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BLOOMBERG
Bosnia-Herzegovina’s international overseer revoked two laws adopted by ethnic Serbs as unconstitutional, the latest standoff threatening stability in the country’s fragile postwar balance.
Christian Schmidt, the Western-backed envoy with powers to change legislation that harms Bosnia’s complex power-sharing set up after ethnic warfare in the 1990s, struck down laws adopted by lawmakers in the Republika Srpska entity that denied the authority of the Constitutional Court in Sarajevo, Schmidt’s office said in a statement.
Disputes over running the country have long fuelled Serb separatism, including threats by Srpska leader Milorad Dodik to declare his part of the country independent. The latest dispute has centered on state assets, with Serbs defying central bodies including the top court. “Entity parliaments do not have the authority to derogate provisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,†Schmidt told reporters. Anyone undermining provisions of the 1995 accord that ended war in Bosnia will face penalties, he said.
The US Embassy in Sarajevo backed Schmidt’s decisions, warning of consequences for any “unconstitutional and deliberate attacks†on provisions on the peace agreement brokered in Dayton, Ohio.
Dodik, already under US and UK sanctions and close to the Kremlin, reiterated that his entity wouldn’t obey the court or Schmidt, claiming that his 2021 appointment as the High Representative to Bosnia lacked full approval by the United Nations Security Council.
War erupted in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992 as Yugoslavia fell apart, triggering a bloody land-grab between Serbs, Croats and Bosnians.