Croatian MEP Plans Resolution Targeting Dodik

A Croatian member of the European Parliament, Dubravka Suica, is drawing up a resolution condemning the banned referendum in Bosnia's Serb-majority entity, Republika Srpska, and proposing reforms to the country's constitution. 

Describing her plans in an interview published on Monday by Sarajevo-based media Dnevni Avaz, Suica said the Dayton agreement that ended the war of 1992 to 1995 and serves as the basis of the country's constitution should be revised "to prevent further escalation of the political situation in the country". 

She also called the recent referendum in Republika Srpska, on the entity's national day, "illegal, legally superfluous, and politically incendiary. The international community should definitely make the next move".

The vote in September asked citizens of Republika Srpska if they supported continuing to mark the entity's national holiday on January 9, after it was banned by the country's constitutional court as discriminatory.

The vote went ahead despite condemnation from Western diplomats. Russia's ambassador to Bosnia, however, supported the referendum.

Suica said she was working on the resolution with a group of parliamentarians and it would be finished by the end of October.

She added that she hoped Washington and Brussels would cooperate when it came to potential sanctions against Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik. 

Political analyst Adnan Huskic, who heads the Sarajevo-based Centre for Election Studies, said the adoption of a resolution with concrete proposals to hold Dodik to account could only represent progress if did not become a mere "face-saving action", condemning the referendum as illegal.

Huskic accused Western diplomats of failing to take a strong stance against Dodik,...