That which the BiH political leaders had failed (or avoided) to do over the past 12 years ended in a matter of months: SDA and HDZ reached an agreement on elections in the city of Mostar. The political analyst Adnan Huskić believes that this agreement is the result of, above all, the pressure by the international community. Here he provides his views regarding statements by Dragan Čović, alternatives in Mostar, abuse of the voting procedures, and also answers the question whether the election would be decided by the voters or the counters.

After the Croatian election, significant novelties have appeared on both sides of the spectrum, including emergence of sizeable green force in parliament.

They talk about that time, about the summer of 1995, when they were children, when they had to pack their toys hastily in order to get themselves into safety from the Serbian troops. The attacks, the fears – the world seemed to stand still for them then. They talk about how it felt at that time when the then so-called UN safe area no longer provided any protection. How it felt when the hopes to get protection from the internationals from the hatred of the advancing Serbs, dissolved into thin air. At that time, when the international community folded in face of the violence overrunning the whole of Bosnia since 1992 and ultimately culminating in Srebrenica. At some point, as reported by one of the survivors, she understood that she did not have a father anymore.  

On Sunday morning, 17 May, at 4.30 a.m. the city begins with the demolition of the Albanian National Theatre in Tirana. Police officers storm the building that had been occupied by activists since July last year. Using teargas, they arrest twenty persons. Shortly afterwards, an excavator shovel hits the facade of the building. Theatre professionals and civil society actors had fought for two years for the preservation of the building, which lies in ruins now. The events testify to an authoritarian governance practice – against which protest is emerging.

  All the media announced: “An agreement about Mostar has been signed”, “Elections will be held in Mostar” – the news has been popping up everywhere. One would think this historic agreement would “bring back co-existence and democracy”, as the famous Bosnian movie song goes. But is this really the case?

Recent events from EU border, namely Greek – Turkish border show significant limits in protecting EU external border five years after emerging of migration crisis of 2015 and 2016. As discussed by many experts, such as Sergio Carrera,[1] divergence between rule of law set by EU and Council of Europe enforced by EU institutions and agencies, and security measures introduced and implemented by EU member states.   [1] https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/eu-border-management-strategy-frontex-and-challenges-irregular-immigration-canary/

The Democratic Front (DF) recently tabled amendments to the countries Election Law in parliamentary procedure. Of course, it didn't take long for the HDZ and SNSD headquarters to make it known that they didn't want to talk about it. At the same time, however, the first people of these two parties are threatening to block the state unless the Election Law changes. If, however, they do not want to discuss material put out by DF, the only thing that can be concluded is that the amendments to the Election Law must follow the basic principles under which HDZ operates. So, it’s either the Election Law according to the solutions offered by the HDZ or the combined Čović-Dodik blockade of the state.

open letter from the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals from Bosnia and Herzegovina conveying an appeal to use your authority and point out to the relevant institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina the necessity of their urgent actions in order to preserve the health of the citizens during the episodes of deadly air pollution levels.

Every day I go to the mountains with my colleague Dean Blažević and some Bosnian volunteers to look for people. Sometimes 20 miles deep in the woods we find women, children, teens and adult men. Frozen, hungry, with wet clothes and some sick or beaten by Croatian border police.

The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Peter Handke has far-reaching consequences: His denial of the greatest atrocities which were committed after World War Two on European soil, is likely to disrupt the foundation of our democracies. Values and standards of a civilisational coexistence have been weakened. Thus, anything seems possible again: Human dignity is once more violable.