However, with political tensions rising to dangerous levels, worsening economic prospects and growing social unrest it has once more become a major concern for the international community -- so much so that an important meeting next week in Sarajevo will discuss the recent developments, try to draw a new course for the country and of course endorse the recent appointment of the seventh high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.The meeting in question will be held by the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), which is an international body charged with implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was established by the implementation conference held in London in 1995. The council is, in effect, the realization, through the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, of the international community's supervision and governance of the country after the signing of the Dayton Agreement. This international supervision and control is to last until the country is deemed politically and democratically stable, secure and self-sustainable.
The PIC is made up of 55 countries and agencies that support a peace process through many different ways and means. It also clarifies the responsibilities of the high representative and its office as the main implementing organ of the civilian part of the Dayton Agreement, as depicted in Annex 10 of the agreement.
Since the London conference, the PIC has come together at the ministerial level another six times to review the progress and define the goals of peace implementation for the future. In this regard, the 1997 Bonn meeting was of paramount importance. It provided the high representative with the so-called "Bonn authority" to dismiss elected and nonelected officials who obstruct the implementation of the Dayton Agreement and to overturn laws, if need be. The high representative from 2006-2007, German Christian Schwarz-Schilling, used this power sparingly, to promote confidence in elected, domestic government. On the other hand, his successor Miroslov Lajcak was more enthusiastic to initially use the "Bonn powers."
Now, all eyes are on the seventh high representative, Valentin Inzko, who was appointed by the PIC Steering Board last Friday. In fact, high representatives wear two hats or represent two bodies at the same time: the EU and the international community. For this reason Inzko will be representing both at the same time.
Inzko, 59, was born in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt. He is a member of the Slovenian minority in the Carinthia region of Austria near the border with Slovenia. After graduating from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, he worked as the deputy head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, and deputy head of the UNDP office in Colombo, Sri Lanka. After joining the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, he served in the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade as a press and cultural attaché and Austrian counselor at the United Nations in New York. He also served as the head of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Sandzak (Sancak), a predominantly Muslim region in Serbia, as the head of the Cultural Council of the Austrian Embassy in Prague and as the Austrian ambassador in Sarajevo. From 1995 to 2005 he worked at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs as the head of the Department for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus. Since January 2005 he has been the Austrian ambassador to Slovenia.
After such important diplomatic work and experience, his intimate knowledge of Bosnia and Herzegovina and his mastery of local languages, Inzko should be able to surpass his predecessors in implementing the peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, to be able to achieve this he needs to have three things, as did his predecessors: strong support and unwavering commitment of the international community, the goodwill of local political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the support of Bosnian people for change.
Whether seventh High Representative Inzko will have these elements and be successful remains to be seen.
