Bosnia and Herzegovina

Adama Dieng, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, acknowledged today’s final appeal judgment by the Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, largely upholding the 2016 guilty verdict against Radovan Karadžic and increasing his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.

Urging the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to speedily form a new Government following recent elections, the Security Council today renewed its authorization of the European-led multinational stabilization force (EUFOR Althea) for one further year, amid a briefing and debate on the situation in the country.

Civilians continue to suffer high casualties, with the combined use of suicide and non-suicide improvised explosive devices by non-government fighters remaining the leading cause, according to the latest report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The new Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, Ivica Dronjić, presented his credentials to UN Secretary‑General António Guterres today.

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is providing logistical support and the World Health Organization is sending medical supplies and expertise to the Ministry of Health and its partners to facilitate ground operations in response to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu Province.

With Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general elections scheduled for 7 October, and in light of a worrying uptick in divisive nationalist rhetoric, the international community must remain united and coordinate its efforts to ensure a united, stable and prosperous country, the top international official in the federation told the Security Council this morning.

The Secretary-General is encouraged by the announcement of an agreement between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to hold a summit meeting by May.  He reiterates his support for all efforts towards peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today convicted Ratko Mladiæ on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, giving him a life sentence.  Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the judgment was a milestone in the Tribunal’s history and international criminal justice.

Urging all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina to step up the pace of reforms and to refrain from polarizing actions and rhetoric, the Security Council today renewed its authorization of the European-led multinational stabilization force (EUFOR ALTHEA) for one further year before commencing a debate on the situation in the country.

While Bosnia and Herzegovina was largely stable and had made considerable political strides, its continued progress must not be taken for granted, the senior United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today, while expressing concern over divisive trends that risked reopening the Federation’s “wounds of the past”.