Bosnian's Serb entity to be independent state, says Republika Srpska leader

BELGRADE, Serbia

The leader of Republika Srpska, one of the two political entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Friday that the region would become independent.

"Republika Srpska will become an independent state because, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are unable to be part of regional initiatives that could be useful to us," said Serb leader Milorad Dodik.

Dodik claimed that Bosnia and Herzegovina had become a "training ground" for the US ambassador in Sarajevo and accused the Bosniak member of the country's three-person Presidency Council, Denis Becirovic, of hating Serbs.

"As soon as Denis Becirovic wakes up, he immediately hates Serbs. We live in an impossible country where some embassies practice on us, but that too will pass one day. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the American ambassador's training ground, but they too will pass," said Dodik.

At the end of March, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken compared a recent political stand by Dodik to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Dodik said a law would soon be passed banning members of the LGBT community from entering educational institutions.

The decision was based on local authorities wanting to preserve the traditional family values of the people of Republika Srpska, he said.

Dodik said earlier that the US and British policy had turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a "cursed" country and aimed to dissolve Republika Srpska.

According to Dodik, local Serbs do not believe that the US and Britain were friendly toward them.