Bosnian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for Milorad Dodik, president of the Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska (RS), and two other officials, accusing them of unconstitutional conduct.
Dodik, who has previously stated that he does not recognise the country's prosecutors, rejected the validity of the warrant and any attempts to arrest him and said he would not appear in Sarajevo for questioning.
"There is no blow or suffering that I am not willing to endure for the Republic of Serbia. Milorad Dodik will carry out his duties and I will never leave Republika Srpska," the Bosnian Serb leader said on Wednesday in the entity's de facto capital, Banja Luka.
"If anyone thinks we're cowards, they are deeply mistaken," He added.
In addition to the Bosnian Serb leader, the other two names on the arrest warrant are entity Prime Minister Radovan Višković and National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić, whom the prosecution accuses of unconstitutional conduct.
A Bosnian state-level court in late February convicted Dodik of acting against the decision of the country's international peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, which constitutes a criminal offence. The verdict is not final and Dodik can appeal.
Shortly thereafter, Dodik introduced new laws to ban security and judicial institutions at the level of the state, which makes up about half of the territory of the Western Balkan country.
Their validity has been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court at the state level.
In Bosnia, the senior official serves as the chief arbiter of prestigious disputes and a key figure in overseeing the implementation of the Dayton Accords, which were signed in 1995 to stop the war in the country.
The agreement ended the war between the country's three main ethnic groups - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats - which began in 1992 during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and was considered the bloodiest conflict on European soil since the Second World War.
The peace agreement, parts of which function as the country's constitution, divided the country into two main administrative units or entities: the Serb-majority RS and the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), which is partly overseen by an overarching government at the state level.
The purpose was to appease the former warring parties and create a complex system of checks and balances that is said to be the most complex democracy in the world.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday pledged the military alliance's "unwavering" support for Bosnia's territorial integrity and visited the capital Sarajevo amid one of the most significant political crises to rock EU membership hopes since the end of the war.
"Three decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement, I can tell you: NATO remains firmly committed to the stability of the region and the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina." Rutte said. "We will not allow a hard-won peace to be jeopardized."
Rutte described as "unacceptable" any action that would undermine the agreement, the constitutional order or national institutions.
"Inflammatory rhetoric and actions are dangerous. They pose a direct threat to the stability and security of Bosnia and Herzegovina," added the NATO chief.
The European peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, said it was increasing its troop numbers in response to the tensions.
euronews/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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