(24 Sep 2016) Serbian Foreign minister Ivica Dacic said in Belgrade on Saturday that he hoped that an upcoming referendum in the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina passes peacefully, adding that maintaining the peace and stability in the region was of the utmost importance.
Bosnia's Serb mini-state is holding a referendum this weekend that has turned into a proxy political battle between the West and Russia, stoking ethnic tensions and triggering fears of new clashes more than 20 years after the end of the Balkans War.
Sunday's vote, which will decide whether to maintain a national holiday in the Bosnian Serb half of the country, Republika Srpska, will go ahead despite a ruling by Bosnia's constitutional court that the date discriminates against non-Serbs.
On January 9 1992, a Serb Christian Orthodox religious holiday, the Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their own state on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the war that followed, they expelled non-Serbs from it with the aim of making it part of neighbouring Serbia.
Republika Srpska became an autonomous region within Bosnia after the war but for Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, January 9 is a symbol of their expulsion and a hint that the area is still meant just for Serbs.
Bosnia's constitutional court banned the referendum on its ruling but the Serbs said they will hold it anyway.
The vote has angered Western-backed Bosniaks and Croats, while Russia is backing the Serbs.
Bosniaks fear this referendum is a precursor for a more serious one on 2018 which is on independence.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
