The top international envoy overseeing Bosnia’s peace deal will resign after five years in office, German media reported on Sunday, citing the Office of the High Representative .
The OHR was established after the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, which killed around 100,000 people and displaced millions.
The High Representative oversees the civilian implementation of the Dayton peace accords that ended the conflict and his mandate is not time-limited.
Former German agriculture minister Christian Schmidt, 68, “has personally decided to end his service in implementing the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing a statement from his office.
According to the newspaper, Schmidt will remain in office until a successor is appointed.
The OHR told AFP late on Sunday it had no further comment.
Schmidt is currently in New York, where he is due to present a six-month report on Bosnia to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
His tenure has been marked by tensions with Bosnia’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska, one of the country’s two autonomous regions linked by a weak central government.
When Schmidt took office in 2021, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik immediately branded him “illegitimate”, arguing he lacked formal approval from the UN Security Council because of opposition from Russia and China.
Schmidt nevertheless vowed to use all “political tools” at his disposal to make Bosnia a more functional state anchored to the European Union.
Dodik, who maintains close ties with the Kremlin, portrayed Schmidt as a threat to Republika Srpska and dismissed him as “a tourist with no power”.
According to FAZ, Schmidt’s departure is not entirely voluntary and “business interests linked to the Trump family could play a role”.
Dodik has forged ties with people in the US president’s circle.
Donald Trump Jr. recently visited the Republika Srpska capital, Banja Luka, on what was described as a “friendly basis”.
Also, former US presidential adviser Michael Flynn has cultivated close ties with the Serb entity and, according to media reports, lobbied on its behalf.
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
