Bosnia’s dissolution to affect entire region: Envoy

If a multi-ethnic Bosnia is pushed towards disintegration that will inevitably have an impact on other unresolved conflicts in the Western Balkans such as that between Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia’s peace envoy told Reuters on Saturday.

German politician Christian Schmidt, who is international High Representative in Bosnia, said this week that the peace deal that ended the country’s war in the 1990s was at risk of unravelling unless the international community took measures to stop Serb separatists.

He was referring to moves by the Bosnian Serb leadership aimed at undoing key state institutions such as the joint armed forces, the indirect taxation authority and the top judicial body, as well as other institutions.

“The unrest in this region will also affect the question of the difficult relationship between Serbia and Kosovo in the same or similar way,” Schmidt said in an interview.

“Serbia should have an interest in Bosnia-Herzegovina staying together,” he said, adding that Belgrade’s path towards European Union membership could be gravely affected by instability in Bosnia, where it supports its ethnic kin.