Bosnian Serbs marked the anniversary of their autonomous region’s statehood on January 9 in defiance of a Constitutional Court ban. 

On January 9, 1992 Bosnian Serb leaders declared their own state as Yugoslavia disintegrated, a move that preceded the 1992-95 war in which about 100,000 people were killed and more than 2mn displaced.

Bosnia’s Constitutional Court has twice ruled that the holiday is unconstitutional because it discriminates against non-Serbs. The court has banned official celebrations, but authorities in Republika Srpska, the Serb-run entity of Bosnia, have continued to mark it each year.

A ceremonial parade was held in the northwestern city of Banja Luka, with more than 2,700 members of the entity’s interior ministry and other state bodies marching through Krajina Square, a statement from the Republika Srpska government said. The event was attended by Republika Srpska’s former president Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister Savo Minić, the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency Željka Cvijanović, National Assembly speaker Nenad Stevandić and other senior officials from both the Serb entity and neighbouring Serbia.

“The ceremonial parade is a symbol of unity, order and strength of the Republika Srpska and is the central event of the festivities marking its most important holiday,” the Republika Srpska government said in a statement.

Only a few hundred supporters turned out to watch in freezing temperatures, according to Reuters. 

Dodik, who was removed as Republika Srpska’s president last year for defying Bosnia’s Constitutional Court and the international peace envoy, used the anniversary to double down on his challenge to the Bosnian state.

“We should not naively view the attempts to challenge the celebration of the Republic Day – January 9th, because it is about the desire to challenge the Republika Srpska and the right to exist of the Serbian people,” Dodik wrote on X.

“We established our republic and today's celebration shows how much we love it. We will restore our rights or one day we will make a decision not to do anything at the level of BiH [Bosnia & Herzegovina],” he added.

Under the 1995 US-brokered Dayton peace accords, Bosnia was divided into two autonomous entities — the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation — linked by a central government. Dodik has repeatedly threatened to withdraw the Serb entity from Bosnia’s joint institutions and ultimately secede, although he has backed away from some measures under Western pressure.

Bosniak politicians reacted angrily to the January 9 celebrations, accusing the Bosnian Serb leadership of glorifying the outbreak of war and undermining the country’s constitutional order.

From the Potocari Memorial Center near Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, Bosniak presidency member Denis Bećirović wrote on Facebook:

“9 January 1992 is no date to celebrate. It's a black date that reminds us of the terrible consequences a politics of hate, division and tearing down of a country's constitutional order can bring.”

Bosnia’s Defence Minister Zukan Helez called for legal action against Republika Srpska officials.

“Year after year celebrating the 9th January, the so-called ‘RS Day’, is becoming increasingly provocative and has obviously gone too far,” Helez wrote. “Despite the clear decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this unconstitutional marking is used to openly deny the legal order of the state.

“The prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina must react. Ignoring decisions of the Constitutional Court and continuous violation of the Constitution must not remain without legal consequences,” he added.

Helez also criticised the current Bosnian Serb leadership for blocking Bosnia’s Western integration.

“The former political leadership of the RS organised and carried out genocide, while today's leadership has organised and consciously blocked the Euro-Atlantic road of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he wrote. “For all of these reasons, I believe that the time has come to start a serious, argued scientific, professional, political and social discussion about the abolition of entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Political scientist Jasmin Mujanović said the parade underlined how little Dodik had changed course, despite recent diplomatic engagement by Washington.

“This year's January 9 paramilitary march by the Kremlin-backed Bosnian Serb secessionist regime in Banja Luka, glorifying the onset of the Bosnian Genocide, was noteworthy for two reasons,” Mujanović wrote on X.

“Despite the US decision to lift sanctions against Dodik and his regime late last year after having purportedly secured concessions from Dodik to moderate his attacks against the BiH state and the US-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement, Dodik et al have, as expected, reneged on their deal,” he said.

“Both today's paramilitary march, and Dodik's accompanying media tour, make clear that he has no intention of moderating or abandoning his project of dismantling BiH or the Dayton Agreement.”

Mujanović also criticised the prominent role played in the celebrations by Dodik’s US lobbyist, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

“Blagojevich also made grotesque comparisons between January 9 and July 4,” Mujanović wrote. “January 9 is literally synonymous with the onset of the first genocide in Europe since 1945… Likening that day with America's Independence Day is an extraordinarily vile thing for any American to say, even if he is a paid stooge of Dodik's.”

Western governments have warned that any attempt by Republika Srpska to secede would threaten the fragile peace in Bosnia, nearly three decades after the end of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.