The End of Trusteeship?

Bosnia's international supervisor, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, has announced that his position will self-destruct by mid-2007. After that time, he'll merely be the EU's special representative to Bosnia. The post of High Representative was created in late 1995 as part of the Dayton Accords. Very quickly, the High Rep acquired near colonial powers as the West struggled to get Bosnia's ethnic factions into line. The succession of diplomats who have filled the post have regularly enacted laws that Bosnia's parliament won't and fired elected politicians. When I was in Sarajevo late last year, street corner vendors peddled cartoons of a regal High Representative ruling over the country's squabbling politicians. It appears that era is now ending. Soon, we'll see how Bosnia's politicians do without an international hand on the tiller.