U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo: Public Property in Bosnia-Herzegovina Belongs to State, Not Entities

Sarajevo (Photo: Pixabay)

On June 11, the United States Embassy in Sarajevo said that public property in Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to the state, not its autonomous entities, and that there is no need to reexamine well-documented legal history and court rulings on the matter.

The statement comes in response to Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic questioning which part of the Dayton Agreement stipulates that state property within the entities in fact belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The U.S. Embassy also included a reference to a speech by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien from February of this year.

“There are ways to discuss property, such as addressing the issue within the proper institutions. But the starting point remains clear: property belongs to the state,” the Embassy said, including a link to a transcript of O’Brien’s speech.

The back-and-forth began with Vucic posing the abovementioned question to the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo on June 11, after the Embassy released a June 10 statement claiming the conclusions adopted at the Pan-Serbian Assembly in Belgrade “are a deliberate attack on that agreement and the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

The declaration adopted at the June 8 Pan-Serbian Assembly was also commented on by U.S. Ambassador in Belgrade Christopher Hill, who said on June 11 that anyone who cares about Serbia and its future should remain focused on creating a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire Western Balkans and on enhancing regional cooperation with ultimate goal being EU integration.