An international arrest warrant issued for Bosnian Serb leader Dodik

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina, by a Bosnian court. This is reported by Reuters, according to UNN.

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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an international arrest warrant for the leader of the Bosnian Serbs on Thursday, March 27. He is accused of undermining the territorial integrity of the state - the court also issued an arrest warrant for Nenad Stevandic, the chairman of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska.

The court said in a statement that both warrants are now in the hands of Interpol. Meanwhile, Dodik left for Serbia earlier this week, and from there flew to Israel for an anti-Semitism conference.

Milorad Dodik has been the leader of the Republika Srpska since 2010: he was elected as president, then was a member and chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then was re-elected as president of the Republika Srpska. This state entity was created within Bosnia and Herzegovina after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s: the majority of the population are Orthodox Serbs. They did not want to live in a united Bosnia, where Muslims make up the majority of the population.

In the 1990s, fighting took place in this territory: the local Serbian population declared independence from Bosnia and accession to Serbia. The war ended in 1995, when NATO and the UN intervened in the conflict: since then, Bosnia and Herzegovina has consisted of two parts: the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska.

Milorad Dodik publicly supports Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and advocates for the secession of the Serbian enclave from the rest of Bosnian territory.

Recall

The State Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the Bosnian Serbs Milorad Dodik and his associates.