The Swiss Government says it may have to cut back its aid programme to Bosnia-Herzegovina if $1m of Swiss aid to the country does not turn up soon.

The move comes following reports that officials from all three ethnic groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been fraudulently misusing international aid money.

Switzerland is the first country to react to the publication of reports that aid money to Bosnia-Herzegovina is being misused, but it appears the Swiss Government has been concerned for months at the apparent disappearance of Swiss aid to the country.

Aid projects

The money was paid into the Bosnia-Herzegovina Bank in Sarajevo. It was supposed to pay for Swiss aid projects.

But the bank is now in receivership and a spokesman for the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation said that if the money does not turn up soon, Switzerland will have to reassess its overall aid funds to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He said that the Swiss ambassador in Sarajevo had made repeated representations about the missing funds to the bank and to the Bosnian authorities but without success.

He added that Switzerland was not prepared to pay the same money twice.