The situation remained confused, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, April 24, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where federal police tried to approach the chief of the Serbs, Milorad Dodik, in Sarajevo, but was pushed by the men of the police of the Serbian entity.
Wanted by the Bosnian central justice after having multiplied the secessionist acts, the president of the Republika Srpska (RS), the Bosnian Serbs entity, is played out of the arrest warrant issued by him by the Bosnian justice in mid-March by moving as he pleases.
Since the end of the war in 1995, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous entities, the RS (49 % of the territory), and the Croato-Muslim federation, linked by a low central government.
Wednesday evening, Mr. Dodik was in Sarajevo, in an RS building a few meters from the internal border, when Inspectors of SIPA, the federal police, tried to approach the building. He was not clear in the middle of the evening if the SIPA had come to stop Mr. Dodik under the arrest warrant or for another reason.
A deep political crisis
The police “Tertified to implement the order of the court relating to the detention of Milorad Dodik for the criminal offense of violation of the constitutional order. Discussions took place with the police from the Interior Ministry of the RS. The order has not been executed “said police spokeswoman BHRT television channel. Contacted then by the Agency France-Presse (AFP), it however refused to confirm that it was an attempted arrest. The police intervened “In connection with an order from the Bosnia and Herzegovina Court. (…) We have tried to respond to orders, but the police were prevented by the Ministry of the Interior of the Srpska Republika ”she said.
“Those who came to the territory of the Republika Srpska this evening violated the laws”responded in the evening Mr. Dodik during an improvised press conference. Mr. Dodik, 66, made laws in February adopt laws prohibiting any action by the police and Bosnian justice in the territory of the RS. These laws, adopted in response to the condemnation of Mr. Dodik to one year in prison and six years of ban on exercising his functions pushed Bosnia on the verge of crisis and causes fear of the country to fragile institutions.
“I have no intention of leaving this building under pressure”said Mr. Dodik. This evening “Show who has the power to apply the laws. (…) These SIPA people try to show that they are able to do something. I think they will show that they are not capable of them ”.
In the evening, the Minister of the Interior of the Croato-Muslim Federation, Ramo Isak, castigated the action of the police. “Send some inspectors before the administrative center of the Government of the RS to Sarajevo-Est with the order of trying to challenge Milorad Dodik, and all without the assistance of the Sipa Special Unit, really calls into question the capacity of the State Agency to ensure the application of the Act to its entire territory”he said, quoted by the BHRT channel.
Source: Lemonde