OHR Press Releases

The Head of the Office of the High Representative in Banja Luka, Graham Day, resigned late on Friday last week. Mr Day resigned at a meeting with High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, as a result of irreconcilable differences over internal issues relating to the management of the OHR Banja Luka.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bulwark against any return to violence – it has a clear future in Euro-Atlantic structures, in both the European Union and NATO, which will make it impossible that it should ever be attacked or disintegrate in war again.

Publication of the list of names drawn up by the RS Srebrenica Working Group, listing every individual serving in an official, police or military function in the Srebrenica area at the time of the Srebrenica Massacre, would not serve the cause of justice, the High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, said today.

The High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, today amended the Law on the Federation Banking Agency (FBA) to enablethe continued functioning of the FBA Board.

The High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, has extended the mandate of Sven Marius Urke as an international member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, until 30 June 2007.

The sooner police reform is agreed and implemented, the sooner the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to tackle crime effectively, the High Representative and EU Special Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, wrote in his weekly column, which appeared in the BiH press today.

Among the items on the agenda of tomorrow’s session of the BiH House of Representatives – the last session before the summer recess – are proposals to introduce a new two-tier VAT rate and to reduce the repayment period for holders of frozen foreign currency accounts.

A democracy that is protected and consolidated through executive powers granted to an extraneous institution cannot develop the necessary inner strength to sustain itself, the High Representative and European Union Special Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling stressed today, in a column published in BiH newspapers.

The BiH Council of Ministers today issued a legal opinion stating that the proposed amendments to the Law on Settlement of Frozen Foreign Currency Accounts - which would reduce the payment period to five years - would place an intolerable burden on BiH's public finances and jeopardize the administration of orderly payments to those whose accounts w [...]