Bosnia Peace Envoy Warns Serb PM Over Rhetoric

Bosnia´s peace overseer Miroslav Lajcak on Wednesday warned Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik to tone down his nationalist rhetoric.

Bosnia's peace overseer Miroslav Lajcak on Wednesday warned Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik to tone down his nationalist rhetoric or risk sanctions.

The 1995 Dayton accords that ended the 1992-95 war divided Bosnia into two autonomous parts, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, overseen by an international high representative.

Western efforts to strengthen the central government and move away from ethnic politics are constantly rebuffed by the Serb Republic. Dodik, its outspoken prime minister, said at the weekend the notion of Bosnia as a unitary state was only "temporary", and based on foreign "political interests".

Lajcak, who took over as high representative in July pledging to bring Bosnia closer to Europe, said Bosnia's Western backers "will not remain passive in the face of provocative statements and acts".

"Prime Minister Dodik should consider carefully whether he wishes to challenge the international community by statements that question the constitutional order of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Dayton peace agreement," Lajcak said in a statement.

Lajcak, who can impose laws and sack officials seen as obstructing the peace process, said Dodik signed a declaration ahead of the election committing himself and his party to upholding Dayton and "accepting sanctions if he fails to abide by its terms".

"(Dodik's) statements questioning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina are detrimental to the country's ongoing efforts to continue reforms and integrate into Euro-Atlantic institutions," Lajcak said.

For Bosnia to sign the key Stabilisation and Association Agreement and start its long path to EU membership, it must unite its ethnically separate police forces and strengthen the central government so it can deal with the EU administration.

Both moves are hotly opposed by the Bosnian Serbs, who see them as an erosion of their autonomy. Dodik dismissed Lajcak's criticism, saying that by insisting on retaining the rights of the Serb Republic he was actually strengthening the Dayton deal.

Dodik does not want to "challenge the international community", his office said in a statement.

"But he also asks the international community to obey the reality and Bosnia-Herzegovina constitution and not to constantly violate it by the permanent insistence on reforms, which take authority away from the Serb Republic."