Four Bosnian Serb officers have been sanctioned by the United States Monday over their roles in encouraging the passage of a legislation that reportedly undermines the landmark Dayton Peace Agreement.
The legislation, signed by Bosnia’s Serb chief Milorad Dodik earlier this month, successfully permits for the nation’s Serb entity – often known as Republika Srpska (RS) – to bypass or ignore choices made by the Balkan nation’s worldwide envoy.
The U.S. embassy in Sarajevo slammed Dodik’s passage of the legislation, calling the transfer “unconstitutional and a deliberate attack on the Dayton Peace Agreement.”
The officers designated by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday have been speaker and president of the RS National Assembly, Nenad Stevandic, RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, RS Justice Minister Milos Bukejlovic and Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic.
Stevandic, Viskovic and Cvijanovic have been credited for requesting a particular session of the nationwide meeting to vote on the “inflammatory legislation,” the U.S. Treasury stated, whereas Bukejlovic introduced the legislation on behalf of the RS authorities.
“This action threatens the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the hard-won peace underpinned by the Dayton Peace Agreement,” stated treasury undersecretary for terrorism and monetary intelligence, Brian Nelson.
In a separate assertion, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller added that the legislation threatens the nation’s prospects for integration into Euro-Atlantic and European establishments.
But the Treasury Department stated the establishments and authorities positions that the 4 officers characterize are usually not the goal of Monday’s actions.
As a results of the motion, their property and pursuits in property within the United States are blocked and should be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Meanwhile, sanctioned parliamentary speaker Stevandic tweeted that he thought-about the sanctions an “award for consistency, steadfastness and not giving in to blackmail and threats from those who are considered omnipotent.”
A spokesman for Dodik’s SNSD celebration, which holds many of the seats within the Republika Srpska meeting, labeled the U.S. transfer “shameful and hypocritical.”
“No sanctions will prevent us from doing our job,” spokesperson Radovan Kovacevic informed native RTRS tv.
Bosnia has been ruled by a dysfunctional administrative system created by the Dayton Agreement that succeeded in ending the battle within the Nineties however largely failed in offering a framework for the nation’s political growth.
In accordance with the settlement, Bosnia has been divided into two our bodies – a Muslim-Croat federation and Republika Srpska. The two entities are related by a weak central authorities.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
