Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik Wednesday signed a law banning the police and judiciary of the central government from exercising their powers in his Serb entity, escalating a political crisis in the Balkan country.
Dodik said the move restores "constitutional jurisdiction" to the Serb statelet, known as Republika Srpska.
The law, along with others signed by Dodik, raises tensions in the Balkan country and poses a test for its fragile central institutions.
Since the Dayton accords that put an end to the 1992-1995 civil war, which claimed nearly 100,000 lives, Bosnia has been divided between two largely autonomous entities, one Serb and one Muslim-Croat.
Dodik was sentenced last week to a year in prison and banned from holding office for six years for refusing to comply with decisions made by Bosnia's high representative, with Republika Srpska's Parliament adopting the laws in response.
The Serb leader had ignored decisions made by Christian Schmidt, the envoy mandated to oversee the Dayton accords, whose legitimacy is being rejected by Bosnian Serbs.
Dodik, 65, has the right to appeal the verdict, which he said was the result of a "political trial" intended to "eliminate him from the political arena".
The laws target the state prosecutor's office which indicted Dodik, and the state court that sentenced him. The third targeted institution is SIPA, the only national police force with a mandate to serve the central judiciary.
Both the Serb and the Muslim/Croat entities have their own police forces and judicial system.
The national judiciary is limited to focussing on organized crime, corruption, war crimes and potential attacks on the constitutional order.
"We want to bring back Republika Srpska to us, this is our right. We take back Republika Srpska's right because that is written in the Constitution".
Bosnia's foreign minister Elmedin Konakovic denounced the laws and announced that a complaint would be submitted to the constitutional court.
"We can truly see tonight that Milorad Dodik" and his associates "have committed a textbook coup d'etat," Konakovic told broadcaster FTV.
- Call for "calm" -
The laws adopted by the parliament and signed by Dodik envisage a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison for Republika Srpska employees who refuse to leave the central institutions.
According to Dodik, the new laws go into force on Friday after they are published in the entity's official gazette.
"We will accompany this with great efficiency", he declared.
"I invite people throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina to remain calm, stable," Dodik said.
Reffering to the recent return of President Donald Trump in United States, whose victory he openly celebrated, Dodik said he was "convinced that, in the constellation of relations on a global scale, the United States and other major players will no longer support the creation of impossible states and artificial nations".
