Bosnian Serb lawmakers late Thursday, February 27, voted to ban Bosnia's central police and judicial authorities from acting on the territory of their statelet, after their leader was sentenced to a year in prison for defying an international envoy.
"We adopted the law on banning the activity for non-constitutional institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina" on the territory of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker Nenad Stevandic said after the vote. The law, aimed at restricting the power of Bosnia's central government in the RS, was backed by 49 of the 52 deputies present in the assembly, he said.
The legislation targets the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that sentenced Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik on Wednesday, the central police force SIPA and the high judicial council charged with appointing judges and prosecutors in the Balkan nation.
Earlier Thursday, Russia entered the fray to back Dodik, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, with the Kremlin slamming Wednesday's verdict as "political."
The European Union called for "respect" for the court ruling. Although the law was adopted, it risks being referred to the RS Constitutional Court. The case has been widely seen as a test of the divided nation's weak central government after the 65-year old RS president was accused of flouting the country's peace deal.
Dodik was not immediately detained. His attorney Goran Bubic told local media that Dodik had not yet decided whether to appeal. Dodik was convicted for refusing to comply with rulings by Christian Schmidt, a former German minister who oversees the Dayton accords that ended the 1992-95 intercommunal war in Bosnia, which claimed almost 100,000 lives.
The European Union backed the court.
"The EU expects all political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to respect the decisions of the courts and acknowledge their independence and impartiality without applying any pressure or interference," European Commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni told reporters.
'Absolutely political'
The Kremlin lambasted the ruling. "Dodik's persecution is absolutely political in nature and is directed not only against him, but against all patriotic forces," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Under Bosnia's peace deal, the country was split into autonomous halves – a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated Rs – connected by a weak central government, under the supervision of the international high representative. Dodik pushed through two laws in 2023 previously annulled by Schmidt.
The legislation refused to recognise decisions made by the high representative and Bosnia's constitutional court in the RS. The move followed months of tensions, as Dodik engaged in a bitter feud with Schmidt. Denis Becirovic – the Bosnian Muslim member of the tripartite presidency – sought to reassure the public.
"There is no need to panic. People must remain calm," Becirovic said in an interview with a local broadcaster. Dodik has regularly threatened to pull the Serb statelet out of Bosnia's central institutions, including its army, judiciary and tax system, which has led to sanctions from the United States. Opposition MPs in the RS parliament, labelled "traitors" by Dodik, refused to back his initiative.
"What you are doing is a direct attack on the peace agreement, on the constitution of Bosnia and Republika Srpska," Ognjen Bodiroga, a deputy of the main Serb opposition SDS party, told the lawmakers.
Bosnia's Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic, a Bosnian Muslim official, said that the behaviour of Dodik and his allies has led to a "worrying situation."
"Dodik is trying to draw the whole [Bosnian Serb] entity and the people who live there into a black hole, because of the situation he has found himself in," he told a local television.