Home

Obavjesti

Information

Prijepiska

Correspondence

Slikovni Prilozi

Photo Gallery

Novosti

News

Bosnian Days on the Capitol Hill

Donatorska Lista

Donation List

Donacije

Donations

Članarina

Membership

Kontakti

Contacts

Linkovi

Links

American Bosnian Association

P.O. Box 48

Mt. Prospect, IL 60056

E-mail:

abausa@gmail.com

Documents from Second Bosnian Days on the Capitol Hill

Dokumenti sa Drugih Bosanskih Dana na Capitol Hillu

TEN LEGAL REASONS FOR THE NEW TRIAL FOR

FIKRET ABDIC, THE WINNER OF THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Mr. Abdic was the winner of the first free and democratic presidential election in B&H, defeating his opponents, including eventual President Alija Izetbegovic by a margin of 200,000 votes but was prevented from taking over official responsibilities. The ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and its leader, the radical Islamist Alija Izetbegovic, engineered Izetbegovic’s ascension to the Bosnian Presidency.

During the tragic Bosnian war, Fikret Abdic used his influence and political acumen to try to prevent the war and preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multiethnic country.

Fikret Abdic, as a secular, western oriented Muslim, was subsequently indicted and prosecuted in 2001-2005 trial in Croatia on the basis of unsubstantiated “war crimes”. This indictment was falsified under the political eye and influence of then B&H President Alija Izetbegovic and the influence of his radical Islamic Party of Democratic Action (SDA). The indictment’s goal was the eventual removal of Fikret Abdic from the political, economic and public life of B&H.

During the Court proceeding, Abdic’s legal rights to defense were not satisfied and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on false charges.

The most significant violations of the legal rights to defense were:

1. The jury was changed during the trial to secure the conviction.

2. Mr. Abdic’s legal right to call 71 witnesses to testify in front of the court was denied without any reason.

3. Witnesses were prepared by the prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to testify in accordance with the needs of the prosecution.

4. Many of the witnesses were interrogated by AID (Agency for Information and Documentation – Security service of Alija Izetbegovic’s SDA party) and not by the judges at the court. According to the law, both in Bosnia and in Croatia, this procedure is unconstitutional and no conviction should be based on the statements obtained in this manner.

5. The court denied hearing of the witnesses who stated in their written and notarized affidavits that they falsely testified against Mr. Abdic under mental pressure and physical torture during the interrogation conducted by the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

6. The right to participate in the court’s investigation conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina was not granted to Mr. Abdic and his attorneys, and Mr. Abdic’s basic right to defense was never satisfied.

7. The written statements that the conviction was based upon were prepared by AID (Secret service of the ruling SAD party), the very same secret service that organized Abdic’s assassination in the Republic of Croatia in 1996.

8. The trial against Fikret Abdic in Croatia was conducted on the basis of investigation and indictment from Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the law of the Republic of Croatian this act is illegal.

9. Fikret Abdic was not allowed proper time to prepare his defense before the beginning of the trial.

10. Mr. Abdic’s Constitutional Petition that was filed in April of 2005 was not processed in the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia in Zagreb until this day. The file is still at the District Court in Karlovac and was never forwarded to the Constitutional Court of Republic of Croatia in Zagreb, Croatian capitol, even though the Petition was filed 17 months ago.

In the report of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is stated:

“In Una Sana Canton political situation deteriorated with the beginning of the trial of Mr. Abdic in Karlovac, Republic of Croatia. As our monitor reported to the Committee, Zlatan Sakanovic was physically assaulted and attacked in Bihac, B&H, only because his brother Zuhdija changed his testimony in Mr. Abdic’s favor. The commission for the conviction of Mr. Abdic was formed by the Association of the POW of BiH in whose headquarters the drillings of the witnesses takes place, and the physical and mental pressuring of the witnesses is done by the members and associates of AID, SDA’s secret service.”

The American Bosnian Association, its membership and more then 7,600 signers of the Abdic Petition request that the Congress of the United States of America and President George W. Bush utilizes its influence and resources to convince the Republic of Croatia to retry Fikret Abdic in a new and unbiased proceeding held under internationally observed trial that will abide all applicable international laws and those of the Republic of Croatia.

Bozidar Darko Sicel, President

American Bosnian Association

Chicago, September 8, 2006.

ABA CONCERNS FOR THE FUTURE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE RECENT CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES DEFEAT

American Bosnian Association is political-humanitarian and policy guided organization that represents interests of all people descending from Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) living in the United States of America, regardless of their ethnicity, religious believes and political orientation. As non-partisan organization, American Bosnian Association (ABA) envisions Bosnia and Herzegovina as a modern state that will follow the path of the civilized, peaceful and democratic modern world - a state that will fight for justice and equality for all its citizens. ABA devotes its efforts towards healing the wounds and easing off hatred and painful divisions caused by the most recent wars in B&H. Furthermore, ABA emphasizes the importance of creating a safe and stable political environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where all human rights and freedoms will be guaranteed to all people, where people will be enabled through their own work and political participation to shape their own destiny and where the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina will have a functional say in their future and well-being. By advocating freedom and human rights and by promoting democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we strongly believe, we will help secure for our new homeland, United States of America, a permanent friend and ally in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people. Achieving this goal is of utmost importance and more so in the era of the global war on terrorism.

To achieve the general goals laid out in the opening part of this White Paper we propose the following principals:

Bosnia and Herzegovina has to be a territorially sovereign, free, indivisible and unified country of three equal, sovereign and constitutive nations, those of Bosniaks – Muslims, Serbs and Croats. It has to be established as a democratic country with operational and fully functional and effective executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based on the tested democratic principals of separation of state and religion.
Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to be organized without the existence of the territorial political entities based on nationality of its citizens. The Country needs to be organized as a country of regions with proper level of autonomy and as two house parliamentary republic.
For each of three ethnic groups that have been living in Bosnia and Herzegovina for centuries, equal constitutional rights need to be guaranteed, as well as the right to participate in government and political processes of the entire country. For each of the three nations, Bosniaks – Muslims, Croats and Serbs, the constitutionality and sovereignty on the entire territory of B&H must be guaranteed by the Constitution as well. The vital national rights for all three ethnicities must be fully protected by the proper implementation of the constitutional rights to consensus and to veto. With the proper implementation of these rights by the Constitution, the threat of the enforcement of the political will of one ethnic group on the others will be avoided and the equality of all citizens and all ethnic groups will be achieved despite their various differences.
Equal human rights must be guaranteed to all citizens of B&H according to the highest standards recognized by free and democratic society of the prosperous countries of the modern world.
Economic life has to be based on the principals of free market economy with full protection of private ownership including the protection of shareholders rights against the state monopole as a sort of relict of the former communist regime and the tool in hands of the government to enforce its political agenda against the will of the people. The state sponsored irregularities and even the crimes in the process of privatization have to be addressed and entire process of privatizations has to be revised in the matter of significant number of economic subjects.

The American Bosnian Association has been closely monitoring the political development in Bosnia and Herzegovina and would like to use this opportunity to express its deep concerns about the future of B&H as a unified, operational and prosperous country. Recent constitutional changes of the Dayton Peace Accord Constitution did not meet the minimum of our expectations. The recent narrow defeat of constitutional reform package in the Bosnian Legislature, a package that was initiated by US Government, underlines the difficult future for Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is particularly true where influential nationalist parties continue to wholly (or partially) base their ideologies on political premises that date back to those prevalent during tragic war at the end of last century – premises that support current and possible future geo-political divisions within the nation-state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Widely accepted opinion that “Dayton Peace Accord stopped the war but did not win the peace” that was clearly expressed at the event held in Washington D.C. in last November, marking tenth anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accord, has little or no chance to change on the basis of the recent, mostly cosmetics, constitutional reforms in B&H. The reasons for our concerns are:

Post-war recovery efforts in B&H have not shown significant positive results nor have created much optimism for a better life and future for the citizens of B&H and democratic transition in B&H has been very slow. Ethnic and religious division and intolerance have continuously sabotaged and marked this important transition.
Recent social, economic, educational and demographic dynamics have continued to contribute to the insecure status of B&H as a functional and independent nation-state in an area of South Central Europe, which remains potentially quite volatile today.
Ethnic and religious divisions are still the main motivating factors in the B&H political system. Nationalist parties with firm ties, in some cases, with clerics, utilize these divisive emotions in securing political support among their own ethnic groups. There is continued lack of the will and effective national effort towards the promotion of reconciliation and tolerance among the ethnic groups in B&H.
Protection of the human rights is well under acceptable level measured by standards of the prosperous modern and democratic world.
State sponsored irregularities and crimes in the process of privatization after the fall of communism were use as the means to keep a political power, to fight political opponents and slowing down political process of implementation of the real democracy.
More than 200,000 displaced persons are still seeking durable solution to return to their homes and additional 100,000 Bosnian refugees living outside B&H continue to express an interest in return. Tens of thousands among them are Bosnian Muslims from Western Bosnia living in USA and Canada that were victims of the war crimes committed by the Fifth Corp of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina under command of general Atif Dudakovic.

Bozidar Darko Sicel, President

American Bosnian Association

Chicago, September 9, 2006.

AMERICAN BOSNIAN ASSOCIATION AGAINST FRAUDULENT PRIVATIZATION

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the nineties, the process of privatization became the focal point in transforming the socialist system into the capitalist system. Most of the companies in Eastern Europe were state or social enterprises, and their transformation process to private ownership companies encountered various problems due to corruptive governments, faulty models of privatization and unprepared legal systems.

As in Eastern Europe, there were many socially owned companies in former Yugoslavia. One would assume that social or state ownership is basically the same, but that was not the case in former Yugoslavia, which Bosnia & Herzegovina were a part as one of six republics. According to the Yugoslavian property law, “social ownership or property” belongs to the society, and the society consists of workers, the local government and the state government. The society was not recognized in this law as a legal entity; therefore, it could not be a titleholder of the property. The society entrusts a part of its property to use, to profit and to dispose to workers, the state government and the local government. Essentially, whoever was entrusted from the society to use (ius utendi), to enjoy fruits (ius fruendi) and to dispose (ius abutendi) this social property was the titleholder or the owner of the property.

In former Yugoslavia, the Prime Minister Markovic started the process of privatization in 1990. Markovic came to the power during the Socialist Self-management Era. The objective of this system was to include workers in company management and decision-making process, but also the self-management system worked on transforming these companies from socialist enterprises into market economy driven enterprises. Markovic understood very well the concept of social property. Markovic intended to transform social owned companies into joint corporations where workers and the state had their stake in ownership. Workers claimed their ownership by purchasing internal shares that represented private ownership structure of a company. The state and workers participated in a supervisory board according to their stake in the capital structure of a company. This method seemed the best way to shift from the self-management socialist system of Yugoslavia into the capitalist system.

However, Bosnia and Herzegovina decided, after the war in 1995, to use a different method of privatization called “Coupon Privatization” or the Czech model of privatization. Markovic Law privatized enterprises were nationalized by a stroke of a pen, and declared as state owned enterprises. The state owned enterprises were then sold on the market via auctions, tenders etc. Assets of these companies were sold for coupons or shares, and cash; 67 % for coupons for domestic investors and 33 % for cash for foreign investors. The World Bank in its report in May 2005 states that the privatization process failed to bring fresh capital through new owners (outsiders) and to create the incentives for effective corporate governance in the mass-privatized firms. Thus, the state kept unsold shares, and the World Bank claims that the state became the largest ownership group in B&H, retaining the right to appoint the majority of the members of the board of directors of the newly privatized firms. Many pundits of economics believe now that coupon privatization was a disaster. One of the most well known cases of the state’s corruptive and damaging power is the case of Agrokomerc.

Agrokomerc was registered in October 31, 1991 as a joint stock corporation with the ownership structure consisting of 53 % of private ownership representing internal workers shares and 47 % of state ownership. Agrokomerc’s privatization program was based on Markovic Law. The troops of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina seized the premises of Agrokomerc on August 21^st 1994. Under the Fifth Corps’ own command, all commodity stockpiles, equipment and other effects of Agrokomerc were systematically plundered at an unprecedented scale. The state allowed this outrageous theft of private ownership, and it assumed the full control of the company. Shareholders were prohibited from participating in corporate governance and decision making of Agrokomerc.

There were 7327 registered shareholders of Agrokomerc before the B&H Army takeover. Shareholders established an association in February 19, 1999 called Association for the Protection of Unemployed Shareholders of Agrokomerc to fight for their rights and ownership of their company. In order to ascertain its claim of ownership, the state hired an auditing and business consulting company called Revsar based in Sarajevo. Revsar found in their analysis that the registered internal share capital was not properly and effectively formed; therefore, Revsar completely canceled the ownership structure in favor of state capital. Shareholders were never allowed to participate in these audits, and they never had an access to corporate books and documentation or to auditors’ analysis or reports. Auditors basically used the law that fitted their theory and the state’s orders. Shareholders did not accept this act of public/state robbery, and they tried by appealing to various local and federal courts. Courts played their own game dictated by the state, and the case bounced back and forth from local courts to the federal court. Finally, the shareholders decided to appeal to the highest court in Bosnia, Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia & Herzegovina, the body appointed by the European Union. The Chamber found that the state violated 2 articles of Convention. The first is Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention - the state breached shareholders’ rights to participate in management of a company and the second article, is Article 6 of the Convention - state breached shareholders’ rights to participate in an audit and inspect corporate documentation.

Human Rights Chamber ceased to exist on December 2003, and Human Rights Commission within the Constitutional Court of B&H that is staffed by local judges replaced the Chamber. The Federation of B&H never fulfilled their obligations. Shareholders were never allowed to participate in any respect in the supervisory board or in any other governance body of the company. The state hired Deloitte & Touche from Prague to perform a forensic audit of the ownership structure in 2003. The Audit was completed in December 2003; Deloitte & Tuche determined that about 9.67 % of the capital of Agrokomerc was privately owned, the rest being state-owned capital. Shareholders were not allowed to participate in this audit even though they appealed numerous times to Deloitte & Touche and the state. Again a clear violation of Article 6.

The process of privatization is a very complicated process, but it is not very complicated in the case of privatized companies. Agrokomerc and other prominent companies such as Aluminijum Mostar and Fabrika Duhana Sarajevo and many more, were hurt by “new privatization.” It is obvious that these companies were privatized by the legitimate method - Makovic Law, and that the state should recognize paid shares of workers and retirees. However, the state mixed up two concepts privatization and nationalization. Nationalization of companies is just an example of old communist economics where the state is allowed to do anything, even confiscations of private ownership, violating all domestic and international laws of private ownership. State officials committed many acts of corruption during this privatization process, and they have sold valuable equipment and properties for free or little money to their party members, friends or influential business people. A vice president of Bosnian Labor Syndicate claims that crimes in the process of privatizations have a support in all political institutions of B&H. Workers lost their jobs and hard earned shares, they lost a say in their companies’ future. The state confiscated workers’ property in order to get needed funds to increase political and economic power and satisfy some international demands. New privatization is simply an attempt to make something lawful what is unlawful. The state used shady accounting methods and law interpretations to cover up these fraudulent transformations as in the case of Agrokomerc. The state has held all financial information and audit reports from the public and this lack of disclosure has created an environment of mistrust and justified suspicion. Bosnian Economy is in a very fragile transitional process and it needs a clear guidance from the West and not mixed messages and approval of crony and corruptive capitalism. The young capitalist system has been robbed by the Bosnian State and basic private ownership rights have been taken from shareholders. This act of crime is unacceptable and it needs a very swift and decisive action from the West and USA particularly.

The National Board of Directors of the American Bosnian Association

WHITE PAPER REQUESTING CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

ISSUE I

To achieve the general goals laid out in the opening part of this White Paper we propose the following principals:

Bosnia and Herzegovina has to be a territorially sovereign, free, indivisible and unified country of three equal, sovereign and constitutive nations, those of Bosniaks – Muslims, Serbs and Croats. It has to be established as a democratic country with operational and fully functional and effective executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based on the tested democratic principals of separation of state and religion.
Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to be organized without the existence of the territorial political entities based on nationality of its citizens. The Country needs to be organized as a country of regions with proper level of autonomy and as two house parliamentary republic.
For each of three ethnic groups that have been living in Bosnia and Herzegovina for centuries, equal constitutional rights need to be guaranteed, as well as the right to participate in government and political processes of the entire country. For each of the three nations, Bosniaks – Muslims, Croats and Serbs, the constitutionality and sovereignty on the entire territory of B&H must be guaranteed by the Constitution as well. The vital national rights for all three ethnicities must be fully protected by the proper implementation of the constitutional rights to consensus and to veto. With the proper implementation of these rights by the Constitution, the threat of the enforcement of the political will of one ethnic group on the others will be avoided and the equality of all citizens and all ethnic groups will be achieved despite their various differences.
Equal human rights must be guaranteed to all citizens of B&H according to the highest standards recognized by free and democratic society of the prosperous countries of the modern world.
Economic life has to be based on the principals of free market economy with full protection of private ownership including the protection of shareholders rights against the state monopole as a sort of relict of the former communist regime and the tool in hands of the government to enforce its political agenda against the will of the people. The state sponsored irregularities and even the crimes in the process of privatization have to be addressed and entire process of privatizations has to be revised in the matter of significant number of economic subjects.

Post-war recovery efforts in B&H have not shown significant positive results nor have created much optimism for a better life and future for the citizens of B&H and democratic transition in B&H has been very slow. Ethnic and religious division and intolerance have continuously sabotaged and marked this important transition.
Recent social, economic, educational and demographic dynamics have continued to contribute to the insecure status of B&H as a functional and independent nation-state in an area of South Central Europe, which remains potentially quite volatile today.
Ethnic and religious divisions are still the main motivating factors in the B&H political system. Nationalist parties with firm ties, in some cases, with clerics, utilize these divisive emotions in securing political support among their own ethnic groups. There is continued lack of the will and effective national effort towards the promotion of reconciliation and tolerance among the ethnic groups in B&H.
Protection of the human rights is well under acceptable level measured by standards of the prosperous modern and democratic world.

ISSUE II

Mr. Fikret Abdic, Bosnian patriot, citizen of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, today known as Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), was an economic innovator and advocate of free market principals and democracy in his former homeland, instituting sweeping changes in the agricultural, industrial and trade sectors of the region and entire country. His successes became known both statewide and worldwide and it was this reputation as both businessman and humanist that propelled him into the public sphere and eventually into political life of his country.

The remnants of communist regime in Belgrade conspired to manufacture fraudulent charges of “contra-revolutionary action” against him, charges that led to his eventual arrest and imprisonment in the year of 1987. He spent two years in jail, having never been found guilty. As a head of Agrokomerc, the first publicly traded company in the former communist Yugoslavia, Mr. Fikret Abdic was able to relay the support of his countryman due to its economic successes and was nominated as a candidate in the first free and democratic presidential election in Bosnia and Herzegovina held in 1990.

During the tragic Bosnian war, Fikret Abdic used his influence and political acumen to try to prevent the war and preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multiethnic country with all three of its constitutive nations, Muslims, Serbs and Croats. He resolutely protested the creation of an Islamic state in the territory of B&H as was attempted by Alija Izetbegovic and his Party of Democratic Action (SDA). Mr. Abdic openly opposed the import of Islamic fundamentalism and associated terrorist groups to B&H. In accordance with this goal, he warned about the potential consequences of these policies permissive of terrorism in B&H and he dutifully warned international factors involved in diplomatic and military events during the war in B&H, including Mr. Peter Galbraith, then U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, about the danger that the creation of the terrorist centers in B&H would eventually pose to the word, centers that have been connected to terrorist attacks in recent years.

The Islamic religious authorities in Western Bosnian town of Bihac issued a Fatwa against Fikret Abdic and his followers in 1993 in which it was stated that Mr. Abdic and his followers were to be held as enemies of the state and Islam and as such denied all their political, human and religious rights.

Later on, Mr. Abdic was targeted for assassination while residing in the Republic of Croatia during 1995. Official elements of Bosnian government at that time and the high-ranking members of the ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA) led by Alija Izetbegovic prepared the plan for Abdic’s assassination. Perpetrators are being trailed in B&H just these days and some of them were charged and convicted during the legal proceedings in Republic of Croatia.

Fikret Abdic, as a secular, western oriented Muslim, was subsequently indicted and prosecuted in 2001-2005 trial on the basis of unsubstantiated “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed against the Muslim population of Western Bosnia. This indictment was falsified under the political eye and influence of then B&H President Alija Izetbegovic and the influence of his radical Islamic Party of Democratic Action (SDA). The indictment’s goal was the eventual removal of Fikret Abdic from the political, economic and public life of B&H. All these events can be described as an unadulterated political persecution conducted in the Republic of Croatia on the basis of an unjustified and illegal indictment announced from B&H. The ICTY in Hague did not want to prosecute Abdic on the bases of the same indictment.

During the Court proceeding, Abdic’s legal rights to defense were not satisfied and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on false charges. Among the numerous other irregularities, the Court in Croatia denied Abdic’s claim to call on stand 485 witnesses, jury was changed during the proceedings to secure the conviction, witnesses were prepared by prosecutors to witness in accordance with needs of the prosecution and most significantly, court denied to hear witnesses who claimed in their written and notarized affidavits that they gave their previous statements in the investigation under the mental and physical torture by B&H investigators.

Fikret Abdic never committed war crimes – or any crimes against humanity and currently he is a political prisoner in the Republic of Croatia.

Fikret Abdic is a proponent of democracy, human rights and the free exchange of goods and ideas. He is proven opponent of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism and a great friend of the United States of America and all the people of good will.

The American Bosnian Association, its membership and more then 7,600 signers of the Abdic Petition request that the Congress of United States of America utilizes its influence and resources to convince the Republic of Croatia to retry Fikret Abdic in a new and unbiased proceeding held under internationally observed trial that will abide all applicable international laws and those of the Republic of Croatia.

Bozidar Darko Sicel, ABA President

Chicago, June 2006.