BELGRADE, 17.JULY 2015 – Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated he has asked Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska(RS) President Milorad Dodik during the meeting in Belgrade to once again consider the decision to hold a referendum on confidence in the country’s state justice system and on the authority of the international community’s High Representative. Vucic also stated that he “pointed out to the wider context of this problem.””Although I have not openly raised this issue, it is about a sovereign decision of the RS,” he added. Dodik stressed the Bosnian judiciary faced serious problems and that war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs in the Nineties had never been prosecuted. He argues the state court in Sarajevo was not foreseen under the peace accord that ended the 1992-95 war, that it infringes on the authorities of the Serb Republic and is biased against Serbs. “I asked, on behalf of Serbia”, remarked Vucic, “that they once again consider that decision. I am grateful that this point of view of Serbia is respected – which I think is at this moment comprehensive, all-encompassing, and serious,” Serbian PM told a joint news conference with Dodik. Vucic added that he was prepared to, if Dodik asks, “help in presenting additional arguments that could contribute to easier consider the overall situation.” “I am ready to do that if need be also in front of the RS deputies,” he said. “Serbia has never and in no way interfered in the internal affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, nor in the internal affairs of the RS. But today I am grateful to Dodik for accepting, on my initiative, to have this kind of conversation,” he said, noting that “Serbia would find it difficult to exist without the RS, while the RS would find it no less difficult without Serbia.” At a joint press conference with Vucic, Dodik underlined the Republika Srpska was ready to discuss its grievances about the Bosnian state judiciary and a referendum would not be required if the entity’s demands were accepted. “If there is no deal, we will hold the referendum,” Dodik said. The assembly of the Serb-dominated entity voted to hold a referendum on confidence in the country’s state justice system and on the authority of the international community’s High Representative. The referendum is scheduled for mid-September. Citizens of Bosnia’s Serbian entity faced a loaded question: whether or not to support the “anti-constitutional and unauthorized laws imposed by the High Representative of the international community, especially the laws imposed relating to the Court and the Prosecutor’s office of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Western diplomats said the referendum was meaningless since Republika Srpska had no authority to challenge Bosnia’s state courts or the powers of the Office of the High Representative. Bosniak(Muslim) officials meanwhile said the referendum threatened an increasingly fragile peace in Bosnia. The United States embassy in Bosnia denounced the referendum initiative as the work of “corrupt forces” and said that Washington would devise an “appropriate response.” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on Thursday that such a vote “would challenge the cohesion, sovereignty and integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and risked undermining the country’s EU integration.
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