Bosnian Serb leader urges withdrawal from federal institutions
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik (C) delivers a speech flanked by Serbia's President, in Banja Luka, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on February 26, 2025. (AFP Photo)
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik escalated his separatist agenda Friday by calling on ethnic Serbs to quit Bosnia and Herzegovina’s federal police force and courts and join the government of the country’s autonomous Serb region instead.
“We have ensured them a job, while preserving their legal status, ranks, and positions. They will receive the same salary, or even a higher salary than they had,” said Dodik, who serves as president of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-dominated autonomous entity.
The move comes just days after Dodik signed legislation banning the central police and judiciary from operating in his region, heightening tensions in the ethnically divided Balkan nation.
This latest development further strains Bosnia and Herzegovina’s already fragile post-war institutions, coming just one week after Dodik was convicted for defying an international envoy tasked with overseeing the country’s peace accords.
Dodik to ignore summons from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s chief prosecutor
Adding to the growing crisis, Dodik has stated he plans to ignore a summons from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s chief prosecutor, who is investigating him for allegedly undermining the constitution.
Since the end of devastating inter-ethnic conflict in the 1990s, the country has operated under a complex political structure consisting of two autonomous entities—the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation. These entities are connected through weak central institutions, while each maintains its own government and parliament.
For years, Dodik has pursued a relentless separatist agenda that has put him at odds with Bosnia’s institutions and international observers. He has repeatedly threatened to withdraw the Serb region from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s central institutions, including its army, judiciary and tax system—actions that have previously resulted in sanctions from the United States.
Political analysts fear this latest move could further destabilize a country still recovering from the wounds of war, as it directly challenges the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-1995 conflict and established Bosnia and Herzegovina’s current governmental structure.
