US warns Bosnian Serb leader over secession threats

The United States warned yesterday that Bosnian Serb threats to secede from Bosnia violated a 1990s peace deal and would only lead to "isolation and economic despair."

The warning came just days after the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, said that Bosnian Serbs want to form their own army within a few months.

But US diplomat Gabriel Escobar told Dodik that "threats of secession and rolling back reforms to state level institutions" breached the Washington-brokered deal that ended Bosnia's 1990s war, the US embassy in Sarajevo tweeted.

Such threats offer "Republika Srpska citizens nothing but isolation and economic despair", said Escobar, the US deputy assistant secretary for the Western Balkans.

Since the end of the 1992-1995 war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent halves -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

They are linked by weak central institutions, including a presidency and a joint army.

Dodik has frequently called for secession of the Republika Srpska, arguing that Bosnia was an "experiment by the international community" and an "impossible, imposed country".

On Monday, he said Bosnian Serbs wanted to form their own army "within a few months", in a move that could further exacerbate a political crisis that erupted in July with the boycott of the country's main political institutions by the Serbs.

Dodik said recently that the Republika Srpska could proclaim independence within six months if Bosnia doesn't abolish institutions formed after the peace treaty was signed -- like a joint army and justice system.