The Bosnian Serb Republic is not planing a secessionist referendum, but a referendum on the Dayton agreement which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war, dpa quoted Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik as saying today. The government of the Serb Republic (RS), the Serb part of Bosnia, on Tuesday passed a bill which, if parliament turns it into law, lays the groundwork for a referendum aiming to cement ethnic partition. "We are talking about the law on a referendum and not the referendum on secession. Nobody is preparing nor implementing that referendum," Dodik told reporters in Banjaluka. The international community called Tuesday's bill "secessionist". After the war, Bosnia was split into the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Serb Republic, which has fought to remain separate, despite international pressure for nationwide fusion. Bosnian Serbs see the efforts of the European Union and the United States to transfer some power from ethnic territories to central institutions as an attempt to undo the Dayton agreement. So far it is not clear when the Bosnian Serb parliament will meet to approve the bill.
