On February 21st, representatives of the Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAACBH) met with Marshall Harris, a former State Department Official who worked in the Executive Secretariat and European Bureau and was a special assistant in the Office of former Secretary of State James Baker. Mr. Harris resigned from his post at the State Department in protest of the State Department’s policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993. He is now Senior Policy Adviser at Alston and Bird LLP and Foreign Policy Adviser to former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.

BAACBH representatives expressed their gratitude for Mr. Harris’ hard work as well as his longstanding friendship to Bosnia and Herzegovina. After his resignation from the State Department, Mr. Harris co-founded an NGO, Action Council for Peace in the Balkans, which united prominent Americans in support of stronger U.S. intervention in Bosnia. Among other things, it worked on overturning the unjust United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Bosnia and Herzegovina, which prohibited any aid in the form of weapons to be supplied to Bosnia and Herzegovina (a sovereign state) while it suffered through the aggression of 1992-1995. More recently, Mr. Harris provided support for the Srebrenica Resolution (S. Res. 134) in the United States Congress.

BAACBH representatives and Mr. Harris discussed the importance of advocacy that works for the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its diaspora. Mr. Harris was pleased that an advocacy group such as BAACBH now exists in Washington, D.C. to assist United States foreign policy in the Balkans. He stated, “Vital work remains unfinished in Bosnia. [The] BAACBH will play a key role in keeping U.S. policymakers and opinion-shapers informed and focused on this agenda.”