Bosnia's top court suspends school module presenting war criminals as heroes

Bosnia's constitutional court on Friday suspended a part of the curriculum introduced in primary schools in the country's Serb-dominated region presenting the Serb war crimes convicts from the 1992-95 war as heroes.

The education ministry of the Serb Republic, one of multi-ethnic Bosnia's two autonomous regions, introduced a module on the Bosnian war and its causes from the Serb perspective for final graders in the school year starting in September.

It portrays Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and military leader Ratko Mladic, both jailed for life over war crimes and genocide by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as historic figures who enabled the creation of the Serb Republic.

Bosnia's devastating war, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and drove about two million from their homes, was ended by the U.S.-sponsored Dayton peace agreement, which split the country into a Serb Republic dominated by Orthodox Serbs and a Federation dominated by Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.

At its plenary session on Friday, the court decided to suspend the curriculum section dealing with the war and the creation of the Serb entity with immediate effect, responding to a request filed by 13 members of the national parliament.

Explaining the move to suspend the module pending a final decision, the court said the implementation of that section of the curriculum risked causing further segregation and divisions among students of different ethnic backgrounds.

In practice the multi-ethnic court has limited powers of enforcement.

The Serb Republic has withdrawn Serb judges in protest at the continued presence of foreign judges who serve in the court under the peace deal. Serb leaders say they do not respect the court's decisions and have ignored them in the past.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who has been under U.S. and UK sanctions for violating the provisions of the Dayton peace accords, has repeatedly called for the secession of the region from Bosnia and its unification with Serbia.