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O'Brien reaffirms US support for Bosnia's top envoy

2024-02-02 16:29:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, James O'Brien, has reconfirmed Washington's support for the high international representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, during a visit to this country on February 2.

In a meeting in Sarajevo, O'Brien and Schmidt discussed what they described as the most urgent challenges facing Bosnia, the US Embassy in Bosnia announced.

Since the Dayton Accords, which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Bosnia has been made up of the Bosnian-Croat federation and Republika Srpska, under a weak central government.

The country is overseen by a UN-backed and powerful civilian high representative, a position currently held by Schmidt, who is being challenged by Milorad Dodik, the president of the Serb-dominated entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Republic of Serbia.

Dodik, who is sanctioned by the United States and Great Britain, has called for the separation of Republika Srpska from Bosnia.

Didik has been indicted for two laws he passed last July that allow the Bosnian Serb entity to override or ignore Schmidt's decisions.

Both of these laws were approved in June by the Republika Srpska Assembly, in which Dodik's party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, has a majority.

Schmidt repealed both of these laws on July 1. He also made changes to Bosnia's Criminal Code, which now stipulates that an official who disobeys the High Representative's decisions can be punished with a prison sentence of six months to five years, as well as being banned from holding of all public posts.

O'Brien disputed Dodik's claims about Republika Srpska secession from Bosnia.

"Subjects are subject to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to be very clear, the Republika Srpska is not a state and has no attributes of citizenship," O'Brien said during a lecture to students in Sarajevo at the Faculty of Political Science on 2 short.

As he said, the US strongly supports the sovereignty, territorial integrity and multi-ethnic character of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Of all the challenges facing Bosnia and Herzegovina, none is greater than the escalation of rhetoric, especially the history of secession," O'Brien said, adding that "calls for creating new borders or changing internationally recognized borders, attempts to incite and glorify ethnic and nationalist violence, disrespect for key institutions such as the Constitutional Court - represent anti-Dayton, unconstitutional and dangerous actions".

"We will respond to anti-Dayton and unconstitutional actions and will not allow malicious actors to divide the country," he said.

He reaffirmed Washington's support for "Bosnia's integrity in the Euro-Atlantic institutions and called on the leaders to approve the reforms that meet international standards, which are necessary to achieve this goal."

Bosnia officially received the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union in December 2022, but has not yet started membership talks with the bloc, as it is required to meet certain criteria./ REL