NATO committed to Bosnia's territorial integrity, Rutte says
World
NATO committed to Bosnia's territorial integrity, Rutte says
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - NATO fully supports Bosnia's territorial integrity and political leaders should resolve tensions that have been fuelled by a jail sentence imposed on the president of the Bosnian Serb region, the alliance's Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Monday.
Tensions have been running high in Bosnia since a court last month sentenced the Serb region's pro-Russian president, Milorad Dodik, to one year in jail and banned him from politics for six years. He rejected the verdict and the Serb regional parliament barred the national police and judiciary from its territory.
The verdict prompted the European Union's peacekeeping mission, EUFOR, to announce a temporary increase in the size of its 1,100-strong force in the country.
Rutte said NATO would not allow a security vacuum to develop and that disrespect for Bosnia's peace deal and constitution was "not acceptable".
He was referring to the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-95 war in which 100,000 people were killed. It left Bosnia divided into two regions - the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb republic, or Republika Srpska, with weak central institutions.
"We will not allow hard-won peace to be jeopardized," Rutte told reporters after meeting Bosnia's tripartite presidency and urging its three members to "take responsibility".
