As the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre approaches, there is growing discontent in Republika Srpska, the Serb-run sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Bosnian Serb population feels angered by what they perceive as intimidation being levied against their country by Paddy Ashdown in his capacity as the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR).

Ashdown, who has far-reaching powers in Bosnian affairs under the 1995 Dayton peace accords, sacked six Serb police officers and three officials in December 2004 for allegedly protecting fugitive war criminals. This followed an earlier "purge" of fifty-eight in the summer of that year.

Ashdown's military background has often afforded him a level of respect not given to many politicians, and he has won some deserved praise for his work in the Balkans. He claims his increasingly stringent policies of military and police reform are necessary to combat "systematic weaknesses" in the country's law enforcement and security.

However, the Bosnian Serbs feel increasingly threatened by his tactics. They fiercely oppose any centralisation of authority, seeing it as an attack on their autonomy.

Republika Srpska is very much a separate entity, with its own government, anthem, president and parliament. After declaring its independence in August 1992, the Dayton Peace agreement confirmed the legal existence of Republika Srpska, although it has never been recognised internationally as a separate state.

The continued refusal of Republika Srpska to comply with demands to hand over Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague motivates Ashdown's tactics.

"It is neither my policy nor my goal to abolish Republika Srpska," Ashdown stated in a meeting with Serbian president Boris Tadic in January of this year. "But those who wish to enjoy the protection of Dayton must respect all the provisions of Dayton: they cannot pick and choose."

Karadzic and Mladic are believed to still be inside Republika Srpska and evidence that Republika Srpska is not only failing to arrest the indictees but is, in fact, continuing to protect them, appears to have only heightened Ashdown's resolve. Rumours persist that, for much of last summer, Mladic was in a military bunker in Han-Pijesak, a rural area in the east of the region.

In an interview with Serbian weekly NIN earlier in the year, Republika Srpska president Dragan Cavic explained that, though he did not believe Ashdown harboured a grudge against the region, he regarded the dismissals of the Serb officials as "an absolutely needless exercise in brutality, interventionism, imperialism and supremacy."

Shortly afterwards, Bosnia's Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, a Serb, stepped down citing "threats and intimidation" from the international community. Ashdown has few fans within Republika Srpska; his erosion of the powers of the Bosnian Serb state has led to growing public hostility and the media frequently refers to him as the 'Tyrant of Bosnia'.

What happened in Srebrenica was brutal and appalling. The worst massacre Europe has seen since the Second World, Karadzic, Mladic and the other ICTY indictees deserve to be held to account for their part in the orchestration, but the Bosnian Serbs are rightfully wary about outside interference. Past interventions in the region have usually only succeeded in complicating the situation: support for Milosevic, for example, was never stronger than during the American raids on Serbia.

The Serbian Unity Congress commented that although they "strongly supported the principles of truth, justice and reconciliation that were behind the creation of the ICTY," they felt that "these principles – as well as the actual bodies tasked with implementing them – are continuously being compromised by the blatant application of double standards, exemplified by the latest move of the OHR. Only genuine even-handedness can achieve these goals in a real and sustainable way."

The next few months are going to be a pivotal time for Republika Srpska. If NATO rejects Bosnia's Partnership for Peace membership again in April, there is a real fear that Ashdown will take steps to abolish the state completely.
Only in Kosovo is the aftermath of the fragmentation of the former Yugoslavia felt more strongly than in this troubled region. Crime rates are high, the black market flourishes and poverty is prevalent. Many towns remain a mess of Tito-era concrete and buildings still bullet scarred. While Belgrade grows increasingly cosmopolitan and westernised, much of Republika Srpska feels stuck in a post-war limbo, unable to move on.

As a result of Ashdown's actions, a new nationalist prime minister, Pero Bukejlovic, has replaced the moderate Dragan Mikerevic, and there has been a small but significant increase in support for far right Radical parties – groups that back the idea of reunification with Serbia. These are not seismic shifts, the RS is too tired, too damaged for any kind of action, but they speak of a growing discontent that should not be ignored, for the sake of the future stability of the region.