Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic | Photo by Beta

After meeting Dodik in Belgrade, Aleksandar Vucic insisted that the planned referendum in Bosnia was an “internal issue”, and a “sovereign decision” of Republika Srpska.

However, “I have asked them to rethink the decision,” the Serbian Prime Minister added, noting that he was “grateful” that Dodik had agreed to talk about the referendum.

At a joint press conference with Vucic, Dodik said the Republika Srpska was ready to discuss its grievances about the Bosnian state judiciary and a referendum would not be required if the entity’s demands were accepted.

“If there is no deal, we will hold the referendum,” Dodik said.

He said that everybody was aware that the Bosnian judiciary faced serious problems and that war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs in the Nineties had never been prosecuted.

The assembly of the Serb-dominated entity voted on Wednesday to hold a referendum on confidence in the country’s state justice system and on the authority of the international community’s High Representative.

Of 76 deputies present on the chamber, 45 voted in favour of the referendum and 31 abstained. The referendum is scheduled for mid-September.

Citizens of Bosnia’s mainly Serbian entity faced a loaded question: whether or not to support the “anti-constitutional and unauthorized laws imposed by the High Representative of the international community, especially the laws imposed relating to the Court and the Prosecutor’s office of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

The move drew widespread condemnation. Western diplomats said the referendum was meaningless since Republika Srpska had no authority to challenge Bosnia’s state courts or the powers of the Office of the High Representative. Bosniak officials meanwhile said the referendum threatened an increasingly fragile peace in Bosnia.

Vucic on Friday meanwhile said that he expected the Bosnian courts to prosecute those who had attacked him at Srebrenica on July 11, but he would not personally be filing criminal charges against them.

“I believe that they [the authorities of Bosnia] will do what is legally required. I will not join the prosecution. May God forgive them for what they did,” Vucic said.

Dodik claimed that the attack in Srebrenica was an attempt to kill Vucic and was organized by people close to Bosniak member of the Bosnian presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic.

Izetbegovic and other Bosniak politicians for their part have condemned the incident in which stones and water bottles were thrown at the Serbian leader in Srebrenica on July 11 as 136 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre were being laid to rest on the 20th anniversary commemoration of the mass killing.