Fahrudin Radoncic, BiH minister of security, said after voting on his dismissal that today, to his satisfaction, he was dismissed by those who scare the people and those who fear anticorruption forces.
“As minister I pushed the snowball down the hill, that snowball of the fight against corruption is growing ever larger. I am very proud that this happened. Their fear pleases me and I am pleased that no one could compel me to form a crisis camp that doesn’t exist and batter a dissatisfied and impoverished people,” explained Radoncic.
According to him, the right of parliaments is to vote as they wish, and he did not wish to do anything unconstitutional against the just protests of citizens.
Responding to a reporter’s question connected with the issue delegates discussed during today’s session, or “what the uniformed police did on 7 February,” Radoncic said that on 6 February they had already formed a federal camp, and that public order and peace are exclusively the responsibility of the Federation of BiH.
“They didn’t have the need for laws nor did they await any sort of orders. The fact is that this camp was hidden behind the Ministry of Security, meaning that they waited for nothing,” he explained.
SBB remains strong opposition
“This position opens every possibility to me and from this moment I am acting as the leader of the opposition, and I am doing my job. The SDA and SDP have destroyed the Bosniak political factor, impoverished the people, wrecked regional links for Bosniaks, and they have no national program of their own,” said Radoncic.
Asim Sarajlic, president of the SDA caucus in the House of Representatives, said that “here there is no talk of any sort of internal Bosniak conflict.”
“The delegates gave certainly two-thirds support to the initiative to dismiss Minister Radoncic and maybe this shows that a new climate in this election year is coming, and that maybe these protests have yielded results and we will have a more serious political scene in BiH in the future,” explained Sarajlic.
The SDA, explains Sarajlic, with its initiative in general had no intention of entering into the composition of the Council of Ministers.
“We simply want to start together in BiH to think differently and resolve problems that affect average citizens,” said Sarajlic.
Speaking about how the Ministry of Security will function until the elections, Sarajlic says that “this is not the first time, certainly for this ministry, that an electoral term has been reached without a minister at the helm.”
Responding to a reporter’s question of who will advocate for Bosniak interests instead of Radoncic, Sarajlic said that the Council of Ministers is not where vital national interests are protected.
“I think that these events in the past month have induced many to think well about where all this gathering is leading and what can happen. I think that this is the start of a new political environment in BiH,” said Sarajlic.
In order for the decision on Radoncic’s dismissal to be legally enforced, it must be confirmed by the House of Peoples of BiH as well.
Moral reasons
“The House of Peoples has its method of work. This point will be on the agenda, we will see how they consider it, but it is very clear to Radoncic as well that today more than two-thirds of this parliament, the citizens’ parliament, voted for his dismissal,” added Sarajlic.
Mirsad Mesic, SDP delegate to the House of Representatives, said that BiH supported the dismissal for two groups of reasons, moral and factual-formal.
“The moral reasons are that in the entire world there is no case that a security minister stays on after an attack on the presidency building. So we don’t want the security minister to be someone who has no sense of what is happening in BiH,” said Mesic.
He adds that in any case, the BiH Ministry of Security, after the decision by the House of Peoples, will function with a deputy minister at the helm, until a new minister is appointed.
