Bosnian Serbs Dismiss Monitors' Approval of Census

After the International Monitoring Operation, which oversaw Bosnia's 2013 census, issued its final seal of approval on Wednesday, the Institute for Statistics in Bosnia's Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, has continued to insist it will not accept the results.

The IMO, chaired by Pieter Everaers, director of the EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, said the census was on the whole to be considered valid.

"The IMO acknowledges that the final stages of the census were conducted in a satisfactory manner," it said, noting that the survey was in line with international standards.

Despite that, the Institute for Statistics of Republika Srpska told BIRN on Wednesday that it would still not accept the results.

"The Institute ... does not agree with the view that the quality of the census data is within normal limits," it said in a written statement.

Authorities in RS long disputed the methodology planned for use in the census, which led to long delays in publication of the data.

They wanted only people who worked or studied in Bosnia to be counted, whereas state-level statisticians demanded the inclusion of non-permanent residents - people who had been absent from Bosnia for 12 months prior to or following the census. 

Bosnia's State Statistical Agency published the census data in June despite not having reached an agreement with the RS's Institute for Statistics.

The RS Institute on Wednesday repeated its claim that people were encouraged to move around in order to manipulate the census, which then produced a biased result.

According to the Bosnian Serb news agency, Srna, officials from the Institute refused to attend Wednesday's meeting with the IMO, claiming they had not received a requested draft of its findings in...