Russia believes that Bosniaks advocate the centralization of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and that the situation in Ukraine has nothing to do with BiH.
Russian representative Anna Evstigneeva said this yesterday at a session of the United Nations (UN) Security Council. At the beginning of her address, she pointed out the alleged advocacy of centralization.
”We are concerned about the centralization of the country advocated by one of the ethnic groups – Bosniaks,” she stated.
She accused Western countries of violating the Dayton Peace Agreement and ‘regrets’ that the chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Sefik Dzaferovic (SDA), who later addressed the session, did not reconcile his views with other members of the Presidency, telling him that this was required by the ‘protocol’.
”It is a degradation of dialogue and destabilizes the situation. The responsibility for this situation lies with those outside trying to reshape the Dayton Peace Agreement,” she added.
Russia’s representative to the UN Security Council also referred to a report by their ambassador to BiH, Igor Kalabukhov.
”And as our ambassador in Sarajevo stated in the report, the situation in Ukraine has nothing to do with the situation in BiH,” she claimed.
She also called for the Republika Srpska (RS) report on the situation in BiH to be read. She said that the Dayton Peace Agreement was “relevant, effective, and there is no alternative to it.” The Russians are of the opinion that violating it would have consequences throughout the Balkans.
Russia and China were opposed to High Representative Christian Schmidt addressing yesterday’s session. They felt that he could not address it by claiming that he was not the High Representative because he had not been appointed to the position by the Security Council.
However, Schmidt addressed the issue, emphasizing, among other things, that the RS is working on the transfer of competencies from the state to the entity government.
China has supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of BiH but does not think international institutions should intervene in BiH. They assure that they support everything that BiH politicians agree on.
The United Kingdom (UK) pointed out the member of the Presidency of BiH and the President of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik, as the culprit for the situation in BiH. France supported the Schmidt‘s report and supported the international presence in BiH.
The address of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Zoran Tegeltija (SNSD), was not allowed, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
