Western powers have urged Bosnian Serbs to abandon a referendum that
threatens to destabilise the country and to put in doubt its EU
prospects.
"We once again urge the RS [Republika Srpska] authorities not to hold the
referendum … The decision of the BiH [Bosnian] Constitutional Court will remain
fully in force and must be respected”, the Western countries’ ambassadors said
in a joint statement on Tuesday (20 September).
"Republika Srpska will remain an integral and essential part of the
sovereign state of BiH … [and] there will be no redrawing of the map”, they
added.
The statement was signed by the envoys of Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Turkey, the UK, and the US, who sit on the steering board of the Peace
Implementation Council (PIC), an international body created in 1995 to oversee
Bosnia’s post-war peace deal, the Dayton agreement.
RS, the Serb part of the Bosnian federation, aims to hold a referendum on
25 September on whether it can mark its national holiday on 9
January.
The constitutional tribunal, last year, said it cannot because that day
marks its unilateral declaration of independence from Bosnia in 1992 in one of
the events that led to the 1990s conflict.
The court said that if it went ahead, it would make Bosniaks and Croats
who now live in RS feel unsafe.
But the real stakes are higher, because if the referendum undermines the
court’s authority, it could lead to RS splitting from Bosnia and the unravelling
of the Dayton deal.
Russia, which is also a member of the PIC board, refused to undersign
Tuesday’s statement. EU
Observer.
