Serb separatists push for own border police in Bosnian region

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik announced a law on Monday to establish a border police force for his Serb-dominated region, after a top Bosnian court sought his detention for defying orders of an international peace envoy.

Dodik, president of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, has already initiated a set of laws derogating state authorities and violating the constitution, creating the biggest constitutional crisis in the Balkan country since the end of its 1990s war.

Dodik said on social media that the region's top leadership agreed on Monday to form its border police in line with the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the 1992-1995 war, part of his bid to roll back all post-war reforms aimed to strengthen the fragile country.

Under the U.S.-sponsored peace deal, Bosnia was split into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, linked by a weak central government and supervised by an international envoy whose role is to prevent the multi-ethnic Balkan state from slipping back into conflict.

The dispute, which pits Dodik and his allies Russia and Serbia against the United States and European Union, began after Dodik was sentenced in February to a year in jail and banned from holding office for six years over defying the envoy's rulings in a court ruling that he can appeal.

Dodik then initiated laws barring state judiciary and police from the region, which were suspended on an interim basis by the Constitutional Court saying they endangered the country's legal and constitutional order and sovereignty.

State prosecutors last week ordered the apprehension of Dodik, the region's Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic and parliament Speaker Nenad Stevandic, who ignored their call for a summons in an investigation into an attack on constitutional order.

But their arrest was seen as a high-risk operation after the region's police said it would protect the officials.

Dodik's move to form a separate border police comes amid media reports that state prosecutors have issued a warrant for the three officials, meaning that any police unit in the country should arrest them and that they cannot leave Bosnia.

Dodik had already announced his trip to Moscow this week.

The 66-year-old pro-Russian nationalist has held top offices at state and regional levels for nearly 30 years. Over the past decade, he has strongly advocated the secession of the Serb region from Bosnia and its unification with Serbia.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Rod Nickel)