Interference in Bosnia’s internal matters must stop and the office of Bosnia’s international administrator should be shut down, said a statement by the Russian Embassy which did not agree with the Communique of an international community body overseeing the peace process in Bosnia on Wednesday.
The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board (PIC SB) repeated on Wednesday that it fully supports Bosnia’s international administrator, the High Representative, in performing his tasks, but Russia distanced itself from the communique as it has been doing for years.
“A number of messages from the international community in BiH in the communiqué are on the verge of interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the document itself, unfortunately, again seems more like a political tool to promote an agenda that often has nothing to do with the implementation of the peace agreement and even contradicts it,” the Russian Embassy's statement said, adding that “this form of communication with the institutions of a sovereign state is questionable from the standpoint of generally accepted norms of international law.”
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It said that Russia, as a guarantor of the Dayton Peace Agreement, supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and the “inviolability of the fundamental Dayton Agreement principles of equality of the three constituent peoples and the two entities with broad constitutional powers.”
“Unfortunately, our partners have avoided clearly expressing their full support for these principles,” it said.
Russia believes that the task of the international community is to “encourage dialogue in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding among the peoples of BiH on all issues important to them, to support and encourage positive processes, and not to try to replace with its agenda the quite effective Dayton Agreement mechanisms for BiH which have ensured a fragile ethnic balance in the state for a quarter of a century already.”
The statement said that Russia recognises the importance of reforms, including in the justice sector.
However, it stressed that “the independence of state judicial institutions from external and internal influences is a fundamental legal postulate,” arguing that such reforms should be an internal process.
“Any attempt to exert political pressure on justice institutions in BiH is categorically unacceptable. It is necessary to guarantee them the possibility of independent and impartial activity,” it said.
Russia also does not share the opinion of its partners in the PIC regarding the migrant crisis in Bosnia.
“We recognize the importance of the European Union's efforts to provide material assistance to BiH on this issue, but we believe that this support should not be aimed at keeping them in BiH, but at finding a long-term and comprehensive solution to this serious problem, which already has tragic consequences for BiH,” it said.
According to the Russian Embassy, the 25th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement represents a milestone for “assessing the role of the international community in a sovereign, modern BiH.”
It argued that it is unfortunate that the international community often interferes with Bosnia’s internal matters and stressed that the office of Bosnia’s international administrator, the High Representative who is tasked with monitoring the civilian implementation of the Dayton Agreement, should be shut down.
According to Russia, the High Representative “not only does not contribute to the stabilization processes in the country but often becomes a source of local problems.”
