Bosnien und Herzegowina

In the run-up to October's local elections in Bosnia, people have been using a new online platform to report hundreds of instances of hate speech.

[…] Dodik made the comments a day after CIA Director William Burns visited Sarajevo amid what a U.S. government official described to RFE/RL as “worrying secessionist rhetoric and actions.”

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina on July 24 temporarily suspended an election law passed by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska in April, sparking negative reaction by the international community and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Bosnia.

A commission set up to recompense relatives of certain Srebrenica genocide victims because Dutch peacekeeping troops failed to protect them has paid out millions of euros in compensation for 611 of the victims’ deaths.

Entrenched divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have hampered EU and U.S. efforts to build functional institutions and integrate the country into Western clubs. Dysfunctionality in turn provides fertile ground for meddling by Russia, which appears to have won the battle for the hearts and minds of Bosnian Serbs. 

The leaders of Serbia and the Serb-led entity within Bosnia-Herzegovina called for the unity of ethnic Serbs throughout the region during a rally in Belgrade on June 8, an action certain to anger Western leaders who have condemned any suggestions by entity officials to separate from Bosnia. 

Milorad Dodik, the Russian-friendly president of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb-led entity, said the sudden withdrawal from parliament of a controversial "foreign agent" bill was prompted by the need to harmonize it with EU legislation "since Republika Srpska is committed to the European path." 

While Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is not ready for EU accession, the United Nations High Representative for Bosnia, Christian Schmidt, told Euractiv that EU leaders must be aware the country could be at great risk if the accession process is further delayed.  

The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted to create an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which Serb forces killed around 8,000 Muslim men and teenage boys.

The resolution designates July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide. … The resolution was written by Germany and Rwanda — two countries synonymous with 20th-century genocides — but it has faced fierce opposition from Serbia.

A U.N. resolution sponsored by Germany and Rwanda to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against its adoption by Serbia’s president and the Bosnian Serb leadership.