The European Union (EU) and NATO Monday expressed concern over the political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and urged politicians to stop unhelpful rhetoric.
"There is -- apart from positive developments -- certainly concern about the political rhetoric we are hearing, concern about what has been said by some politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Claudio Bisogniero will be in Sarajevo soon "to take the temperature of the water," he said after a meeting of NATO's decision-making North Atlantic Council and the EU's Political and Security Committee.
EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana also voiced concern over Bosnia. He said the rhetoric does not contribute to the Balkan country's objective of moving closer to the EU and NATO.
"I want to send this clear message to the leaders: it is necessary to keep on working together, stabilizing the country, moving the reform that has to be done. That will be the only way in which they can join the institutions that they claim they want to join," Solana told the same press conference.
Bosnia was divided into two autonomous regions -- the Serb Republic and a Muslim-Croat federation -- after the 1992-1995 Bosnia War. The two entities have coexisted under a weak central government.
But tension escalated recently between Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and leader of the central government, Haris Silajdzic.
On Wednesday, Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. official who brokered the peace deal, and Paddy Ashdown, a Briton who headed the international administration in Bosnia, warned that the Balkan state could collapse unless there is enough international involvement.
NATO had been responsible for peacekeeping in Bosnia after the 1992-1995 war. It transferred the responsibilities to the EU in December 2004 after the security situation improved. The alliance, however, maintains a headquarters in the country alongside an EU force.
Source:Xinhua
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