Secessionist Bosnian Serb leader ups ante, talks of referendum

Bosnian Serb secessionist leader Milorad Dodik raised the political stakes on Sunday, saying he did not recognise the international High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina because he lacked legitimacy while announcing a referendum on the status of the Serb entity in Bosnia.

Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two highly autonomous entities, the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, with a weak central government in Sarajevo.

In a lengthy tweet, Dodik, the president of RS, who is under US sanctions for undermining the stability and democracy in BiH, said:

“Republika Srpska could organise by the New Year a referendum about its status and how to go forward.”

“We don’t want conflict, and we see the role of NATO as securing peace and, possibly, deploying along the inter-entity demarcation line in case the political situation heats up.”

Speaking to the press on Sunday, Dodik said German politician Christian Schmidt, the current High Representative, had no legitimacy for the role because he was not confirmed in his role by the UN Security Council.

Dodik said Schmidt was “a part of a hoax for the Serb people…which should lead the Serb people to lose their identity and their state”.

On Saturday, Schmidt brushed aside legal attempts by the RS assembly to invalidate the decisions imposed by him and the country’s Constitutional Court, drawing ire from Bosnian Serbs.

Schmidt effectively blocked two laws passed by the RS assembly, one on the non-enforcement of the Constitutional Court’s decisions and the other banning the publication of the High Representative’s acts in the RS Official Gazette.

Instead, Schmidt amended the Criminal Code “in such a way that actions that violate the constitutional order of the state will be treated as a criminal offence, and these changes will also provide a legal basis for prosecutors to undertake activities,” he told a press conference.

If implemented, the decision could pave the way for prosecuting politicians like Dodik, who has been increasingly defiant, seeking to boost the RS’s autonomy and marginalise Schmidt’s role.

Unphased, Dodik announced that he would sign the laws Schmidt had blocked “the moment they arrive in my office”.

(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)