Bosnian Serbs celebrated their "national day" despite a ruling by Bosnia and Herzegovina's highest court that it violates the constitution, BGNES reported.
Around 3,000 people gathered in the main square in the administrative centre of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka, to witness a parade of police, war veterans, sports clubs and others. President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik was not present as he is recovering from surgery. In addition to Bosnian Serb officials, Serbia's Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, President Aleksandar Vucic's right-hand man, came.
"This is not a celebration of a part of the Serbian people, but rather a celebration of all Serbs, wherever they live," Vulin said.
The "holiday" has been declared unconstitutional by Bosnia's Constitutional Court as well as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The European Union delegation in Bosnia warned that "the decisions of the Constitutional Court must be respected" and called on Bosnian Serb leaders "to refrain from and abandon provocative, divisive rhetoric and actions, including questioning the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the country."
BGNES recalls that in the early 1990s former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic, whose propaganda minister was Aleksandar Vucic, declared for "the unification of all Serbs in one state". This led to devastating wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands of Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians died, millions were driven from their homes and became refugees. The Serbs' worst crime was the massacre of over 9 000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, which was recognised by the international community as genocide. After the end of the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia was divided along ethnic lines into two semi-autonomous parts (entities) - the Republika Srpska (RS) and a Muslim-Croat federation. The two are linked by weak central institutions, each with its own government.
Today, Milorad Dodik is one of the Balkan politicians closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last year, Dodik said that in Srebrenica "nobody died and nobody was killed". Republika Srpska has set up a working group to draw up a "peaceful disengagement" agreement with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 8 June, a so-called All-Serbian Council was held in Belgrade, at which Vucic and Dodik declared "a common future for the Serbian people". Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin also denied genocide and threatened the Balkans with a new redrawing of borders on the model of Milosevic.
In recent years, Dodik and Vulin have been frequent guests in the Kremlin. Dodik presented the highest medal of honour of the Republic of Srpska to Putin. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also has such a medal. | BGNES
