Bosnia: Separatist laws suspended, EU to add peacekeepers

The EU said Friday it would strengthen its peacekeeping presence in Bosnia after the country's top court suspended separatist laws enacted by Bosnian Serb authorities.

The European Union Force (EUFOR) announced that it will "temporarily" expand the size of its peacekeeping force in the country.

"This is a proactive measure aimed at assisting Bosnia and Herzegovina in the interest of all citizens," EUFOR said in a statement.

It stressed EUFOR's "continued support to security and stability" in the country without specifying the number of additional "reserve forces" that would be deployed.

Bosnia's top court overturns separatist laws

The EUFOR announcement came after Bosnia's Constitutional Court on Friday suspended a raft of laws proposed by Serb leader Milorad Dodik.

The legislation rejected the authority of the federal police and judiciary within the Serb-controlled part of the country, the Republika Srpska (RS).

Following the court's temporary ruling Friday, Dodik said he didn't recognize Bosnia's judiciary.

 

Dodik pushed the laws through the RS parliament last week after he was sentenced to a year in prison and banned from politics for six years.

Earlier this week, Dodik said that he would not obey a court summons on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitution.

Tensions rise in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The disputed legislation has escalated tensions in the ethnically divided Balkan country.

Since the end of Bosnia's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s, the country has been split into two autonomous parts: a Muslim-Croat Federation and RS. They are linked by weak central institutions, but each maintains its own government and parliament.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Friday that Dodik's actions threatened Bosnia and Herzegovina's "security and stability."

Rubio urged regional partners to join Washington in "pushing back against this dangerous and destabilizing behavior," in a post on social media X.

But Moscow is backing the policies of Dodik. President Vladimir Putin "expressed solidarity" with the Bosnian Serb president in a statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Edited by Kieran Burke