Petar Djokic

BANJALUKA - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic met with Republika Srpska Minister of Energy Petar Djokic in Banjaluka on Thursday to discuss deepening of cooperation in mining and energy.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Thursday Serbia had completed the preparatory works for a project to build a Buk Bijela hydropower plant in collaboration with Republika Srpska.

The minister said completing all environmental impact studies and selecting the main contractor was what remained to be done.

A connecting branch of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline will start next year to extend from Belgrade to the Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Minister of Energy and Mining of Republika Srpska Petar Djokic announced on Oct. 7 evening.

Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated identity in Bosnia, and Russia aim to strengthen economic ties, officials said, as a Bosnian Serb delegation toured Russia touting for business.

Anton Sokolov, from the Russian embassy in Sarajevo, told BIRN on Thursday that Russian entrepreneurs want to increase their investments in the energy sector in the entity.

The government of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity has halted an announced increase in electricity prices at the last moment after coming under fierce pressure from consumers, experts, unions, the opposition and even some members of the ruling parties.

"As a single mother, I was outraged," a resident of the northwestern town of Prijedor told BIRN on Thursday, about the plan.

Oil deposits have been discovered in the northern part of Republika Srpska, RS, but the quantities appear insufficient for profitable exploration, the entity Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Petar Djokic, told the media.

Milorad Dodik, head of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD - the main Serbian party in Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity - met Mirko Pavic and Petar Djokic, of the Democratic Peoples Alliance and the Socialist Party respectively, to divide up ministries in the new entity government.

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic conferred with Republika Srpska (RS) Minister of Labour and Veteran Affairs Petar Djokic on Wednesday, and during the meeting, they discussed the preparations for the forthcoming joint session of the two governments due to take place in Belgrade on September 20.

BRATUNAC – A central manifestation to commemorate 22 years since a crime against Serbs in the Middle Drina valley in Republika Srpska (RS), the Serb entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), where Muslim forces killed 3,267 Serb civilians and soldiers during a four-year war, was held in the RS town of Bratunac Saturday.

EASTERN SARAJEVO - Serbs from Republika Srpska (RS) commemorated on Saturday the death of 42 soldiers of the former Yugoslav Army (JNA) who were killed in the Dobrovoljacka street in Sarajevo 22 years ago, and at the same time, former members of the so called Green Berets gathered at the same location, but they dispersed without incident.