Banja Luka Academy of Sciences against Dodik: Republika Srpska is an entity in BiH

By Armin Aljović

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Although Milorad Dodik has been publicly advocating for several years the thesis that Bosnia and Herzegovina was only created in Dayton in 1995, in a way that the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska merged, the member of the BiH Presidency abandoned such a claim on Thursday.

“We remind you that the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH confirms the name Republika Srpska, which is clearly indicated in Article 1, Paragraph 3 of the BiH Constitution, which defines that BiH consists of two entities, FBiH and Republika Srpska,” Dodik said at a press conference in Banja Luka, after the SDA announced that they would ask the BiH Constitutional Court to review the name Republika Srpska, because, as they stated, that name discriminates against Bosniaks and Croats in that entity.

Dodik had previously refused to use the term that Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities, i.e., he refused to accept that Bosnia and Herzegovina continues its state continuity after the breakup of Yugoslavia, while the entities within it were recognized as units only in Dayton in 1995.

“BiH is composed, it is not a state, and it only has international recognition, an international framework,” Dodik said in May 2018 during a lecture at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. He repeated the same theses earlier, but also after that lecture in Belgrade.

On the other hand, contrary to Dodik's claims, the Dayton Peace Agreement treats Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state, internationally recognized in 1992, with recognized borders, while Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH are its two entities that do not have the right to secession.

Why is it so important for Dodik to impose the thesis that BiH is composed, rather than consisting of two entities? International law experts explain that with statements that Republika Srpska has existed since 1992, Dodik is trying to impose the thesis that Republika Srpska was created first, and only then Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a way that RS and the Federation united. According to international rules, everything that unites in such a way also has the right to separate. In such accepted circumstances, Dodik would have the right to secede RS from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, without it being considered punishable dissolution. In this context, international lawyers see the insistence on celebrating January 9, 1992, as the day of the Republika Srpska entity.

The Academy of Sciences and Arts of Republika Srpska also disagrees with Dodik's claims about the origin and status of Republika Srpska. On the official website of the Academy from Banja Luka, in the section describing the history of the Academy, it is stated: “Only after the adoption of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Annex IV of the Agreement), according to which Republika Srpska was internationally recognized as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina with full scientific, cultural and educational sovereignty, was the establishment of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Republika Srpska initiated.”