Bosnia condemned on Wednesday the appearance of Bosnian Serb children at the World Schools Championship in Football in Belgrade under the flag of Republika Srpska, the semi-autonomous part of Bosnia which the International School Sports Federation started treating as an independent country.

“The youth of Republika Srpska cannot represent an entity at a competition where internationally recognised countries are competing,” a statement from the Bosnian Ministry for Civil Affairs said.

The International School Sports Federation’s website has Republika Srpska as a participant in girl’s soccer. The head of Serbia’s School Sports bragged in Serbia that he managed to lobby with the World Federation to have the Bosnian Serb team compete under the Republika Srpska flag.

This is a sensitive issue in Bosnia as the Bosnian Serb entity in the country was created during the war and still seeks independence.

The Ministry said the responsibility lies with the “International Sports School Federation which allowed such involvement of politics,” adding that it sent a protest note expressing concern and disappointment over the situation “which they caused themselves.”

The Ministry said the organisation has “put the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an internationally recognised state into question.”

It also asked why it was not officially informed of the RS wanting to be represented as a state.

But it also criticised the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports in the RS and Serbia Ministry of youth and sports because they have “consciously” committed actions which are to the detriment of the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the Youth Forum of the left-leaning Nasa Stranka (Our Party, NS), the move represents “political abuse of children.”

“The high school students in Republika Srpska were misused for raising political tensions,” said Elvedina Omerhodzic, from the NS Youth Forum in a statement.