Secessionist pressures in the RS, set up as one of two autonomous regions as part of a 1995 deal to end Bosnia’s war among Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats, is raising international concern about a relapse into turmoil in the Balkans.
Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held at federal and regional levels in October and Bosnian Serb authorities have already begun campaigning with steps some see as menacing to the country’s fragile post-war equilibrium.
Under the 1990s peace accord meant to keep Bosnia intact, the country was divided into autonomous entities. The RS was mainly populated by Bosnians of Serbian descent, while the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was mainly populated by Bosnians of Bosniak or Croatian descent. A relatively weak central presidency was established, and government was based in the capital Sarajevo.
National Security Minister Dragan Mektić accused the RS leadership of cranking up nationalist rhetoric and sponsoring paramilitary displays to intimidate opponents and sway voters ahead of the election.
Mektic is part of a moderate Serb bloc in the Sarajevo coalition government but is at odds with the RS nationalists under regional President Milorad Dodik.
“(RS) politics is verging on fear-mongering; there is an increased feeling of insecurity. All of this is making the security situation more complex,” Mektic said in an interview with Reuters.
In January, a far-right group, whose leaders were trained in Russia and whose members were of Serbian descent, marched in full combat gear during a parade in the RS capital Banja Luka and announced it would register as a charity there.
Mektić also cited what he called reliable reports that young Bosnians of Serbian descent have been undergoing military training at camps in Russia.
Russian motorcycle club Night Wolves, which is under US sanctions for its role in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in Ukraine, has announced a tour of the RS next week as part of a swing through the Balkans.
Mektić said such groups were believed to have been engaged by RS authorities to help inculcate intolerance of non-Serbs or moderate Serbs ahead of the October election.
“There are efforts to manipulate elections in different ways … lately through the organisation of special groups that exert a sort of physical pressure on (certain) citizens so that they feel endangered and do not come out to vote,” said Mektić.
“This is especially practiced by Republika Srpska authorities … They are trying to form a para-security structure under cover of a patriotic organisation to use it in a showdown with opponents.”
He said the Night Wolves were“no typical motorcycle club, they carry strong political messages … The (RS) authorities want to give them legitimacy and use them in an election process,” Mektic said, citing reports the Night Wolves planned to open an office in Banja Luka and monitor elections.
Mektic also said a recent purchase of 2,500 automatic rifles by RS police was legal but – echoing criticism from post-war international envoys in Bosnia – disproportionate compared with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which comprises the rest of the country.
“They need weapons, this is not in dispute, but there is a question of proportion. It … might bring about an unnecessary accumulation of weapons which may be misused in different ways.”
Separately on Monday, a senior US official visiting Kosovo’s capital Pristina said Russia was playing“an increasingly destructive role in much of the Balkans in spreading disinformation and undermining democratic institutions”.
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell, who is on a Balkan tour, added:“We have been clear in our conversations with the Russians that it’s neither in their interest nor in the interest of the people in this region.”
Western leaders have accused Russia, the Serbs’ traditional big power ally, of seeking to exploit diminishing European Union leverage in the Balkans by manipulating political events. Russia denies such allegations.