Bosnian official: Serbian leader Dodik does everything to split Bosnia-Herzegovina

SARAJEVO (A.A) – December 20, 2011 - Bosnian member of Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Bakir Izzetbegovic said that Serbian leader Milorad Dodik in Bosnia was doing everything to split Bosnia-Herzegovina. Speaking to AA on Tuesday, Izzetbegovic strongly reacted the statements of Dodik who said that if international community withdrew its support from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the country would split. Izzetbegovic said that Bosnia-Herzegovina would not be a part of 'great Serbia', and those who asked this, would get a 'great trouble'. He added that Bosnians did not give their lands in 1992, and they would not give 20 years after this. Reis ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who also spoke to AA, said that Dodik did not call Bosnians in the country as a nation, and he defined them as Bosnian Muslims, and so he denied the national identity of Bosnians. Ceric said that Dodik made arrogant statements about Bosnia-Herzegovina state and Bosnians. Noting that Dodik always took Islam and Muslims as target, Ceric said that Dodik was making racist and chauvinistic statements which encouraged hatred and denied the truth. Meanwhile, Turkish Ambassador in Sarajevo Ahmet Yildiz told AA that NATO and EU membership processes of Bosnia-Herzegovina have begun, and some people thought these processes would harm their own goals. Thus, they were trying to block the road of Bosnia-Herzegovina but there was no return on this road, he added. Serbian leader Dodik, who spoke to a newspaper on Friday, claimed that Bosnia-Herzegovina was surviving with the "serum" of international community, and if it withdrew its support, Bosnia would split.