Valentin Inzko

Valentin Inzko   (diplomat, deep state operative?)
Born	22 May 1949
Nationality	Austrian
Alma mater	University of Graz, Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
Spouse	Bernarda Fink Inzko
Austrian diplomat with deep state job as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina  High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina  In office 1 March 2009 - 31 July 2021  European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina In office 1 March 2009 - 31 August 2011  Austria/Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina In office 1996 - 1999

Valentin Inzko is an Austrian diplomat who was the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1 March 2009 until 31 July 2021. From 2009 to 2011, he was also the European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As High Representative, he insisted the Republic of Srpska, the Serbian part of Bosnia, should strip former officials, Radovan Karadžič, Biljana Plavšić, and Momčilo Krajišnik of their medals and awards on the ground that they are “war criminals,” condemned as such by the Hague Tribunal. Ten days before he quite, he decreed a law banning Srebrenica “genocide denial”, making questioning or inquiry into the weak NATO narrative of the event a crime. The pressure is also part of a regime change effort in Republic of Srpska.

Background

Inzko was born into a Carinthian Slovene family in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. His father, Valentin Inzko Sr., was a renowned cultural and political activist of the local Slovene minority. Valentin Jr. attended a Slovene-German bilingual school. After finishing the Slovene language high school in Klagenfurt in 1967, he enrolled in the University of Graz, where he studied law and Slavic philology. Between 1972 and 1974, he attended the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

Besides Slovene and German, Inzko is fluent in English, Serbo-Croatian, Russian and Czech. Among other works, he has translated the essays of Václav Havel's Living in Truth and The Power of the Powerless into Slovene. He is married to Argentine Slovene opera singer Bernarda Fink Inzko.

Early career

In 1974, he entered the Austrian diplomatic service. Between 1982 and 1986, he worked as press attache at the Austrian embassy in Belgrade. After that, he worked at the Austrian mission to the United Nations. Between 1990 and 1996, he worked as the cultural attache at the Austrian embassy in the Czech Republic, and between 1996 and 1999, he was the Austrian ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Between October and December 1992, he was a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe mission to the Sandžak region in Serbia. In 2005, he was named as the Austrian ambassador to Slovenia. In June 2010, Inzko was elected to be chairman of the National Council of Carinthian Slovenes.

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (2009–2021)

In March 2009, Inzko became the seventh high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, an unelected position appointed by EU/NATO, replacing the Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajčák. Inzko thus became the second Carinthian Slovene to occupy that position, after Wolfgang Petritsch who was the high representative between 1999 and 2002.

On 9 June 2009, Inzko used his powers for the first time and sacked two police officials. The two officials were Bosniak Himzo Đonko, a police commissioner in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, blamed for threatening Bosnian international officials in a bid to obstruct an investigation in his abuse of power accusations, and Bosnian Serb Radislav Jovičić, an official in the State Investigation and Protection Agency, alleged to have used his subordinates to illegally follow and observe Inzko's staff.

In December 2020, Inzko, with the help of Sonja Karadžić-Jovičević, succeed in having a plaque honoring Radovan Karadžić, Sonja's father, removed after threatening Bosnian Serb leader and Presidency member Milorad Dodik with European Union sanctions if the plaque were not removed within six months.

On 27 May 2021, he resigned from his office of the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, with German politician Christian Schmidt set to become the new high representative on 1 August 2021.

In the last ten days of his term as high representative, on 23 July, Inzko unexpectedly imposed changes to the law banning the denial of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was met with heavy criticism by Bosnian Serb politicians, especially by Milorad Dodik, stating "We [Republika Srpska] are forced to go into dissolution" and repeating many times that the "genocide did not happen." While the Bosnian Serb politicians were criticizing Inzko, Bosniak politicians were praising him for the imposed changes, with Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegović congratulating Inzko for his decision. The chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Croat member Željko Komšić also praised Inzko for his "brave decision to impose these much necessary changes." Internationally, Inzko got support from Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman, as well as from the United States Embassy in Sarajevo.

On 1 August 2021, Schmidt officially became the new high representative, succeeding Inzko.

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References

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