WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland will ban Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik from entering its territory, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, amid a political crisis in the Balkan state where he is wanted for attacking the constitutional order.
The decision means that Poland joins Germany and Austria in barring Dodik, who triggered Bosnia’s biggest political crisis since the end of the country’s war in the 1990s by allegedly defying rulings by the international envoy whose role is to prevent the multi-ethnic state from slipping back into conflict.
“A procedure has been initiated regarding a national entry ban for Milorad Dodik,” the Polish foreign ministry said in an email. “The procedure is ongoing. It will be finalised in a few days.”
The press office of Dodik’s party did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Bosnia’s international peace envoy, Christian Schmidt, said in April he had ordered a halt of all budget allocations for the Dodik’s party.
Bosnia’s state police, SIPA, tried to arrest Dodik in April but were stopped by his armed police forces.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Daria Sito-Sucic, writing by Alan Charlish, Editing by Alex Richardson)
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