At last night’s session, the United Nations Security Council, at the request of Russia, discussed the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
BiH Presidency member Željka Cvijanović addressed the participants via video link, accusing High Representative Christian Schmidt and certain foreign diplomats in Bosnia and Herzegovina of behaving like colonizers. She also assessed that the positions of the Republika Srpska are often wrongly and tendentiously presented. According to her, the political representatives of the Serbian and Croatian people are fighting for compliance with the Dayton Agreement, while for the political representatives of the Bosniaks, she said that they want a “centralized, unitary state”.
She accused BiH Defense Minister Zukan Helez and FBiH Interior Minister Ramu Isak for inflammatory statements, and the head of the BiH Mission to the UN, Zlatko Lagumdžija, of working on a resolution without the consent of the BiH Presidency, whose goal is for the UN to declare an international day of remembrance for the victims of genocide in Srebrenica.
“The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not discuss, nor did it adopt the resolution. It was deliberately hidden from the public. The activity was conducted contrary to the Dayton Agreement, but you simply ignored that fact,” said Cvijanović, who, through the Russian mission to the UN, had previously forwarded to the members Security Council letter in which she made similar assessments.
Cvijanović also presented Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country that harbors “radical terrorism”, and on this issue she referred to the positions of the United States of America and France.
In his address at the session of the Security Council, High Representative rejected the claims that he wants to destroy the Republika Srpska, as well as the other accusations made against him by Cvijanović.
“Cvijanović presents herself as a member of the BiH Presidency, and she intends to fabricate entity lines and present them as non-existent state borders. Are there threats to the peace and stability of BiH? Unfortunately, there are threats. EUFOR agrees in the stability report. Unfortunately, according to that report, that the challenges are on the political level. The situation from the military point of view is stable, said Schmidt, adding that the behavior of politicians from Republika Srpska is a threat to the Dayton Agreement.
Assistant Secretary General of the UN for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenča, asserted that in the past year progress has been noticed, but also some worrying moves in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He called on everyone in the Balkans to reduce inflammatory rhetoric.
“All states, all officials, citizens, even the media, must reduce hate speech and incendiary rhetoric. Of course, it is the responsibility of politicians and institutions to show respect for the victims of genocide and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
