Bosnia & Herzegovina’s smaller entity, Republika Srpska, will hold a referendum on the celebration of Republic Day on September 25 despite the decision of the state-level constitutional court to suspend it and amid strong pressure from the worldwide community, local politicians and even the entity’s closest ally Serbia.
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The Sept. 25 referendum will ask residents of Bosnia‘s Republika Srpska region whether they agree the “statehood” day of the Serb mini-state should remain January 9. The date also coincides with a Serbian Orthodox Christian holiday.
The referendum is “both a test for state institutions as well as an attack on them”, Inzko told the AP in an interview, noting also that Bosnia’s criminal law foresees jail terms from six months to five years for those who disobey the constitutional court.
The date is also politically contentions, because it marks the day in 1992 when Bosnian Serb ultra-nationalists broke with the rest of Bosnia, leading to a war that killed 100,000 people and saw ethnic Serbs commit genocide against Bosniaks.
“We want to preserve peace, we respect the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina but what I can certainly say is that Rs will not disappear”, said Vucic, who did not rule out returning to Belgrade ahead of time due to the delicate situation concerning the referendum. Although Republika Srpska ended up not independent but an autonomous region of Bosnia, they still celebrate January 9 as a national holiday. Bosnia’s Serb mini-state is holding a referendum this weekend that has turned into a proxy political battle between the West and Russian Federation, stoking ethnic tensions and triggering fears of new clashes more than 20 years after the end of the Balkans War.
Serbia has warned Bosnia it would come to the defense of Bosnian Serbs if they were attacked, amid rising tensions in the Balkans over next weekend’s referendum.
President Milorad Dodik has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s Kremlin.
It was Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two. The court said the vote harmed the constitutional order.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said that pursuing the referendum in defiance of the high court posed a “threat to the rule of law and thus a threat to the stability, security and prosperity” of Bosnia.
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On September 20, Halilovic, former general and commanding officer of the so-called Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian war, said that if Republika Srpska holds the planned referendum, this will unpack the Dayton peace agreement and could lead to war.
