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Bosnian Serb president dies at age 51

Bosnian Serb President Milan Jelic has died of a heart attack at age 51.

Jelic died on Sunday evening, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said. He suffered a massive heart attack while watching a soccer game in his hometown, Modrica, his brother Slavko Jelic said in Serbia.

"President Jelic is dead. This is a sad day for Republika Srpska,'' Dodik told reporters, using the republic's official name.

Jelic had been elected president of the Serb Republic -- one of the two ministates that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina -- last year.

The other republic is the Bosniak-Croat Federation. The position is largely ceremonial.

Born in 1956 in the north Bosnia, Jelic studied economy in Subotica, Serbia. In Banja Luka, he obtained a doctorate in economics. For 13 years, he was head of the Modrica oil refinery.

Jelic was a member of the Serb Democratic Party -- founded by wartime Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, who is now a war crimes fugitive -- until 1998, when he switched to Dodik's party of Independent Social Democrats, currently the most influential Bosnian Serb party.

Before he was elected president last year, he served as minister for economy, energy and development in the Bosnian Serb government. Jelic -- a former soccer player -- also was president of Bosnia's Soccer Federation.

His brother said Jelic had undergone a bypass surgery in 2003.

Jelic was "a good man and politician who died too early at a time when he could have contributed the most," said Muslim Bosniak Mirsad Kebo, vice president of the Bosniak-Croat Federation.

In Belgrade, Serbian President Boris Tadic called Jelic "a good president and a true friend of Serbia."

The presidency of the Serb Republic is largely ceremonial, with the true power in the Bosnian Serb ministate lying in the hands of the government and its prime minister.

But it was unclear on Sunday who might succeed Jelic. Political analyst Tanja Topic said the Serb Republic's Constitution does not make clear the chain of succession.

The peace agreement that ended Bosnia's 1992 to 1995 war divided the country two ministates, each largely autonomous, with its own president, parliament, police and army.

The two are linked by a central government, a parliament and a three-member presidency. Over the years, almost all of the ethnically divided structures have been merged and put under state authority, including the army, in which Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks and Croats serve together. A merger of the police is under way.

Jelic is survived by his wife, Milica, and son, Petar.
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