Bosnia has been getting more attention recently, as analysts predict gridlock (or worse)
in the coming weeks. The reason is a move by the country’s Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, to challenge parts of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the hard-fought war in 1995.
Few people outside Bosnia know who Dodik is. Those who knew him during the Bosnian War or immediately afterwards saw him as a moderate businessman-turned-politician.
But since then, Dodik has either changed or shed his cover. Now he wants to hold a vote next month on whether to reject Bosnia’s federal institutions, especially the war crimes court. He has accused the court of bias.
A Berlusconi-style attack on the court is probably related to ongoing investigations into his business dealings. But his complaint is also inspired by nationalist sentiment: he hopes to make Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb part of Bosnia he rules, as independent as possible from the Bosnian state.
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