SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), August 31 (SeeNews) – The Peace Implementation Council (PIC), an international body in charge of implementing the Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia, said late on Tuesday that the proposed referendum in Bosnia's Serb Republic is creating political tensions, which are an unhelpful distraction from the very serious economic and social challenges facing Bosnia.
"We urge the Serb Republic authorities not to hold the referendum," PIC ambassadors said in a joint statement after a meeting.
Last month, the Serb Republic announced it will hold a referendum on September 25 to decided whether statehood day should continue to be held on January 9 - the day of the Serb Republic's inception in 1992, just prior to the outbreak of the war.
The decision to call a referendum came as a response to a ruling by Bosnia's Constitutional Court in November last year, which declared the Serb Republic's statehood day as unconstitutional and, as such, discriminatory against the other two constituent peoples - the Bosniaks and Croats. The court said that January 9 cannot be a state holiday because it is also a Christian Eastern Orthodox saint's day and thus exclusionary of the entity's citizens who are not of this faith.
Although the Serb Republic's political elite have claimed that the referendum is a step towards implementing the court’s decision, PIC declared on Tuesday that, while a referendum regarding entity holidays may be within the competence of an individual entity, any referendum must be conducted in a way that is consistent with the Bosnian Constitution, and cannot violate the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP).
"No referendum can change the final and binding nature of decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will remain fully in force and must be respected, as required by the GFAP," PIC added.
It encouraged the institutions of Bosnia to resolve this issue through the established legal processes and the existing constitutional framework. PIC also called upon all parties to refrain from reactive measures and divisive rhetoric, which only further contribute to a negative political atmosphere.
"In this context, the PIC SB deplores the use of secessionist rhetoric from all sides, and reaffirms its unequivocal commitment to the territorial integrity and fundamental structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single, sovereign state comprising two entities, which have no right to secede," it added. "We will not tolerate any violation of the GFAP, including but not limited to attempts at secession. There will be no redrawing of the map of Bosnia and Herzegovina."
Russian Ambassador Petr Ivantsov, however, left the PIC meeting, saying that Russia cannot participate in a condemnation of Bosnian Serbs.
Bosniaks in the Serb Republic have strictly opposed the referendum and appealed to the Constitutional Court to block it, however their challenge was rejected. Several Bosniak government representatives from Bosnia's other entity, the Muslim-Croat Federation, have also suggested that the referendum may be a precursor to a campaign for the separation of the Serb Republic from Bosnia.
The situation has been additionally heated by the forthcoming local elections, due on October 2, in Bosnia.
On Tuesday evening, following PIC's condemnation of the referendum, the president, prime minister and foreign minister of Serbia held an urgent meeting in Belgrade. Ivica Dacic, in his address to the media, said that Serbian representatives are to meet with Bosnian Serb leaders and discuss the planned referendum on Thursday.
He added that measures are being taken to protect Serbia's national interests. Serbia has yet to, however, disclose its stance on the planned referendum.
Bosnia is made up of two entities, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation. According to the results of Bosnia's latest census, held in 2013, the Federation is ethnically 70.40% Bosniak, while the Serb Republic is 81.51% Serb.