Republika Srpska will tomorrow mark 32 years since the proclamation of its first Constitution on February 28, 1992. At that time, the political representatives of the Serb people in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina laid the foundations of the statehood of Republika Srpska.
It has been changed and supplemented, partly autonomously in the National Assembly, and partly forcibly – by imposition of high representatives.
It was and remains the foundation upon which Republika Srpska rests, with all the constitutive elements.
In response to the intention of Muslims and Croats to declare the independence of BiH from Yugoslavia against the will of the Serb people, the legal and legitimate representatives of the Serb people elected in the first multi-party elections initiated a decisive state-building process.
With the proclamation of the Republic of the Serb people in BiH on January 9 and the adoption of the first Constitution on February 28, before the war conflicts, the foundations of the statehood of Republika Srpska and the guarantee of the survival of the Serb people in this area were laid.
“At that moment, the adoption of that Constitution was our last line of defense against the unlawful, politically imprudent, actually reckless conduct of the so-called referendum on the independence of BiH. That Constitution was primarily a symbol of Serb identity, Serb resistance, and solidarity,” stated Radomir Lukić, a professor of law and co-author of the Constitution of Republika Srpska.
The first Constitution of Srpska was in line with the modern European constitutions of that time. The Constitution, which in its key provisions shaped Republika Srpska as a free, democratic European state, founded on the highest postulates and standards regarding human freedoms and equality. One of the basic principles was the principle of national equality.
“Without such a conceived Constitution, which laid the foundations of our statehood even before the war, we would be treated in history as a Serb rebellious tribe or some kind of forest guerrilla in the territory of former BiH,” emphasized Dragan Kalinić, former President of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska.
“The Constitution of the Republika Srpska BiH then guaranteed complete security, freedom, equality regarding religious belief, political organization, establishment of parliamentary democracy,” added Milovan Bjelica, one of the founders of the SDS.
A document of historical significance for the Serbs, encapsulating the clear vision of political representatives on positioning the Serb people within BiH, was adopted in the Sarajevo hotel “Holiday Inn.”
The mayor of today’s East Sarajevo, Ljubiša Ćosić, states that February 28, 1992, created the foundation of the legal power of Srpska.
“They clearly knew that the future functioning of that republic would depend on a modern, democratic Constitution that prescribes ways of organizing a republic. This is evident today. It is the basis of the legal system of Republika Srpska, and all laws, both today’s and those passed in Republika Srpska in the previous period, are derived from such a Constitution,” Ćosić mentioned.
Just as in the 1990s it defended the constitutional order of the Socialist Republic of BiH and Yugoslavia, so today the Serbian people defend the constitutional position of Republika Srpska and Dayton BiH.
“Where there is no Serb in the Constitution, there are no Serbs. There is a Constitution, but no Serbs. An obvious example of this is the Republic of Croatia. A system that does not recognize federalism and a special consociational democracy will produce constant conflicts or BiH will become one big prison from which those who are not satisfied with it will flee. This cannot be done without great force and blood,” Lukić stated.
Over these 32 years, Republika Srpska has been in the eye of the collective West, exposed to political strikes by some foreigners and political Sarajevo.
“32 years later, the Constitution of Republika Srpska remains the foundation of our statehood and the main weapon, the main dam in defending our freedom and equality in these still turbulent areas,” Kalinić emphasized.
High representatives and the Constitutional Court of BiH have illegally and illegitimately changed the Constitution of Republika Srpska several times.
Even today, they would change both the Constitution and Dayton, but Srpska has long drawn a red line!
Source: RTRS
