US delists four Republika Srpska officials
The United States has removed four Republika Srpska officials from its sanctions list, all of whom had been designated at different times for their roles in organising the unconstitutional commemoration of Republika Srpska Day and ties to former RS President Milorad Dodik.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) issued a notice delisting Jelena Pajic Bastinac, Danijel Dragicevic, Goran Rakovic and Dijana Milankovic, all of whom held senior positions in the Republika Srpska government. They were sanctioned for their involvement in organising celebrations of the 9 January RS Day, which Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court has twice declared unconstitutional for prioritising Serb religious heritage and tradition over other ethnic groups in the entity.
Bastinac was sanctioned in March 2024, along with two other individuals, for her role in organising RS Day in 2024 and actively promoting mass attendance at the celebrations while publicly dismissing warnings from the High Representative that the events posed risks to the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Dragicevic was sanctioned last January alongside seven other officials who, at the direction of Dodik, proposed, adopted and implemented the plan of events for the 2024 RS Day commemoration. The US Treasury said Dragicevic also participated in a secessionist working group that drafted a plan for Republika Srpska to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rakovic and Milankovic were among those sanctioned in January.
The delistings follow Bosnia’s Central Election Commission’s termination of Dodik’s mandate as RS president last August after the state court definitively sentenced him to one year in prison and six years of disqualification from holding public office for not complying with decisions of the High Representative, the international peace overseer established under the Dayton Peace Agreement.
The US first imposed sanctions on Dodik in July 2017 under Executive Order 13304, then designated him again in January 2022 under Executive Order 14033 for actively obstructing the Dayton Peace Agreement and for corrupt activities.
RS Day commemorates the 1992 declaration by Bosnian Serbs establishing Republika Srpska. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled the holiday unconstitutional because it exclusively represents the Serb population while neglecting other ethnic groups residing in Republika Srpska. For many in Bosnia, the date signifies the commencement of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
The Dayton Peace Agreement, brokered by the United States in 1995, established Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic state divided into two entities – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska – connected by a weak central government.
Elections for a new president of Republika Srpska have been scheduled for November.
OFAC did not provide an explanation for the delistings in the brief notice, and did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The most recent celebration of Republika Srpska Day took place last 9 January in Banja Luka, the administrative center of Republika Srpska, drawing more than 2,000 participants including police, military veterans, students and civil servants who marched through the city despite the Constitutional Court ban.
