​NN: How do you comment the arrests in Orasje and the reaction of Croatia to it?  

CVIJANOVIC: Generally speaking, all persons who committed war crimes must be brought to justice regardless of their ethnicity. In this case there are many who can testify of what had happened and it is appropriate at least, to submit those who are facing allegations for torture, murder and maltreatment of innocent people,to criminal proceeding. It is absurd that the governments convene only to say that people should not be arrested. I heard a statement in the media that the Croatian Government allegedly notified NATO and the EU about these arrests. In my view, this is really absurd. On what grounds? As the EU member state, Croatia should be promoting rule of law and should be loud in supporting the view that all those charged with war crimes should be brought to justice. I would expect that from a mature European state. 

NN: Could we expect that Croatia would make some kind of international pressure being an EU member and BiH only in the pre-accession phase? 

CVIJANOVIC: Imagine what it would look like to apply international pressure not to investigate and not to find out the truth, no matter what the truth might be. To me, this is unthinkable. But we had the opportunity to see the relation of some states toward judicial bodies of international nature. Then we could also see selective processing of war crime cases targeting mostly Serbs whereas other defendants had been released in spite of hard evidence and welcomed as heroes.  

NN: How shall the issue of the bridge over the Sava river in Gradiska be resolved?

CVIJANOVIC: If some other bridges or border crossings are of strategic importance, the mere figure on the amount of goods and the number of passengers registered at Gradiska crossing, says enough how strategically important it is for us. I recall hearing two former Croatian Prime Ministers saying that the bridge in Gradiska was important for them too but arguing they had no funds to build it and that once they become the EU member state in 2013, the issue would be on the agenda of the EU. As you can see, years have passed since. It has been decided that the priority was the bridge in Svilaj for which EUR 22 million have been allocated and the bridge in Gradiska, even though it is known that its value is EUR 34 million, the EU decided to be "generous" and gave EUR 6.5 or 6.8 million. This is totally unacceptable. I am very dissatisfied with BiH representatives from the RS who had been two years in power and had excellent opportunity to convey the importance of this project but failed to do it. Many projects which have been approved are based on the territory of the Federation of BiH, and many are related to road and railway infrastructure, airports and other areas. Then, not to be said that RS was excluded, the EU gave 6.5 million for Gradiska.

NN: Is construction of highways jeopardized because of excise taxes and blue diesel?

CVIJANOVIC: It is jeopardized since BiH and EBRD signed long ago an obligation to rise excise taxes on fuel. There is a major problem now in Federation BiH regarding the highways since they have not observed that obligation. It needs to be done now or they should not have accepted that obligation at all. In the Letter of Intent all sides assumed the obligation to have both excise taxes. During the talks it has been explicitly stated that the IMF would not tolerate introducing the blue diesel on the BiH level since that would, as they put it, mean distortion of the budget and could not be introduced. I asked several times if they were going to change their position since representatives of BiH level kept saying they were going to introduce blue diesel. They told me each time they would not change their position in the presence of those same people who stated yesterday they were introducing the blue diesel. Now, I can only conclude that they want to block all arrangements with the IMF and the World Bank insisting on something that we had been warned would not be tolerated.  

NN: Can the issue of the blue diesel be resolved at entity level?

CVIJANOVIC:  As for the RS we have already solved it. Several years back, there was a big story about blue diesel at the Steering Board of the Indirect Taxation Administration. I claim that the agreement was not reached at that time due to the problems in Federation BiH and the 'fight' between Herzegovina and some areas in the north. In 2013 we introduced blue diesel for our farmers so we already have it in the Republic of Srpska! For that reason I see this is not serious and the deadlines are passing by. We are still negotiating with IMF and the breakdown would be made by the end of November to see what had been done. If the proposal on the blue diesel reaches the Parliament, I am sure the IMF would not get over it.

NN: Through the Reform Agenda, there is the talk about the public administration reform. What it means, would there be any cuts of salaries or staff...

CVIJANOVIC: The public sector reform is not just about public administration. Public administration and the number of people working in it is a minor part of it. The Reform Agedna and the Letter of Intent defined the measures that need to be implemented. It is not aboust dismissing tens or hundreds of people. We want to rationalize the whole system of the public sector and I primarily mean certain cuts in public enterprises. This is necessary to harmonize salaries in public enterprises with those in public administration. We have frozen the salaries envelope and limited new employment. The number of the employees in public administration and consequently the costs would be reduced as people would be retired. Public administration must become  better, more efficient and more flexible. The foucus is not on the number of people but how to make public administration a better partner of the economy and of citizens.

NN: What about Railways? It is mentioned that passenger traffic would be abolished...

CVIJANOVIC: Both the Agenda and the Letter of Intent contain documents about restructuring of the Railways. The World Bank experts have been engaged to propose models for restructuring and by mid November the World Bank would present its concept and we would then decide. The RS Railways are facing additional problem due to law suits of its workers who claim around BAM 20 million. Much bigger companies would have difficulties in dealing with it. As for the passenger traffic, it is not feasible for a long time nowhere in the region. The analysis showed very low number of passengers. Whether the passenger traffic would be abolished or suspended remain to be seen. Cargo transport is definitely feasible.  

NN: The EU is presenting the BiH Progress Report next week. What can we expect?

CVIJANOVIC: I expect a few nicer things to be told than in previous reports. We have come in a situation that average processes are being labeled as major progress. A more detailed analysis showed that we have not moved much but we did make some progress. It is good that we adopted the coordination mechanism. The danger of non-adoption of the adapted SAA has been lifted and certain requirements have been met that were not realized for years. All the measures agreed in the Reform Agenda are also connected with the European path and would have to be implemented either way. I believe this is good grounds for all levels of governance. I am particularly satisfied with precise division of competences and about the work which the Republic of Srpska has done regarding the Agenda.  

NN: Will the Report deal with the issue of referendum or possible sanctions?

CVIJANOVIC: Sanctions are out of question. The EU is aware that in case of sanctions, they would lose a partner in one part of BiH. The EU is planning and analyzing the situation strategically and know very well that sanctions lead nowhere. There are some other who might prefer sanctions but those are not Europeans. High Representative Inzko would want to impose sanctions since he cares about his big salary of BAM 50,000 per month and always tends to present even the smallest crisis as a major one. Referendum is a legitimate right of every nation including us. We have not provoked or endangered integrity or sovereignty of the state. We have used the instrument which demonstrated that our citizens and our institutions were capable of holding a referendum. This referendum has to have a meaning and purpose and it did send a message that we would not function under pressure and that we have the right to say what we are, who we are and that we would make our own decisions about our ourselves and our destiny.

NN: Is the position of the Republic of Srpska endangered because of the referendum?

CVIJANOVIC: We are used to getting negative assessment. However, at least 80% of those negative assessments came from the very same foreigners who were attempting to hide their disastrous mistakes in the last 20 years. Those were such major mistakes which affected the system so that this state cannot breathe. The negative assessments are always targeting the Republic of Srpska. I am afraid that they are deliberately closing their eyes in front of serious threats this country is facing and those threats have nothing to do with the Republic of Srpska.  

Journalist: Deejan Sainovic