The 1990s were Europe’s darkest days, and trust us, it was way worse than the Ukraine saga, kids. The Balkans were a burning hellfire, with a once-grand Yugoslavia deliberately torn apart into tiny pieces.
Countries were carved out from piles of dead bodies. Serbs were hunted down and defeated. Their once-mighty homeland was shattered into small territories, and one such piece remains stuck in the troubled Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The tensions between Serbs and Bosnian authorities never really died. Constant political feuds, accusations of discrimination, and deep-seated ethnic grudges keep the conflict alive. The Serbs see themselves as victims, while the Bosnian government calls them troublemakers.
But ever since their leader Milorad Dodik returned, the Serbs have been gearing up against the oppressors, and now, things are reaching a boiling point. Dodik’s growing defiance makes it clear—Greater Serbia might not just be a dream anymore. And because of that, Dodik is being hunted.
Separation Calls Widen
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has straight-up refused to obey a summons from the country’s federal prosecutor, who is after him for allegedly “undermining the constitutional order.”
“I will not step foot in their political court because Serbs don’t bow to inquisitions anymore!” Dodik declared on Thursday, March 6.
This political storm erupted after Dodik signed off on laws that strip Bosnia and Herzegovina’s central judiciary and police of any authority over Republika Srpska—the autonomous Serb region.
A hardline nationalist at 65, Dodik has been pushing a separatist agenda for years. He has repeatedly hinted that Bosnian Serbs should join forces with neighboring Serbia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina itself is a fragile, messy state—barely holding together since the Bosnian War ended in 1995. It consists of two largely self-governing entities: Republika Srpska, where Serbs dominate, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, home to Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats. (There’s also a tiny administrative unit called the Brčko District.)
These two regions are connected by weak central institutions, each running its own government and parliament.
Dodik has never minced words, calling Bosnia a “failed state” and a Western “experiment” that simply “doesn’t work.”
For years, the Bosnian Serb parliament has been in a heated legal war with Bosnia’s so-called High Representative, Christian Schmidt—the foreign official enforcing the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war.
Dodik Spells Trouble
In 2023, the parliament voted to ignore Bosnia’s constitutional court and reject Schmidt’s decrees outright. Dodik himself was put on trial for defying Schmidt’s decisions, calling it nothing more than a “political witch hunt” meant to “wipe him out of politics.”
Just last week, he was slapped with a one-year prison sentence and barred from serving as Republika Srpska’s president for six years. Now, Dodik has also called ethnic Serbs to quit the federal police force and courts and join the government of the deeply divided country’s Serb statelet.
Now, Dodik is hitting back. The laws he just signed specifically go after the federal prosecutor’s office that indicted him and the court that sentenced him. “We are taking Republika Srpska back—this is our right,” he declared.
Bosnian Muslim politicians are fuming, calling it a “coup d’état.” Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković has already announced plans to file a complaint with the constitutional court.
The EU wasted no time condemning Dodik, saying his actions threaten Bosnia’s “sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.”
But Dodik isn’t backing down. He argues that the federal judiciary, prosecutors, and police are illegal since they were never part of the Dayton Agreement. “Republika Srpska is not, and never will be, anyone’s colony!” he warned in a fiery post on X.
Republika Srpska (RS) is pushing hard for greater autonomy within Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with the ultimate goal of a peaceful separation. Milorad Dodik, RS’s president, has been a relentless advocate for independence, escalating tensions with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), which insists on preserving a unified Bosnia.
BiH operates under a fragile federal system, split between two main entities: RS, predominantly Serb and backed by Serbia and Russia, and FBiH, mainly Bosniak and Croat, with support from the US.
Western powers are expected to oppose RS’s moves for independence to maintain influence over the Serbs. Bosnia remains deeply divided along ethnic lines, with nationalism running high and cooperation between communities proving increasingly difficult.
