Schmidt Decides to Block Finance for Two Parties in Bosnia

Christian Schmidt (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

The high representative in Bosnia ,Christian Schmidt, announced in Sarajevo on April 24 that he had decided to block the financing for the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and the United Srpska because, as he explained, these two parties were attacking the Dayton agreement and the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Schmidt said at a news conference in Sarajevo that funds would be blocked for the two parties at all levels – state, entity, cantonal, city, municipal and in the Brcko District.

“The funds will be blocked and redirected to a special account in the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Schmidt stated. The decision, he stressed, supported the efforts of institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina in “confronting the current flagrant attacks of the ruling coalition in Republika Srpska (RS), headed by the Alliance and the United Srpska, on the fundamental principles of Dayton and the legal and constitutional order of Bosnia.”

He pointed out that the leadership of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats was “spearheading the attack on the constitutional order and violation of Dayton.” “Anyone who violates these decisions will be subject to possible criminal prosecution. When the policies of the Alliance and of the United Srpska change, I will consider the abolishing of these decisions,” Schmidt said.

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats is headed by RS President Milorad Dodik and the leader of the United Srpska is Nenad Stevandic, the speaker of the People’s Assembly of RS. A central arrest warrant has been issued in Bosnia and Herzegovina for Stevandic, Dodik and RS Premier Radovan Viskovic, because they ignored the summons of the state prosecution for questioning, under suspicion that they had “attacked the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”