High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina  (Ambassador)
Start	Dayton Peace Agreement 14 December 1995
Website	http://www.ohr.int
The Western proconsul ruling over the semi-colony of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Western proconsul ruling over the semi-colony of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the position was created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–95 Bosnian War. This international control over Bosnia and Herzegovina is to last until the country is deemed politically and democratically stable and self-sustainable.

The position has been held by a high percentage of Western deep state operatives, including Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Chairman of Le Cercle and deep politician Carl Bildt. Interestingly, all the "Principal Deputy High Representatives" are Americans, mostly career Foreign Service Officers with significant ties to the intelligence community.

The "Bonn Powers" of the OHR

The powers of the High Representative were determined in 1997-1998 at the Bonn and Madrid meetings by the Peace Implementation Council (consisting mostly of NATO countries + Russia). The OHR was given powers to:

• Determine the place and time of joint meetings of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the order of chairmanship at them.
• In cases where the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not come to an agreement, issue interim decisions that are binding on all authorities.
• Remove any official from office, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in its constituent entities.
• Prohibit any person from participating in elections and from holding any "elected or appointed public office, as well as office in political parties."

High Representatives have actively exercised these rights. So, in 1997-1998 Carlos Westendorp independently approved his own design of the coat of arms and flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the law on citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also overturned all decisions made by the courts of the Republika Srpska on the termination of housing rights and the redistribution of apartments from April 30, 1991. Other examples include the the adoption of the Defence reform in April 2003, with the suppression of the Supreme Defence Council of the Republika Srpska, and the amendment of Entity Constitutional Laws.

On more than one occasion, the Supreme Representatives intervened in the process of filling senior government positions. The same Carlos Westendorp on March 5, 1999 announced the dismissal of Nikola Poplašen from the post of President of the Republika Srpska, which was ignored, after which this decision was enforced on September 2, 1999 by the next High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, who then until December 16, 2000 year did not recognize the assumption of the post of President-elect Mirko Sharovic. March 7, 2001 member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Croats Ante Jelavic was removed from office by decision of Wolfgang Petritsch. On May 9, 2005 by the decision of Baron Ashdown another Croat, Dragan Covic, was removed. On April 2, 2003, Serb member Mirko Sharovic, accused by Baron Ashdown of involvement in violations of the arms embargo against Iraq, was forced to resign as chairman of the presidency.

Until 2004, the OHR had dismissed a total of 139 officials, including judges, ministers, civil servants and members of parliaments, sometimes along with freezing their bank accounts. After the 2002 elections, the OHR scrutinised all political candidates for major ministerial positions at Entity and State level.

Criticisms of the action of the OHR through its Bonn powers include:

• the lack of accountability of his position, which is only responsible to the Peace Implementation Council; in reality USA/EU/NATO
• the lack of appeal of his decisions, which are not bound on a preliminary hearing of the concerned persons, and which have immediate effect. Removals may in some cases also impose a lifetime ban on public offices.

The OHR's prolonged interference in the politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also considered to be one of the causes of the low commitment of citizens towards the state (shown by low voter turnout) and of low accountability of politicians (whose actions are subject to external final and non-appealable review).

Occupation of media

In 1997 NATO troops took possession of a vital transmitter which had been broadcasting the Bosnian-Serbian TV station SRT. They returned it under an agreement gave the OHR the task of putting together one hour of programming each night on current themes. In early October 1997, SRT again "pushed its luck too far", suggesting that Louise Arbour, the chief prosecutor at the International War Crimes tribunal at The Hague, had said that no Serb would ever be given a fair trial for war crimes. The response was "swift and overwhelming", where NATO troops occupied four separate transmitters in as many hours, and made it clear that this time they would be returned only if there were clear "improvements" in SRT's editorial output.

List of Principal Deputy High Representatives

The second-ranking official at the Office of the High Representative carries the title of "Principal Deputy High Representative (PDHR)." The individual filling that role has always been an official of the United States Government, in most cases a career Foreign Service Officer of the U.S. Department of State with intelligence ties.

#	Officeholder		Born	Term of Office		Country
		Raffi Gregorian	1964	October 2006	August 2010	United States
		Roderick W. Moore	1964	September 2010	October 2013	United States
		Tamir G. Waser		October 2013	August 2014	United States
		David M. Robinson	1955	September 2014	June 2015	United States
		Bruce G. Berton	1961	September 2015	October 2017	United States
		Dennis Walter Hearne		October 2017	November 2018	United States
		Michael Scanlan		February 2019	Incumbent	United States

 

Office Holders on Wikispooks

Name	From	To
Valentin Inzko	1 March 2009	31 July 2021
Miroslav Lajčák	30 June 2007	26 March 2009
Christian Schwarz-Schilling	30 May 2006	30 June 2007
Paddy Ashdown	27 May 2002	30 May 2006
Wolfgang Petritsch	August 1999	27 September 2002
Carl Bildt	14 December 1995	18 June 1997

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