RUTTE SAYS NATO IS COMMITTED TO BOSNIA’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY- EUFOR to temporarily increase its 1,100-soldier strong force in the country
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has stated that the alliance fully supports the territorial integrity of Bosnia and urged political leaders to resolve tensions fuelled after the state court sentenced to jail the president of the Bosnian Serb region.
Tensions have been running high in Bosnia since a court sentenced last month a president of the Serb region, Milorad Dodik, to jail and the European Union peacekeeping mission EUFOR also announced that it would temporarily increase the size of its 1,100-soldier strong force in the country.
Rutte said that NATO will not allow a security vacuum in the country, further adding that disrespect of the peace deal and constitution “is not acceptable.”
Bosnia’s constitutional court on Friday also temporarily suspended laws passed by Dodik on claims that it was an attack on the constitutional order.
Last month, Bosnia’s court sentenced Dodik to one year in jail and ordered him to step down as president of the country’s region for six years due to claims that he had defied the orders of an international peace envoy.
Dodik, who ordered the parliament to pass laws banning the state judiciary and police operating in the Serb region of Bosnia, signed the laws proclaimed by the top court as endangering the country’s constitutional order and sovereignty.
