A court in Bosnia on Thursday issued an international arrest warrant for Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Serb half of the country.
Dodik last month barred police representing Bosnia’s central authorities from operating in the Republika Srpska, the Serb part of the country. The order was then suspended by the Constitutional Court.
The pro-Russia Dodik has repeatedly threatened to break the Republika Srpska away from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That threatens the Dayton Accords that were brokered to bring peace to Bosnia after sectarian violence roiled the region following the collapse of Yugoslavia.
The agreement signed in 1995 established two principal entities — the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina comprising Croats and Muslims, and the Republika Srpska comprising Bosnian Serbs — that make up the single state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dodik defies arrest warrant, tensions grow
Dodik and another top Republika Srpska official were accused of attacking the constitutional order after their move last month.
A court in Bosnia last week issued a domestic arrest warrant for Dodik and two other top officials of Republika Srpska.
But Dodik and another official accused in the case defied the order and traveled abroad.
Dodik crossed into neighboring Serbia earlier this week and then traveled to Israel for an antisemitism conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.
“All of this suggests that both individuals could be abroad at any given moment, which provides grounds for action,” the court said in a statement Thursday, adding that the matter was now in the hands of global police agency Interpol.
A court in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, last month sentenced Dodik to one year in prison for defying the country’s top international overseer and barred him from office for six years.
But Dodik and his allies say they do not recognize the Bosnian prosecution office and will not go to Sarajevo for questioning.
Edited by: Zac Crellin
