On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Alicia Kearns, a member of the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament, former chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and a great friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), gave an interview.
In a conversation with Esmir Milavic, Kearns confirmed that the UK will not follow the example of the United States (U.S.) and lift the sanctions against Milorad Dodik.
“From my perspective, I am not ready for the UK to remove its sanctions,” Kearns stated, adding that, although there are positive steps such as the annulment of Dodik’s laws in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NARS), it is important to maintain pressure “until we are sure that we are going the right way.”
She commented particularly sharply on the situation with media freedom in Serbia, referring to the pressures on N1.
“I am deeply concerned. We have seen that Reporters Without Borders said that the situation with media freedom in Serbia is the worst since the 1990s,” Kearns said, reminding that Vucic was the minister of information in that period. She emphasized that it is unacceptable that the president of a country that is a candidate for the European Union (EU) “negotiates with the majority owner (of N1) in order to try to reduce the independence of the only remaining independent media”, and called for joint action by London and Brussels.
Kearns also expressed concern about potential political deals in the U.S., such as Jared Kushner’s project in Belgrade, saying that “the U.S. must give priority to democracy and stability in the region, and not to anything else.”
Speaking about the future of BiH, Kearns pointed out that 30 years of peace is “an incredible achievement”, but that she hopes the country will “move away from ethnically structured politics” in the coming decades.
