Serbian Democratic Party
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Template:Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Serbian Democratic Party (Serbian: Srpska Demokratska Stranka, SDS) is a Serbian nationalist political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is led by Dragan Čavić which also became the president of the Republika Srpska (RS) on 28 November 2002, following the implementation of the October general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He replaced former entity president Mirko Šarović.
Čavić received 35.9 per cent of the vote against 22.1 per cent for the closest runner up Milan Jelić. Voter turnout was 53.9 per cent.
At the last legislative elections, 5 october 2002, the party won 14.0 % of the popular vote and 5 out of 42 seats in the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 26 out of 83 in the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska
History
Some of the partys highest positioned members were :
- Radovan Karadžić (active 1989-1996) a fugitive wanted for war crimes by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; Interpol warrant cites assault, crimes against humanity, crimes against life and health, genocide, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions, murder, plunder, and violations of the laws or customs of war (see Geneva Conventions).
- Biljana Plavšić (active 1989-1997) pled guilty to one count of crimes against humanity at the ICTY for her part in persecuting Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war in Bosnia.
- Momčilo Krajišnik with genocide, crimes against humanity, vilolations of laws of war, and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions.
- Nikola Koljević who directed the siege of Sarajevo and gave orders for burning of famous Bosnian National and University Library - Viječnica.
Other parties
Note that there was also a Serb Democratic Party in Croatia between 1990 and 1995, led by Jovan Rašković and Milan Babić. See also: Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Not to be confused with the Democratic Party or the Democratic Party of Serbia.