Serb Move May Trigger New War

The prime minister of the Serbian half of Bosnia has called for a referendum enabling the Serbs of Bosnia to secede, an act that could trigger a new war and spell the end of the state of Bosnia.

The remarks by Milorad Dodik came during an increasingly dirty campaign characterised by ethnic and nationalist mudslinging ahead of general elections in three weeks. They also suggested Serbia may be plotting to annex large tracts of Bosnia if Belgrade loses the southern province of Kosovo in the next six months. Talks are under way between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership, and are likely to result in independence, bitterly opposed by Belgrade.

In an interview published in the Belgrade media, Mr Dodik, prime minister of what is known as the Serbian Republic, comprising 49% of Bosnia, said a referendum on independence for his mini-state was "inevitable" since Bosnia-Herzegovina had no long-term future.

As a result of the wars of the 1990s in Kosovo and Bosnia in which Serbia tried and failed to maximise its territorial gains, Kosovo is under UN administration and poised to obtain independence from Serbia, while Bosnia is also in the final year of international governorship and struggling to become a functioning country.