In an article titled “Will Republika Srpska’s national day referendum herald a vote on independence from Bosnia?”, carried by bne IntelliNews and written by Clare Nuttall, the journalist wrote that:
“The dust is still settling in Bosnia after the referendum, where a startlingly 99.8% of voters backed a proposal to make January 9 the official Republic Day holiday”.
On the other hand, for as positive of an event as this was for the Serbs, the referendum was perceived very negatively by the other inhabitants of Bosnia, with Nuttall pointing out that:
“Bosniak politicians in Sarajevo have been more vocal in their criticism. Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, slammed the referendum as a “notorious example of a violation” of the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War in 1995, and compared Bosnian Serbs leader Milorad Dodik to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Wartime Bosnian Muslim commander Sefer Halilovic took an even stronger stance in advance of the referendum, claiming it would unpack the Dayton peace deal and could lead to war.”
Andrei Fedorov, Director, Center for Political Studies and Russia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister (studio guest); Danijela Radojicic, Serbian political observer (from Belgrade); and Borislav Korkodelović, editor and author (from Belgrade) joined us in this program.
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