Biggest Serb party in Bosnia threatens 2018 secession

SARAJEVO - The largest Serb party in Bosnia said on Saturday it would push for a referendum on independence for the country's autonomous Serb Republic in 2018, setting it on a collision course with the West, unless the region is granted greater powers.

The threat represents potentially the greatest challenge to Bosnian statehood since it split from federal Yugoslavia and descended into war that killed 100,000 people from 1992 to 1995.

The SNSD party, which is led by the Republic's nationalist president Milorad Dodik, adopted a resolution making the independence threat official party policy.

Dodik accuses state authorities in Bosnia of trying to usurp autonomous powers granted to the Serb Republic under a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

"The Serb Republic cannot accept any further takeover of its authorities by the state under the guise of reform," he told reporters after an SNSD convention.

The resolution states that unless the Serb Republic is able to strengthen its autonomy by the end of 2017, the regional assembly, in which SNSD currently holds a majority, will call a referendum to break from the Bosniak-Croat Federation, the other half of Bosnia.

"Based on the referendum results, the Serb Republic authorities... will propose to the Federation a peaceful dissolution and mutual recognition," it said, adding that the region would pursue membership of the European Union.

In response, the office of Bosnia's international peace overseer, who has the power to fire officials and overturn laws, said that under the 1995 peace accord, neither entity has the right to secede. "No party paper can change these facts," it said in a statement.

REFORM IMPASSE

Dodik argued that the Serb Republic's own constitution and laws left room for self-determination.

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