“Serbia will not allow a military aggression and the destruction of the Republika Srpska”.
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“Moving forward with the referendum in defiance of the constitutional court is a threat to the rule of law”.
Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Zeljka Cvijanovic, said on Monday that the referendum will be conducted anyway. “The decision of the BiH Constitutional Court will remain fully in force and must be respected”.
The constitutional court of Bosnia ruled that Republika Srpska’s January 9th “statehood day” is discriminatory towards Bosnia’s Muslim Bosniak and Catholic Croat communities as it coincides with an Orthodox Church holiday. Although Republika Srpska ended up not independent but an autonomous region of Bosnia, they still celebrate January 9 as a national holiday. “We will show that the citizens of the Serb Republic stand by its holiday”.
Ambassadors of the PIC Steering Board encouraged on Tuesday the resolution of the issue of public holidays through political dialogue and the early adoption of appropriate legislative changes to implement the November 2015 decision of the court.
Dacic’s comment came shortly after a wartime Bosniak commander, Safer Halilovic, said that Republika Sprska wouldn’t be able to survive for more than 15 days without Serbia’s support.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement on September 20 that Serbia will “certainly not allow the destruction of or a military attack” against Bosnia’s autonomous Republika Srpska, created by a US -brokered peace deal that divided Bosnia into two entities. An global body overseeing the implementation of Bosnia’s peace accords, the Peace Implementation Council, stated earlier no part of Bosnia has the right to secede. Bosniaks fear the disputed referendum is a test for a more serious one in 2018 on Republika Srpska’s independence from Bosnia.
The council also said that it condemns statements that undermine stability and security, or which challenge the territorial integrity of Bosnia.
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“They can not halt our decision”, said Milorad Dodik, President of the Serb Republic. The federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is mainly populated by Bosniaks and Croats, is the other entity. The Russian representative withdrew support for the statement, siding with the Serbs.
