Any attempt to break up Bosnia is unacceptable, EU's Kallas warns

By Daria Sito-Sucic

The European Union will not tolerate threats to Bosnia's territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitutional order, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday, referring to separatist moves by the Bosnian Serb leadership.

"Any attempts to break up the country are unacceptable," she said during a visit to the capital Sarajevo.

Bosnia is in the midst of its biggest political crisis in decades after Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik was sentenced in February to one year in jail and banned for six years from politics over defying rulings by the international envoy.

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In response, Dodik, who is president of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, had initiated laws barring state judiciary and police from the region.

That has escalated into a legal and political standoff pitting Dodik and his allies Russia and Serbia against the U.S. and the EU, and is seen as one of the biggest threats to peace in the Balkans since the 1990s conflicts.

"Republika Srpska leadership is undermining the country's constitutional and legal order, threatening the fundamental freedom of all citizens," Kallas said while paying a visit to the EU peace force EUFOR in Sarajevo.

She said the EU's decision in March to boost the number of EUFOR troops by hundreds "sends the clear message that the EU remains firmly committed to stability of this region and the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Kallas said that political leaders needed to work together to resolve problems but warned that "inflammatory rhetoric and divisive actions are dangerous" and contradict the commitments the Balkan country has undertaken under its EU path.

The Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat Federation are two regions created after the 1990s war in which 100,000 died. They are linked by a weak central government in a state supervised by an international authority to stop it slipping back into conflict.