The United States on Monday announced sanctions on two Bosnian officials, saying they sought “to pursue ethno-nationalist and political agendas at the expense of the democratic institutions and citizens” of Bosnia.
Bosnia was the site of a violent interethnic war in the 1990s after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
The U.S. said Marinko Cavara, in his capacity as the president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of Bosnia’s two postwar administrative parts, “directly or indirectly engaged in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes and institutions.”
The U.S. said Alen Seranic, health and social welfare minister in the government of Bosnia’s other administrative part, Republika Srpska, was engaged in “furthering the secessionist efforts.”
The two sanctioned officials will be blocked from access to property fully or partially owned in the U.S.
“Marinko Cavara and Alen Seranic have each sought to pursue ethno-nationalist and political agendas at the expense of the democratic institutions and citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in the news release.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted Monday that Bosnia’s future “cannot be compromised by ethno-nationalist parties at the expense of its citizens.”
Both officials are accused of undermining the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended 3½ years of fighting among ethnic Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks in Bosnia and left more than 100,000 people dead.
Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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