|
The Republika Srpska (RS) is one of the two autonomous entities that compose the state of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (the other entity is the
Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina). In English it is sometimes called the Serb Republic or Republic of Srpska, although the
latter is an incorrect translation ("Srpska" is an adjective, not a noun). Because of the potential for confusion between the "Serb Republic" (Republika
Srpska) and the "Republic of Serbia" (Republika Srbija), the name "Republika Srpska" is often used in its
untranslated form in non-Slavic countries to avoid any confusion with Serbia. This
article follows that convention.
The RS has its own government, coat of arms, anthem, president, parliament (the
Народна Скупштина
Републике Српске/Narodna Skupština
Republike Srpske), customs department, police force, postal system, army (the Vojska Republike Srpske), and airline (Air Srpska). For
a while it even had its own currency (1992-94), the
Republika Srpska dinar. It uses the Serbian flag. It does not have its own Internet domain
name, but third parties offer the subdomain .RS under either one of the top level domains .BA (Bosnia & Herzegovina) [1] or .SR (Suriname, but resembling Serbia, which actually uses .YU) [2] . Although Sarajevo is formally the
capital of the RS, according to its constitution, in practice the northwestern city of Banja Luka is the centre of the republic's government.
History
During the political crisis that followed the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from the former Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia on July 25, 1991, a separate Bosnian Serb Assembly was founded on October 24, 1991, as the representative body of
Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1994 Postage Stamp
On November 21, 1991, the Bosnian Serb Assembly proclaimed as part of the territory of the federal Yugoslav state all those
municipalities, local communities, and populated places in which over 50% of the people of Serbian nationality had voted, during
a plebiscite held on November 9 and 10, 1991, to remain in that state, as well as those places where citizens of other
nationalities had expressed themselves in favour of remaining in a joint Yugoslav state.
On January 9, 1992, the Bosnian Serb Assembly adopted a declaration on the Proclamation of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Republika Srpska Bosne i Hercegovine). On February 28, 1992, the constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina declared that the territory of that Republic included the territories of the Serbian autonomous regions and districts
and of other Serbian ethnic entities in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and it was declared to be a part of the federal Yugoslav state. The provisional government then issued such
documents as postage stamps and currency, mostly prized abroad by hobbyists.
1993 5000 Dinar banknote
From February 29 to 2 March 1992, Bosnia and
Herzegovina held a referendum on independence. The majority of Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote on the basis of the vote
being unconstitutional in the sense that it bypassed the veto of the Serb representatives. On April 6, 1992, the European Community formally recognised the independence of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence on April 7, 1992. On August 12, 1992, the
reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina was dropped from
the name of the state, and it became simply Republika Srpska.
The legal existence and independence of Republika Srpska was recognized by the Agreed Basic Principles issued on September 8,
1995, and the Further Agreed Basic Principles issued on September 26, 1995, and was confirmed by the Dayton Peace Agreement. (Under an agreement on August 29, 1995,
the delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was authorized to sign the Dayton Peace Agreement on behalf of the Republika
Srpska.) Republika Srpska was not created by the Dayton Peace Agreement; indeed, Republika Srpska was a party to several of the
annexes to the General Framework Agreement. Republika Srpska has maintained its territorial and legal continuity since it was
proclaimed as a state on January 9, 1992, and the constitution adopted in 1992 (as amended) remains in force to this day.
See also
External links
|