Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska is preparing to adopt a law declaring Cyrillic script must be used by all officials and public institutions, but Bosniaks and Croats argue that the plan is unconstitutional.
A draft law will soon be launched that will declare Cyrillic to be the main script in the Republika Srpska entity, with the legislation expected to make Cyrillic obligatory for usage in the official correspondence of all Republika Srpska’s institutions, public and scientific institutions, local government bodies and companies, as well as in all media that are majority-owned by the entity.
“The draft law is in the final stages. The text of the bill will not be significantly different from a similar law that is being prepared in Serbia,” a source in the Republika Srpska Education Ministry told BIRN.
Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic confirmed on Tuesday that her cabinet is preparing legal changes to push for wider use of Cyrillic.
“A working group has been formed, the Republika Srpska Ministry of Education and Culture will be the formal proposer of this law, many experts have been gathered to contribute to the drafting of such an important law,” Cvijanovic told media.
According to Bosnian media, the draft law will include harsh sanctions for non-compliance with the law. Anyone in an official position who does not use Cyrillic script, could be punished with fines ranging from 45 to 850 euros.
But political representatives of Bosniaks and Croats in Republika Srpska – both ethnic groups who use Latin script rather than Cyrillic – warned that the law would be unconstitutional since the Latin and Cyrillic scripts are constitutionally equal in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The culmination of all of this would be the negation of the Latin script as a constitutionally equal script in the Republika Srpska. That would be the last straw. Such a rush into illegality is incomprehensible,” the head of the Bosniak caucus in the Republika Srpska House of Peoples, Mujo Hadzimerovic, told Bosnian media on Monday.
“Briefly speaking, it is unconstitutional. We have three equal languages and two equal scripts. I have not seen any such bill yet, but in any case, based on constitutional provisions, it is in contravention of the constitution,” Tomislav Tomljanovic, the head of the Croat caucus in the House of Peoples, told Bosnian media.
The former mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, argued meanwhile that Cvijanovic was using the Cyrillic bill “to draw attention away from the defective economic policy and economic collapse in Republika Srpska”.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
