After the report on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was presented in the United Nations (UN) Security Council, besides the content of the Report, the position of the United States (U.S.) has come under scrutiny due to the fact that sanctions against officials from Republika Srpska (RS) were lifted a few days ago. Part of the public sees a shift in the stance of the international community toward BiH, while part sees no change at all.
The Ambassador of BiH to the UN, Zlatko Lagumdzija, said that all countries, except Russia, supported the Dayton Peace Agreement, which is good for BiH. The U.S. ambassador mentioned the word stability nine times, but also emphasized that the U.S. supports the stability of BiH as a factor of peace in the region, Lagumdzija explained.
“What is clear as day is that secession has been condemned. Every single one condemned it, even attacks on the High Representative could not be heard from anyone except the Russian ambassador,” said Lagumdzija.
That there is no shift in U.S. policy toward BiH is also the view of some analysts.
“We saw that there was no shift in U.S. policy in the Security Council, so I think that in BiH, after this session, everything will be as usual,” believes analyst Haris Cutahija.
Not everyone interprets the position of the international community the same way. The difference in opinion between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) has never been more visible, says Adi Cerimagic. The EU supported Schmidt and praised the moves of the National Assembly.
“Not only when it comes to the role of the High Representative, where we heard from the U.S. that they are no longer interested in intervention and that they want to give a chance to domestic actors, with the very important note that the U.S. representative spoke about representatives of the three constituent peoples in BiH. On the other side of the Atlantic, we heard support for the Office of the High Representative (OHR), for his mandate, but also a very interesting statement from the EU representative, who welcomed the decisions of the National Assembly of RS (NARS) as a contribution to de-escalation,” said the analyst for European integration, Adi Cerimagic.
Journalist Dejan Sainovic calls Friday’s session historic. He says it will be talked about in the coming months as a turning point.
“Much was revealed in a very short time. Two things that are truly striking, interesting, and unique. First, the U.S. did not mention the OHR and the High Representative at all; it absolutely and completely ignored them. The second interesting thing is that the Russian ambassador did not mention Dodik even once, which could be a kind of message from Russia to Dodik because of this deal with the Americans,” assessed Sainovic.
Analysts say that in the coming period, the messages we heard on Friday will become clearer. Along with the fact that, as they say, it will become evident what it is that the SNSD president, Milorad Dodik, must do as a favor in return for the lifting of sanctions.
