Politicians should focus on reforms that bring concrete economic, social and political benefits to citizens, said High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko, during a meeting with the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak held Thursday.

According to the Office of the High Representative, Inzko said that some politicians seemed to be using “scare tactics, such as speculating about secession or potential war scenarios rather than doing the hard work to move Bosnia and Herzegovina forward.”

He also emphasized that despite “a rather early onset of the election campaign”, politicians must accept that the need for reform will not disappear and they must accept this for the good of the citizens.

Inzko, who is an Austrian diplomat with extensive professional experience in the region, took the office in March 2009. The mandate of the High Representative and the Office of the High Representative include overseeing of the civilian implementation of the Dayton Agreement, the document which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian armed conflict.