CIA Director William Burns visited Sarajevo yesterday to discuss, among other things, the troubling separatist rhetoric and actions of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik and the local government, a United States government official told Radio Free Europe on condition of anonymity, BTA reported.
Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the inter-ethnic war in Bosnia in 1992 – 1995, the country was divided into two semi-autonomous parts – Republika Srpska, populated mostly by Bosnian Serbs, and the Muslim-Croat Federation (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), where Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats live. Each part has its own government, parliament and police, but the two parts are connected through common state-level institutions, including a tripartite multi-ethnic presidential institution, judiciary, army, security services and tax administration.
In the past few years, Dodik has stepped up his separatist rhetoric, hoping that Russia, Serbia and Hungary will support him, Reuters notes. “Meetings were held with intelligence colleagues, members of the presidency and with the minister of foreign affairs. They discussed issues of common interest, including the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, a US government official said on the occasion of the CIA director's visit.
Denis Becirovic, the representative of Bosnian Muslims in the country's three-member presidency, said he expressed his gratitude to Burns for US help in building a democratic and multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he “highlighted to him the dangerous anti-Dayton a policy of the RS leadership that threatens peace and security in the country and the region”. “This is a very important visit, above all from the security point of view, but also a confirmation of the strong support of the US for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Becirovic wrote on Facebook.
According to several Radio Free Europe sources, Želka Cvijanović, the representative of the Bosnian Serbs in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was also present at the meeting in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is on the US list of sanctioned persons, as her actions endanger the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pro-Russian president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, who has repeatedly announced his desire to separate Republika Srpska from Bosnia, is also on the US sanctions list.
The head of Bosnian diplomacy, Elmedin Konaković, told Radio Free Europe that the visit of “one of the key people in the US administration shows US commitment, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina is among the top priorities of US foreign policy, which is very important for Bosnia and Herzegovina”. “I cannot comment on some parts of the meeting because they are confidential, but a universal message was sent. The messages of the US administration are very clear and the arrival itself above all symbolizes and proves that our foreign policy partner is still firmly with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Konaković added.