Belgrade - A top Bosnian Serb leader arrived in Belgrade Monday for a visit that he said was aimed at "relaxing" relations between Bosnia and Serbia, but he came without the crucial support of his Muslim and Croat counterparts. The Serb representative in Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Nebojsa Radmanovic, travelled alone to Belgrade on the invitation of President Boris Tadic after his Muslim and Croat counterparts, Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic, refused to go.
Muslim and Croat leaders had turned the invitation down over long-standing legal and diplomatic rows stemming from the 1992-95 Bosnian war and Belgrade's role in it.
Radmanovic said his visit was aimed at easing the strain on relations between the two countries caused by mutual accusations and lawsuits.
"The visit is naturally burdened because my two colleagues from Croat and Bosniak (Muslim) nations will not come. They have their reasons, but I disagree with them," Radmanovic said.
He warned that Bosnia's relations were deteriorating with its two "big neighbours," Serbia and Croatia, both heavily involved on the side of their compatriots in the Bosnian conflict.
Bosnian foreign relations however only reflect the hostility that persists among the country's ethnic communities in Bosnia 14 years since the US brokered a deal to end the war.
The peace agreement established nearly-sovereign entities, one with a Muslim and Croat population, the other for Serbs. Now mutual hatred keeps the leaders from working together and has blocked the country achieving closer ties with the European Union.
With Radmanovic's lonesome trip to Belgrade and the display of deep divisions among Bosnian leaders came less than a week after US Vice-President Joe Biden bluntly told them to "stop this" and begin working across ethnic divides.
