Bosnia Serbs Say Will Not Take Briton As New Envoy

The Bosnian Serbs see Britons as biased against Serbs after British diplomat Paddy Ashdown

The government of Bosnia's Serb Republic said on Wednesday it would not accept a British diplomat as the Balkan country's new peace envoy to replace Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak.

The Bosnian Serbs see Britons as biased against Serbs after British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, who had served as international high representative in Bosnia from 2002-2005, sacked a number of Serb officials and took measures to strengthen the state.

"The government is expressing strong opposition to a possibility that a candidate from Britain be appointed again to the post of high representative," it said in a statement.

Bosnia is made up of two autonomous regions, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. The Muslims and Croats aspire to have a stronger state while the Serbs want to keep a high level of autonomy in their region.

The international community overseeing Bosnia's peace process after the 1992-95 war is expected this week to nominate a new foreign peace envoy to replace Lajcak, who accepted the job of Slovakia's foreign minister in late January.

Lajcak has served as high representative with sweeping powers to impose laws and sack officials seen as undermining the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war. He was also the European Union special envoy in Bosnia.

Local media speculated that his most likely successors were diplomats from Britain, Italy or Austria.

The Serb Republic government said it was against the appointment of a high representative and favoured a new envoy having a role only as EU special representative.

It said Ashdown's acts while he served as the high representative in Bosnia were interference into matters that were outside his mandate.

Local media said Britain considered nominating diplomat Emyr Jones Perry as the new Bosnia envoy but Russia was against it.