The international community must realize that its role in the Western Balkans is to help and not to rule, the High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, said at a panel discussion within the Bled Forum on Tuesday.

Commenting on the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Schmidt said that that country did not need the “Dayton No.2” and that its citizens must take the matters into their own hands and have a say about their destiny.

Schmidt, who on Monday met with Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman, said that the international community must realize that the purpose of its presence in that part of Europe should be to help the region rather than ruling the region.

U.S. politician, Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs responsible for the South Central European (SCE) portfolio, warned about the worst demographic problem affecting Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He believes that people are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina due to corruption and not because they do not want to live in a multi-ethnic state.

However, Escobar said that a majority of disputes in the region over the recent years stemmed from the treatment and status of minorities either it be the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Serbs in northern Kosovo.

He called for creating a new compact that will make it possible for minorities to feel “represented, valued, integrated.”