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 23 November 2009
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Confusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina creates difficulties: UN official

23/11/2009

The UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina is calling on the international community to keep up its investment of political and material resources to the country.

Valentin Inzko

Valentin Inzko

Valentin Inzko told the UN Security Council on Monday that despite unresolved political issues, progress can be made towards a sovereign, prosperous, and democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inzko says the unresolved political issues are a result of confusion in Republika Srpska, one of the country's two governing entities.

"The Republika Srpska leadership has failed to grasp that the state and entity authorities have separate and clearly defined mandates and that each must do its work complementing each other. And this discrepancy of approaches has generated considerable difficulties."

UN High Representative Valentin Inzko said Republika Srpska was from time to time undermining state institutions and then criticizing the state for having the problem. This was happening, he said, at the same time that Bosnia and Herzegovina was desperately struggling to become a member of NATO and the European Union.

Diane Bailey, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'12")

Sound bites

Valentin Inzko, UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Cut 1

"The Republika Srpska leadership has failed to grasp that the state and entity authorities have separate and clearly defined mandates and that each must do its work complementing each other. And this discrepancy of approaches has generated considerable difficulties."
Duration: 00:00:17

Valentin Inzko, UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Cut 2

"There is a confusion in the Republika Srpska over the nature of the entity and the nature of the state; and there is confusion in both entities about the proper focus and functioning of politics and the state as a system.
Duration: 00:00:33

Valentin Inzko, UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Cut 3

"On 1 October, Serb members of the House of Representatives voted down a law that would have extended the mandates of international judges and prosecutors working at the State Court and the Prosecutor's Office, despite repeated requests from all the judicial institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ICTY, and from NGOs working in the fields of anti-corruption and war crimes prosecution, to extend the mandate. The relevant authorities also failed to undertake any serious effort to replace this international judges and prosecutors with local counterparts. This issue still unresolved, and I fear that the failure to solve the extension of the judges and prosecutors may result in a collapse of the judicial system in the country."
Duration: 00:00:52

Valentin Inzko, UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Cut 4

"Parties from Republika Srpska frequently criticize state-level institutions for lack of efficiency, at the very same time as they actively engage in undermining those same institutions. In other words, they are from time to time creating a problem at the state level and then criticizing the state for having the problem. This is happening at the same time as Bosnia Herzegovina is desperately struggling to become a member of NATO and the European Union."
Duration: 00:00:31