Accused of war crimes, destabilizers of the state or suspected of corruption and ties to organized crime. These are the reasons why around 1.000 persons, companies and organizations in BiH are on the so-called American one "blacklist".
Among them is Milorad Dodik, a member of the State Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He assures that the sanctions "don't hurt him", but precisely because of the sanctions, the distance of Western diplomats towards him is getting stronger.
All those from state, entity, and judicial institutions are in such a position, whose credibility was shaken by being placed on the "black list". Their access to property in the USA or travel to that country is impossible, while they face restrictions in BiH itself.
The only exception is if the US authorities issue a permit.
Contrary to Dodik, some of them openly talk about it. Let's look back at the recent past and the impact that sanctions have had on individuals, groups or institutions.
What are the reasons for sanctioning?
Among the persons on the American "black list" are the most numerous accused and convicted war criminals, their close relatives, friends and associates. Other reasons are corruption, terrorism, organized crime and obstruction of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Most of these organizations no longer exist, some people have had their sanctions lifted, and some have passed away, but they are still on the list.
Among those sanctioned is Ljubo Ćesić Rojs. For Radio Free Europe (RSE) he says that US sanctions have "ruined his life".
"I've been living miserably for twenty years. I can't open a company. I can't have a bank card. I have a special protected giro account into which they pay my pension. They don't let me live," Royce told Radio Free Europe (RSE).
He is a retired general of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and the Croatian Army (HV), military forces during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia in the 1990s. It was placed on the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department in 2003.
For Rojs, it was stated that the sanctions were imposed "for undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement", signed in 1995, which ended the war in BiH, and the same explanation was given for dozens of other persons from BiH, without additional details.
Royce says that he was put on the American "blacklist" on the same day as HVO generals Anto Gotovina, who was acquitted of war crimes indictments before the court in The Hague, and Rahim Ademi, who was acquitted of war crimes indictments before the court in Zagreb.
While Ante Gotovina was on the run, he was banned from entering the European Union. Today, there are no problems with crossing the border, although he says that "since 1990, he has traveled abroad only five or six times". He cannot cross the American border.
Royce was trying to find a way to get him off the list.
"I don't have money for lawyers. I wrote myself and General (Rahim) Ademi (also a Croatian general) a complaint and sent it to that office (OFAC). They took him off the list, they didn't... I got an answer from OFAC at the end of in November 2022 that they are working on that case, but nothing concrete," said Rojs.
Karadzic convicted, sanctions remain
Milovan Bjelica was put on the "black list" of the USA in 2004, after he was arrested by the then international Stabilization Forces (SFOR). He was detained for 60 days at the NATO base near Sarajevo. It is still on the list today.
In the explanation, he was charged with "criminal activities" and helping Radovan Karadžić, a fugitive and now convicted war criminal.
In 2003, the Cabinet of the High Representative of the International Community (OHR) in BiH dismissed Milovan Cicko Bjelica from the head of the Assembly of the City of Srpsko (today Istočno) Sarajevo and banned him from holding official, elective or appointed public functions and running in elections.
"At that time, I was also on the European 'black list'. The decision stated that I would be sanctioned until Radovan Karadžić was arrested. Until then, for all transactions over 100 marks (around 50 euros), I had to explain to the OHR why were spent. When Karadzic was arrested in 2008, the EU countries lifted their sanctions. The USA did not," Bjelica told RSE.
In October 2006, Bjelica was acquitted in the "Privredna banka Srpsko Sarajevo" case, where he was tried with Momčilo Mandić, Mirko Šarović and Milorad Govedarica, among other things, for approving loans without guarantees.
According to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, anyone who conceals a criminal offense, the perpetrator or the means by which that offense was committed "shall be punished as if he had committed it himself, and may be punished more lightly." Bjelica was not charged before the court with hiding Karadžić.
The Office of the High Representative (OHR) has powers of "final interpretation" of the Agreement on the Civilian Implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, can amend, repeal and impose laws, and remove appointed or elected individuals.
"I was under OHR and EU measures for ten years and I was not employed, I had no rights to pension and disability insurance," Bjelica recalled.
The OHR's ban on Bjelica was lifted in 2011. The following year, in the local elections of 2012, 2016 and 2020, he was elected mayor of Sokolac, a municipality about 40 kilometers east of Sarajevo.
After the ban was lifted, he is allowed, he says, to have a bank account where he gets paid, and he also has a bank card. Bjelica says that he does not intend to travel to the USA, and that he did not even ask for the sanctions to be lifted.
Sanctioned and political party
The American blacklist also includes "entities", i.e. legal entities and various organizations.
Among them since 2004 is the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), which was founded by Radovan Karadžić, Biljana Plavšić and Momčilo Krajišnik with a group of like-minded people on July 12, 1990. All three were convicted of war crimes in the years after the war.
After January 9, 1992, Karadžić became the president of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska, Plavšić the vice-president, and Krajišnik the president of the Assembly of the Republika Srpska. SDS had 72 out of a total of 83 deputies in that war assembly.
After the war, the party formed the majority at the level of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity and was part of the state government.
The work of the party was not banned, although such an invitation was sent from the International Crisis Group in 2005 to the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which has such powers.
None of the parties that based their programs on extreme nationalism were banned after the war.
SDS has been the main opposition party in the RS Assembly since 2006, where Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) has the majority today. Although SDS emphasizes that they are a "party of continuity", today they lead a more moderate policy.
Zoran Latinović, general secretary of SDS, says that the activities of the parties are regulated by the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to which they do not have the right to do financial business with foreign countries.
"Donations from abroad are strictly prohibited. On the domestic market, we once had problems with opening transaction accounts. Today we have a main account, and we also opened a dedicated account for this year's general elections. If an online payment cannot be made, a contract is drawn up. We had to to improvise, but we found solutions," Latinović told RSE.
According to him, the sanctions hit more than 50 officials of that party the most, who "were left without the right to work and livelihood".
"We hope that SDS will soon be removed from that list. President (Mirko) Šarović had diplomatic contacts and it is always one of the topics at meetings with representatives of the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The American administration is relatively quick in imposing and slow in removing from that list," concluded Latinović.
Tegeltija and Dodik about the impact of sanctions on them
In June 2021, US President Joseph Biden expanded the scope of the Executive Order (Balkans Executive Order 14033), which additionally defines sanctions for individuals and organizations from the countries of the Western Balkans that threaten the peace and stability of the region.
BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik, who is also the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, the ruling party in the Republika Srpska entity, has been on OFAC's blacklist since 2017 due to "obstruction of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement".
New sanctions were imposed on Dodik in January 2022, according to Biden's new executive order.
"I never had anything in America, I didn't have an account in America, I didn't have any business in America, I have no intention of going to America, even if the sanctions were lifted, I wouldn't go," Dodik said after the new sanctions were announced.
He repeated that "sanctions cannot harm him" even after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him and the president of the RS entity Željka Cvijanović for "forcing the de facto secession of Republika Srpska".
They both stressed that they have no assets in the US and the UK, and like all the people on those lists, they are banned from entering those countries.
And Milan Tegeltija, the former president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), today the legal advisor of BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik, claims that the sanctions imposed on him by the USA "do not have too much influence" on his life.
"I can't travel to the USA, neither me nor my wife, which I'm not happy about, because I love the USA and have been there several times. It has no other impact on my life, because these sanctions only refer to the ban on entering the USA," he said. is Tegeltija for RSE.
He was put on the "black list" of the State Department on January 5, 2022, together with his wife Tijana, and Mirsad Kukić, a former high-ranking official of the Party of Democratic Action and the Party of Democratic Activity.
Who was the last to be added to the "blacklist"?
In April 2022, the American OFAC imposed sanctions on Asim Sarajlić, a delegate in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament, and Gordana Tadić, the former chief state prosecutor.
Marinko Čavara, president of the entity Federation of BiH and official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of BiH, and Alen Šeranić, minister of health of the entity Republika Srpska and official of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, are the last persons from BiH to be on OFAC's list on June 6, 2022 .
In April 2022, OFAC removed several persons from BiH from that list.
Among them is Hasan Čengić, a former high-ranking official of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) who died in November 2021.
The former colonel of the Republika Srpska Army, Ljubiša Beara, who died in February 2017 and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court in The Hague in 2015 for war crimes, was also deleted.
In September 2021, the wartime president of the Assembly of the Republika Srpska, Momčilo Krajišnik, who was sentenced to 2009 years in prison in The Hague in 20 for war crimes in BiH, and who died in September 2020, was removed from that list.
Procedure for lifting sanctions
Each year, OFAC delists hundreds of individuals and entities, each based on OFAC's thorough review.
The procedure is simple - send a letter or email to OFAC detailing the reasons why a person or company should be removed from the list. Each case is considered separately. Hiring a lawyer is not necessary. This starts the review process.
There is usually a three-month wait for a response, and OFAC officers often send one or more additional questionnaires that must be completed by the sanctioned person, representative of the company or organization.
"Some examples of situations that may lead to delisting include: a positive change in behavior, the death of the person, the basis for listing no longer exists, or it was based on mistaken identity," OFAC said.
In making its listing determination, OFAC relies on information from many sources, including, but not limited to, relevant United States government agencies, foreign governments, United Nations expert groups, and media reports and other available reports.
OFAC investigators then conduct a thorough investigation, including a review of all information.
Prior to OFAC's final decision, the list is subject to review by the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, and other US agencies.
If the request for removal from the list is rejected, the sanctioned person can restart the procedure if he submits new arguments and evidence.
It is up to the banks to assess the risk
Most of the banks in BiH are owned by banks whose headquarters are in the European Union. As for payment cards, MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards are issued in BiH, and those companies are from the USA.
The Association of Banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina told RFE/RL that by law banks are "obliged to adopt an assessment of the riskiness of the client, business relationship, transaction or product, including bank accounts, loans, etc." and the bank, if it deems it so, may refuse to issue a card or open an account.
Before executing the transaction, banks check "whether the participants in the transaction are recorded on the sanction lists, which are implemented in the policies and procedures of correspondent banks from the USA and EU member states".
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