Daria Sito – Sucic

BANJA LUKA (Bosnia) – On Friday, Serb legislators voted to begin work to pull their independent Serb Republic from Bosnia’s armed forces and judiciary. This non-binding motion was intended to open the door to secession.

These three institutions are key pillars for joint security, rule-of-law and economic system in Bosnia. After the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia was split into two regions, the Serb Republic (dominated by Croats) and the Federation (dominated by Bosniaks).

A vote was held in Serb regions’ parliament. It resulted only in a temporary agreement. However, it did not lead to any final decision to disband the institutions. Such a move would have required the support of the regional upper house.

The opposition Serb groups, which criticised the motions for being early campaigning in advance of the next year’s general elections, left the session prior to the vote.

These were Milorad Dodik’s strong declaration of intent. Milorad Dodik has been a long-standing critic of state institutions, such as judiciary or prosecutors. He claims they were set up based upon international peace envoys decisions, and are not included in the Constitution.

Dodik stated to the parliament, “This is the moment for conquering freedom for Republika Srpska.” Bosnia was created as an experiment. It doesn’t have the internal ability to survive, so I doubt it will survive.”

The SNSD Party and its allies in the 83-seat region parliament supported the conclusion to withdraw from the institutions by 48 votes.

In the motion it was stated that the regional government must now create new laws for the military, judiciary and tax system over the next six-months to replace existing state laws.

After the conflict, Bosnia’s constitution was modified by rulings made by both the envoys of the regions and by agreements between the parties.

Dodik is currently the Serb member to Bosnia’s three-ethnic tripartite interethnic presidency. He wants to undo all the reforms that were made following the war, and to restore the 1995 constitution. Under this constitution the state was represented only by its basic institutions while all power belonged the regions.

Opposition leaders warned these moves could lead to a new conflict between the Serb Republic and the United States.

Mirko Srovic, head of the biggest opposition Serb Democratic Party SDS (SDS), stated: “I feel the path that you have chosen to be dangerous for Republika Srpska. We cannot follow you.”

The embassies from the United States and the United Kingdom as well as France, Germany, France, Germany, Italy, as well as that of the European Union said in a joint statement that the motion by the Parliament was “an additional escalatory move”.

The ambassadors stated in a joint statement that “members of governing coalitions in the RS [Republika Srpska] must know that continuing this deadend path of challenging Dayton framework is damaging to the economic prospects, threatening instability in the country, and jeopardising Bosnia’s Future with the EU.”

These were the Dayton peace agreements of 1995 that brought an end to the Bosnian War.