United States did not elect the officials of Republika Srpska nor they will remove them, the President of Bosnia's Serb-majority region Milorad Dodik said in response to the sanctions that the US Department of the Treasury imposed on four Bosnian Serb officials on Monday for “obstructing and threatening the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.”

“The US thinks in this way they can discipline someone who does not share their views. The sanctions are also showing the powerlessness of a great global power that the US is. Regardless of everything, they want to sanction this people because we are the representatives of the people. They want to change us, to bring some new ones who will keep silent, nod and approve. We are not concerned about these sanctions,” said Dodik, who is under the US sanctions as well.

US imposes sanctions on four Bosnia Serb officials for threatening peace deal

The sanctions were introduced by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Monday, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14033, against RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, RS National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandic, Justice Minister Milos Bukejlovic and Serb member of BiH tripartite Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic.

The decision said they were “encouraging the passage of a Republika Srpska National Assembly law that purports to declare the decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court inapplicable in the RS, thus obstructing and threatening the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.”

“This action threatens the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the hard-won peace underpinned by the Dayton Peace Agreement. This behaviour further threatens the country’s future trajectory and successful integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

State Dept calls RS entity laws a ‘brazen attempt’ to undermine institutions

Stevandic, the entity parliament speaker, said he sees the sanctions as a “recognition for consistency, steadfastness and not giving in to the blackmail and threats from those who are considered omnipotent.”

Another sanctioned official, entity prime minister Viskovic, said he was not surprised by the decision but that this will not affect his further work or engagement to “protect the position of Republika Srpska in a democratic way.”

“These sanctions only prove I am doing a good job for Republika Srpska, and that it is my priority to respect constitutional competencies of Republika Srpska, the protection of institutions as well as the equal economic development from Trebinje to Novi Grad,” he said.

He also assessed the sanctions as “hypocritical” because, as Viskovic pointed out, the officials of Republika Srpska are committed to and work in line with the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Cvijanovic also commented on the US authorities’ decision, noting that the sanctions look like a “trick to appease the Bosniaks” rather than to punish those they are intended for.

She also said that the sanctions do not contribute to the solution to any problem but are “only an indication that there is no real strategy nor the will to bring the country into the constitutional order and political stability.”

Speaking to Srna news agency, Cvijanovic said she found “particularly interesting “ the part of the explanation that the sanctions were intended for the individuals and not the institutions, wondering how one was separated from the other.