NATO chief vows 'unwavering' support for Bosnia's integrity after Serb separatist actions

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — NATO's secretary general on Monday pledged the military alliance's "unwavering" support for Bosnia's territorial integrity after a series of Bosnian Serb separatist moves raised tensions nearly 30 years after the end of a bloody war.

Mark Rutte spoke in Sarajevo after meeting the three members of the Balkan country's multi-ethnic presidency, an institution established in a peace accord that ended the 1992-95 conflict among the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats after more than 100,000 people died.

“Three decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement, I can tell you: NATO remains firmly committed to the stability of this region and to the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Rutte said. “We will not allow hard-won peace to be jeopardized.”

Rutte called any actions that undermine the accord, the constitutional order or national institutions "unacceptable,” and added: “Inflammatory rhetoric and actions are dangerous. They pose a direct threat to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s stability and security.”

His comments came days after Bosnian Serb lawmakers passed laws that barred Bosnia's central judicial authorities and its police from operating on the territory of Republika Srpska, a Serb-run entity in Bosnia that encompasses about half the country. The other entity is a federation run by Bosniaks, who are mainly Muslims, and Croats.

The Bosnian Serb move was in response to the sentencing last month of the entity's pro-Russia President Milorad Dodik, a longtime advocate of Bosnia's disintegration. He was convicted of disobeying the top international envoy overseeing peace in the country.

Dodik, a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump who has faced U.S. and British sanctions for his separatist actions, has rejected the sentence — a year in prison and a six-year ban from state office — calling it anti-Serb. The U.S. and key European nations have condemned Dodik's actions, while Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "solidarity."

The situation has sparked fears of incidents between Bosnian and Serb-dominated police similar to ones at the start of the war. The war in Bosnia began when the country’s Serbs rebelled against independence from the former Yugoslavia and moved to form a mini-state with the aim of uniting it with Serbia.

"I have concerns about the security situation.” Rutte said, adding: "Let’s be clear, this is not 1992 and we will not allow a security vacuum to emerge.”

A European peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, has said it was stepping up the number of its troops in response to the tensions.

The Serb member of Bosnia's presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, said after the meeting with Rutte that it was wrong to “put the blame on one side only." Denis Becirovic, the Bosniak presidency member, described the Serb moves as a “brutal attack on the constitutional order.”

“Destabilization of this part of Europe would only benefit Moscow,” Becirovic said.