The international high representative for Bosnia has accused the political leaders of the autonomous Serb region of seeking to destabilise the country, after the statelet passed legislation to bar the Bosnian national police and judiciary.
Lawmakers in Republika Srpska, the country’s autonomous Serb republic, approved the legislation on Thursday after a state court banned its separatist leader Milorad Dodik from politics for six years and sentenced him to a year in prison for refusing to comply with decisions made by the high representative, Christian Schmidt.
The separatist gambit could trigger a constitutional crisis in ethnically divided post-war Bosnia.
Schmidt, who is tasked with overseeing the Dayton Accords that ended the 1992-95 intercommunal war between Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniak Muslims that killed more than 100,000 people, accused the political leaders of the autonomous region of undermining the state.
The Dayton Accords split Bosnia into two autonomous regions: a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.
A weak central government connects these regions under the high representative, who holds significant powers, including the ability to fire political leaders.
Schmidt on Friday called for the “immediate cessation of all activities that undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement and the constitutional and legal order of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” according to a handout from his office.
“These actions by the ruling coalition in Republika Srpska seek to destabilise the institutions exercising constitutional responsibilities of the State,” the statement added.
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
