SARAJEVO, Dec 15 — Bosnia’s Croat and Muslim members of the joint presidency refused to meet with Russia’s foreign minister today after accusing him of “disrespecting” the country during a meeting with their Serb counterpart.
The unusually harsh move reflected a growing rift within the Balkan state’s two political halves, a Serb region that is pro-Russian and a Muslim-Croat federation that is pushing for Nato membership.
Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov arrived in the Balkan state yesterday, first paying a visit to the country’s Serb president Milorad Dodik.
Lavrov was supposed to meet all three members of the presidency today, but after the two others refused to show, he was hosted only by Dodik, the current holder of the body’s rotating chair.
“Unfortunately, Lavrov showed a disrespect towards both the institutions and constitutional system of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Zeljko Komsic, the Croat member of the presidency, told a press conference.
“With regret, we decided not to host him.”
Komsic said he was insulted notably by the lack of a Bosnian flag during the meeting with Dodik, which had only the flag of the Republika Srpska, the Serb-run zone.
That move showed “scorn and denial of the institutions of the country that he (Lavrov) is officially visiting”.
Komsic also criticised Lavrov’s support for the Bosnian Serb stance on military neutrality.
While Bosnia is united in its aspiration to join the European Union, the Muslim and Croat leaders are also eager to join Nato, a move opposed by the ethnic Serbs, who are traditional allies of Moscow.
“We cannot be a hostage of Russia’s games of any kind regarding their relations with both EU and Nato countries,” Komsic said.
Lavrov was visiting Bosnia on the 25th anniversary of signing of the peace deal which ended the country’s 1992-95 war.
The conflict between Bosnia’s Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives.
It also cleaved the nation into two parts, with a political system that has helped entrench ethnic divides.
The country’s two post-war entities are highly independent and linked by weak central institutions, making national-level policy difficult to enact. — AFP
