Bosnian Serb chief Milorad Dodik stated Thursday he would ignore a summons from the nation’s central prosecutor who’s investigating him for allegedly undermining the structure.
His refusal dangers plunging Bosnia into larger uncertainty every week after Dodik was convicted for defying the envoy charged with overseeing its peace accords, triggering a contemporary political disaster.
The Bosnian state prosecutor’s workplace “has summoned me to provide a press release tomorrow as a suspect for undermining the constitutional order,” Dodik — who’s the president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated statelet Republika Srpska (RS) — wrote on social media.
“I can’t go to their political court docket, as a result of Serbs now not undergo inquisitions!” he added.
The remark got here simply hours after Dodik insisted that he was not a menace to Bosnia after signing legal guidelines Wednesday night that banned the nation’s central police and judiciary from his statelet.
The laws has escalated tensions within the deeply divided Balkan nation and is proving to be a key check for its fragile, post-war establishments.
For the reason that finish of Bosnia’s inter-ethnic battle within the Nineteen Nineties, the nation has consisted of two autonomous halves — the Serb-dominated RS and a Muslim-Croat federation.
The 2 are linked by weak central establishments, whereas every has its personal authorities and parliament.
“Neither the Republika Srpska nor I are a menace to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Dodik stated in a message to the “individuals of the RS, Serbs, Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats”.
Late Wednesday, Dodik signed a number of controversial legal guidelines adopted in February by Bosnian Serb lawmakers.
Certainly one of them bans Bosnia’s state court docket, the state prosecutor’s workplace and the central police pressure (SIPA) from working in RS.
Dodik pushed the laws by means of the RS parliament final week, after he was sentenced to a yr in jail and banned from workplace for six years for refusing to adjust to choices made by Christian Schmidt — the worldwide envoy charged with overseeing Bosnia’s peace accords.
– ‘Coup’ declare –
A number of Bosnian Muslim political leaders slammed the adoption of the legal guidelines by Dodik, calling it a “coup”.
The Bosnian Muslim member of the nation’s joint presidency, Denis Becirovic, stated an enchantment was made in Bosnia’s Constitutional Courtroom to annul the laws.
“Brutal assaults on the Dayton peace settlement and constitutional order… should be stopped,” he stated earlier, referring to the 1995 accord that put an finish to years of bloodshed.
On Thursday, Becirovic met with the pinnacle of the European Union delegation in Bosnia and ambassadors from the bloc to debate the disaster.
Brussels urged Republika Srpska’s political management “to chorus from and to surrender provocative, divisive rhetoric and actions,” EU spokesperson Anitta Hipper stated in a press release.
These embrace “questioning the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the assertion added.
Washington voiced its deep concern over the developments in Republika Srpska.
“This can be a calculated provocation of the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina and represents a direct menace to the (nation’s) stability and safety… and the strategic targets of the US,” the US embassy in Sarajevo stated on X.
Analysts in the meantime warned that Dodik’s actions risked unleashing extra chaos in Bosnia.
“With these new legal guidelines which have been adopted, the state of affairs appears much more harmful,” Veldin Kadic, a professor of political science in Sarajevo, informed a neighborhood broadcaster.
In a seeming bid to calm tensions, Dodik known as for political talks inside the nation with out interference from “foreigners”.
“I hope we have now understood that our future lies solely in our settlement, within the settlement of our peoples… That’s all I ask,” he stated.
Dodik, a Kremlin ally, met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade later Thursday.
Dodik, 65, has the fitting to enchantment final week’s verdict, which he stated was the results of a “political trial” meant to “get rid of (him) from the political enviornment”.
For years, Dodik has pursued a relentless separatist agenda that has put him on a collision course with Bosnia’s establishments.
The RS president has repeatedly threatened to drag the Serb statelet out of Bosnia’s central establishments — together with its military, judiciary and tax system, which has led to sanctions from the USA.
