Biljana Plavšić

Tensions surged in Bosnia and Herzegovina as US F-16 aircraft flew over the nation, displaying solidarity mere hours before the disputed "holiday" in Republika Srpska, a region predominantly inhabited by ethnic Serbs, branded unconstitutional by Sarajevo.

It was the morning after the February 29-March 1 1992 independence referendum in Bosnia and Herzegovina - an event that a well-known BBC journalist had described to me, sipping a beer, as "good news at last from the Balkans".

Lawmakers in the Republika Srpska National Assembly voted on Tuesday evening to reject a demand from High Representative Valentin Inzko, the international overseer of Bosnia's peace agreement, for people convicted of war crimes to be stripped of decorations awarded to them by the National Assembly in 2016.

The Bosnian Serb parliament will discuss a request from Bosnia's international overseer, the Office of the High Representative, OHR, to revoke decorations given to convicted war criminals.

Biljana Plavsic is being treated for COVID-19 at Dragisa Misovic Hospital in Belgrade and her condition is serious, a family member told SRNA, the official news agency in Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity on Thursday.

High Representative Valentin Inzko, the international overseer of Bosnia and Herzegovina's peace agreement, has sent a letter demanded that Republika Srpska National Assembly, the parliament in the Serb-dominated entity, annuls honours that it awarded last October to people convicted of war crimes within "a deadline of three months, by the end of April 2021".

These are just a few examples of respectful tributes that have been paid to war crimes defendants and convicts in public spaces in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past few years.

"Certain political forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina still side with convicted criminals and joint criminal enterprises, which are glorified, and genocide, which is not admitted. Such politics are alive in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mehmedovic told BIRN.

Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic asked the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague to allow him to use an online video link to talk to his family by the end of the year.

The main board of Bosnian Serb opposition party the Serb Democratic Party, SDS, met on Sunday but failed to resolve internal differences that have deepened since its election defeat earlier this month.

After a nine-hour session, the board finally agreed to hold internal party elections in December.