Banjaluka – The main reason that Bosnia-Herzegovina is not functioning is not a shortcoming of the Dayton agreement, says a study on the U.S. policy in that country.
The study, that the Banjaluka daily Nezavisne Novine had access to, was produced last year by the Congressional Research Service think-tank, instead pointed the finger at local Serbs and Croats who “do not want to be part of an independent Bosnia.”
The study also states that the international community and the United States are not prepared to facilitate a peaceful dissolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
As a major impediment to the strengthening of central institutions, the study named Milorad Dodik, the RS president, and also “a majority of Bosnian Croats,” who, according to estimates oppose the strengthening of the functionality of the other entity – the Muslim-Croat Federation, for fear of being outvoted by the majority Muslim population.
Although “Serb secessionism” is cited as the main threat to peace, the study noted that “the solution for Brčko” had prevented the scenario of the unification of the Serb entity, RS, and Serbia.
The newspaper noted the observation that the international community does not want to give “free hand” to the high representative to use the Bonn powers – decision-making on behalf of the state – and that it came out of fear of how the RS leadership would react, “which is why many believe that the institution (of the high representative) has become inefficient.”
The report notes that “many European countries are in a way undermining the activities of the high representative in order to strengthen the influence of the EU,” while the U.S. policy changed in order to cede the main role to Europe, which is supposed to lure local leaders to cooperate for the sake of the “attractive membership” in the EU.(Nezavisne Novine)
