What now for the role of high representative in Bosnia?
Key takeaways
- Christian Schmidt's departure as high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina doesn't look like a routine diplomatic handover.
- That is why any change at the top of the OHR carries weight far beyond a normal diplomatic handover.
- Although Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) cited the OHR at the weekend as saying that Schmidt had "personally decided" to step down, it is hard to read this resignation as a purely personal move.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Christian Schmidt's departure as high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina doesn't look like a routine diplomatic handover. It seems to indicate that international powers want something different from the role.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Dc Z4Christian Schmidt has resigned as Bosnia's international High Representative Image: Antonio Bronic/REUTERSAdvertisement The Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia confirmed on Monday that German politician Christian Schmidt, the top international envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will resign after five years in office.
The post of high representative was created after the 1992-95 Bosnian War to oversee the implementation of the US-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement, which left Bosnia divided into the Serb-majority Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, two entities linked by a weak central government.