OŠAP-GAĆANOVIĆ: BEĆIROVIĆ'S GOAL IS TO FOLD REPUBLIKA SRPSKA PROPERTY INTO NEW BiH PROPERTY FRAMEWORK

BANJA LUKA, JULY 2 /SRNA/ – Anđelina Ošap-Gaćanović, the Republika Srpska member of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, has stressed that one of the motives behind BiH Presidency Chairperson Denis Bećirović's efforts to change the composition of the Commission and its voting procedures is ideological and identity-driven.

"The Commission was originally established as an institution intended to help reconcile peoples and heal the wounds caused by the destruction of cultural heritage. However, it has been used as a mechanism for creating a new, fragile nation. For a long time, the Commission prohibited the use of the terms `Serb` and `Croat`; everything was supposed to be labeled `Bosnian-Herzegovinian`. We even had statements from representatives of the Bosniak members of the Commission saying that the smaller Serb and Croat identities should be absorbed into a broader `BiH` identity," Ošap-Gaćanović stressed. According to her, the Commission had effectively been cultivating and promoting a new identity until she, as the Republika Srpska member, put a stop to that by invoking the rights guaranteed under the Dayton Peace Accords and the provisions of Annex 8. "You simply cannot merge the identity and property of the Serb people into some new state property, some new `BiH` property," Ošap-Gaćanović stated. She added that there was another motive behind the proposed changes - an attempt to shield Commission officials from criminal liability for actions they had taken over previous years while managing the institution in pursuit of nation-building and the transfer of property. "Mr. Bećirović embarked on this venture, but Mrs. Cvijanović clearly recognized what was happening. His attempts were blocked for quite some time, but in January the decision was signed and published in violation of the prescribed procedure, even though it should have gone through a second round of harmonization. We all witnessed Željko Komšić and Bećirović publicly arguing over why the decision had not yet been published, even though it was fundamentally flawed," Republika Srpska member of the Commission pointed out to RTRS. She explained that the decision contains numerous provisions that effectively amend the Dayton Agreement and its provisions, meaning that a lower-level legal act is being used to regulate an international treaty, which she said is legally impossible. At present, she added, the Commission cannot function because, like every institution, it has internal regulations aligned with Annex 8 and the laws governing the work of BiH institutions. "We are currently unable to operate because this newly published act is now formally in force, yet we cannot hold sessions because it is completely contrary to Annex 8, while Annex 8 is the document that legally governs our work. As a result, the issue of foreign members has merely been used to score political points, whereas the real objective is to undermine Republika Srpska's role, its will and opinion, and its ability to prevent harmful decisions, while promoting the concept of 'state property' supposedly belonging to `BiH citizens,`" Ošap-Gaćanović clarified.