Serbs' breakaway threat

Serbia: The leader of Bosnia's Serbs has threatened to push for independence for his region unless it is granted equality with the larger Muslim-Croat Federation, which makes up the rest of the country.

Ahead of elections on October 1st, local Serb politicians have warned that their community is under threat from increasingly radical Bosnian Muslim leaders, and will seek independence unless it wins stronger powers to protect itself.

"We want equality in Bosnia-Herzegovina," said Bosnian-Serb prime minister Milorad Dodik. "And if equality does not exist . . . the Serb Republic will be independent."

Mr Dodik said Republika Srpska wanted all decisions in Bosnia to be reached through consensus instead of a voting system that favours the Muslim-Croat Federation, with which it has been linked by weak central institutions since the end of the 1992-5 war.

Some 40 per cent of Bosnia's 3.8 million residents are Muslims, while Orthodox Serbs represent about 31 per cent and Catholic Croats account for around 10 per cent. Mr Dodik said equality for Republika Srpska would send a signal that "there will be no 'Islamicisation' of society here, or abuse by the majority".

As ethnic tensions have increased ahead of the elections, Mr Dodik has used recent interviews to compare the capital of the Muslim-Croat Federation, Sarajevo, to Tehran, and to say he was "sick and tired" of Muslim leaders who "make fools of us so that we look like war criminals".

He has also complained about the growing influence of radical Muslim clerics in Bosnia, and suggested that Bosnian Serbs might call a referendum on independence if, as expected, the United Nations grants Kosovo sovereignty from Belgrade this year.

European Union and United States officials were furious with Bosnia's politicians when, after months of arduous talks, they voted against constitutional changes in April that would have overhauled the country's cumbersome and expensive administration.