Outline of Republika Srpska

Bosnian Serb lawmakers are to consider changes to the criminal code of Bosnia's mainly Serb Republika Srpska introducing punishment for individuals who fail to comply with decisions of the entity's parliament, a move analysts warned was designed to rein in Serb officials at the state level.

Lawmakers in Bosnia's mainly Serb entity of Republika Srpska adopted principles on Tuesday declaring the entity's right to referenda on 'self-determination' and Bosnian membership of NATO.

A connecting branch of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline will start next year to extend from Belgrade to the Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Minister of Energy and Mining of Republika Srpska Petar Djokic announced on Oct. 7 evening.

Republika Srpska is ready to introduce new history textbooks for high school pupils which will include the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of an ongoing project to unify school curriculums with Serbia, the entity's education ministry told BIRN.

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.

Viktor Orban told a news conference on Tuesday after talks in Budapest with the chairman of the Bosnian presidency, Milorad Dodik, that he wants to boost ties with the Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska, where Dodik has been the most powerful politician for many years.

The talks covered relations between Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina and with Republika Srpska, Orban said.

The association's website says it is a non-political organisation whose main aim is "encouraging the realisation of the principles on which Republika Srpska is based".

Two controversial new commissions set up by the Republika Srpska government to examine wartime crimes in Srebrenica and Sarajevo are to hold their first meetings in late March despite widespread concerns raised by international experts, diplomats and Bosniak war victims' organisations that their aim is to rewrite history.

In his first television appearance on Wednesday evening since he went into hiding on December 30, Davor Dragicevic accused the authorities in Republika Srpska of seeking to kill him, after daily protests over the death of his 21-year-old son sparked widespread public anger in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity.

The Croatian foreign ministry said on Thursday that it will investigate whether its ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Del Vechio, attended celebrations of the disputed Bosnian Serb 'statehood day' in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Republika Srpska, on January 9.