MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — In July, lawmakers in the autonomous Serb region of Bosnia by a slim majority backed a proposal by Republika Srpska's President Milorad Dodik to hold a referendum on whether BiH national courts should have authority over Serbs.
The vote came a day after top diplomats in Bosnia, representing the European Union and the United States, warned Serb leaders that the proposed referendum would be "a direct threat to sovereignty and security" and would not be recognized.
“If a referendum were held and is not recognized by the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western countries, RS will have an adequate response to the same,” Spomenka Stevanovic said.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. In 1990, a significant debate developed on the issue of whether to stay with the Yugoslav Federal Republic, a choice favored among Serbs, or to seek independence, favored among Bosniaks and Croats.
Bosnia's proclamation of independence in 1992 came at the price of a brutal war in which Serbs fought against Muslims and Croats, claiming an estimated 100,000 lives. The Dayton Accords ending Bosnia's 1992-95 inter-ethnic war created the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
