The radical Serb leader Dodik wants to split Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Russia is helping him to found an army.
“Extremely worrying,” says Maas.
Sarajevo - 100,000 dead, more than two million displaced persons and a largely destroyed country: nowhere in the territory of the former Yugoslavia flowed as much blood as in Bosnia. In 1995 the war ended with the Dayton Agreement and the federally organized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its two semi-autonomous, roughly equal republics, emerged from it. Long-simmering conflicts are now flaring up again and threatening to explode.
The system of government in the Balkans, with a population of three million, is one of the most complicated in the world.
The two states, the Republika Sprska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, each have their own parliaments.
Above all, however, is the central government in the capital Sarajevo and tries to unite all the population groups living in the country - Bosnian Serbs, Croats and the Bosniaks.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Serb leader Milorad Dodik wants to split off from the central state
The government is currently led by Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the state presidency.
The radical Serb leader has been relying on war rhetoric for some time, wants a separate army for the Republika Sprska and plans to split off from the central state.
At the instigation of Dodik, the Bosnian Serbs have been boycotting the work of the central institutions of the Balkan state since July.
The independent Sprska army is to be formed "within the next few months".
Separatists in Bosnia-Herzegovina get support from Serbia and Russia
According to political scientist Vedran Dzihic from the Austrian Institute for International Politics in Vienna, Dodik will receive support from Serbia and Russia.
In the
ntv
podcast “Wieder Was Learned”, Dzihic describes the Balkans as a “new geopolitical marketplace”, on which the maps are currently being redistributed.
“Russia wants to hand out a watschn to the European Union.
They don't want to threaten the European project, but at least want to challenge it, ”explains the Viennese political scientist.
This is one of the reasons why worry lines are growing in the EU.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas recently brought EU sanctions against Serb leader Dodik into play.
On the sidelines of EU consultations in Brussels, he described the developments in Bosnia-Herzegovina as "extremely worrying".
The European Union couldn't care less, said Maas.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: "Serious existential threat of the post-war period"
The CSU politician and former Federal Minister of Agriculture Christian Schmidt has been High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the United Nations since August.
In his current report he writes: "Bosnia-Herzegovina is confronted with its gravest existential threat of the post-war period".
According to political scientist Dzihic, the coming weeks and months will be decisive.
It now comes down to de-escalation, he explains in the podcast.
“Dodik has crossed the red line several times.
The Americans and the Europeans have to show their colors, ”demands the native Bosnian.
(yo)