No Serbs from RS in state institutions today, absence cannot be justified by unconstitutional holiday

(Patria) - There are no Serbs from the BiH entity of Republika Srpska at work in BiH institutions today. For them, January 9 is a holiday even though the BiH Constitutional Court declared that date unconstitutional as RS Day.

Thus, today in the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH there are no Serbs from RS, and the same situation is in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, headed by Staša Košarac (SNSD). Košarac is in Banja Luka today where he will attend activities marking the unconstitutional RS Day. Incidentally, he has been under US sanctions since mid-December.

In the response received on September 19, 2024 by deputy Šemsudin Mehmedović from the Collegium of the Secretariat (Mirza Imamović, Dražen Mustapić, Gordana Živković) to the question on the basis of which regulation 39 officials and employees of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH were allowed to record January 9, 2024 as a state holiday even though it is not, it is stated that "employees whose residence is in RS recorded sick leave, annual leave, unpaid leave for the said day, and in a smaller number of cases as a state holiday."

The Secretariat did not then answer who allowed them to make such an entry. The ruling of the BiH Constitutional Court was also violated then.

However, at that time the Secretary of the House of Representatives of the PS BiH was Marin Vukoja, then a candidate for judge of the BiH Constitutional Court, which he would become in May 2024. By a letter dated February 29, 2024, he requested that the shift lists for January be corrected for those employees who recorded January 9 as a state holiday, and it was requested that it be recorded as annual leave.

However, according to the response delivered to Mehmedović several months later, it is evident that for a certain number of employees from RS, January 9 remained recorded as a state holiday.

Due to such conduct by official BiH bodies, a criminal complaint was filed with the BiH Prosecutor's Office because the ruling of the BiH Constitutional Court was not followed, and the budget of BiH institutions was damaged.

This year, the international community called on the BiH Prosecutor's Office to act within its powers, and the expansion of sanctions against persons who undermine the decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court, which is part of the Dayton Peace Agreement, is not excluded.