Speaking with the Spanish daily El Pais, former High Representative in BiH Valentin Inzko said that he had not had the support of the international community for his activities for most of his term. He also accused the political leadership of Bosnian Serbs of using the amendments to the BiH Criminal Code on genocide denial as an excuse to block the institutions.

Inzko revealed he made the decision to impose amendments banning genocide denial only at the end of his term because he expected the verdict against Bosnian Serb army general Ratko Mladic to be final, but also added that the decision on this could have been made much earlier at the local level.

Former High Representative noted that Croat and Serb politicians voted against it so that the law could not have been passed for 26 years. Unfortunately, the necessary catharsis has not yet occurred in Bosnian society, he said, but when it does, it will be easier to look to the future.

Inzko said he was optimistic at the beginning of his term as High Representative, but that the catharsis was not realized during his term.

The geostrategic situation was different, he said with Russia and China being less interested in BiH. Until then, the international community had opted for a ‘harsh intervention’ approach in the country, which was ‘successful’ but they switched to one of the ‘local solutions,’ which were fewer and under which ‘almost no new laws’ were passed, he noted.

Year after year, Bosnia has been relegated to the foreign ministries’ priority lists.

According to El Pais, Inzko believes that the time to close the Office of the High Representative has not come yet, despite China and Russia asking for it, and that it will not be possible to do that until the country is irreversibly on the road to the EU.

The former High Representative also called for more attention to be paid to the actions of local leaders and for them to bear the consequences whether it is corruption or a blockade of institutions.