Bosnia Serb PM prefers independence

BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A Bosnian Serb leader says he will call an independence referendum if U.N. envoys insist on abolishing the Serb-run entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb-run Republika Srpska, said he will never agree to reform police and security forces as demanded by the European Union as a condition for EU association talks, Serbia's RTS radio-television said Thursday.

Dodik said Republika Srpska has the right to secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina, just as Montenegro seceded from the union with Serbia in May, or the predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province could become independent from Serbian government in Belgrade in coming months.

In an interview on RTS Wednesday night, Dodik said he knew the U.N-appointed high representative in Bosnia could relieve him of his post, but threatened he would go into opposition in non-governmental organizations to keep on advocating Bosnian Serbs' stands and wishes.

In 1995, the U.S.-brokered Dayton peace accords ended the Bosnian war and declared Bosnia-Herzegovina a single state made up of two entities, the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croatian federation.