The Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, will mark today the “national day”, an unconstitutional celebration, amidst international warnings about the political ambitions of the entity’s leader, Milorad Dodik, for secession from Bosnia.

January 9 marks the day when Bosnian Serbs in 1992, opposing Bosnia’s independence after its separation from Yugoslavia, declared their separate state, triggering an interethnic war that claimed the lives of over 100,000 people and only ceased after the Dayton Agreement mediated by the United States at the end of 1995.

According to the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia is governed by a central government under the leadership of a Bosniak-Croat federation and a Serbian-majority entity known as Republika Srpska.

In the Serbian entity of Bosnia, January 9 is observed as a national day, although the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has declared it unconstitutional twice.

This prohibited celebration is marked in the capital of the Serbian entity, Banja Luka, with marches and parades of armed police.

The Serbian Minister of Defense, Miloš Vučević, the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Army, Miloš Mojsilović, ministers of the Serbian government, the President of the Serbian Parliament, Vladimir Orlić, and the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfirije, are expected to participate in this celebration.

In the past two years, Dodik, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has continuously attempted to undermine the authority of the central government of Bosnia and establish parallel institutions to increase his ominous threats of permanently dividing the country.

To support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia, two American fighter jets, F-16s, flew over the country’s skies on January 8.

The United States will not stand idly by until the Dayton Peace Agreement and the institutions of Bosnia are challenged, said the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.

“The exercise was part of U.S. efforts to exchange tactics, techniques, and procedures with the Bosnian Air Force, demonstrating the United States’ commitment to ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” it said on January 8.

The festivities in Banja Luka are expected to begin this afternoon with a ceremony where individuals will be rewarded and will conclude with a military parade at 5:00 PM.

Members of the motorcycle club “Night Wolves”, which is close to Putin, are expected to participate in the parade again.