KOŠARAC: KONAKOVIĆ'S CONTINUED TENURE CAUSES IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO BiH

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, APRIL 21 /SRNA/ – The fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Council of Ministers, headed by Elmedin Konaković, is unilaterally altering the list of candidates for a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, originally compiled by the BiH Presidency, goes beyond the scope of a diplomatic scandal, said Deputy Chairperson of the Council of Ministers Staša Košarac.

“This is a direct attack on the constitutional order and a usurpation of the constitutional competencies of the BiH Presidency, which is the only institution authorized by the Constitution to conduct foreign policy,” Košarac pointed out. In any normal and well-ordered state, he added, the minister and his associates would be immediately arrested and prosecuted. “If he is doing something like this to the BiH Presidency, what is he doing to diplomats in embassies… Every day he remains in the ministerial chair is direct and irreparable damage to BiH. There is no state, no Constitution, no foreign policy,” Košarac stressed. He added that it is difficult for a country where prosecutors file charges and courts issue rulings based on laws imposed by a foreigner, while at the same time doing nothing in response to such attacks on the constitutional order and serious abuses of office. Media have published a transcript from the latest session of the BiH Presidency at which the process of appointing a judge from BiH to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was discussed. During the session, an adviser to the Chairperson of the Presidency, Šahbaz Džihanović, presented information calling into question the legitimacy of the entire selection process. According to media reports, the transcript quotes Džihanović as saying at the April 1 Presidency session that he has evidence the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the Presidency Secretariat to submit the report in Word format, and that the commission's report was edited, meaning it was not authentically delivered to the Council of Europe.