Nato and EUFOR’s peacekeeping mission to Bosnia & Herzegovina are ready to prevent destabilisation of the country in case of radical steps by Republika Srpska, which is threatening to secede if its president, Milorad Dodik, is convicted on February 26, N1 reported on February 23.

Dodik is charged with disregarding acts by the international community’s high representative Christian Schmidt. Dodik has put into force laws defying the authority of Schmidt and of the state-level constitutional court on the territory of Republika Srpska.

Bosnia comprises two autonomous entities – the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. Each of them has its own institutions and there are also state-level bodies, as well as international community’s high representative.

Dodik and other members of his ruling SNSD party from Republika Srpska have warned that the entity will take radical actions if the state-level court finds him guilty.

The SNSD has called a two-day protest on February 26, while the opposition in Republika Srpska calls on people not to participate.

N1 reported that Nato’s headquarters in Sarajevo would take measures to prevent possible destabilisation with the support of EU’s Althea peacekeeping mission.

The EU delegation to Bosnia also urged all parties not to take actions that would escalate tensions in the country.

Meanwhile, Dodik accused the US ambassador to Bosnia, Michael Murphy, of dictating to the state-level prosecution what to do. At the same time, SNSD’s spokesman Radovan Kovacevic said the entity has drafted a new constitution and will call referendum on its adoption if Dodik is convicted.

State-level MP Ramiz Salkic warned that Republika Srpska and Serbia have been looking for an excuse to radicalise the situation in Bosnia. He also said as quoted by N1 that Republika Srpska has sufficient means to do that.

“We should not underestimate the intentions of the authorities in this entity and Serbia to destabilise the situation in BiH, and they will use this verdict, if it is a conviction, as an argument, as a pretext for such actions. In fact, for all these years, they have been looking for any reason to radicalise the situation and attempt to achieve their unrealised wartime goals, in the sense of occupying this part of BiH, politically or in any other way,” Salkic said.

He added that, although Republika Srpska has the capacity to cause destabilisation, it has no capacity for anything beyond that, referring to possible new civil war.