Biden warns Bosnia could again face violence

By Adam Tanner

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia could again descend into violence unless its leaders heal their ethnic divide, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday.

Biden was in Bosnia hoping to bolster a country still plagued by instability and ethnic division 14 years after the end of a conflict that killed 100,000 people.

"Today, to be very blunt with you, I personally, and the leadership of my country is worried ... about the direction of your country and your future," Biden said in an address to the country's parliament.

The United States brokered the 1995 peace deal, but the country remains divided between its two former adversaries, the Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat federation.

"With all due respect, and forgive me for saying this in your parliament, but this must stop," Biden said of the divide.

"Making the right choice means that the leaders of this country must stop the pursuit of narrow ethnic and political interests instead of the national interest."

Many diplomats and experts consider Bosnia the least stable part of the Balkans and its troubles could potentially slow the region's common desire to integrate into the Europe Union.

"The only real future is to join Europe," Biden said. "Right now you are off that path ... You can follow this path to Europe or you can take an alternative path. You have done it before," Biden said, referring to the 1992-95 war.