Republic of Srpska assembly sets date for referendum on Statehood Day News
Republic of Srpska assembly sets date for referendum on Statehood Day

The National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska [official website] voted on Friday to hold a referendum [press release, in Serbian] within its territory on September 25 to decide whether to set its Statehood Day on January 9. The date coincides with an Orthodox Christian holiday and is therefore seen to exclude Roman Catholic Croatians and Bosnian Muslims who also live in the Republic. This move is being seen as a display of defiance [Reuters report] against the Bosnia and Herzegovina Constitutional Court [official website], which expressly ruled last year that the date should be changed. Some lawmakers challenged the vote on the grounds that the recognition of Statehood Day would violate the terms of the Dayton Peace Accords [text] which brought the three-year war in the Balkans to an end in 1995. Bosnian Serbs traditionally mark the anniversary of January 9, 1992, when they declared independence from Bosnia prior to the commencement of hostilities. The Republic is one of two largely autonomous regions that make up the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tensions between the ethnic Bosnian and Serbian populations of the former Yugoslavian states continue to be emotionally charged, years after the Balkan war. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [JURIST backgrounder] and the Balkan States continue to prosecute those accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity that left more than 100,000 people dead and millions displaced during the conflict. In March, the ICTY acquitted [JURIST report] Vojislav Šešelj, president of the Serbian Radical Party and former Assembly member of Serbia, of all crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the Balkan war. In May 2015 the ICTY ordered [JURIST report] Serbia’s justice ministry to return Šešelj to his detention cell immediately [JURIST op-ed] after he was released in February to return to Serbia for cancer treatment. The ICTY had revoked his provisional release [JURIST report] in March 2015 because Šešelj spoke at a news conference in Belgrade and stated [WSJ report] that he would not return voluntarily to The Hague.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

Last public execution at Tyburn Gallows in London

On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

Learn more about the trial of John Austin.