“Attack on Peace Accords”
US sanctions Bosnian Serb politicians
08/01/2023 02:58 am
The fragile, former civil war country of Bosnia-Herzegovina is held together by the provisions of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The state of Republika Srpska no longer wants to be subject to these rules. The US government is now imposing penalties on the responsible politicians.
The US has imposed economic sanctions on four high-ranking officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Republic of Srpska, which is predominantly inhabited by Bosnian Serbs. They are accused of being responsible for passing legislation “that jeopardizes the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords,” according to a statement by the US Treasury Department. The law allows the Republic of Srpska to no longer recognize the decisions of the High Representative of the international community for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik passed the law in early July. The US embassy in Sarajevo called the move “unconstitutional and a deliberate attack on the Dayton Peace Accords.”
The sanctions affect the Speaker of Parliament in the Republic of Srpska, Nenad Stevandic, Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic and Minister of Justice Milos Bukejlovic. Zeljka Cvijanovic, longtime Dodik ally and member of the state presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also on the sanctions list. Your property in the US will be blocked and reported to the proper authorities.
The law threatens “the stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” said US Treasury Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson. In a separate statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the law jeopardizes the country’s prospects for membership of transatlantic and European institutions.
The complex and poorly functioning political system in Bosnia-Herzegovina is based on the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended the 1990s war in Bosnia, which killed 100,000 people. The country is divided into the Republic of Srpska, inhabited mostly by Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the majority Muslim Bosnians and Croats live. Since 1995, the UN Security Council has also appointed a High Representative who oversees the implementation of the Dayton Agreement. The German Christian Schmidt currently holds the office.