DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BALKANS: IT APPEARS THAT CREATING TWO SHARI'AH RULED STATES IN THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT ENOUGH FOR THE UNITED STATES...

Leader warns West on forcing Muslim domination on Bosnian Serbs

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina-Europe and the United States should stop insisting on the unification of Bosnia's two ethnic ministates, the Bosnian Serb Prime Minister said Monday before leaving for Washington.

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of the Bosnian Serb ministate, Republika Srpska, and the biggest opponent of unification, threatened to call for further division of the country and the creation of a loose union of three ministates.

He and his biggest domestic political opponent, Haris Silajdzic, the Bosnian Muslim member of the country's Presidency, are scheduled to meet with the U.S. envoy for the Balkans, Daniel Fried, and U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, in Washington this week.

Bosnia's biggest daily Dnevni Avaz said Monday that not much should be expected from the meeting, since both Dodik and Silajdzic are leaving for Washington "with already cemented opinions."

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Since the end of the 1992-95 war, Bosnia has been divided into two mini-states, one Serb and the other shared by the Bosniaks and Croats. Each has its own parliament and government, but they are linked by a common presidency, parliament and government. Such a model was prescribed by the peace agreement that was brokered by the United States in Dayton, Ohio.

The agreement ended the war but failed to create a functioning country and even the U.S. government claims the model was created just to stop the fighting.

"I believe it is a mistake on behalf of Europe and the United States to insist on creating a country with strong central institutions," said Dodik. "It is obvious that this doesn't work and it won't work in the future," he told a news conference.

The Bosnian Serbs have been obstructing the unification of the country for years because they fear that in the end they might loose the ministate they fought for during the war.

"We like the Dayton agreement," Dodik said. "If centralization continues to be pursued, then we will ask for something that is called confederation or union," he said.


Pertinent Links:

1) Leader warns West on forcing Muslim domination on Bosnian Serbs