Russia has declined to support the extension of a European Union peacekeeping force in Bosnia, saying the country’s citizens should not be pushed in the EU’s direction. But the rest of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday voted to extend for a year the military operation, while Russia abstained.
The vote reflects the wider tensions between Russia and the West in recent months.
The peacekeeping force known as EUFOR is meant to calm tensions that have lingered since the vicious 1992-1995 civil war between Bosnia’s three ethnic groups – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.
The U.N. high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, spoke bluntly about the need to change the country’s “vicious downward cycle of tit-for-tat politics” and warned those pushing for secession that borders won’t be redrawn.
Comments