Bosnian Serb parliament

The Bosnian Serb parliament will discuss a request from Bosnia's international overseer, the Office of the High Representative, OHR, to revoke decorations given to convicted war criminals.

Concerns have been raised about Republika Srpska's plan to inaugurate a new 'gendarmerie' instead of setting up a reservist police force - a proposal that was dropped on Monday after widespread criticism.

The Republika Srpska Interior Ministry said on Monday that it has shelved amendments that envisaged the establishment of the new reservist police force, after coming under criticism from Bosniak war victims' groups and from Bosnia and Herzegovina's Western allies.

After a marathon session, the Bosnian Serb parliament suspended a decision to hold a controversial referendum challenging the powers of the country's state-level judiciary.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic's meeting on Wednesday with former Bosnian Serb parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik, who has served a sentence for war crimes, was met by anger from rights groups in Bosnia and Serbia.

Bosnia's Constitutional Court on Saturday approved a temporary ban on the controversial referendum because it said the vote challenges a decision made by the state-level institution, which it argued that Republika Srpska does not have the authority to do.

Milorad Dodik, the president of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska, withdrew from parliament on Wednesday the draft legislation which would have granted benefits to the entity's founders, senior officials and MPs who held office between 1991 and 1996, including Karadzic.

Dodik said that the law was withdrawn because "unprincipled" opposition.