Bosnia facing worst crisis in 15 years- envoy

A Muslim woman says a prayer in front of a monument with the names of 1,226 victims killed in the summer of 1992 at the beginning of the Bosnian war. – Reuters Photo

UNITED NATIONS: Ethnically divided Bosnia is facing its most serious crisis since it was established as a state 15 years ago, its international envoy warned on Monday, accusing Serb officials of threatening its viability.
Bosnia in the 1990s suffered Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two. The country remains divided between former wartime adversaries living in two autonomous regions — a separatist Serb Republic and a Muslim-Croat federation.
That situation resulted from the 1995 Dayton peace accord that ended the Bosnian war. Rivalry between the two regions has blocked reforms and progress towards European integration.
In a regular report to the UN Security Council, Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko accused Serb authorities of “concrete actions which represent the most serious violation of (Dayton) that we have seen since the agreement was signed.”
In the latest challenge to central authority in Bosnia, the regional Serb parliament last month backed plans for a referendum on the legality of Bosnia’s national court, which prosecutes war crimes suspects, saying it is biased against Serbians.
The referendum, expected in mid-June, would also pronounce on the authority of Inzko, who as the international “high representative” for the Balkan state has the power to overturn laws and fire officials.
Inzko demanded that the Serb Republic authorities drop the referendum plan in the coming days. “Should this not happen …
I will have no choice but to repeal the … referendum decision,” he said.
In an unusually hard-hitting speech, the normally low-key Inzko said the international community faced “the most serious and most direct challenges to (Dayton) since it was signed over 15 years ago.” Bosnia’s bid to join the European Union and Nato had “come to a complete halt.”
The Serb Republic, and especially its president Milorad Dodik, “have continued openly to question the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia,” Inzko said.
Seven months after general elections, formation of a state government had become “almost impossible,” political parties “have continued to play zero-sum politics” and the situation looked set to continue for the time being, he added.
The divided Security Council took no immediate action on Inzko’s report. Western nations said they would back Inzko in any action he took.
US envoy Rosemary DiCarlo said, without elaborating, that Washington was “in the process of considering our own measures in support of Dayton and Bosnian state institutions, should they become necessary.”
But Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which strongly backs the Serbs, criticized Inzko’s speech as “emotional.” He said the referendum did not directly violate Dayton, and that the political crisis in Bosnia was caused by the Muslims and by Inzko, who he said had made “arbitrary use” of his powers.