False accusations

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) strongly condemns the false and hypocritical accusations by the Party of Democratic Action, Party of Independent Social Democrats – Milorad Dodik and the Social Democratic Party of BiH, in which non-governmental organizations that attended the meeting with European parliamentarians, held on Monday 15/02/2010, were accused of advocating against the abolition of the visa regim

It is totally unfounded by SDA to assert that  these organizations are openly fighting for the stagnation and collapse of the BiH society, by the orders of political mentors, and as such is not necessary especially confute. TI BiH sees the reaction of SNSD – Milorad Dodik as the continuation of pressures and threats to this organization and reminds that the State Investigation and Protection Agency submitted a report on the criminal offense of abuse of office against the very leaders of this party.

Instead of explaining to the entire public why BiH has not already received a visa-free regime, along with other countries in the region, these parties through manipulation and deception of the public tend to disqualify non-governmental organizations, all in order to protect the narrow party interests.

TI BiH, in any case, advocates for the abolition of visas to citizens of BiH, but the ruling coalition’s perennial resistance to reforms is exclusively to blame for the fact that visas had not been abolished when it happened to the other countries in the region.  Considering that, due to the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it can come to the postponement of putting into force the decision on visa regime, which would thus coincide with the beginning of the election campaign in BiH, there is a real danger that such circumstances could affect the election process. Thus, the view that the abolition of visas that coincides with the beginning of the election campaign could be misused by the ruling coalition, in order to cover the catastrophic results of their work, can  in no way be construed as a struggle for the stagnation and collapse of the BiH society.

The examples of similar behaviour by the BiH authorities before the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, when the legal framework was, but even 3 years since the beginning of its implementation, BiH does not have any operational institutions that were planned by the reform.
Its constructive contribution and dedication to the interests of citizens, TI BiH has proved by many years of actively working with government institutions in fulfilling the conditions from the road map for liberalization of visa regime when it comes to area of anti-corruption reforms.