The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konakovic, announced this Tuesday the expulsion of two members of the Serbian Embassy in Sarajevo, declared "persona non grata" and required to leave the country within a maximum of 48 hours, following their presence at the funeral held in Belgrade for the former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic.
"The decision represents a continuation of the concrete measures of the Ministry in response to the glorification of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic and the unacceptable messages coming from Serbia in recent days," the ministry stated in a message disseminated on social media.
The affected diplomats are the military attaché of the Serbian Embassy, Milan Dulanovic, and the advisor to the representative of the Security Information Agency, Darko Maksimovic, who, according to the Ministry, would have crossed "all the red lines" with their behavior.
Konakovic added that Bosnia and Herzegovina will not sign the joint declaration on good neighborly relations and regional cooperation scheduled for October 1 in Montenegro and that it will reduce the number of members of its diplomatic mission in Belgrade.
"As a candidate country for the European Union, Serbia is expected to align its legislation and practices with the EU's acquis communautaire. The public and institutional glorification of individuals convicted of genocide and other war crimes is fundamentally incompatible with the standards and values expected of a future EU member state," the ministry indicated on social media.
The decision has provoked strong political rejection. The Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljka Cvijanovic, stated on social media that the mandate of one of the alleged expelled diplomats "expired a long time ago" and that he had already left the country.
Cvijanovic also argues that the Minister of Foreign Affairs lacks the authority to expel diplomats or to appoint and dismiss ambassadors on his own initiative, and that this responsibility falls to the Council of Ministers or the Tripartite Presidency.
"For such revocation procedures, it is necessary to have evidence of the reasons that support this decision. I will request from the competent institutions information on whether there are reasons for it, or if Konakovic, out of impotence, has had a fit of rage," he criticized, encouraging the Serbian military attaché to stay in the Republic Srpska, where he would be offered "hospitality and protection."
As a prior step to this escalation, Konakovic had already announced the withdrawal of personnel from the Bosnian legation in Belgrade who did not directly depend on the approval of the tripartite Presidency, with only the ambassador and the consul remaining in their positions.
The country is structured into two semi-autonomous administrative entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a Bosniak and Croat majority, and the Republic Srpska, with a Serb-Bosnian majority, with Sarajevo as the capital of the State and the Federation.
The expulsion occurs just weeks before the general elections, which will take place in a climate of high political tension, after the president of the Serb-Bosnian entity, the Republic Srpska, has been condemned for disobeying the decisions of the High Representative in charge of overseeing the implementation of the peace agreements.
The Dayton Agreement, signed in 1995 to end the war, consolidated ethnic fractures both territorially and institutionally, by establishing a very complex political framework that allows citizens to vote at the state, entity, and cantonal levels.