointing conclusion that our Western colleagues, above all the Western members of the P5, are not interested in any stabilization around BiH whatsoever. Their tactic is to blame one of the constituent peoples for all the troubles, denigrate its history and leadership, while turning a blind eye to the blatant violations of the Dayton Agreement and the Constitution of BiH. Today, none of them has uttered a word about it. What’s more, they invited Mr. Schmidt, the embodiment of those violations, who clearly does not repent his subversive actions, to participate in this meeting.
I wonder how the Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina will comment on these violations by Mr. Schmidt, the two members of the BiH Presidency, and himself, for that matter. Now, the West is hiding its illegal actions in BiH behind a campaign to blame Russia for instrumentalizing UNSC discussions in pursuit of its “vested interests”. But what for would we do that? For spreading Russian disinformation of course. That’s what we heard again today. There is nothing new here either; we have encountered this simple scheme in other situations as well - when Western countries try to propagate their so-called "rules-based order", which, as we know, has nothing to do with international law.
It is obvious that Washington and Brussels have no idea what consequences their unpromising and extremely dangerous course may bring for BiH and its neighbors. The sooner they abandon it and return to the implementation of Dayton Accords, the better the chances for preserving regional and all-European stability.
Thank you.
