The USA has sanctioned four Bosnian Serb officials for ”obstructing and threatening” the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the 1992-1995 war in the Balkan country.
The sanctions follow a late June decision by Republika Srpska – the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina – to overturn the validity of decisions by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court.
“The decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are final and legally binding on its whole territory,” said Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić.
The vote was initiated by the region’s separatist pro-Russian President Milorad Dodik, who is already under U.S. and UK sanctions. Dodik’s ruling party, which promote Republika Srpska’s secession from Bosnia and reunification with Serbia, has slammed the sanctions as ‘shameless and hypocritical.’
Christian Schmidt — who serves as the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina in charge of implementing the 1995 peace agreement — has ruled to annul the law, but Dodik and his Bosnian Serb allies have already indicated they would not recognise Schmidt’s ruling.
US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said that „this action threatens the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the hard-won peace underpinned by the Dayton Peace Agreement… further threatening the country’s future trajectory and successful integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions.”
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