Russian ambassador refuses to join the statement on RS name dispute

Fena

Russia refused to join the statement that foreign diplomats in Bosnia issued on Tuesday in response to the recent initiative to challenge the name of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity before Bosnia's Constitutional Court, the Russian Ambassador confirmed to reporters.

“Russia did not give consent for the PIC’s (Peace Implementation Council) joint statement because it is too general. It is everyone’s yet no one’s fault,” Petr Ivantsov told media after the meeting of ambassadors.

Ivantsov asked for a session of the PIC Steering Board, a body composed of foreign ambassadors in Bosnia which oversees the implementation of a peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war, to discuss the initiative of the Bosniak leading party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which announced it would challenge the name of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, the RS.

The SDA announced the initiative, claiming that the Republika Srpska's name is discriminatory against other ethnicities living on its territory.

The conclusions his colleagues passed has a broad meaning that speaks of mistakes of all political actors in Bosnia, said Russia’s diplomat, adding that the statement does not focus on current problems.

According to him, the SDA’s “threat” to dispute the Republika Srpska’s name at the Constitutional Court is “a serious mistake” and is not in line with the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA).

The SDA’s initiative caused instability, intensified mistrust and increased disagreements among the peoples in Bosnia, resulting in a stalemate in the government formation at all levels in the country, Ivantsov said.