Latest news with #ChristianSchmidt
Straits Times
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Bosnia's peace envoy moves to unblock state finances, Serbs cry foul
FILE PHOTO: Bosnia's international High Representative Christian Schmidt during the interview for Reuters in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 10, 2023. REUTERS/Antonio Bronic/File Photo SARAJEVO - Bosnia's peace envoy issued a ruling on Thursday to clear a long-standing state debt that has blocked the 2025 budget and deepened a political crisis, but Serb politicians rejected his move, raising the prospect of more turmoil. Envoy Christian Schmidt, using his powers to intervene in laws and finance, ruled that debt would be paid out of the autonomous Serb Republic's share of road tolls, and said his final decision would come into force immediately. Serb ministers - who argue the debt to Slovenia's Viaduct company should be paid out of the profits of Bosnia's national central bank - said Schmidt's imposition of a ruling undermined the fractured nation's complex balance of powers. The dispute underlined the challenges of governing a country - an EU candidate made up of the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic - under the fragile Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Schmidt has his powers under a separate accord, though the Serbs do not recognise his appointment. "Schmidt ... does not have the right to make decisions and everything he does is breaking Bosnia and Herzegovina down," Serb Republic President Milorad Dodik told a press conference. "This shows that European politics here has collapsed," added Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist who wants the Serb Republic to secede from Bosnia. Dodik had accused the EU of backing Schmidt, a former German government minister. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Driverless bus in Sentosa gets green light to run without safety officer in first for S'pore World US strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, says new report Business 5 things to know about Kuok Hui Kwong, tycoon Robert Kuok's daughter and Shangri-La Asia head honcho Singapore Man charged over manufacturing DIY Kpods at Yishun home; first such case in Singapore Singapore Fatal abuse of Myanmar maid in Bishan: Traffic Police officer sentenced to 10 years' jail Singapore Two women jailed for submitting fake university certificates to MOM for employment passes Singapore Sex first, then you can sell my flat: Women property agents fend off indecent proposals and harassment Singapore Premium China carmaker Hongqi, known for Xi Jinping's limos, to launch in Singapore in 2026 HYDRO-POWER DEBT The Serb Republic incurred the debt to Viaduct after it terminated a contract for the building of a hydro-power plant in 2013, said Zeljka Cvijanovic, a Serb member of Bosnia's presidency who was the Serb Republic premier at the time. The company took the regional government to arbitration through the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, Schmidt said in his ruling. That body ruled in April 2022 that Bosnia as a whole should pay Viaduct nearly 80 million Bosnian marka ($47.4 million) - with interest fees taking it to its current level of about 120 million marka, Schmidt added. Bosniak and Croat members of the country's tripartite inter-ethnic presidency have refused to approve the 2025 state budget until it is clear how the debt will be paid. The stand-off is part of a broader political crisis that erupted after Dodik was sentenced in February to one year in jail and banned for six years from politics for defying Schmidt's decisions. He appealed against the court's ruling. On Thursday Schmidt ruled that 120 million marka from the Serb Republic's share of road tolls would be allocated to the Treasury to settle the Viaduct claim. "This approach is in line with a principle that one who incurs the debt must pay for it," he said. In a separate ruling, he said that the central bank's profits could now be used to pay to upgrade voting systems ahead of general elections due in 2026. Serb Republic Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic said his government will ask Serb ministers in the national government to dispute Schmidt's decisions. REUTERS
CTV News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
7 newly identified Srebrenica victims will be buried on the Bosnian massacre anniversary
A woman stands next to a truck carrying remains of the identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre to the Memorial centre in Potocari, where they will be buried on July 11, in Visoko, Bosnia, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Flowers tucked on its side, a blue truck carried coffins with the remains of seven newly identified victims of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica on their final journey through Bosnia to be buried on the 30th anniversary of Europe's only acknowledged post-World War II genocide. Dozens of people in the Bosnian town of Visoko paid their respects on rainy Wednesday morning as the truck departed in a convoy toward the capital Sarajevo, where it stopped on its way to Srebrenica. Hundreds of people lined up the streets, putting flowers on the truck or just standing in silence. 'This is teaching the younger generation and not forgetting,' said the top international official in Bosnia, High Representative Christian Schmidt. More than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica in July 1995, after Bosnian Serb fighters overran the small eastern Bosnian town during the final months of the war. The bodies were dumped in mass graves around Srebrenica and later reburied multiple times to hide evidence of the crimes. The seven victims who were recently identified were found in different locations over the past years. The UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide on the July 11 anniversary. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the United Nations and the world failed the people of Srebrenica — a UN-declared safe zone during the war — not as a result of 'an accident of history' but because of 'policies, propaganda, and international indifference.' The conflict in Bosnia erupted in 1992, when Bosnia's Serbs took up arms in a rebellion against Bosnia's independence from the former Yugoslavia and with an aim to create an own state and eventually unite with neighbouring Serbia. More than 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced before a U.S.-brokered peace agreement was reached in 1995. Bosnia remains ethnically split while both Bosnia's Serbs and neigbouring Serbia still refuse to acknowledge that the massacre in Srebrenica was a genocide despite rulings by two UN courts. Scores of Bosnian Serb political and military officials have been convicted and sentenced for genocide. Newly identified Srebrenica massacre victims are reburied every July 11 at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery outside the eastern town. Thousands of people are expected to mark the anniversary on Friday at the Potocari memorial complex near Srebrenica. Armin Durgut, The Associated Press
CTV News
18-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘Very impressive new facility': Winnipeg's newest firehall now open
Winnipeg's newest firehall is officially in operation. The city unveiled the new Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) Station #9 in Windsor Park. WFPS Chief Christian Schmidt said this new station has been designed to fit how Winnipeg is growing. 'This particular station combines two different older stations; the previous Station #9 on Marion Street and the previous Station #15, which was on this exact site,' Schmidt said. 'These two smaller stations had gotten older over time and had less space and capacity. This station places response efficiency and environmental efficiency at the forefront.' The new station has five bays with a fire engine and crew. A rescue unit, the hazardous materials team, an ambulance and its crew, and a fire investigator are all housed at the station. The station is also the first city building to have geothermal ground source heat pumps for both heating and cooling. The building is expected to reduce emissions by 98.6 per cent compared to other buildings its size. 'The team has worked hard to reclaim wood from the previous buildings for use in this station and includes details down to ensuring that the shrubs around this property are drought resistant,' said Schmidt. Winnipeg fire Station #9 The bays doors opened at Station #9 in Windsor Park on June 18, 2025. (Daniel Timmerman/CTV News Winnipeg) 'This is a very impressive new facility. It's one of the greenest buildings in the city's inventory, and it's going to help us deliver faster, more effective emergency service to Windsor Park and the surrounding neighbourhoods,' said Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham. The $16 million building also features recovery ventilators, a training room, an air compressor, and bifold bay doors, which are supposed to reduce response times by 15 seconds. 'This reflects the kind of investment that we are making as a city and that our city needs to keep making as we grow - investments that strengthen public safety, public health, investments that modernize our infrastructure, investments that reduce our long-term impact on our environment,' said Gillingham. This station is part of the WFPS master plan that came out in 2020, which highlights the need for stations in more strategic locations, which in turn will help with response times.
CTV News
16-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Celebrating 50 years of saving lives
Christian Schmidt, chief of Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, looks back at the 50-year evolution of paramedicine in Winnipeg.
Reuters
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Poland to ban Bosnian Serb leader Dodik from its territory
WARSAW, May 13 (Reuters) - Poland will ban Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik from entering its territory, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, amid a political crisis in the Balkan state where he is wanted for attacking the constitutional order. The decision means that Poland joins Germany and Austria in barring Dodik, who triggered Bosnia's biggest political crisis since the end of the country's war in the 1990s by allegedly defying rulings by the international envoy whose role is to prevent the multi-ethnic state from slipping back into conflict. "A procedure has been initiated regarding a national entry ban for Milorad Dodik," the Polish foreign ministry said in an email. "The procedure is ongoing. It will be finalised in a few days." The press office of Dodik's party did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Bosnia's international peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, said in April he had ordered a halt of all budget allocations for the Dodik's party. Bosnia's state police, SIPA, tried to arrest Dodik in April but were stopped by his armed police forces.
