Yesterday, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bisera Turkovic sent notes to the Embassies of the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Serbia, due to the presence of embassy representatives at the events held on January 9th in Banja Luka.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH expresses its respect and wishes to draw attention to the fact that the Constitutional Court of BiH, by a judgment published in the Official Gazette of BiH No. 30/19, declared January 9th, the official day of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity as unconstitutional, determining that its marking is not in accordance with Article I / 2 of the Constitution of BiH, Article II / 4 of the Constitution of BiH in conjunction with Article 1.1 and Article 2.a) and c) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention and Article VI / 5 of the Constitution of BiH. In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiHprotests against the presence of Embassy representatives at the commemoration ceremonies on January 9th which were held on January 8th and 9th, 2022 in Banja Luka, which represent an act contrary to the above judgment of the Constitutional Court of BiH, ” it was stated in the note.
Also, the Ministry, as it was pointed out, wants to emphasize the position that disrespect for the institutions of BiH and the verdict of the Constitutional Court of BiH “represent an act of harshinterference in the internal affairs of BiH.”
Therefore, the Ministry is forced to strongly condemn such behavior that can disrupt friendly relations. The Ministry also requests that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country be informed about this diplomatic note, it was noted in the announcement.
E.Dz.