The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and his team, who have been elected by the people to protect the constitutional position and capacity of Srpska, will never sacrifice peace, but they will also not allow anyone to infringe upon the rights of Republika Srpska and the Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Radovan Kovačević, delegate in the Serb Caucus of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
“Peace, security, and a good quality of life for our people are always the top priorities. In this period, despite all the threats, we will always assert that Srpska will prevail, and we will continue with its development and the overall improvement of people’s living standards. These are the things that are our priority,” Kovačević said to ATV.
He emphasized that secession is not the policy of Republika Srpska, nor is it on the agenda or in the plan, but rather, the plan is the unequivocal, relentless protection of Republika Srpska’s constitutional Dayton position.
“Milorad Dodik and all of us who are part of his team have never and will never abandon this, regardless of threats and sanctions. This hasn’t changed now, and it will never change,” Kovačević stated.
What Republika Srpska is doing, according to Kovačević, is consistently calling for the preservation of the Dayton structure of BiH.
“We believe that we brought our subjectivity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity into the newly formed Dayton BiH, and these are the political principles from which we will not deviate,” Kovačević said.
He emphasized that Srpska seeks to protect the constitutional autonomy it is entitled to under the Dayton Agreement and warns that if the continuous seizure of its constitutional rights and position, as well as the undermining of the constitutional order in BiH, continues, certain responses to this type of attack will be necessary.
Kovačević dismissed as nonsense the claims by the opposition that President Milorad Dodik has changed his policy, stressing that Dodik has always firmly stood by the policies of Republika Srpska, which involve protecting Srpska’s constitutional Dayton position, not secession.
“Their supposed conclusion was that the CIA director issued some sort of threat to Milorad Dodik, and that Dodik was frightened. What is there to frighten a man who is under double sanctions from the United States and under sanctions from the United Kingdom, whose entire family is under American sanctions?” Kovačević remarked.
He added that he has witnessed various messages, both open and covert, being sent to the President of Srpska many times, but that Dodik has never retreated an inch.
“All those who continuously claim that Republika Srpska and Milorad Dodik are pursuing a secessionist policy are inviting international intervention against Republika Srpska,” Kovačević said.
He pointed out that Republika Srpska has experienced this before, in 1995 and in Serbia in 1999.
“We have faced various forms of international interventions—political and legal-violent—against Republika Srpska, during which Srpska’s rights were massively taken away. All those who talk about Srpska pursuing a secessionist policy are calling for a repeat of such actions,” Kovačević said.
He emphasized that the authorities in Srpska are against this and that they continuously assert that they are not pursuing any adventurous policy but rather a very serious and stable policy based on the Dayton Agreement, the BiH Constitution, and the insistence that the Dayton Agreement and constitutional order in BiH be respected.
“A secessionist policy would mean that we are not interested in the Constitution or anything else in BiH. On the contrary, we insist on respecting the BiH Constitution and that it cannot be violated whenever it suits them, always against us, against our interests, against the interests of all the people in Republika Srpska,” Kovačević said.
He noted that only the naive do not see how there is a constant effort against Republika Srpska.
“All those who think they can attack everything we are protecting without any consequences must understand that there will be consequences, and that Republika Srpska, in such circumstances, will at some point have to seek another solution. When we talked about peaceful separation, we again talked about dialogue between Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, dialogue among the three constituent peoples in BiH in accordance with the Dayton Agreement, and about finding a solution,” Kovačević said.
If it turns out that there is no possibility of BiH remaining intact, Kovačević asks whether there is a better solution than peaceful separation.
“We believe that peace is above all. And we will never sacrifice peace,” Kovačević concluded.
Source: RTRS
