Commenting on an indictment against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Saturday that the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina uses his powers to protect himself but is not using them to protect the rights of Bosnian Croats.

“He changes the laws the way he sees fit, he changes the Criminal Code the way he sees fit but where was he a year ago, when he could have used his powers to change BiH’s electoral law… without violating the Dayton constitution, and to prevent Bosniaks from electing the Croat member of the BiH Presidency. He did not do that, but in order to save his own hide and reputation he changed the Criminal Code to make what Dodik did an offence. That’s called colonial government and that is destroying that country,” Milanovic told reporters before the start of the Neretva Boat Marathon in Metkovic.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday issued an indictment against President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity Milorad Dodik for non-compliance with decisions by the international community’s High Representative. If found guilty, he faces a prison sentence of six months to five years.

The indictment is a consequence of attempts by the RS entity authorities to block the implementation of the BiH Constitutional Court’s decisions by adopting a special law in the entity parliament.

The law, adopted by the RS National Assembly on 27 June, was annulled by High Representative to BiH Christian Schmidt.

Schmidt also imposed changes to the BiH Criminal Code to outlaw non-compliance with his decisions.

Dodik ignored the High Representative’s decisions and on 7 July signed a decree on the entry into force of the law annulled by Schmidt.

Milanovic said that Schmidt was a “retired German politician with an insignificant legacy, installed as a colonial governor in BiH, and with no mandate from the (UN) Security Council,” adding that some foreign embassies in BiH, specifically the US embassy, were behind Schmidt’s decisions.

Milanovic said that Dodik phoned him on Friday to tell him about the indictment.

“Is that the way to deescalate the situation in BiH?,” Milanovic said, adding that he would continue “calling on all stakeholders in the region – Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks – for us to hold talks without those colonial governors.”

Milanovic said that BiH “is a colony governed incompetently by a handful of third-rate bureaucrats” who invent new offences, “but when it comes to an entirely simple thing such as protecting the Croat people in BiH from a third party electing their representative… they are busy doing something else.”