OHR Press Releases

The High Representative today welcomed the results of yesterday's sessions of the RSNA and the BiH House of Peoples. “Bosnia and Herzegovina's legislative bodies took several important steps yesterday towards fulfilling its Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations”, he said. "The progress on Police reform and the breakthrough in Defence Reform and Pu [...]

The vote in the RSNA this evening is good news. There must be no confusion about what this means. The words speak for themselves. Within five years BiH will have a single integrated police service at the state level, and local police areas which will cross the IEBL in the limited areas where it is technically necessary.

Having examined the report presented to the Office of the High Representative on Friday 30 September the High Representative recognizes that the RS Government has finally complied with the HR's requirements as set out in his decision. Finally, the RS Government has taken its obligations seriously, and has now made available the information that the [...]

Ten days have passed since our press conference in which we set out what was at stake for Republika Srpska and BiH by refusing to agree to police restructuring in line with the EC principles.

The context in which a video showing Paddy Ashdown handling weapons that was aired during the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milisevic at the ICTY yesterday has deliberately been misrepresented.

The High Representative received a letter today from RS Minister of Interior Darko Matijasevic in response to a letter sent to the Minister on 21 September, in which the High Representative asked him to provide an explanation for the reasons behind a press conference held by the RS Policy in Pale on 9 September.

OHR welcomes the transfer, announced today, of Radovan Stanković from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to the BiH Court's War Crimes Chamber. This is the first case, under Rule 11bis, that the ICTY has referred to the jurisdiction of a domestic court in one of the countries of the Former Yugoslavia.

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has re-appointed Georg Halbach , effective immediately, as an International Prosecutor to the Special Department for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption in the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has appointed Manfred Dauster an International Judge in both the criminal and appellate divisions of the BiH Court's War Crimes and Organised Crime chambers. The appointment is a two-year term and is effective immediately.

Principal Deputy High representative Larry Butler today highlighted the need to centralize the banking supervision in BiH under the Central Bank in order to strengthen the banking system in the country.