prijava
SARAJEVO, March 16 (FENA) - All three persons who were placed under sanctions have behaved contrary to the provisions of the Dayton Peace Accords, and the decisions on the introduction of sanctions were made based on thoroughly collected evidence, said at the briefing held for BiH journalists Ambassador James O'Brien, head of the Office for Coordination of Sanctions at the US State Department.
Yesterday, the US Department of Finance and Treasury (OFAC) put on the list of sanctioned officials the former director of the Intelligence and Security Agency of BiH (OSA) Osman Mehmedagić, the director of the RS Administration for Geodetic and Property Legal Affairs (RUGIPP) of the RS, Dragan Stanković and Edin Gačanin, who is associated with trade in narcotics.
O'Brian emphasized that the USA is working to ensure the proper functioning of public institutions and that public institutions are not used for political interests, as this is of key importance for BiH, which is an aspirant for membership in the European Union and NATO.
Speaking about Mehmedagić, he said that he used a public enterprise in favor of one political party, which undermines the Dayton Peace Agreement and is unacceptable. In the case of Stanković, he says that he tried to take over the property of the state that belongs to all citizens of BiH so that its future could be decided by one BiH entity or one political party, and that is the essence of the anti-Dayton behavior.
When it comes to Gačanin, he was involved in numerous criminal activities, although, says O'Brien, no attention was paid to this in the BiH media, he warns that this would be very important to stop the execution of serious crimes.
Ambassador James O'Brien, who is head of the Office for Coordination of Sanctions at the US State Department, said that he is closely related to Bosnia and Herzegovina because he attended the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
He was in charge of the legal part of the Dayton Peace Agreement, of which the Constitution of BiH is also a part, and after that in the State Department he was in charge of the countries of the Western Balkans, which is why he has many years of experience and knows the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina well.
Back in Dayton, they worked with representatives of political parties and politicians to create a structure in which public goods would be protected by clear procedures, which is the essence of government and the establishment of the rule of law, but now, says O'Brien, they have become convinced that too often politicians use public goods for personal interests.
Since the journalists asked how Mehmedagić might have been on that list even though he had quite good relations with the USA, which he claims, O'Brien said that decisions are made after a long research process, they use all available resources and nothing happens 'overnight'.
“A large number of people supervise these processes. No one should be surprised, and at the same time, this list targets an individual. We will not explain this decision publicly. We work closely with institutions that are interested parties and share information. There may be additional steps related to this information, but I cannot predict them. This is something that functional institutions do. They look at the evidence and take certain steps,” he explained.
Along with the journalist's statement that many BiH citizens are already under US sanctions that have not brought results, O'Brien says that sanctions are not enough but are only part of the policy and what they want to see is that public procedures and actions function in a way that needs.
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