UNESCO EXPERTS WITHDRAW AFTER BEING DRAWN INTO ILLEGAL ACTIVITY THROUGH BEĆIROVIĆ’S MANIPULATIONS

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 24 /SRNA/ - Two UNESCO experts have withdrawn from the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH after being drawn into the commission through what Republika Srpska Commission member Anđelina Ošap Gaćanović described as manipulations by Denis Bećirović, thereby preventing it from continuing its unlawful work.

Ošap Gaćanović said it was right for the experts to withdraw, as UNESCO should not take a one-sided approach but provide technical support to all constituent peoples, particularly given that the Commission was established under the Dayton Peace Agreement and belongs equally to all peoples in BiH. She stressed that she had previously informed the relevant institutions about the matter and that, based on the information available to her, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office was taking action regarding developments at the institution. She said that, over the past two months, the foreign experts had been drawn into a series of unlawful processes within the Commission due to the unlawful and one-sided actions of Bećirović’s office. She explained that steps had been taken to exclude the member from Republika Srpska from the Commission, completely change its composition and voting procedures, amend its internal acts and staffing issues, and interfere in matters of constitutional significance for the peoples of BiH. “The office of the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, had warned UNESCO about the unlawfulness of the actions being taken, as well as about the irregularities into which UNESCO experts were being drawn through the unilateral actions of Bećirović and his office and attempts to implement a decision that has no legal effect,” she said. She assessed that the well-substantiated efforts by Cvijanović’s office had paid off. “By withdrawing the foreign experts, the Commission’s unlawful work, which had been carried out in this manner over the previous two months in complete violation of the Commission’s applicable internal regulations, can no longer continue in the same way,” Ošap Gaćanović said. According to her, the Commission is an institution belonging to all the peoples and must continue to operate in accordance with Annex 8 to the Dayton Peace Agreement.