BOSNIAN STATE OMBUDSMEN FORCED INTO AN ABSURD LEGAL SITUATION

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 17,2007) - The Bosnian Human Rights Ombudsman Safet Pasic has sent a letter to delegates in the Bosnian Parliament and Chairperson of the Bosnian Parliament’s Ad Hoc Commission for the Appointment of State Ombudsmen Azra Hadziahmetovic reminding her of his earlier position on a number of irregularities in the work of this commission.

Pasic reminded that in his earlier reaction he mentioned nine crucial failures in the work of the Commission “which show that the procedure of announcing the competition and appointing candidates was implemented illegally and unfairly”.

He expressed disappointment with Hadziahmetovic’s response to his remarks and said that she reduced the entire matter to the claim that the competition was announced in accordance with the Law on Ministerial and other Appointments.

Pasic denied this claim and stressed that only the Bosnian State Ombudsmen Institutions monitors the implementation of competitions announced in accordance with that law, which also defines an important role for the Bosnian State Ombudsmen to react on official duty and not only in reaction to appeals filed by the candidates.

He said that all this shows the full absurdity of the legal situation into which the Ombudsmen have been forced into, also as candidates, because of the application of an entirely wrong law in the process of announcing competitions.

Ombudsman Pasic also criticised the media for not giving more attention to his earlier statement on errors in the work of the Commission.