The National Assembly of Republika Srpska has scheduled two sessions for today. The first session will discuss the proposal to proceed with the adoption of a new entity constitution, and after that session, a new special session will be held to consider the Draft of the new constitution and the Proposal for the Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order of Republika Srpska, under urgent procedure, proposed by entity President Milorad Dodik.
The opposition once again warned that “this situation is tantamount to madness and that the government should not engage in such adventures.”
However, all parliamentary opposition parties will participate in the work, as announced by the SDP BiH.
The aforementioned decisions and the Proposal for the Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order require a simple majority, while the new constitution will require a two-thirds majority after the public debate procedure.
Although the text of the new entity constitution has not been officially published, the media have published its most important provisions, stating that they have had access to the document.
Among other things, it was stated that the draft of the new constitution stipulates that “Republika Srpska has its own army and can declare military neutrality or decide on a military alliance with other states”, and that a special law will be passed on the RS army, according to which it would be commanded by the President of Republika Srpska.
The draft also states that “Republika Srpska has the right to self-determination and can join in complex state unions of federal or confederal structure with neighboring and other states or groups of states”.
The new constitution stipulates the abolition of the Council of Peoples of Republika Srpska and the Vice-President, and it is stipulated that Banja Luka would be the capital of Republika Srpska, while East Sarajevo with its headquarters in Pale would be granted the status of the capital.
Among other things, the new constitution stipulates that the National Assembly and the Government of Republika Srpska can suspend the implementation of any act, measure or activity of bodies and institutions at the level of BiH, which, the document states, have no basis in the Constitution of BiH.
It is stipulated that “laws passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH shall be applied on the territory of the RS only after they are confirmed by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska”.
The Draft Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order of the Republika Srpska envisages the establishment of a special prosecutor’s office for the protection of the constitutional order and a special court with the same purpose.
These are just some of the provisions envisaged in the new entity constitution. Harsh reactions followed even before the session of the NARS.
The Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH and the President of the Social Democratic Party of BiH Nermin Nikšić said that the Republika Srpska is not a state and will not be one.
He stressed that the Republika Srpska is not sovereign, nor are its rivers, lakes and airspace its property, but rather that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that it cannot annul decisions and regulations of state institutions, nor will it ever be able to, that it does not have the right to self-determination and will never have it. He also emphasized that the RS does not have an army and will not have one, that it cannot and will not ever be able to join complex state unions, and that it has no continuity and foundation beyond the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has never had one.
Today’s sessions of the RS National Assembly come in the midst of a heated political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which escalated after the Court of BiH in late February sentenced the President of the RS, Milorad Dodik, to one year in prison and imposed a ban on him from holding the office of the President of the RS for six years, for disrespecting the decisions of the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt.
The first-instance verdict against Dodik was the occasion for the adoption of new laws in the RS National Assembly that, among other things, prohibit the operation of state judicial institutions and police agencies on the territory of this entity.
After the disputed laws were signed by the President of the RS, they were published in the Official Gazette of the RS and entered into force a day later.
The Constitutional Court of BiH temporarily banned the implementation of the aforementioned laws.
