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DODIK ATTAKS WESTERN ENVOY’S ACTION

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Bosnjaci.Net

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday he objected to the sacking of a security official by the top Western peace envoy in Bosnia, deepening his region’s dispute with the international community.
Dodik said he would accept neither Valentin Inzko’s decision to sack a state security official for spying on international officials, nor his call on the Bosnian Serb parliament to withdraw a resolution seen as violating the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

“My message to Inzko is: This is unacceptable for us, we will not respect this decision because it was made without need and judgment,” Dodik told reporters.

Inzko is the international High Representative for Bosnia and has the power to impose laws or fire officials seen as obstructing the Dayton accords. He is also the supreme authority on interpreting the country’s constitution.

Under the Dayton agreement, Bosnia was divided into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, with a weak central state. Muslims and Croats want a stronger state, Bosnian Serbs want to keep their broad autonomy and strongly oppose any outside effort to centralise power.

On Monday, Inzko sacked a Bosnian Serb security official for spying on international officials. His deputy Raffi Gregorian banned several private security agencies from operating in the neutral Brcko district for five years for alleged intelligence activities against him and his office.

“You are set up, Mr. Inzko. Nothing is true that Gregorian and his team alleged,” Dodik said. Gregorian, a U.S. diplomat with vast experience in the region, is biased against Serbs, he added.

Inzko’s spokesman said the envoys’ decisions were final and binding.

NATIONALIST RHETORIC: Dodik was backed by the West as an opponent of wartime hardliners, but his nationalist rhetoric and threats of secession have often put him at odds with international officials since his return to power three years ago.

Dodik said the Serb Republic parliament would not withdraw a resolution obliging regional institutions and officials to oppose any future transfers of power to the state, and appealing against any powers already given to the state.

Inzko says the resolution violates the constitution and the Dayton Accords and has urged parliament to withdraw it, saying he will annul it if parliament does not act by June 11.

“I personally prefer (parliament) to keep the conclusions, and that the High Representative annuls them, and that we adopt the same conclusions again once he leaves,” said Dodik, who has branded the envoy’s office an “occupation force”.

The Bosnian Serbs are the loudest advocates of the closure of the Office of the High Representative (OHR).

The parliament is expected to decide on Inzko’s request on Wednesday, a day before his June 11 deadline.

Inzko, an Austrian diplomat, took over the job in March from Miroslav Lajcak, who left to become Slovakia’s foreign minister. Lajcak said he did not have enough support from the European Union for tougher moves against Dodik’s separatist policies.

U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Bosnia in May and gave their full support to Inzko’s efforts to speed up Bosnia’s integration into Europe.

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