Bosnian Border Police Investigate After Wanted Serb Leader Visits Serbia

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Border Police launched a probe after the president of the Serb-led Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik, who is wanted for arrest, went to attend a commemoration in Serbia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Border Police said on Tuesday that an investigation is being conducted to determine how Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik crossed the border into Serbia to attend a state ceremony despite being wanted for arrest.

Dodik appeared on Monday night in Batajnica near Belgrade at a Serbian state commemoration of the anniversary of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

There is still no official information about whether Dodik travelled to Serbia by helicopter or passed through a land border crossing.

“The Bosnia and Herzegovina Border Police will inform the Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutor’s Office and cooperate with all law enforcement agencies,” the Border Police said.

On March 17, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Dodik, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, and National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandic, and all police agencies in the country are obliged to arrest them if possible.

By failing to do so, police officers can be subject to disciplinary and possibly criminal proceedings.

Dodik, Viskovic and Stevandic are all suspected of an “attack on the constitutional order” of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The case was opened amid a crisis that erupted in the country after the state court on February 26 sentenced Dodik to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding presidential office for defying the decisions of Bosnia’s international peace overseer, the High Representative.

In response, the Republika Srpska National Assembly, dominated by Dodik’s party, passed laws banning the state-level prosecution and court, the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, from exercising any jurisdiction in the Serb-led entity.

Bosnia’s Constitutional Court temporarily suspended these laws on March 6, pending a final ruling, but Dodik insisted that the new laws will be implemented in the entity.

Dodik has repeatedly been accused of attempting to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina and state institutions./BI/