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Mesic: Croatia would intervene against Bosnian Serb secession
Jan 19, 2010, 11:42 GMT
Zagreb - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic said he would intervene militarily if Bosnia's Serbian entity made a move to secede, the Movi List daily reported Tuesday.
Mesic spoke in reaction to recent threats by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik to hold a referendum on the secession from Bosnia of the Bosnian Serb Republic, one of the 'entities' into which the international community divided Bosnia in the 1995 Dayton peace agreement.
The agreement, which ended three years of war, also created Muslim and Croat entities within Bosnia.
'Croatia guarantees the Dayton agreement. If Dodik were to topple it with a (Serb) referendum, the Serb Republic would have to disappear immediately,' Mesic said, speaking at an informal reception with journalists.
His remarks were his strongest-ever criticism of Dodik's policies as well as criticism of support for him by the independent state of Serbia, Novi List said.
Mesic told reporters that he brought his view across to international officials, 'though in softer words,' he said.
The leftist Mesic is leaving office after completing two 5-year terms. He is to be replaced in a month by Social Democrat Ivo Josipovic, who won the presidential election runoff on January 10.
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