Bosnian Serb ‘Statehood Day’ Referendum Charges Rejected

The state court said on Wednesday that it rejected the indictment of the four members of the Bosnian Serb Referendum Commission because it was not possible to conclude from the prosecution’s evidence that there was a reasonable suspicion that they did not enforce the state-level Constitutional Court’s decision banning the referendum on the Day of Republika Srpska.

The court said that the Republika Srpska National Assembly was responsible for enforcing the Constitutional Court’s decision and “the accused did not have real power to suspend the decision about holding the referendum”.

The four accused – the president of the Republika Srpska Referendum Commission, Sinisa Karan, and three commission members, Dragoljub Reljic, Goran Zmijanjac and Milan Petkovic – were charged by the prosecution last week with flouting the Constitutional Court’s ruling and organising the banned referendum.

The referendum on the Day of Republika Srpska on September 25, 2016 raised political tensions and divided the country along ethnic lines.

However the prosecution halted investigations into Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite state presidency, Mladen Ivanic, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic and the trade and economic affairs minister on Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, Mirko Sarovic, citing lack of evidence.

Dodik was one of the main promoters of the banned referendum, and celebrated victory afterwards at a rally in the town of Pale.

The prosecution discontinued investigations into Bosnian Serb MPs Davor Sesic, Nedeljko Glamocak, Perica Bundalo, Zdenko Gojkovic and Vojislav because they have immunity from criminal prosecution as lawmakers in the Republika Srpska National Assembly.

The banned referendum was a reaction to another decision in 2015 by the state-level Constitutional Court, which ruled that holding the annual Day of Republika Srpska on January 9 was discriminatory against non-Serbs in the Serb-dominated entity because it was also a Serbian Orthodox religious holiday.

January 9 was the day in 1992 that Bosnia’s Serbs declared the foundation of Republika Srpska, which the country’s Bosniaks see as a precursor to the war that broke out soon afterwards.

Bosniak politicians expressed fears that the referendum, held in defiance of state institutions, could be a precursor to a ballot on Republika Srpska’s secession from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The vote was also strongly opposed by the EU and the US.

Republika Srpska’s ally Serbia declined to support it, although the Russian ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Petar Ivancov, offered Moscow’s backing.