Bosnia and Herzegovina

High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina Christian Schmidt says he's pleased with the "definite momentum" in the Balkan country since his dramatic election-night intervention to alter and unblock key institutions.

The general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina were competitive and overall well organised with fundamental freedoms respected during the campaign. However, failed reform efforts, a widespread mistrust in public institutions, and ethnically divisive rhetoric continued to mark the election environment, international observers said in a statement today.

A pre-election standoff between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken an ugly turn, with rhetoric from the 1990s war reappearing. Ideally, politicians would make the reforms needed to settle the quarrel but, if not, the internationally appointed high representative should do so. 

Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, filed a criminal complaint against his Bosniak colleague Sefik Dzaferovic for participating in a summit about restoring Ukraine’s control over Russian-annexed Crimea.

A contingent of around two dozen German troops arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina on August 16 as part of the European Union's nearly two-decade peacekeeping and security mission in the troubled Balkan state, in a move quickly disparaged by Russia's embassy.

Germany has suspended 120 million euros ($125 million) worth of infrastructure projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Serb entity over its leaders' secessionist policies, the international peace envoy said.

At the request of NATO Headquarters Sarajevo, a UK military counter-disinformation expert and a civilian strategic defence adviser will be deployed to Bosnia to support and train its armed forces.

The four-day mission marked the first visit by a UN human rights High Commissioner in more than two decades, and she noted that some of the same rights challenges from that era persist today.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has apologized formally for the Netherlands' treatment of hundreds of its troops who served the Dutchbat III peacekeeping unit that failed to protect thousands of lives in the Bosniak enclave of Srebrenica 27 years ago.

The Serbian member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, on Monday said that Bosnian Serbs will respect Sunday’s agreement signed in Brussels on building a peaceful and stable Bosnia. Although the agreement is not signed or legally binding, “it will be respected on the political and moral level”, he said.