Top envoy says Serb leaders destabilising Bosnia

SARAJEVO: Bosnia's international high representative on Friday (Feb 28) accused the political leadership of the country's Serb statelet of seeking to destabilise the Balkan nation, and urged an end to actions that threaten to "undermine" Bosnia's peace accords. 

Bosnia has been hit by fresh uncertainty after ethnic Serb leader Milorad Dodik was found guilty this week of refusing to comply with decisions made by the high representative, Christian Schmidt. 

As the high representative, Schmidt is charged with overseeing the Dayton accords that ended the 1992-95 intercommunal war in Bosnia, which claimed almost 100,000 lives.

In a statement released by Schmidt's office, the envoy called for an "immediate cessation of all activities that undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement and the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina". 

The envoy's statement took special aim at moves made by the Serb-dominated statelet on Thursday evening, when they passed a raft of laws to prohibit the national police from operating on its territory and rejected jurisdiction from its central courts.  

"These actions by the ruling coalition in Republika Srpska seek to destabilise the institutions exercising constitutional responsibilities of the State," the statement added.

The reaction to the verdict has put Bosnia further down a road of greater uncertainty, testing the resolve of its fragile post-war institutions and Schmidt's willingness to confront Dodik. 

The US embassy in Sarajevo on Friday condemned what it called "unconstitutional and anti-Dayton legislation" adopted by the Bosnian Serb lawmakers.

"We expect local leaders to immediately stop engaging in activities that undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement and Bosnia and Herzegovina's constitutional and legal order," it said on X.

RISING TENSIONS

Earlier on Friday, Bosnian officials also lambasted Dodik for attacking the country's institutions.

"I am not ready to participate in any talks or discuss continuing political cooperation with the institutions of Republika Srpska until all these actions against the constitution, the Dayton peace agreement, and the state are stopped and annulled," said Nermin Niksic - the prime minister of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat statelet - in a post on social media. 

Denis Becirovic - the Bosnian Muslim member of the tripartite presidency - slammed Dodik and Republika Srpska officials, saying their moves were an "attack on the country's constitutional order".

The case against Dodik has been widely seen as a test of the divided Balkan nation's weak central government after Dodik was accused of flouting the country's peace deal.

Dodik was not detained this week after he was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from office for six years. 

He has the right to appeal the verdict. 

The Dayton accords split Bosnia into autonomous halves - a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska - connected by a central government under the supervision of the high representative.

The high representative holds vast powers in Bosnia - including the ability to effectively fire political leaders and strip them of power.

Dodik, the current Republika Srpska president, 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 Serbian entity.

For years, Dodik has pursued a relentless separatist agenda that has put him on collision course with Bosnia's institutions.

The Republika Srpska president has repeatedly 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.