The United States will continue to use all of its authorities to promote accountability for those who undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement and democracy in the Western Balkans.
The United States is designating Marinko Cavara and Alen Seranic, both of whom have obstructed or threatened the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and have undermined Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) democratic processes or institutions. They continue to pursue ethno-nationalist interests at the expense of the peace, stability, and prosperity of their country. These destabilizing activities undermine BiH’s chosen future within the Euro-Atlantic community and prevent the country and its citizens from realizing their full potential.
For more information on today’s action, please see the Department of the Treasury’s press release .
BiH is facing its most serious crisis since 1995, constrained by ethno-nationalist political parties sustained by patronage networks. The ruling coalition in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity is moving to establish parallel structures that undermine the authority of state-level institutions, and leaders of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina are crippling the country’s democratic processes.
Marinko Cavara and Alen Seranic are being designated pursuant to Executive Order 14033 and for being responsible for, or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the Western Balkans. Cavara’s refusal to nominate judges to fill vacancies on the Federation of BiH (FBiH) Constitutional Court has blocked the function of the Court’s Vital National Interest panel, a body of FBiH Constitutional Court judges created by 2002 amendments to the FBiH Constitution by the High Representative for BiH that is intended to address key issues raised by delegates in the FBiH House of Peoples. This has prevented key reforms and hindered democratic processes or institutions. Such failures in governance impact the well-being, prosperity, and rights of citizens across the FBiH. Seranic furthered efforts to create an RS entity-level agency for medicines and medical devices that will undermine the state-level Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices and is an attack on BiH’s constitutional order. The United States strongly urges RS leadership to respect the Dayton Peace Agreement and return to work within existing state institutions and to reverse efforts to create illegal parallel institutions in the RS.
