US’ professor: Bosnia’s peaceful disintegration impossible

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Daniel Serwer, a professor at the US Johns Hopkins University, said late on Thursday that the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not possible without war and called on the European Union and the US to engage more effectively if they wanted to avoid potential instability in the region.

Serwer, an expert for the Balkans, told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the EU, US and the High Representative’s Office in Bosnia were daily tested not only by the Serb member of the country’s tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik, but by Serbia’s Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin as well.

„That test whether the West will react is a challenge for the Western Balkans states. The Americans made it clear they support the existing states’ structure. And the EU did it, especially Germany. But they failed to do anything to keep their words,“ Serwer said, adding the West should start using either sanctions or some other means they had available.

„The members of non-Russian Council for Peace Implementation gave a joint statement, and that was good, but more had to be done before Vulin and Dodik would stop,“ Serwer said.

He added the Russian goal in the Balkans was to prevent the region to progress toward the West, i.e., the EU and particularly NATO membership.

„They (the Russians) lost in Montenegro, in North Macedonia and want to win in Bosnia and Serbia, knowing they will lose in Kosovo. And although I don’t ask anyone to join NATO, I feel that except Dodik and that type of politics, BH inclines to NATO. Something like that doesn’t exist in Serbia, and I don’t have a problem with that,“ Serwer told RSF.