The Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo on Friday issued a press release saying that the ambassadors of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) member-states - France, Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Russia, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan as well as the European Union, asked for the revocation of the decision.
Some key ambassadors in the PIC Steering Board have expressed deep concern over the recent decision on changing the name of the main international airport in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the press release reads.
The decision to name the airport after Alija Izetbegovic, a war-time Bosnian president and Bosniak (Muslim) leader, was recently made by a committee led by Sulejman Tihic, the president of the (Muslim) Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which was founded by Izetbegovic. The committee was set up to organise the commemoration of the second anniversary of Izetbegovic's death.
PIC diplomats believe that changing the name of the airport will not contribute to the process of reconciliation in Bosnia, but that it would undermine it and harm the country's international reputation.
Stressing that they are aware of and that they respect Izetbegovic's contribution to the establishment of the present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina, PIC ambassadors say it is more important for the airport in the Bosnian capital to have a name which has the same importance for all citizens in the country.
The office of Sulejman Tihic, who is currently the Bosniak (Muslim) representative in Bosnia's three-man presidency, has recently sent a large number of invitations to a ceremony, scheduled for 18 October, at which the airport should be officially named after the late Izetbegovic.
Later in the day the High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, said he had suspended the decision to name the airport after Izetbegovic.
Ashdown said that this was one of the most difficult decisions he had to make since he took up office. He added that he held Izetbegovic in high esteem, but that it was still too early for such decisions if all sides wanted to build a multiethnic Bosnia.