Remarks by H.E. Valentin Inzko, High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his last address to the Security Council as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko briefed members states on the political situation in the country, where “its political leaders continue to pursue wartime goals, generate divisive narratives and nationalistic political agendas and speak about a dissolution the of the state.”
The High Representative reported to the Council that Milorad Dodik, a Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina – a three member collective Presidency - “is openly advocating dividing the country, disparaging and mocking the European Union in the process.”
“To put it in blunt terms, it is unthinkable in our countries, that the President wants to destroy the very country of which he is president,” Inzko said. “Furthermore, Mr. Dodik’s party, the SNSD recently posted several videos as part of an online campaign promoting peaceful dissolution, which will also run as advertisements to YouTube viewers in BiH.”
Since the Dayton agreement, signed in 1995 and ending the bloodiest war in Europe since the WWII, Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided in two entities – Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly along the lines held by warring sides. Both entities hold significant political powers.
“As a High Representative I want to be clear; Dayton does not give the right to entities to succeed,” Inzko said. “So once again, the political atmosphere is poisoned and progress on the reform is sidelined and it is extremely unfortunate that the Republika Srpska authorities have chosen this moment where the entire country is still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In his last briefing to the Security Council, Valentin Inzko who served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2009 summed up the situation in the country, said: “Bosnia and Herzegovina remains in de facto a frozen conflict, an unfinished peace. Its political leaders continue to pursue wartime goals, generate divisive narratives and nationalistic political agendas and speak about a dissolution of the state. The multiethnic diverse society that existed prior to the conflict has all but disappeared while it is becoming more difficult to defend the preservation of multiethnic spaces and resist the creation of monoethnic ones. Hate speech, the glorification of war criminals, and revisitation of hard genocide denial despite the verification by international judicial bodies remain very common in the political discourse.”
