MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. A high-ranking Russian foreign ministry official has called for aboliting the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina as it is used as an instrument of "Western neocolonial oversight" over the country.
"We are convinced that the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which has outlived its purpose and discredited itself, must be shut down as an instrument of Western neocolonial oversight over a sovereign state. The latest attempts by Western countries to extend the OHR’s presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina through behind-the-scenes maneuvers bypassing the UN Security Council are untenable and undermine the post-conflict settlement in Bosnia," Yury Pilipson, director of the ministry’s second European department, told TASS.
He stressed that the external administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina "has long become nonsense" and does nothing beneficial to that country, while "sowing discord and stirring up society."
"The High Representative has turned from an international mediator and provider of ‘goof offices’ into a tool of the West’s unrestricted interference into Bosnia’s domestic affairs. The external protectorate headed by him is the main source of instability in the country, provoking domestic political and interethnic tensions and mistrust -- in fact, generating crisis conditions to justify its presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina," the Russian diplomat emphasized.
Under the constitution envisaged by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Agreement) of 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina is comprised of two entities, namely the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (around 51% of the territory) and the Republic of Srpska (around 49%), as well as the Brcko District. The three key ethno-religious groups, i.e. Bosniaks (Slavs professing Islam), Serbs (Orthodox Christians), and Croats (Catholics), are proportionally represented in the state governance system.
In fact, the country is governed via the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose office was set up under the Dayton Agreement and who is appointed by the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) upon the UN Security Council’s consent. However, in 2021, the Board members appointed Hans Christian Schmidt of Germany to the post without agreeing his candidature with the UN Security Council.
On May 10, Schmidt said he had tendered his resignation. Former US Consul General in Vladivostok Louis Crischock will serve as acting high representative until a new high representative is elected.