Tensions loom over Bosnian Serbs’ referendum
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnia’s Serb ministate is holding a referendum this weekend that has turned into a proxy political battle between the West and Russia, stoking ethnic tensions and spurring fears of new clashes more than 20 years after the end of the Balkans War.
On January 9, 1992 — a Serb Christian Orthodox religious holiday — the Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their own state within Bosnia, fueling a war that resulted in at least 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.
During the worst carnage in Europe since World War II, the Serbs — helped by neighboring Serbia — expelled Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croats from the territory they occupied, with the aim of making it part of Serbia.
The U.S. embassy in Sarajevo threatened unspecified “consequences” if the referendum is not canceled, while the Russian ambassador openly supported the referendum, saying it is an act of democracy.