ABSTRACT

On 30 August 2005, the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (RS) endorsed with more than a two-thirds majority the changes recommended by the Defense Reform Commission (DRC), an institution mandated by Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina. This decision might be the single most important move of the Serbs in BiH since the signing of the General Framework Agreement in Dayton, Ohio, ten years ago.1 Sixtyone deputies of the RS National Assembly endorsed the reforms, resulting in the complete abolishment of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) and Ministry of Defense, and the eventual transfer of all defense competencies to State-level.2