OFAC Sanctions Bosnian Serb Officials for Undermining Peace Deal

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on March 13 sanctioned three people in the Bosnian Serb Republic for helping Serb Republic President Milorad Dodik undermine the “peace and stability” of Bosnia and Herzegovina. OFAC said the three people “facilitated Dodik’s efforts to undermine” the Dayton Peace Agreement, the 1995 accords that ended the yearslong Bosnian War, and the “authority” of the Bosnian Constitutional Court.

The designations target Branislav Okuka, who was part of a group of Dodik advisers who had nationalist Serb and pro-Russia sympathies and planned to “transfer power” from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Bosnian Serb institutions. The agency also sanctioned Jelena Pajic Bastinac, Dodik’s secretary general, and Srebrenka Golic, the chair of the People’s Council of the Bosnian Serb Republic.