Sarajevo, Jan. 26, 2010, SPA -- The defiant leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina's ethnic Serb enclave today cracked open the door to a referendum that the international community has condemned as secessionist, according to dpa. The government of the Serb Republic (RS), the Serb part of Bosnia, passed a bill which, if parliament turns it into law, lays the groundwork for a referendum aiming to cement ethnic partition. The international community split Bosnia into the largely sovereign ethnic territories in 1995 to end three years of bloodshed. While the Bosnian and Croat territories have largely begun to cooperate, the RS has fought to remain separate, despite pressure for a nationwide fusion. That stance, coupled with a veto over national policies, has left the nation hamstrung on many important issues. To reverse the blockade, the European Union and the United States have proposed transferring some power from ethnic territories to central institutions, a proposal which has been rejected. The Serb referendum, planned for February, now aims to underline the refusal to relinquish governance to a central administration, shared by Muslims and Croats. --SPA 22:53 LOCAL TIME 19:53 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/742110