Serbs protest “secret” visit

Serbs protest “secret” visit

Bosnian Serb leaders have raised a storm of protests over what they called a “secret visit” of two Bosnian presidency members to Croatia and meeting with president Stipe Mesić, local media reported on Tuesday. According to press reports, Haris Silajdžić, a Muslim member of the collective state presidency, and his Croat colleague Zeljko Komsić, had a secret dinner with Mesić in Zagreb Sunday night, without the knowledge of a Serb presidency member Nebojsa Radmanović or the country’s foreign ministry, which Serb leaders interpreted as a Muslim-Croat plot against Bosnian Serbs.

"This act of two Bosnian presidency members clearly shows that Komsić and Silajdžić are not interested in confidence, equality, consensus and the survival of Bosnia-Herzegovina," the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), a leading Serb party, said in a statement. It accused Silajdžić of being the “ring leader” of such a policy and of trying to impose himself as the “real boss”.

According to the Dayton peace accord that ended 1992-1995 civil war, the country was divided into two entities, a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS), with most state prerogatives, with loose federal ties. The three-man rotating state presidency, representing Muslims, Serbs and Croats, acts as a collective head of state and makes the decisions by consensus.

Mesić, who is due on an official visit to Sarajevo on Thursday, said he met Silajdžić and Komsić at a private dinner, called by a mutual friend and there was no secrecy about it. However, SNSD leader and RS prime minister Milorad Dodik, said it was strange that Komsić and Silajdžić traveled together, if it was a private visit.

He recalled that Bosnian Serbs have been criticized by Sarajevo every time they had open meetings with Serbian leaders in Belgrade. “Now there isn’t a word in the Sarajevo pres about the meeting of two Bosnian presidency members with the Croatian president,” he said.

Radmanović, who currently chairs the state presidency, said that the body “should be an example to others, and if everyone does what he wants, I wonder where it might lead us”. Dodik said such a behavior was undermining the unity of Bosnia as a state.