The European Union will not tolerate any threats to Bosnia's territorial integrity, its top diplomat said Tuesday, amid a deepening crisis triggered by secessionist moves from an ethnic Serb leader.
Milorad Dodik, the president of a Serb-run entity of Republika Srpska (RS), has stepped up breakaway agitation since a court sentenced him to a jail term this year.
"The constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the cornerstone of peace here, and it must be respected," Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign affairs and security representative, said after meeting members of the rival parties that make up Bosnia's central presidency.
"Any actions undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitutional order or state institutions are dangerous and unacceptable," she added.
At an earlier visit to a camp of European peacekeepers in Sarajevo, Kallas told the troops that "the security environment is stable but also very fragile."
"Any attempts to break up the country are unacceptable," she added.
A court in February found Dodik, 66, guilty of flouting the instructions of the international envoy enforcing a peace accord that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
The firebrand politician was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on holding public office, but he rejected the ruling and refused to appear before judges.
The arrest of Dodik could inflame Bosnia's Serb statelet and further threaten the fragile balance of the deeply divided country.
Since the end of the war, Bosnia has been split into the Serbs' Republika Srpska, led by Dodik, and a Croat-Bosnian federation, with a weak central government.
In response to the court ruling, Dodik's administration passed a law banning the federal police and judiciary from operating in Republika Srpska. Federal prosecutors have issued a warrant for his arrest on accusations of undermining the Constitution.
Germany and Austria banned Dodik from their territory last week, along with two other senior figures from Republika Srpska.
At a press conference with Kallas, the Bosnian Muslim member of the presidency, Denis Becirovic, said there was a "tragic illusion" in Republika Srpska that there could be a non-violent division of the country.
"It is a dangerous illusion that could lead to catastrophe," he warned.
The Serb member of the presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, rejected the accusations against Dodik's administration, insisting that it sought "dialogue."
"There is nothing happening in Republika Srpska with the aim of the destruction of the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina," Cvijanovic said.
Bosnia is a candidate for EU membership, but the political situation has prevented the adoption of the laws necessary to open negotiations.
