BANJA LUKA: Serbs in Bosnia voted on Sunday on whether to keep celebrating their January statehood day, which is tied to the divided nation’s 1990s war and remains contentious for its other ethnic communities.

The vote is the brainchild of Milorad Dodik, nationalist leader of the Bosnian Serb-run entity Republika Srpska (RS), who hailed the high turnout and a “festive atmosphere” after casting his ballot.

He has ignored a veto by Bosnia’s constitutional court, disapproval by the United States and the European Union and the reservations of Serbia, RS’ big ally.

Some 1.2 million voters are entitled to cast a ballot on whether they want to continue celebrating their “Republic Day” on Jan 9.

The date has huge emotional resonance in a Bosnia divided into two semi-independent entities since the war’s end — the RS and the Muslim-Croat Federation — and stirring memories of nationalist fervour, trauma and bloodshed.

It marks the proclamation of a “Republic of Serb people” in Bosnia that took place three months before the inter-ethnic 1992-1995 conflict that claimed 100,000 lives.

The founders of that “republic” included Radovan Karadzic — sentenced in March to 40 years’ jail for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the war that also displaced more than two million people.

Bosnia’s constitutional court cancelled the referendum, ruling that the holiday is illegal for discriminating against non-Serbs, but Dodik pressed ahead defiantly.

Valentin Inzko, the international envoy to Bosnia, warned that the vote was “pointless” and “would not have any legal consequences.” “This referendum has sparked a lot of tension ... but there won’t be war,” he added.

Published in Dawn September 26th, 2016

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