Russia has requested an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council due to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Al Jazeera’s Washington correspondent Ivica Puljić reported.
“This is a very important move by the Russian mission to the UN,” Puljić said, AJB reports, adding that it was a closed session.
The crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina has worsened after the non-final conviction of the president of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, last week.
Vučić announces the possibility of a session of the Supreme Council
Dodik was sentenced to a year in prison and six years of suspension from political office for failing to implement the decisions of the international community’s high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, in the first instance.
This provoked a stormy reaction in the RS, whose National Assembly subsequently adopted a series of laws prohibiting state security and judicial institutions from operating in the territory of that entity, including the State Court of BiH, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council.
These laws, which the opposition says could push RS deeper into crisis, are now being decided by the RS Council of Peoples.
In response to the verdict, Dodik is also announcing an amendment to the RS entity Constitution.
The possibility of the United Nations Security Council discussing the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was first mentioned by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who visited Dodik in Banja Luka on the same day he was sentenced last Wednesday.
