The Republika Srpska (RS) entity will continue to celebrate January 9, as the Day of RS and we will find a way to implement the Constitutional Court’s decision concerning the date, the entity Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, said following a Court decision date unconstitutional.
“This is a serious attack on the RS, but we will continue to celebrate January 9. Our citizens should prepare for the 2020 celebration and the more we are pressured to stop celebrating this date, the more glorious it will be,” the Prime Minister said.
Bosnian Serbs celebrate January 9 because on that day in 1992 they declared the breakaway Serb state as founded.
The so-called Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina took over half of Bosnia’s territory. The breakaway state was later renamed Republika Srpska and is according to the current Bosnian constitution an integral part of the country.
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Since January 9 is also a Serb Orthodox religious holiday, the two holidays overlap and only Serb symbols are displayed, which violates the rights of non-Serbs living there.
“First-year law students know this was not a legal but political decision. We know it was timed exactly when the State government should be formed,” Viskovic said.
According to him, the Geneva and New York agreements, which preceded the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia, both say that Bosnia and its Constitution were formed in 1995, but RS was formed in 1992. Therefore, he argued, the RS is older than Bosnia and its Constitutional Court.
Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency Chairman and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik also commented on the verdict saying it is pointless to comment on the Court’s “politically motivated decisions” regarding the Day of RS.
“The RS will continue to mark January 9 as the Day of RS,” Dodik concluded.
Bosnia’s Constitutional Court declared the Law on the Day of RS – January 9 after assessing the complaint from Bosniak and Croat delegates from the RS Council of Peoples.
