The Office of the High Representative, the international peace envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, welcomed the decision of the US authorities to impose sanctions on the Bosnian Serb officials for threatening and obstructing the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, noting that such decision “should not come as surprise.”

“OHR welcomes the actions taken by the US Treasury in its aim to strengthen the rule of law and protect the constitutional and legal order in Bosnia and Herzegovina from brazen attempts to undermine the work of institutions, as well as the country's stability and reforms achieved so far,” said the institution established following the 1995 peace deal in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the civilian implementation of the agreement.

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.”

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

“It should not come as a surprise that officials at the state and entity level, who facilitated the passage of the law in the RS National Assembly attempting to undermine the authority of the BiH Constitutional Court, face sanctions as their actions went directly against the BiH Constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement, while also eroding the rule of law at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina is given a generational opportunity to make concrete steps towards full membership in the European Union,” the OHR said.