Serb deputy in Bosnia's House of Representatives Sanja Vulic said that an initiative for the dismissal of Bosnia's Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic has been submitted on Monday over Konakovic's actions and his instructions for others that were, according to her, not approved by the State Presidency.

Vulic, who is the head of the SNSD party Caucus claims that the initiative for the Council of Ministers reshuffle was launched after Konakovic acted or instructed others to act without the consent of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina which, according to the Constitution, is in charge of foreign policy.

The initiative's explanation said that Konakovic damaged the reputation of the institution he represents and brought into question the fundamental values of the General Framework Agreement for Peace, a treaty that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and created the country's constitutional setup.

“Particularly with the statement insulting Republika Srpska Day and calling for the Council of Ministers to declare this date a day of mourning, as well as by sending personal diplomatic notes on behalf of the ministry, Konakovic showed disrespect for Republika Srpska, its institutions and citizens,” said the initiative.

Commenting on the initiative, Konakovic said this was not the first time the SNSD is making such move.

“I have been announcing since the beginning of my term that our truths and real picture of BiH will be brought to all important places and that we would annul all the lies that are told by those who do not like our country,” said Konakovic, recalling that the initiatives for his dismissal were launched after the UN Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide, after the comments on the sanctions against Milorad Dodik, after his trips to the US and some other occasions.

He finds the “anxiety and nervousness” within the SNSD “absolutely logical”, adding that Bosnia has regained the reputation on the international stage, where all important factors see Dodik and his SNSD as the “main culprits for the problems in BiH.”

The issue of Republika Srpska Day and court decision

Bosnia's Constitutional Court has ruled on three occasions that celebrating January 9 as the Day of Republika Srpska is unconstitutional, because marking it on this date, which is also an Orthodox Christian holiday, insults other ethnicities in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

So far, no one has been held criminally accountable for that offence.

The court initially declared January 9 unconstitutional because the Bosnian Serb authorities celebrate January 9, the date on which the then Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina passed the Declaration on declaring the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The goal was to annex this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Yugoslavia, which was disintegrating at the time.

Radovan Karadzic, Biljana Plavsic and Momcilo Krajisnik, who were convicted at the Hague Tribunal for war crimes, were at the helm of the self-proclaimed republic. Representatives of the Bosniaks and Croats did not participate in the declaration.

These two ethnic groups see January 9 as the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the beginning of ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide against the non-Serb population on the territory of what is today called Republika Srpska entity.

On February 28, 1992, the Constitutional Court of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a decision annulling both the declaration and the Constitution of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 23 years later, in November 2015, made a decision according to which the article of the Law on Holidays of the RS, regarding the Day of the RS, is unconstitutional.

In addition to referring to the events of 1992 in its reasoning, the Constitutional Court also determined that the Patron's Saint Day of Republika Srpska was also celebrated on the same date, so it is also perceived as a religious holiday.

The Constitutional Court of BiH did not challenge the right to the Day of Republika Srpska, but determined that holiday could not be January 9th.