Bosnian Serb president-elect Milorad Dodik Tuesday repeated his hardline position dismissing Bosnia as an “impossible state.”

“Bosnia is impossible as a state. It was never a state and it will never be one (…) Bosnia is only possible as a union of republics,” said Dodik, who overwhelmingly won the elections in the Serb-run part of Bosnia, in an interview with Serbian daily Danas.

While this weekend’s vote in Bosnia saw voters from the Muslim-Croat Federation opt for more moderate forces, the Bosnian Serbs voted for hardline Dodik and his party who vowed to rebuff any efforts to weaken their autonomy.

Post-war Bosnia is divided into two semi-independent entities: the Muslim Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serbs’ Republika Srpska, linked by weak central institutions. The international community has been pushing to strengthen central government and has made it a key requirement for Bosnia’s European Union rapprochement.

On Monday the U.S. called on the new Bosnian leaders to kick start the political reforms needed to unify the country, but Dodik dismissed the call.

“I have nothing to say to [the international community],” he said.

“The idea that it is possible to improve relations within Bosnia exists only in liberal-democrat circles in Belgrade and in the international community which has been trying for the past 20 years to keep up this illusion,” Dodik said.

October 05, 2010
AFP

• A Permanent Economic Emergency