http://www.ifimes.

org/en/8305-serbia-and-republika-srpska-with-joined-forces-against-bosnia-and-
herzegovina

Serbia and Republika Srpska with joined

forces against Bosnia and Herzegovina
The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, regularly analyses events in the Middle East and the Balkans. IFIMES has prepared
an analysis of the current events related to the arrest of the former member of the Presidency
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-1996) Ejup Ganić in London and the impact of the arrest on
the situation in the West Balkan region. The most relevant and interesting sections from the
comprehensive analysis entitled “SERBIA AND REPUBLIKA

TADIĆ’S AND DODIK’S PLOT AGAINST BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Is the arresting of the former member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-
1996) Ejup Ganić on the Independence day of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1 March 2010 in
London, a new violation of international law and jurisdiction of ICTY (International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) by the Republic of Serbia? What is the strategy of Serbia
when it comes to international legal institutions and which way is it going to pick to halt
Bosnia and Herzegovina in proving the responsibility of Serbia for the crimes committed in
BiH?

The IFIMES International Institute, has carried out extensive research and concluded that the
incriminating dossier against Ejup Ganić has been composed in military-inquiry circles and in
the General Staff of the Army of Yugoslavia in Belgrade and that it has been transferred to
Republika Srpska in 2002 with the demand that Republika Srpska transmits the dossier
against Ganić and other suspects for the alleged crime in Dobrovoljačka Street in Sarajevo on
3 May 1992 to the ICTY for evaluation, according to the rules of the Rome Agreement.

Criminal charges against Ganić and others were submitted on 17 May 1993 to the war
prosecutor at the General Staff by Danko Simić, who was also the secretary of the team for
collecting data about war crimes at the General Staff of the Army of Yugoslavia, while the
investigation was initiated on 7 July 1994 with decision by the investigating magistrate
Zdravko Petrović, also a major of AY (Army of Yugoslavia). After the military investigation
court in Belgrade referred the complete dossier, which contained statements of several
security officers and AY generals, from Milutin Kukanjac to Aleksandar Vasiljević, to the
Military Prosecutor on 31 January 2002, the Serbian Government reached a decision to use
Republika Srpska (RS) and to submit the dossier to ICTY through RS. The dossier was
submitted to ICTY in the Hague in July 2002 by expedited procedure through the Secretariat
for Cooperation of RS. The president of Serbia Boris Tadić and the Prime Minister of RS
Milorad Dodik actively engaged themselves in the events of the Ganić case.

ICTY CLOSED THE GANIĆ AND OTHERS CASE

ICTY informed the Serbian officer for the connections with ICTY, Trivun Jovičić on 17 June
2003 through the letter signed by Carla Del Ponte that it does not possess enough evidence
according to international standards for Ejup Ganić to be held responsible for the serious
violation of international humanitarian law, concluding that Dobrovoljačka case is in fact an
insinuation of Belgrade, and if there is an eventual responsibility, then it is the responsibility
of general Kukanjac for the then ongoing arrest of the president of the Presidency of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Alija Izetbegović. The opinion of ICTY has been
mediated in RS and according to the available information through RS also to Belgrade. The
tender of international warrants by Serbia against Ganić and others is a question of abuse of
the European Extradition Convention, signed by BiH, Serbia and the United Kingdom, and
the bilateral agreement between Serbia and the United Kingdom, signed in 1901. The victim
of the Belgrade regime law abuse is Ilija Jurišić, a citizen of BiH, who was arrested and
sentenced during the mounted process to 12 years of prison for the Tuzlanska kolona case
from May 1992.

A question that arises is also the one about the responsibility of the United Kingdom, namely
why it has not respected the view and opinion of Interpol, which suspended the so-called
Serbian red warrants in the beginning of July 2009 and audited the bilateral request of Serbia
for the arrest of Ganić and others, but also the opinion of ICTY, bearing in mind the
sensitivity of the whole case.

The United Kingdom will be the country that will analyze secret investigations and dossiers
of the former AY this week, the army that took part in the most hideous crimes since WWII
and its dossiers, that were submitted to ICTY for evaluation, by fraud of the RS.

The IFIMES International Institute considers that the competent authorities of the United
Kingdom should respect the opinion of ICTY and Interpol and that they should immediately
suspend the Serbian warrants of the Dobrovoljačka case and free Ejup Ganić.

In the background of all the events, Serbia is trying very hard to achieve that Ganić be
transferred to Serbia and even that the British court be declared competent, just like in the
Augusto Pinochet case, when he respected the request of Spain.

THE MYSTERIOUS ROLE OF GEOFFREY NICE

When it comes to lobbying, the question of Sir Geoffrey Nice’s (the former ICTY prosecutor
and a British citizen) role arises, compared to many processes in the region. His activity is
linked directly with secret services and with a counselling role in Serbia and his connection to
the international non-governmental sector in Serbia. Sir Nice also tried the engagement in the
Court and Prosecution of BiH, but failed to do so. It would be significant to check what this
lawyer-counsellor knows about the Ganić case, bearing in mind that he carried out the case
against Slobodan Milošević, when Milošević finally died because of the extended length of
the trial in his prison cell.

The international counsellors of Serbia are intensively striving for the conflict with Croatia
before the ICJ in the Hague to finish with an agreement and to avoid court proceedings, but in
the meantime advise that Serbia submits a revision to the ICJ in the conflict between Serbia
and BiH and that Serbia is trying to overthrow its judicial accountability from the 2007 court
decision for not having prevented and nor punished genocide. In addition, the international
counsellors, which became the national strategy of Serbia, advised it not to hand over Ratko
Mladić, because they have estimated that there is a high possibility that after handing over
Mladić Serbia would be endangered, since after court decisions against Karadžić-Mladić and
new evidence BiH would have realistic chances for a revision of the suit against Serbia before
the ICJ for which it has another seven years time to do.

Because of this, ICTY has become the priority of Serbian politics and Boris Tadić, the
president of Serbia, supported Milorad Dodik in the upcoming referendum, because one of the
referendum questions is whether the citizens of RS support the cooperation with ICTY. The
goal is to obstruct and stop the ICTY in its operation and to provoke attacks against ICTY
through intelligence and diplomatic operations, and even to finally close the ICTY with the
help of Russia and China. The actual government of Serbia continuously carries out surveys
in which over 70% of Serbian citizens declare against the handing over of Ratko Mladić.
They also carried out researches and surveys with the help of the non-governmental sector,
which allegedly conclude that Croatians, Bosniaks and Albanians feel the same way as
Serbians about the ICTY.

The official version of the Serbian politics, which they offered to the head Hague prosecutor
Serge Bramerc, is that the accused general Ratko Mladić is in Russia and that Russia
deliberately wants to slow down the integration of Serbia into the EU, whereas in fact there is
the only and the strongest agreement between Serbia and Russia that Serbia should maintain
the on hold status for as long as possible, because it is a very well known fact that this status
is the most “profitable” one for any country.

What is the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina? BiH is diplomatically divided and
dominated by the Serbian Security and Information Agency, the successor of the former
Service of National Security, which was led by the Hague-accused Jovica Stanišić. The state
authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina are blocked by the state politics of Serbia through the
Prime Minister of RS Milorad Dodik and through the presiding Council of Ministers of BiH
Nikola Špirić. It is unthinkable that a country such as Bosnia and Herezgovina does not
possess a fund that would help pay the deposit to the former Head of State. BiH is a helpless
country at this moment and unless the Serbian Pogrom Offensive against international
institutions such as ICJ, ICTY, Interpol and the current against the United Kingdom is halted,
there is a high possibility that over ten thousand patriotically oriented Bosnians and
Herzegovinians will become hostages of the Serbian politics, because there are over ten
thousand Bosnians and Herzegovinians on the list of the Serbian regime.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – THE ETERNAL HOSTAGE TO THE SERBIAN

REGIME?

If Bosnia and Herzegovina gambles the final before the ICTY and does not assure the
realization of suitable national strategy in BiH, there exists a realistic possibility that it
remains the eternal hostage to the Serbian regime and to different individuals who symbolize
the Belgrade regime, such as Dobrica Ćosić, Kosta Čavoški, Matija Bećković, etc., but also
because of its own policies that still do not provide any solution to this situation. In the next
period and after the Ganić case solution, the IFIMES International Institute will publish the
analysis about the responsibility of certain policies, individuals and groups that are connected
to this case.