Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dacic, said in Banja Luka on Sunday that the Balkans was still "a powder keg" and that there were "a number of fuses" that could detonate it.
He said the international community was applying double standards in the region by supporting Kosovo's independence and not allowing such discussions in the case of the Bosnian Serb entity.
"In the Balkans many issues remain unsolved, they have only been swept under the carpet," Dacic told reporters after talks with Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, suggesting that Kosovo's status and the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska were related issues.
The Serbian minister said his country did not understand why the international community was making it difficult for Serbia to submit a new resolution on Kosovo and at the same time was strongly responding to any mention of a referendum on Republika Srpska's status.
He added that the Bosnian Serb entity could continue to count on Serbia's full support for its preservation on the basis of the Dayton peace agreement, which stopped the war in Bosnia in 1995.
Dodik publicly promised Dacic that Serb representatives in the central state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina would continue strongly opposing any attempt by Bosnia and Herzegovina to recognise Kosovo as an independent country.
"We will always support decisions on Kosovo that are made by the authorities in Belgrade," Dodik said.
He said that Bosniak politicians in the country were in favour of recognising Kosovo's independence, which he said was the reason why they did not want to support the resolution on Kosovo that Serbia planned to submit to the UN General Assembly.
