The leader of Bosnia’s Serb statelet on Thursday, April 10th, said he was open to dialogue and willing to freeze so-called “secessionist” laws that have seen him accused of undermining the constitution.
But Milorad Dodik said he would only do so if the international envoy overseeing the peace agreement that ended the country’s 1990s war also backtracked.
Since the end of the conflict, Bosnia has been divided into Republika Srpska (RS), led by Dodik, and a Croat-Bosniak federation, with a weak central government.
Dodik, 66, has long been at loggerheads with Christian Schmidt, who oversees the accord, about the extent of the federal government’s powers in RS.
He was convicted earlier this year of defying Schmidt when the RS National Assembly passed laws banning federal judicial and investigative bodies from operating in the entity.
Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from holding public office for six years, However, he rejects the ruling and has refused to appear before the court.
He is currently the subject of a federal arrest warrant on suspicion of undermining the Bosnian constitution.
In a post on X, the RS leader said “the only solution” to ending the impasse was “annulling Christian Schmidt’s voluntarism and all the decisions he has imposed.”
“In that case, Republika Srpska is ready to temporarily freeze the laws recently adopted by the National Assembly,” he wrote on the social media platform.
