Dodik barred Bosnian authorities from Serb-dominated statelet, sparking fears of ‘coup’ that could break up Bosnia.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has vowed to ignore a summons from Bosnian state prosecutors who are investigating him for allegedly undermining the country’s constitutional order.
Bosnia’s central prosecutor said on Thursday that it was probing Dodik’s passing of separatist laws, which effectively bar national police and the judiciary from the Serb-dominated autonomous statelet of Republika Srpska in Bosnia.
“I will not go to their political court, because Serbs no longer submit to inquisitions!” said the 66-year-old leader, a day after he signed the controversial laws that were adopted in February by Serb lawmakers.
Since the end of Bosnia’s inter-ethnic conflict in the 1990s, the country has consisted of two autonomous regions – Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation, which are linked by a weak central government.
Bosnian officials say that the laws violate the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the country’s 1992-95 war, binding the two entities under joint institutions, including the army, top courts and tax authorities.
Last week, Dodik was sentenced in absentia to a year in prison and handed a six-year ban from public office for defying the rulings of the top international official overseeing peace in the Balkan country.
He has the right to appeal the verdict, which he claimed was the result of a “political trial” intended to “eliminate him from the political arena”.
Growing fears of political crisis
Denis Becirovic, the Bosnian Muslim member of the country’s joint presidency, said an appeal had been lodged at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to annul the legislation.
On Thursday, Becirovic met with the head of the European Union delegation in Bosnia and ambassadors from the bloc to discuss the crisis, which could see rival Serb and central Bosnian police forces clashing.
Veldin Kadic, a professor of political science in Sarajevo, told a local broadcaster that Dodik’s actions had made the situation in the country “even more dangerous”.
On Thursday, Dodik insisted he and Republika Srpska were not a threat to Bosnia. He called for political talks within the country without interference from “foreigners”.
Dodik is set to meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade later Thursday, the Serbian leader’s office said in a statement.
For years, Dodik has pursued a separatist agenda that has put him on a collision course with Bosnia’s institutions.
He has repeatedly threatened to pull the Serb statelet out of Bosnia’s central institutions – including its army, judiciary and tax system, leading the United States to impose sanctions.