Nezavisne novine: Several officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have asked for protection in the Helsinki's committee for human rights of BiH because of discrimination at their work place, for which they claim that the chief of the BiH diplomacy, Sven Alkalaj is responsible.
Branka Inić, lawyer in the Helsinki's committee for human rights of BiH, has said that some civil servants of the MFA come for a legal advice, and two of them have even submitted all documentation by asking for an opinion and protection from this non-governmental organization.
The Helsinki's committee has already graded that in the case of the servant of the MFA, Nada Zdravič has come to violation of elementary human rights, but a list of laws as well. In his answer, minister Alkalaj has refused such statements of the Helsinki's committee, and Zdravič has submitted a complaint to the Court of BiH after she has been moved to another work position in the MFA.
"The minister has in an extended speech to the Helsinki's committee given definitions of mobbing, but has not removed the noticed omissions. Minister claims that our decisions are not obligatory, but in the paragraph 13, of the Annex 6 of the Dayton agreement stands the obligation of cooperation with the non-governmental organizations", claims Inić and reminds that the obligation of governments is to respect the Dayton agreement, but the international conventions accepted by this country as well.
The Helsinki's committee has also been contacted by Ibrahim Efendić, long-standing minister, who has been replaced by the minister Alkalaj from the position of chief of the Department for Africa and Asia and has placed him on a lower-ranged position in the same sector.
Efendić says that he does not know the reason why he has been replaced, nor has somebody explained it to him, and it is also unclear to him how by the Law on Civil Service somebody who has five times been a chief of the diplomatic mission and a chief of the department can now have a status of an expert associate.
"During my 27 years of service in diplomacy, I have worked in the ministries of SFRJ and BiH which have been led by eight ministers, and neither of them has ever criticized my work. Only the minister Alkalaj has found a reason to replace me, though without explanation", explains Efendić, who is one of the rare civil servants in the MFA who speaks five languages, has finished diplomatic school and a list of diplomatic courses around the world.