Dodik Threatens Drastic Action Over Bosnian Govt Delays

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to torpedo a number of major achieved reforms in the country, including the formation of joint armed forces and a state court and police agency, unless a state-level government is formed soon.

On Tuesday, he said the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, "will withdraw from the Armed Forces Agreement. It will withdraw its consent to the formation of indirect taxes [the main source of income for state-level institutions]. It will reject the work of the [state] Court and Prosecutor's Office as well as the work of the State Investigation and Protection Agency [SIPA]".

Dodik added that the RS would also question all the other competencies that have been transferred from the two entities in Bosnia to state level over the years.

Leaders of the three parties that won most votes in the October 2018 elections, Bakir Izetbegovic, of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, Dodik, of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, and Dragan Covic, of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, on August 8 agreed on 12 principles that covered a range of key issues that had effectively blocked a new government from being formed.

After the agreement was signed, it seemed that Bosnia was finally about to emerge from the political deadlock it has remained in since the October 2018 elections.

But it soon turned out that the deal was not as clear as some thought. It is still disputed what the three leaders agreed to about NATO - which remains a major stumbling block to the formation of a government.

Future membership of NATO and submission of a plan for this, an ANP, remains an important cause of disagreement. Bosnian Serb leaders are strongly against membership of the Western alliance, while Bosniak and...