The US sanctions against the President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Marinko Cavara, is "an act of arrogant terrorising of the legitimate representative of the Croat people" in that country, and Croatia should protect him, President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday.

The US Treasury Department on Monday added HDZ BiH official, Marinko Cavara, and Republika Srpska Health Minister, Alen Seranic, from Milorad Dodik’s SNSD party, to the sanctions list of BiH officials, explaining that they “pursue ethnonationalist and political agendas at the expense of the democratic institutions and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” and undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Milanovic said in a statement that this amounted to “arrogant terrorising of the legitimate representative of the Croat people in BiH” and that Croatia “must provide him with all the necessary protection.”

The explanation for the sanctions – that Cavara is undermining the Dayton Agreement – “is politically illiterate and very cynical because US diplomacy had and still has its fingers in undermining that agreement, along with the High Representatives for BiH,” Milanovic added.

“If anyone is defending the BiH Constitution and democratic processes – which imply legitimate election and representation in government – it is representatives of BiH Croats, whose future has been shaped for years by international tutors without their having any say, and who are now being threatened and sanctioned,” said Milanovic.