Bosnian Serbs Won't Quit Govt Over Kosovo Row

Bosnia's potential recognition of the independence of Kosovo will not happen and the issue is closed, Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said on Wednesday.

He spoke after consultations with members of the Bosnian parliament and the government, the Council of Ministers, from the Alliance for Changes, the bloc of parties from Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, that form part of the state government.

Ivanic called for the consultations after the Bosniak member of the country's Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, in an interview for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said Republika Srpska would cause a war if it opted for independence - and that he hoped that Bosnia would recognize the independence of Serbia's former province.

"The rhetoric threatening war takes all of us back to the 1990s, and deserves every condemnation," Ivanic said after the consultations in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of the RS.

Mirko Sarovic, Bosnia's minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, told the media after the consultations: "To the fear that Bakir Izetbegovic creates, our answer is that recognition of Kosovo cannot come onto the agenda. We have mechanisms to stop it."

Because of the consultations held in Banja Luka, sessions of Bosnia's parliament and Council of Ministers, scheduled for Wednesday, were cancelled.

But Ivanic said that neither he nor the Alliance for Change would withdraw from Bosnian state institutions just because of the words of one man.

The ruling coalition in the RS,led by RS president Milorad Dodik, on Tuesday urged RS representatives in Bosnia's state institutions to drop everything and walk out after Izetbegovic's interview.

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