Serb song dropped as Bosnia region's anthem

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - A regional court on Wednesday banned a 19th century Serb national song as the anthem of Bosnia's Serb Republic, saying it violated the national interests of Muslims and Croats living there.

"'The God of Justice'... does not represent all three constitutional peoples as it should as an anthem," Mirko Zovko, the president of the Serb Republic constitutional court, told a news conference.

The court's decision leaves the Serb half of Bosnia without an anthem.

Under the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war, Bosnia is made up of the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation.

The constitutional court ordered them last year to change their coats-of-arms and anthems saying they did not equally represent Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

The Serb Republic parliament agreed in May on a compromise emblem until a new coat-of-arms has been chosen, but decided to continue to use the music of the old anthem, only without lyrics, despite opposition by Muslim MPs.

"The music itself is part of the song," Zovko said, explaining that the theme could not be separated from the lyrics in an anthem.