Bosnia calls on NATO to station troops in country’s northeast

Deploying of NATO in Brcko District would disable plans by Bosnian Serbs for secession, says Bosnian politician

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s speaker of the House of Representatives on Sunday urged NATO to deploy troops to the self-governing administrative unit of Brcko District in the country’s northeast.

Denis Zvizdic’s remarks came ahead of a summit of the military alliance in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11 and 12.

”Such a decision would prevent and then permanently disable the secession project launched by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said on his social media account.

Zvizdic said that NATO’s stationing of troops in the district would eliminate one of the greatest dangers facing Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia in April demanded an increase in the number of soldiers in the European Union Force – Operation Althea (EUFOR Althea), the EU’s peacekeeping mission in the country.

Operation Althea is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was established in 2004 to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and ensure security in the country.

Republika Srpska in late June adopted a law annulling the validity of decisions by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court.

RS President Milorad Dodik said in a speech that the decision will be the foundation of the entity’s independence.

The entity’s assembly, however, decided not to publish any decisions taken by Schmidt in its official journal.

The Constitutional Court consists of three Bosniak, three Serb and three Croat judges.

In order to overcome a crisis that emerged after two of the Serb judges withdrew and one of them was forced to retire, on June 19, an extraordinary decision was made to hold a session without the participation of Serb members.

Dodik, who reacted harshly to this step by the Constitutional Court to pave the way for its functioning without the participation of Serb judges through a rule change, demanded that the decision be annulled.

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s top priorities are joining the political and economic community of European states as well as NATO.