Two associations filed a criminal complaint against Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik for what they called an “active implementation” of the plan for “silent secession” of Republika Srpska entity from the sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The association ‘Women, victims of war’ and the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada filed the complaint on Monday at the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The criminal complaint was filed because Milorad Dodik is at the helm of an anti-Bosnian coalition made up of Republika Srpska entity officials who, through the SNSD's (Dodik's party) public officials and their partners elected to the entity's institutions, are actively implementing a long-planned plan of silent secession, separation of the entity from the sovereign government of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said the statement.

The criminal complaint comes days after the entity parliament of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-majority region, passed a set of conclusions, making a step towards the entity's withdrawal from the key central institutions. The step was initiated by Dodik, in response to the genocide denial ban that was introduced by now former international peace envoy Valentin Inzko earlier this year.

The associations warned that the entity secession is underway.

“We believe that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was attacked given the continuous denial of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, endangering its territorial integrity, independence, sovereignty and its state-political subjectivity, radical violation of the General Framework Agreement for Peace, threatening peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and undermining perspectives of all citizens, including citizens of Republika Srpska. The suspect's continuous assaults on the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina culminated in the adoption of acts by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska entity on December 10, 2021,” the associations noted.

They assessed the National Assembly's decisions as an “direct assault” on Bosnia's constitutional-legal order and on the Dayton Peace Agreement – the peace deal which ended the Bosnian 1992-95 war and established the country's constitutional setup.

“These forces must be stopped in their destructive activity institutionally by judicial institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the institutions underlined.

The Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada earlier filed criminal complaints against Dodik and Republika Srpska President Zeljka Cvijanovic over the denial of genocide in Srebrenica.