Secessionist authorities in Bosnia's RS entity - working in tandem w/ the Kremlin - have called for a special session of the RS assembly where they will call for the closure of the OHR & apparently reject every post-1998 change to BiH's political system. vijesti.ba/clanak/527976/…
This is another attempt at dismantling BiH's constitutional regime & undermining the rule of law; secession-lite, using the entire RS govt apparatus to accomplish it. And Germany's self-serving stunt w/ Christian Schmidt is leaving local & international authorities flat-footed.
It's bad enough that Schmidt is widely understood to be an absolute bottom-of-the-barrel pick. But Berlin's unilateral push for his appt has shattered what little coordination existed among international actors in BiH. And now, of course Russia has capitalized on that.
Dodik’s regime will specifically target the OHR’s key decisions since ‘98 as “illegal”/“illegitimate” but given that many of these were/are the foundation for major structural changes to BiH’s broader legal-political system, implication is clear: an attack on the Bosnian state.
I’ve also seen a draft of the txt they’re trying to push fwd & there’s factual mistake in the 1st sentence. Dodik et al claim the Republic of BiH “no longer exists” (but don’t say this re: FR Yugoslavia despite also listing it by name) but Article 1.1 of the BiH Constitution...
...says clearly that the post-1995 Bosnian state is a continuation and the legal successor of the polity which declared its independence in 1992 & won international recognition at that time. Again, this is an assault on the BiH state even more so than on the OHR. It is laying...
...a fictional legal-political foundation, with Russian backing, for unraveling the Bosnian state. It must be recognized as such and confronted forcefully. Sanctions, travel bans, financial freezes all need to be on the table if this goes through.

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More from @JasminMuj

10 Mar
I want to make clear a few things re: today’s events in BiH’s RS assembly & their formal adoption of what is clearly a program for secession; why it matters, and what may be done about it by local & international actors. 🧵 klix.ba/clanak/2103101…
As I noted y’day, while this formally appears like a (baseless) critique of the OHR, it’s fundamentally an attack on the Dayton Peace Accords and the Bosnian state. The call for “peaceful separation” makes clear the actual aim: RS secession & the dissolution of BiH.
That isn’t new. Dodik has made his intentions clear for yrs; he is explicit in his secessionism. And as I’ve explained before, he’s only grown more brazen bc no one has stood up to him. EU bears particular responsibility here but no one’s hands are clean. balkaninsight.com/2020/03/02/bos…
Read 10 tweets
5 Jan
The state of the discourse. Image
In the 2018 general elections, HDZ won 9.05% of the vote across BiH. They ended up with 3/10 portfolios in the Council of Ministers, or 30%. The then SNSD coalition won 16.03% of the vote, took 4/10 on CoM or 40%. SDA & DF won 22.82% & together only took 3 portfolios.
Or how about the FBiH, where the HDZ won 14.71% but ended up with 6 of 17 portfolios in the government, or 35%. The SDA which won 25.48% of the vote received only 5 portfolios - 29% - & now technically only has 4 bc Campara left the party.
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov 20
I want to offer a theory for why 73 million Americans voted for Trump despite his evident deficiencies as a president and, truly, as a human being. To my mind, it’s a pretty basic manifestation of nationalist myth making, albeit accelerated by modern social media. 🧵
All nationalisms are rooted in myth; artificially constructed narratives about the roots of “our” unity, and apartness from “the others”. That’s why we have flags and anthems: they are memetic forms of identity construction.
Now, most nationalist myths are still partially rooted in material reality or lived practice: territory, language, cultural norms, religion etc. But the trick is in weaving a coherent narrative that includes some and not other peoples and practices in a given region.
Read 12 tweets
31 Oct 20
The way that part of the American media are generically talking about the prospects for “post-elxn violence” evacuates all agency & responsibility from the architects of this climate of fear. It reminds me of the “ancient ethnic hatreds” myth from the Bosnian War.
No other elxn in U.S. history has had the cloud of large-scale civil strife hanging over it. And that’s bc no President or candidate has weaponized racial, sectarian grievance in the way Trump has. Nor has anyone associated himself w/ extremist paramilitaries like Trump has...
...or turned government into a vehicle for naked partisan pursuits. Trump has made Americans fear in the integrity of their democratic process & he has invited & encouraged them to use violence as a response. He has done this on purpose & he is responsible for this chaos.
Read 5 tweets
23 Sep 20
You know, most strongmen at least pretend that they will abide by the results of their (usually fraudulent) democratic elections. Even they know better than to openly say: yes, I’m thinking about clinging to power through the use of force - next question?!
Also how does a comment like that not immediately shut down whatever exchange was previously taking place? How is it not immediate breaking news on every channel? “President hints at use of violence to hang on to power” is kind of an existentially massive deal.
And taking the line that “he’s just trolling” isn’t rational, given the stakes. Maybe the pilot was kidding when he said he intends to fly us into that mountain. Or, maybe, he’s going to fly us into the mtn. The disparity in consequences means you take the mtn scenario seriously.
Read 5 tweets
19 Sep 20
As politics has become more volatile in both the EU & US I’ve observed an interesting cultural difference btw Americans & W. Europeans. On the whole, Americans are much more receptive to outside critique/analysis of their own politics. West Europeans remain remarkably insular...
...even xenophobic in how they respond to “foreigners” commenting on their politics. Americans & U.S. media (& the Brits, to some extent) are far more willing to platform outsiders than most in W. Europe. At the extreme, this also manifests in how W. Europeans talk about...
...foreign policy. In my exp, policy discussions on the Balkans, my area of expertise, are considerably more diverse in the U.S. than in the EU. In the U.S. local experts/analysts are given far greater space. In the EU, I’ve been to Balkans conferences where 3/4ths are of...
Read 4 tweets

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