BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - The new president of Bosnia's Serb Republic pledged on Monday to fight for its autonomy from the central government in Sarajevo even if it meant further cooling ties with the European Union.
Milorad Dodik, who had often angered Western diplomats as Bosnian Serb prime minister, also said international peace overseers were thwarting progress in the country and vowed not to accept their decisions anymore.
Bosnia wants to join the EU, which in turn wants to see the Balkan country as a more centralised and functional state. However, it lags behind all other Balkan aspirants due to the lack of reforms and to constant bickering among rival ethnic leaders, which Dodik underscored as he took office on Monday.
"Those who dream about a unitary Bosnia-Herzegovina and hope to strip the Serb Republic of its authorities under the disguise of European integration should know that we will never and at no condition give up our autonomy, even at the cost of not joining the EU," he told the Bosnian Serb parliament.
Under the Dayton peace treaty that ended the 1992-95 war, which claimed 100,000 lives, Bosnia is divided in two semi-autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, linked in a weak central government.
Dodik, who won the Oct. 3 ballot for the region’s president, said: "We see no reason why Bosnia could not join the EU as a decentralised complex federal or confederal state union."
REGRET FOR VICTIMS
Since returning to power four years ago, Dodik has often irked international officials by trying to expand his region’s autonomy, with some fearing his moves could spark renewed violence and slow progress towards the EU.
The Serbs have done little to enable the central cabinet to work and have threatened to call a referendum on secession, on links with the EU and NATO. They also rejected a Western-backed constitutional reform package aimed to streamline the complex government.
"All those who believe a wider change of the Constitution would make Bosnia a more functional state union are delusional. If there is no political will to implement it, no Constitution would make the state more functional," he said.
He said the office of international peace overseer, which maintains ultimate power over the whole of the country to impose laws and fire obstructive politicians, has been "the main brakeman of reforms and obstacle at Bosnia’s EU path".
"It is hard to accept that any authority outside Bosnia can impose laws on legally-elected institutions. We do not accept any more the imposition of laws and decisions by the High Representative in the Serb Republic," Dodik said.
Instead, he called on his political rivals to launch a true dialogue about joint future. "Despite conflicting political, ethnic and party projects, we must find a basic minimum consensus about our common future," he said.
He acknowledged war crimes committed by the Bosnian Serbs against Muslims and Croats but stressed that reconciliation could only be reached if all groups recognised and punished those responsible for atrocities.
"I would again express honestly my regret for every innocent victim, especially the victims that were killed by the hand of the people to which I belong," he said.
