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The Balkans Today
Live Blog: Bosnian Serb ‘Statehood Day’ Celebration
Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska is staging a lavish celebration of its disputed ‘statehood’ holiday, defying a ban by the Constitutional Court.
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The biggest-ever celebration of the Day of Republika Srpska is being organised in spite of the fact that Bosnia's Constitutional Court ruled last year that holding the annual holiday on January 9 was discriminatory against non-Serbs in RS because it is also a Serbian Orthodox religious holiday - the day of St Stephen, who is the patron saint of RS.
Despite the court ruling, and in spite of strong objections from Bosniak, US and EU officials, the RS authorities held a referendum on September 25 last year seeking public support for the Day of Republika Srpska. The referendum was also subsequently ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court.
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The programme includes various performances, meetings and other events, but the central public focus of the celebration was set to be a Russian-style parade in which hundreds of police officers, firefighters, members of the Civil Protection force and even bikers were to march or drive along the main street of RS’s administrative centre, Banja Luka.
"We are organising a parade [the likes of which] has not been seen in RS," RS Interior Minister Dragan Lukac told local media at the end of last week.
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Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej arrived in Banja Luka on Sunday evening to attend the celebration."It is my pleasure to participate in the big celebration of Republika Srpska," he said on Sunday.
Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej arrives in Banja Luka. Photo: Anadolu
Republika Sprska President, Milorad Dodik, welcomes Serbian Orthodox Church officials in Banja Luka. Photo: Anadolu -
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Prime Minister of RS, Zeljka Cvijanovic, on Sunday night greeted a delegation from French far-right party the National Front, according to Banja Luka-based channel RTRS TV.The delegation was led by the head of the parliamentary group of the National Front in the European Parliament, Edouard Ferrand, and MEP Dominique Bilde, who expressed their support on the occasion of RS Day to the entity and its institutions.According to RTRS, Cvijanovic told the guests that the decision of the Constitutional Court over the RS Day issue was political.The far-right party Front National, led by Marine Le Pen, has increased ties with Republika Srpska in recent years.Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, the crown prince of Yugoslavia before its dissolution, was also in Banja Luka with his wife Katherine today to meet with President of RS, Milorad Dodik, and other officials. -
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This tweet shows police officers and armoured vehicles assembled in Banja Luka this morning.Minister of the Interior for Republika Srpska, Dragan Lukac, has said 1,000 police officers are being supplied for the day, telling reporters Sunday that this was enough to see the holiday celebrated peacefully.
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Ramiz Salkic, vice-president of Republika Srpska, released a statement ahead of today's celebrations to condemn what he termed the destabilisation of the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina by political figures led by RS president Milorad Dodik as they defied a Constitutional Court ruling.The strong statement warned that the celebrations in Republika Srpska today were in line not with peace and security but the ideology of conflict and ethnic cleansing."We demand the immediate and urgent protection of the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement and in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said in the statement."I'm afraid that the authorities in Banja Luka question the entire peace process, deliberately breaking the structure of the country in which we have invested a great deal," he added."The High Representative and the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina must stop the destruction of the constitutional order."
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RS President Milorad Dodik said last night, ahead of the celebrations, that Bosnia and Herzegovina was a country with no chance of success, and that the solution was "peaceful separation".He added that he wanted to have a referendum every year to strengthen the rights and institutions of the people of Republika Srpska, but that a referendum on the independence of Republika Srpska was not on the agenda for this year "unless things don't hurry up".
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RS President Milorad Dodik spoke this morning to condemn intervention by the Constitutional Court and foreigners, who in his eyes are significantly altering the parameters of the Dayton Peace Agreement."That is a measure of the lack of freedom for us and that is why we will decisively reject every attempt to impose quasi decisions made in the Constitutional Court," he said.Dodik added that unless Dayton was respected, nobody would be able to keep RS in Bosnia and Herzegovina."Today, 25 years later, Republika Srpska is determined to live its life as a state and is determined to comply with the Dayton Agreement," he said.
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Republika Srpska officials claim that the websites of the entity's government and the leading political party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, were the target of hacking attempts this morning, reports news agency SRNA.Authorities have now got the websites back online, they said.
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Ruling party of Republika Srpska the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, is tweeting images of the parade in Banja Luka.This tweet reads: "To the sounds of 'March on the Drina', the parade began for #DanRepublike. It is led by members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Police Unit."
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After a high-level row over the inclusion of members of the Third Infantry Regiment of the Bosnian army, soldiers from that unit were photographed lining up on Krajina Square to welcome Serb member of the presidency Mladen Ivanic.However, they were not allowed to march in the parade.Taking part in the parade are Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic along with ministers from the Serbian government, the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska, units of firemen, schools, and civic organisations from veterans associations to sports groups.
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This huge banner depicting St Stephen was spotted in Foca, in eastern Bosnia, yesterday.In the Serb Orthodox church, St Stephen's day is celebrated on January 9.Bosnia's Constitutional Court banned Republika Srpska's "national day" being marked on January 9 because it found that the celebration discriminated against non-Serbs.
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Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik spoke after the parade in Banja Luka to say RS citizens were united in the wish to live in peace and freedom, but also protect their own."This is a special day of our unity and relationship to the RS, lifestyle and what we want to be," said Dodik.He added that the creation of RS 25 years ago was borne of the desire to be a real state against the backdrop of wider national events since, he said, there is no freedom without a state."We never had the intention to abolish the freedom of others, and the RS is today united in the desire for peace and freedom," he said.
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In contrast with RS President Milorad Dodik's claims that today's parade was about peace and unity, associations of surviving victims of war in Bosnia today convened in Sarajevo to declare the celebrations an insult.A number of analysts and commentators in Bosnia are concerned that Dodik's insistence on an extravagant celebration of the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Republika Srpska entity amounts to a celebration of war crimes, since some see the event in 1992 as one of the catalysts that triggered the war of 1992 to 1995 that saw the massacre of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, which was found to be an act of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.They are also concerned that the festivities, held in defiance of a ban by the Constitutional Court, are a way to undermine state-level authorities.
The RS Day celebrations are an insult to victims, according to victims' groups speaking in Sarajevo. Photo: Anadolu -
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