The Writers' Association from Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity sent an open letter to Nobel Prize laureate Peter Handke, Thursday, declaring him their honorary member and inviting him to visit the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka, the RS administrative centre.

“Sharing joy on the occasion of your Nobel Prize award for Literature, we the members of the RS Writers Association wish to congratulate you as the true friend of our people by awarding you our highest recognition from the field of literature – the RS Writers’ Association Charter, and declaring you the honourary member of our Association which has been active in the RS since October 30, 1993, and gathers around 170 writers,” the Association wrote.

They added that their current honorary members are Vyacheslav Glebovich Kupriyanov (Russian Federation), John Taylor (USA) and Giorgio Linguaglossa (Italy).

Peter Handke’s Nobel Prize caused a torrent of condemnations from across the world over the Austrian writer’s controversial views on the war in Bosnia, Srebrenica genocide and his support for the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic who was indicted for his involvement in the 1002-1995 war in Bosnia by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.