Reacting to calls for the Constitutional Court to review the legality of the name of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) region, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik called on the second largest Serb party to agree for the entity to secede from Bosnia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two semi-autonomous entities – the Bosniak-Croat majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.
The main Bosniak party in the country, the Party for Democratic Action (SDA), said on Wednesday it will ask the Constitutional Court to check whether the name Republika Srpska is in line with the Constitution, arguing that it discriminated against other ethnic groups living in the entity.
The move drew condemnation from both the ruling RS Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), and Bosnian Serb opposition parties in the entity, such as the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP).
Hardline nationalist SNSD leader and current Chairman of Bosnia’s Tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, strongly condemned the SDA initiative at a press conference the same day and called upon the SDS to support a decision on the “independence of the RS” if the initiative is submitted to the Constitutional Court.
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Dodik has for years been either Prime Minister of President of the RS and has been advocating for the entity to secede from Bosnia and join neighbouring Serbia.
When the initiative enters the Court, the RS National Assembly will “at the same moment” hold a session, Dodik said.
“Our authentic and original constitutional right is for us to decide on our status. We will do that,” he said, dismissing earlier statements by the High Representative Valentin Inzko, named by the international community to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton Agreement, who said that the RS cannot secede.
“He was put here to conduct repercussions against the RS. But this is a moment where there will be no calculations,” he said.
“If you wanted to throw us, Republika Srpska, out of Bosnia and Herzegovina, you are doing the best job possible. Finish it. I have nothing against it,” Dodik said, referring to the SDA, adding that some “from within the diplomatic world,” have suggested to the party to initiate the procedure. “I call upon the SDS to be with us until the end,” he said. “Will they do it? I will, whatever the cost may be. Abolishing the name equals abolishing the RS. There is no other goal to it (the SDA initiative).”
He also called upon the SDA to retract their statement and abandon the initiative.
Only a day earlier, SDA and SNSD top officials met in Sarajevo to discuss the implementation of the results of the October 2018 General Election and the forming of the Council of Ministers.
After the meeting, deputy leader of the SDA, Adil Osmanovic, told media that participants of the meeting agreed to lower tensions between the parties.
