Britain has imposed sanctions on the Bosnian marketing agency Mania for undermining the constitution and destabilizing peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
British Ambassador to Bosnia Julian Reilly announced the sanctions on January 15, saying Mania profited significantly from organizing and promoting unconstitutional celebrations of January 9 in Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity.
The sanctions prevent Mania from doing business with British companies and freeze any assets it holds in Britain.
Reilly said Mania undermined the rule of law and promoted division and fear by "acting contrary" to decisions in 2015 and 2019 by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia barring the celebration of January 9 in Republika Srpska.
January 9 marks the date in 1992 when Bosnian Serbs who opposed an independent Bosnia after the breakup of Yugoslavia declared their separate state, triggering an interethnic war that claimed more than 100,000 lives and was finally stopped by the U.S.-brokered Dayton accords in late 1995.
The court ruled that celebrating the day is unconstitutional and discriminatory because it establishes a privileged position of one ethnic community in relation to others, Reilly said on X, formerly Twitter.
The ambassador said the U.K. sanctions regime allows sanctions to be imposed on those who undermine or threaten the sovereignty, territorial integrity, international prosperity, or constitutional order of Bosnia.
"The United Kingdom did not take this decision lightly. But, as we have stated several times, there must be consequences for those, politicians, or companies, who undermine the peace that was secured by the Dayton Peace Agreement," the ambassador said.
Banja Luka-based Mania said it was surprised by the sanctions.
Mania said in response to a request for comment from RFE/RL that it got the contracts that led to the sanctions through a public procurement published by the relevant institution and any company could have applied.
Mania said it "obeyed the norms and rules...and professionally fulfilled the obligations defined by the contracting authority."
The company's statement also said that in almost 10 years since its founding it has successfully cooperated with many domestic and foreign clients and organizations. This includes a recent invitation from the British Embassy in Bosnia to take part in a roundtable discussion as an example of successful entrepreneurship.
According to information published on the website of the president of Republika Srpska, Mania was awarded a contract for organizing a media campaign for the January 9 celebration of the Day of Republika Srpska.
The contract, worth 239,000 marks ($134,000), was awarded on December 18 by the general secretary of the president of Republika Srpska.
One day later, Mania received another contract from the general secretary for organizing the celebration of the Day of Republika Srpska. That contract was worth 408,000 marks.
Mania was founded in 2015 by Dajan Javorac, Danijel Tepsic, and Srdan Sipka, according to the business register. According to available data, the company tripled its profit between 2018 and 2022, when it amounted to nearly 1 million marks ($560,000).