The leadership in the Bosnian Serb part of Bosnia adopted on Tuesday the programme for the January 9 ‘Day of Republika Srpska’, a holiday which was ruled unconstitutional and that caused a stir over the past years.

The Day of Republika Srpska marks the day when the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity was established. Bosniaks are strongly opposed to celebrating it, arguing its establishment was the beginning of the ethnic cleansing that resulted in that part of the country being dominated by Serbs.

The Republika Srpska, RS, President Zeljka Cvijanovic nevertheless presided on Tuesday over a session that established a ‘Day of RS’ organisational board, a celebration programme and a financial plan.

Bosniak representatives in the RS have been warning that marking the day breaches both a Constitutional Court decision and an opinion by the Venice Commission, an advisory body to the Council of Europe.

However, the ‘Day of RS’ will once again be marked with a ceremonial defile on a square in central Banja Luka, the administrative centre of the RS.

In 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Day of the RS is unconstitutional, but the ruling did not prevent the RS President at the time, Milorad Dodik, from organising a referendum in the RS on whether the holiday will be marked or not.

RS citizens voted in favour, but organising the referendum prompted the US to blacklist the then-RS President Dodik for violating the Constitutional Court decision and with that also the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war.

Dodik is now the Serb-member of the tripartite State Presidency, but the RS President, Cvijanovic, is a member of his party.