Helez Calls to Abolish Republika Srpska, Belgrade Fires Back

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Defense Minister Zukan Helez has called on the international community to withdraw its signature from the agreement that created Republika Srpska, a statement that reaches well beyond Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Republika Srpska and Serbia are bound by a separate Agreement on Special and Parallel Relations, a document that stems directly from the Dayton Peace Agreement and that Serbia’s National Assembly ratified in 2007, so any attempt to challenge the entity’s existence also calls that bilateral framework between Belgrade and Banja Luka into question.

Commenting on the funeral of General Ratko Mladic, Helez told Nezavisne novine:

I call on the international community to withdraw its signature from the creation of this genocidal para state entity, and we know what we have to do after that.

The call to abolish an entity guaranteed by the Dayton Agreement came from a member of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers who is in charge of defense specifically, a point Serbia’s top diplomat raised in his own response.

What does the initiative signed by 14 lawmakers demand?

Helez’s statement came a day after Sarajevo, according to Novosti.rs, sent an initiative to more than 800 addresses across Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom. The initiative, signed by 14 Bosniak lawmakers in the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliamentary Assembly, calls for an urgent review and temporary suspension of the Agreement on Establishing Special and Parallel Relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska, first signed on February 28, 1997 and updated in 2006. Srpske novine previously reported on the initiative itself in the article “Sarajevo: 14 Lawmakers Seek Suspension of Agreement with Republika Srpska.”

The agreement has been in force since December 15, 2010, covering cooperation ranging from the economy, planning and privatization to science, education, culture and sports, as well as health care, tourism, environmental protection and the fight against crime. It also underpins the joint government sessions held by Serbia and Republika Srpska and the Parliamentary Forum bringing together the two parliaments.

Djuric: Serbia firmly defends the Dayton Agreement

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Marko Djuric responded on X on September 10 at 2:38 p.m., calling Helez’s push to abolish the entity a serious threat to the constitutional order and stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Serbia firmly defends the Dayton Peace Agreement in its entirety,” Djuric wrote.

Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb member of Bosnia’s Presidency, also responded to the statements coming out of Sarajevo. Stasa Kosarac, the minister of foreign trade and economic relations in Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, weighed in as well, noting that Bosnia and Herzegovina itself was created by the Dayton Agreement, of which Serbia is a signatory and guarantor, and that the Agreement on Special Parallel Relations between Republika Srpska and Serbia holds constitutional and Dayton based status, not one Sarajevo can alter on its own.

Stevandic: Banja Luka will not ask Sarajevo for permission

Nenad Stevandic, speaker of Republika Srpska’s National Assembly, said Republika Srpska will certainly not seek permission from Sarajevo or the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for its special and parallel ties with Serbia. Sinisa Karan and Radovan Kovacevic of the SNSD also spoke out, describing the initiative to suspend the special relations as a new attack on Serbs.

Dodik in Bijeljina, three weeks before the election

SNSD leader Milorad Dodik held a campaign rally in Bijeljina on September 10, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s general election scheduled for October 4. He urged Serbs not to refer to Bosnia and Herzegovina by its full name, and in response to the pressure from Sarajevo said that no act, let alone an initiative, could break the ties between Republika Srpska and Serbia.

“That will only push us to connect even more closely,” Dodik told reporters.

At the rally he also unveiled SNSD’s ticket for the fall election: Savo Minic, the current prime minister of Republika Srpska, will run for president of Republika Srpska, while Zeljka Cvijanovic will again run for the Serb seat on Bosnia’s Presidency. That means Minic, who has led the Republika Srpska government through the current term, is switching roles to seek the top post of the very entity whose signatories Helez is now demanding withdraw.

The exchange of accusations between Sarajevo, Belgrade and Banja Luka is unfolding in the middle of the election campaign, three weeks before the October 4 vote in which Republika Srpska will also choose a new president. The initiative from the 14 lawmakers has so far received no formal response from any of the addresses it was sent to, and whether anyone from Brussels to Washington turns it into a concrete move may depend on the outcome of that same election.