On 9 February president Milorad Dodik of the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) mainly Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS), postponed the planned referendum that would question the authority of the state court. According to Dodik, the state court is biased against Serbs, especially in war crimes cases. Today’s session of the RS National Assembly should have set a date, but instead the president called the referendum off: “We will not go into the referendum without a consensus”, Dodik stated, referring to disagreements between Serb parties in RS. It is more likely, however, that pressure from Serbia and the international actors in BIH have led to this decision. Serbian President Nikolic and Prime Minister Vucic openly called on Dodik to shelve the idea. Possibly the referendum would have raised ethnic tensions in the whole country and it could destabilise the situation in the country.
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