The Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday had to cancel its session because deputies from Serb political parties failed to show up, thus confirming an earlier announcement that they would boycott the work of state institutions due to the imposition of a law banning the denial of genocide and other war crimes.

The decision to cancel the parliament session was confirmed by the leader of the opposition Our Party (NS), Predrag Kojovic, who said that the next session of the House of Representatives would be scheduled for September.

He said the decision was of a political nature and was made to secure time to overcome the crisis caused by parties from the Serb entity.

Leaders of parliamentary parties from the entity of Republika Srpska (RS) agreed on Monday that their members would not participate in the work of the BiH Presidency, the national parliament and the government until High Representative Valentin Inzko’s decision of last week, whereby he imposed amendments to the Criminal Code making it possible to punish, with sentences of up to five years in prison, anyone denying war crimes and glorifying their perpetrators, was withdrawn.

BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik said that in response to Inzko’s decision the RS parliament would most probably adopt two new laws, but he did not say what exactly they would refer to, however, media cited anonymous party sources as saying the RS planned to adopt a law that would envisage prison sentences for anyone describing the RS as a genocidal entity.