Latest news with #Serb-dominated
LeMonde
7 days ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
Bosnian Serb President Dodik formally ousted after being given one-year jail term
Bosnia's electoral commission said Wednesday, August 6 that the Bosnian Serb entity president, Milorad Dodik, had been formally stripped of his post after he was sentenced to a one-year jail term. The Republika Srpska president was given the prison sentence and banned from public office for six years after being found guilty of flouting the rulings of the international envoy who monitors the peace accords that ended the country's 1990 war. The electoral body decided to apply the law, which lays down that an elected official is automatically forced out of office if sentenced to more than six months in jail, commission member Suad Arnautovic told reporters. He added though that an appeal can still be made to the Bosnian State Court. Dodik's lawyer, Goran Bubic, has already said that new legal action would be taken after the appeal court verdict. The 66-year-old Dodik, who has headed the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska since 2006, had condemned last Friday's appeal court verdict as a "political" trial and a "blow" to the Serb entity "orchestrated by the European Union." Bosnia has been divided between the Serb and Bosnian-Croat entities since the 1992-95 war that left tens of thousands dead. It is bound together by weak central institutions. Dodik, 66, was prosecuted for passing two laws in 2023 that banned the application in the Serb entity of decisions by the international high representative and Bosnia's federal constitutional court. Dodik rejects the authority of the international representative, currently Christian Schmidt, who started in 2021. Dodik says the former German minister is "illegal" as his nomination has not been approved by the UN Security Council.
Straits Times
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Bosnian Serb leader Dodik vows to defy political ban, write to Trump
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik arrives at the Kremlin to attend a festive concert, held on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia, May 8, 2025. Alexander Kryazhev/Host agency RIA Novosti/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo The separatist president of the Serb part of Bosnia vowed to defy a court ruling banning him from political office for six years on Friday and said he would seek help from both Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump. Milorad Dodik was responding to a ruling by Bosnia's appeals court upholding a sentence handed down to him for defying the orders of the international peace envoy, whose role is to prevent multi-ethnic Bosnia sliding back into civil war. Dodik told reporters he would continue to go to work. "I do not accept the verdict," he told reporters. "I will seek help from Russia and I will write a letter to the U.S. administration." He said he would ask his associates not to communicate with ambassadors from the European Union, which has a peacekeeping force in Bosnia to ensure stability that has deployed reserve forces over the crisis. The sentence, handed down to Dodik in February for defying the Constitutional Court as well as the peace envoy, included a one-year prison term that under Bosnia's legal system can possibly be exchanged for a fine. His lawyer Goran Bubic said his team would appeal Friday's appeals court ruling to the Constitutional Court and seek a temporary delay of the implementation of the verdict pending its decision. Dodik's conviction in February sparked uproar in Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, triggering Bosnia's worst political crisis since the conflict, which killed around 100,000 people in 1992-5. A pro-Russian nationalist who seeks to split his region from Bosnia, Dodik responded with measures to reduce the state's presence in the Serb Republic by ordering lawmakers to ban the state's prosecutor, court, and intelligence agency. The constitutional court then temporarily suspended the regional parliament's legislation as endangering the constitutional and legal order and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the formal name of the country. Dodik is a long-time advocate of the secession of the Serb-dominated region, which along with the Bosniak-Croat Federation makes up Bosnia. The crisis precipitated by his separatist push represents one of the biggest threats to peace in the Balkans since the conflicts that followed Yugoslavia's collapse. REUTERS
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU says it has begun to ease sanctions on Kosovo
(Reuters) -The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Thursday said the bloc has begun to lift sanctions on Kosovo, but that the process would be conditional on a sustained de-escalation of violence and hostilities in the north. The European Union placed economic curbs on the country in 2023 for its role in tensions in the Serb-dominated north, where leftist Albanian nationalist Prime Minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control. The bloc cut at least 150 million euros ($170 million)in funding, Reuters found. "As a sign of our commitment, I can announce that the EU has begun to gradually lift measures introduced in June 2023," Kallas told reporters in Pristina. "The decision opens the door for greater opportunities for crossovers, development and also closer ties with Europe. But it's conditional on sustained de-escalation in the North." Kallas also urged Kosovo's political parties to end disputes that have blocked the formation of a new government after February elections, saying functioning institutions were needed to secure EU membership. Kurti has repeatedly failed to secure the election of a new speaker, prompting fears of an economic backlash after months of political stalemate in one of Europe's poorest countries. Lawmakers have been meeting every 48 hours since mid-April to elect a new speaker, a step required before Kurti, who failed to win a majority in a February election, can try to form a coalition government. Kallas, who earlier on Thursday also visited Serbia, said that the 27-member bloc was opened to enlargement and wanted Kosovo to take advantage of the bloc's 6 billion euro Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. "For that to happen, Kosovo needs functioning institutions that can effectively implement reforms, and that's why I encourage all parties to break the political stalemates and swiftly form a government," she said. Both Kosovo and Serbia aim to join the European Union, but in order to make progress they need to normalise ties with each other and establish diplomatic relations. In 2013 the parties agreed to an EU sponsored dialogue, but little progress has been made. ($1 = 0.8866 euros)
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
EU says it has begun to ease sanctions on Kosovo
FILE PHOTO: Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas arrives at the 6th European Political Community summit at Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, Albania May 16, 2025. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo EU says it has begun to ease sanctions on Kosovo The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Thursday said the bloc has begun to lift sanctions on Kosovo, but that the process would be conditional on a sustained de-escalation of violence and hostilities in the north. The European Union placed economic curbs on the country in 2023 for its role in tensions in the Serb-dominated north, where leftist Albanian nationalist Prime Minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control. The bloc cut at least 150 million euros ($170 million)in funding, Reuters found. "As a sign of our commitment, I can announce that the EU has begun to gradually lift measures introduced in June 2023," Kallas told reporters in Pristina. "The decision opens the door for greater opportunities for crossovers, development and also closer ties with Europe. But it's conditional on sustained de-escalation in the North." Kallas also urged Kosovo's political parties to end disputes that have blocked the formation of a new government after February elections, saying functioning institutions were needed to secure EU membership. Kurti has repeatedly failed to secure the election of a new speaker, prompting fears of an economic backlash after months of political stalemate in one of Europe's poorest countries. Lawmakers have been meeting every 48 hours since mid-April to elect a new speaker, a step required before Kurti, who failed to win a majority in a February election, can try to form a coalition government. Kallas, who earlier on Thursday also visited Serbia, said that the 27-member bloc was opened to enlargement and wanted Kosovo to take advantage of the bloc's 6 billion euro Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. "For that to happen, Kosovo needs functioning institutions that can effectively implement reforms, and that's why I encourage all parties to break the political stalemates and swiftly form a government," she said. Both Kosovo and Serbia aim to join the European Union, but in order to make progress they need to normalise ties with each other and establish diplomatic relations. In 2013 the parties agreed to an EU sponsored dialogue, but little progress has been made. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
EU says it has begun to ease sanctions on Kosovo
FILE PHOTO: Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas arrives at the 6th European Political Community summit at Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, Albania May 16, 2025. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo (Reuters) -The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Thursday said the bloc has begun to lift sanctions on Kosovo, but that the process would be conditional on a sustained de-escalation of violence and hostilities in the north. The European Union placed economic curbs on the country in 2023 for its role in tensions in the Serb-dominated north, where leftist Albanian nationalist Prime Minister Albin Kurti has sought to extend government control. The bloc cut at least 150 million euros ($170 million)in funding, Reuters found. "As a sign of our commitment, I can announce that the EU has begun to gradually lift measures introduced in June 2023," Kallas told reporters in Pristina. "The decision opens the door for greater opportunities for crossovers, development and also closer ties with Europe. But it's conditional on sustained de-escalation in the North." Kallas also urged Kosovo's political parties to end disputes that have blocked the formation of a new government after February elections, saying functioning institutions were needed to secure EU membership. Kurti has repeatedly failed to secure the election of a new speaker, prompting fears of an economic backlash after months of political stalemate in one of Europe's poorest countries. Lawmakers have been meeting every 48 hours since mid-April to elect a new speaker, a step required before Kurti, who failed to win a majority in a February election, can try to form a coalition government. Kallas, who earlier on Thursday also visited Serbia, said that the 27-member bloc was opened to enlargement and wanted Kosovo to take advantage of the bloc's 6 billion euro Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. "For that to happen, Kosovo needs functioning institutions that can effectively implement reforms, and that's why I encourage all parties to break the political stalemates and swiftly form a government," she said. Both Kosovo and Serbia aim to join the European Union, but in order to make progress they need to normalise ties with each other and establish diplomatic relations. In 2013 the parties agreed to an EU sponsored dialogue, but little progress has been made. ($1 = 0.8866 euros) (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Conor Humphries)
