Intl. Admin. says Dodik to be sanctioned over glorification of war criminals

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The international community's High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, will ask that Bosnian Serb Presidency member and Serb leader Milorad Dodik be barred entry to the EU if he continues to glorify war criminals, pointing to a case when a student dormitory was named after Radovan Karadzic.

In an interview with the Al Jazeera Balkans broadcaster, Inzko, who is in charge of overseeing the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, said that he announced this move while presenting his report on the situation in the country before the UN Security Council on Thursday because he could no longer tolerate the practice of glorifying war criminals with impunity.

He recalled that Dodik had personally unveiled the plaque with Karadzic's name on the dorm at Pale outside Sarajevo, noting that Dodik had turned a deaf ear to his request to remove the plaque.

Inzko said that if the plaque was not removed by May 2021, he would ask that Dodik not be allowed to enter the EU.

The High Representative warned that there were similar examples on the Croat side as well, mentioning in that context explicitly Dario Kordic, who was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 25 years in prison for war crimes against Bosniaks in central Bosnia.

Inzko said that holding masses for the convicted war criminal and allowing him to hold lectures for students was unacceptable.

He mentioned the Kordic case also before the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The Croatian National Assembly (HNS), the umbrella association of Bosnian Croat political parties, dismissed Inzko's report before the UN Security Council, saying the document depicted the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina incorrectly.

In a comment on this reaction, Inzko said that he only depicted facts as they are, which cannot do anyone any harm.

Maybe the HNS is causing harm to itself, he added.