The Bosniak member of BiH’s tripartite Presidency called on the High Representative of the international community, Christian Schmidt, to help unblock the work of the Presidency and consider the dismissal of the Serb member of the institution.

Sefik Dzaferovic said that the three Presidency members met on Tuesday to discuss a series of issues, mostly related to foreign policy and security and that his Serb colleague in the institution, Milorad Dodik, voted against every single conclusion.v

“We have not adopted a single decision. Most of the items on the agenda were related to foreign policy, Mr Dodik voted against, they are going to the second round of voting. Consensus is needed on security issues,” Dzaferovic explained.

He said that Dodik is blocking the institution and asked the international community to react.

“We could not appoint ambassadors, give agreements to ambassadors of other countries. Apart from the blockade, it is also a kind of abuse,” said Dzaferovic.

Dodik’s behaviour stems from the fact that political parties in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, where he is also the leader of the ruling party, decided that RS representatives will not participate in the work of BiH institutions over the recently introduced law on genocide denial.

Schmidt’s predecessor, Valentin Inzko, used his special powers as the officials overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement in June to impose a law banning genocide and war crimes denial, as well as glorification of convicted war criminals.

“This is a blockade of the state of BiH, so I expect the international community, the High Representative, to take action and resolve this,” Dzaferovi said.

“I expect the High Representative to help BiH function,” he said, adding this could also include dismissing Dodik.

including the option of dismissal,” Dzaferovic concluded.