"Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be proud of General Atif Dudakovic and the legendary Fifth Corps, and all of us citizens of this country must firmly stand in defence of what the people of Krajina did for /their country/ under the leadership of General Dudakovic," Tihic said in the northwestern town of Bihac on Sunday after meeting Dudakovic.
The Serb member of the collective Presidency, Borislav Paravac, described Tihic's meeting with Dudakovic as a "disastrous move", saying that it might provoke "a formidable backlash" in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"If (Tihic) continues to behave like this, I think the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be in question," Paravac told reporters in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka on Sunday, adding that Tihic's meeting with Dudakovic should be seen as "his personal and private affair".
Republika Srpska President Dragan Cavic said in Banja Luka on Sunday that the meeting was Tihic's "pre-election move".
"By exalting Dudakovic, Tihic also exalts his orders from the video footage of Serb civilians being killed and Serb houses being burnt," Cavic said, adding that it was "the worst kind of a political message, similar to those issued at the height of the war."
Earlier this month media broadcast video footage allegedly showing members of the Bosnian Army Fifth Corps committing war crimes in western Bosnia in 1995. Some media accused General Dudakovic of having personally ordered the killing of prisoners of war and the burning of houses.