Milorad Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from holding office for six years. How will this verdict affect the already unstable Bosnia and Herzegovina
President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik addressed the public in Banja Luka at today's rally, after the verdict was pronounced before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On that occasion, Dodik stated that "there is no reason for concern", even though he was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding office.
Despite this, the weight of this verdict does not particularly affect Dodik, who appeared quite nonchalant and self-confident in his speech.
"There's no reason to worry, I've learned to deal with harder things." It is important to me that you are here and I will carry this image in my eyes", added Dodik in his first reaction to the verdict.
Puhalo: Dodik has two options
Sociologist Srđan Puhalo explains for "Vreme" that the consequences of this type of verdict are not far-reaching, and that the question is whether anyone will arrest Dodik at all.
"This is a first-instance verdict and Dodik has two options: to file an appeal or to simply ignore the court." If he decides to file an appeal, the second-instance verdict is awaited. If he does not submit, the judicial police decide who will arrest him. No one knows that now, because the level of loyalty to the President of the RS in the ranks of the police and security agencies is not known," Puhalo believes.
Will they threaten to secede again?
Dodik's threats of "disassociation", repeated several times, because of the UN Resolution on Srebrenica or "if Sarajevo, with the support of the international community, tries to take property from Srpska", although they strained relations in BiH to the maximum, have recently become silent.
Will they come into force again now, when, it seems, Dodik does not have many ways and options to divert the public's attention from the verdict and the fact that the verdict implies a ban on the function of the president of the entity?
Puhalo claims that the threats of secession are a continuous process of "the mortification of the state".
"It is something that has been going on since the war and intensive work is being done to ensure that there is less and less BiH and more and more Republika Srpska. Now with threats, Dodik can wait for a better moment, when everything will be in order for that goal to be achieved in the long term."
Until then, says Puhalo, the president of the RS will work every now and then to show how the current union is dysfunctional and unsustainable "like a bad marriage in which separation is the best solution".
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The return of radical violence subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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