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| - The United States warned Bosnian Serbs on Wednesday to respect the Dayton peace deal that ended 1990s war, days after leader Milorad Dodik threatened to secede. US envoy Eric Nelson met Dodik and underscored that the US expected "nothing less than full respect for the Dayton Accords", the embassy in Saravejo said on Twitter. The Bosnian Serbs last week withdrew support for the central institutions they share with Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats in a row about judges -- the Serbs want foreign judges removed from the central Constitutional Court. The presence of foreign judges and the division of Bosnia into a Serb-run Republika Srpska and Muslim-Croat Federation were part of the US-brokered Dayton agreement, which helped to end a 1992-1995 war that claimed around 100,000 lives. Earlier on Wednesday, Dodik, who shares the central presidency, insisted the blockade of central institutions would continue, saying he had already stopped some 30 decisions. "Serbs have been humiliated in this Bosnia for a long time," he said. Dodik has repeatedly threatened to organise an independence referendum for Republika Srpska, angering Bosniak leaders. Last week, he said Serbs had taken "a path of no return to exit from Bosnia". "We will do so and some America or anybody else will not stop us," he said. Dodik has been on a US blacklist since 2017 over accusations that he has obstructed the Dayton agreement. In a bid to rid Bosnia's Constitutional Court of foreign judges, the parliament in Republika Srpska on Monday gave a 60-day deadline for reform of the court, which they accuse of being anti-Serb. Three foreign judges serve on the court along with two Croats, two Muslims and two Serbs. The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board, an international body charged with supervising peace in Bosnia, backed the Constitutional Court and its judges. "Blockages of the state institutions, as well as ultimatums to state-level officials, are unacceptable," the board said in a statement, which was not signed by a Russian representative. "The entities have no right to secede from BiH and only exist legally by virtue of the BiH Constitution," the statement said, using an abbreviation for Bosnia. rus/ks/jxb
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