Republika Srpska government

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, who was recently elected as the Serb member of the tripartite state-level presidency, said on Thursday that his party colleague Radovan Viskovic should be given a mandate to establish Republika Srpska's new government after this month's elections.

Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump's former chief strategist who now says he wants to help right-wing populists come to power in Europe, hosted the nationalist prime minister of Bosnia's mainly Serb entity at his Washington home on Sunday, the Republika Srpska government said in a statement.

Media in Bosnia reported on Wednesday that the government of Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, has approved the participation of the entity's Civil Protection staff in an disaster-emergency exercise in Serbia - but they will not be allowed to display Bosnian flags or state symbols.

Vukota Govedarica, head of the main opposition party in the Bosnian Serb-led entity, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, said his party was demanding an investigation into how much money Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has spent on US lobbying firms and what their effect was.

In the light of worries that within a few decades the Bosnian Serb entity could be left without many able-bodied citizens, the RS Employers' Union has asked for an emergency session of the Republika Srpska government and assembly on population policies.

Demobilised soldiers who say they have been denied early retirement by the Republika Srpska authorities have vowed to protest outside the entity's National Assembly and claimed they were willing to commit suicide if the government doesn't grant them early retirement and pensions or reinstatement into military service.

After hours of heated debate, the Republika Srpska National Assembly passed a law on Tuesday declaring that the disputed Day of Republika Srpska will continue to be held on January 9 - the day on which the entity was founded in 1992 - but that it will be a secular event.

Observing the holiday will also not be mandatory for non-Serbs living in the entity.

Bosnian Serb parties are feuding over 35 million euros that Russia has offered to Republika Srpska, to clear its share of the foreign debt that Bosnia owed the old USSR.

The total debt Bosnia owes the Soviet Union is about 125.2 million US dollars [around 110 million euros].

Public companies in Republika Srpska are dismayed by the entity government's drive to defend RS Posts' monopoly on delivering utility bills.

The move has saved the postal service from financial collapse but means ignoring a Constitutional Court order and is damaging other firms.

The Republika Srpska government said on Thursday that it has halted all cooperation with the State Investigation and Protection Agency and the state prosecution after they arrested five Bosnian Serbs for alleged war crimes in Bosanski Novi and searched official buildings in the Republika Srpska town for evidence.