Republika Srpska Official Says U.S. Sanctions Not Contributing to Problem Resolution

Zeljka Cvijanovic

The Serb members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, has said that the U.S. sanctions against Republika Srpska (RS) officials have not contributed to problem resolution, but have rather revealed the absence of any strategy or will to bring constitutional order and political stability in the country.

"It is nonsense to be obliged to accept as something normal to have an unelected foreigner imposing laws instead of domestic institution, or to be constantly threatened with some prosecutor’s office over your political views. Or to accept as normal sanctions from the outside, because you do not like foreigners handing down unconstitutional rulings in the Constitutional Court,” Cvijanovic has told RS news agency SRNA.

On July 31, Washington imposed sanctions against Cvijanovic, RS Premier Radovan Viskovic, Assembly speaker Nenad Stevandic, and Justice Minister Milos Bukejlovic.

Stevandic has written on his Twitter that being black-listed by the U.S. he saw as “a medal of consistency, steadfastness and unyielding to blackmails and threats of those who consider themselves to be almighty.”

Bosniak Presidency member Denis Becirovic has described the sanctions as an important message to all in the region that developed western democracies support peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but that “new, dangerous strikes at the Dayton Peace Accords are coming at direct instructions of RS President Milorad Dodik’s mentors outside Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Dodik has said that it was not Washington which elected RS officials, nor will it be the one replacing them. He added that the sanctions were unnecessary, stressing that RS would not give up on its policy.