NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has offered support to Bosnia's embattled government amid an ongoing political crisis, saying the alliance will not allow a "security vacuum" to emerge. in the Balkan country, The Guardian reports, quoted by FOKUS.
In a joint press conference, Rutte told the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, consisting of three leaders representing Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, that “it is up to the political leaders to take their responsibility here“.
"It is you three, there is no other show in town“, Rutte addressed them at the joint press conference
"You have to resolve the situation. You three. This is your encounter with history," he added.
The NATO Secretary General's intervention comes after a court in Bosnia sentenced pro-Russian Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik to a year in prison and banned him from politics for six years for his separatist actions, the British media reported.
Rutte said in Sarajevo that the alliance fully supports Bosnia's territorial integrity and called on political leaders to calm tensions fueled by the verdict against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
“We will not allow the hard-won peace to be jeopardized,“Rutte told reporters after a meeting with the country's tripartite presidency.
On February 26, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik was convicted by a Bosnian court to one year in prison and a six-year ban on political activity for failing to comply with the decisions of the international community's high representative, Christian Schmidt. The following day, the parliament of the autonomous federal entity adopted laws banning the work of the Bosnian court, prosecutor's office, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (VJPC) on the territory of Republika Srpska. On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a temporary measure and suspended the implementation of laws that it said violated the Bosnian constitution and the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the fighting in Bosnia (1992-1995), the country is divided into two semi-autonomous parts – Republika Srpska, populated mainly by Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (a Muslim-Croat federation), inhabited by Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats. Each part has its own government, parliament, and police, but the two are linked by common state-level institutions, including a judiciary, army, security services, and tax administration. The Dayton Agreement gives the High Representative of the international community broad powers, including the power to enforce laws, appoint and dismiss civil servants, and more.