Croatian leader accused of "warmongering"
Outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic will step down on 18 February
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The outgoing president of Croatia has caused a stink by claiming he would “send in the army” if the Serb minority tries to break away from neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina - a threat that has upset many in the region where the shadow of the Balkan Wars still looms large.
Talking to reporters yesterday outgoing President Stjepan Mesic accused the leaders of Bosnia's Respublika Srpska - Bosnia's Serbian enclave - of “waiting for the international community to tire of Bosnia,” so they could make a bid to leave and join Serbia, Croatian newspaper Novi List reported
President Mesic – who will be stepping down next month to hand over to newly-elected Ivo Josipovic – said that the referendum on the status of the UN agreements that govern Bosnia, frequently proposed by Republika Srpska's leader Milorad Dodik, would in reality be a referendum on "secession" from Bosnia.
“If Milorad Dodik scheduled a referendum for secession of Republika Srpska from Bosnia and if I were the president...I would send the army,” said Mr Mesic in a parting shot after ten years in power in the presidential palace in Zagreb.
Serbs, both inside and outside Bosnia, have accused Mesic of “warmongering”. Leader of the Serb minority in Bosnia, Milorad Dodik responded: “This is a disturbing threat by a man who started his political career with a war and now wants to end it with a war,” referring to Mesic’s role in the 1990s Balkans wars when Croatia broke away from the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
Nevertheless Mr Dodik told the Večernje novosti daily that he did not rule out having a vote on whether Republika Srpska should remain in Bosnia-Herzegovina. “We have to fight for our legitimate rights. A referendum on whether the people want to live within or outside of Bosnia will surely come,” he said.
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by Paul
20.01.2010
Romania