EU sounds alarm over Bosnian Serb justice referendum

(SARAJEVO) - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday expressed concern about the decision of Bosnian Serbs to call a referendum on the central justice system they consider biased.

"I am very concerned about the current situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The decision adopted yesterday by the Republika Srpska National Assembly has been a step in the wrong direction," Ashton said in a statement released by the EU's Bosnia office.

"Such unilateral steps are not bringing solutions for the country to move forward. Only mutually agreed reforms provide for much wanted and needed progress," she was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday the parliament of the semi-autonomous Serb part of Bosnia, the Republika Srpska, approved a plan to hold a referendum on support for the central justice system.

Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation make up Bosnia since the end of its 1992-1995 war. Each entity has its own goverment and they share weak central institutions.

Bosnian Serb citizens were also to be asked whether they support other decisions imposed by the international community in Bosnia since the war ended in a bid to make the country's central institutions more effective.

The state court of Bosnia, the only central tribunal in the country, was created in 2002 by a decision of the international community's top envoy here.

Bosnia's central parliament endorsed it by a law later that year and in 2003 adopted legislation establishing the central public prosecutor's office.

But Bosnian Serb president Milorad Dodik, who launched the motion before the RS parliament, has argued that the Bosnian state court has prosecuted for war crimes many more Serbs than Croats or Muslims, the other two main ethnic groups living in the Balkans country.

Meanwhile, ambassadors of the member countries of Bosnia's Peace Implementation Council (PIC) met in Sarajevo and condemned Dodik's move.

"We strongly condemn any attempt to undermine those (central) institutions or to question their legitimacy," the ambassadors said in a statement.

"We will not allow such attempts to succeed."

The PIC is an inter-governmental institution comprising 55 countries and organisations, notably EU members, the United States and Russia.

The ambassador of Russia, a traditional Bosnian Serb ally, did not join the statement.