Bosnian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for the president, prime minister, and parliament speaker of Republika Srpska, the predominantly-Serb region within Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are accused of having launched an “attack on the constitutional order” by enacting laws that restrict the operations of Bosnia’s state-level judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
Following a brutal civil war that pitted the former Yugoslav region’s ethno-religious groups against one another, Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two self-governing entities, the ethnically Serbian Republika Srpska and a federation run by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats, under the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Agreement.
As part of this arrangement, the country is ruled by a three-member presidency – a Bosniak, a Serb, and a Croat – and includes an autonomous district at a key crossroads.
The warrants were issued despite Banja Luka, the administrative center of Serb-majority Republika Srpska, not recognizing the authority of the Sarajevo-based Prosecutor’s Office.
The country’s Prosecutor’s Office issued the order after Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic and Parliament Speaker Nenad Stevandic failed to respond to two summonses for questioning, Serb Republic television reported, citing the regional government.
