SARAJEVO : Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik signed laws Wednesday banning the police and judiciary of the central government from exercising their powers in his Serb entity, escalating a political crisis in the Balkan country.
Dodik said at a press conference the move restored “constitutional jurisdiction” to the Serb statelet of Republika Srpska.
The laws, along with others signed by Dodik, poses a test for the fragile central institutions in Bosnia.
Since the Dayton accords that put an end to the 1992-1995 civil war, which claimed nearly 100,000 lives, Bosnia has been divided between two largely autonomous entities, one Serb and one Muslim-Croat.
Dodik was sentenced last week to a year in prison and banned from holding office for six years for refusing to comply with decisions made by Christian Schmidt, the envoy mandated to oversee the Dayton accords.
Schmidt's legitimacy is rejected by Bosnian Serbs, with the Republika Srpska's Parliament adopting the law in response.
Dodik, 65, has the right to appeal last week’s verdict, which he said was the result of a “political trial” intended to “eliminate him from the political arena”.
The new laws target the state prosecutor's office that indicted Dodik and the state court that sentenced him. The third targeted institution is SIPA, the only national police force with a mandate to serve the central judiciary.
Both the Serb and the Muslim/Croat entities have their own police forces and judicial system.
“We want to bring back Republika Srpska to us, this is our right. We take back Republika Srpska’s right because that is written in the Constitution,“ Dodik said.
Bosnia's foreign minister Elmedin Konakovic denounced the laws and said a complaint would be submitted to the constitutional court.
“We can truly see tonight that Milorad Dodik” and his associates “have committed a textbook coup d’etat,“ Konakovic told broadcaster FTV.
'Failed country'
The prime minister of the Muslim-Croat entity, Nermin Niksic, said that while he hoped that Dodik “will not go into this dangerous adventure”, it was obvious that he “decided to set off on a journey with no return”.
“It is time for Bosnia and Herzegovina to show the force of its institutions and the international community with no reserves to stand behind the forces that are against fear, divisions and conflicts,“ Niksic wrote on Facebook.
Earlier, after visiting a police training centre, Dodik sent a message that any attempt from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina “to threaten force will be answered in the same way”.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is a patient of the international factor that is not dead yet.”
“We live in a failed country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has never found its inner capacity to live,“ Dodik said at a press conference.
The laws adopted by the parliament and signed by Dodik envisage a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison for Republika Srpska employees who refuse to leave the central institutions.
He called on 300 Serb SIPA employees to join the Republika Srpska interior ministry.
According to Dodik, the new laws will be in force Friday after being published in the entity's official bulletin.
“We will accompany this with great efficiency”, he said, adding that “I invite people throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina to remain calm, stable.”
