Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia announced today that the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, misused the commemorative event for promoting his anti-Serb agenda, rather than contributing to the reconciliation of peoples or enhancing internal cohesion and political dialogue in his country.
As stated in the announcement, it is indicative that when Bećirović speaks in the first person plural, he has only the Bosniak population of BiH in mind, while perceiving the other two constituent peoples as some kind of foreign body and a destabilizing factor.
“For him, the political will of the Serb people in BiH, which is guaranteed by the Dayton Agreement and the constitution of that country, is not relevant at all. He interprets every distinctiveness of the Serbian people in BiH or the specificities of their political interests as a threat, even though the very architecture of Dayton guarantees the legitimacy and equality of the political wills of the three constituent peoples and two entities,” the statement said.
Bećirović’s speech is seen as a call for deepening misunderstandings and animosities within BiH, for redrawing the Dayton architecture of that state, and this is, unlike the imagined threats he spoke about today, the only real threat to the stability of BiH and the region.
Serbia has repeatedly emphasized in the past that it is ready to have the same quality of relations with the Federation of BiH as it has with Republika Srpska. However, there has been no willingness in Sarajevo to respond to this with the spirit of good neighborliness.
“The Bosniak political elite in Sarajevo, for ideological or day-to-day political reasons, preferred to ensure that no bridges of cooperation were built with Serbia, both symbolically and literally. As a result, Sarajevo has voluntarily excluded itself from joint projects and initiatives that would undoubtedly benefit both states,” the statement added.
It is emphasized that there are no Greater Serb declarations, but rather an effort by the people of Republika Srpska not to become victims of Sarajevo’s unreasonable isolationist policies and the unrealistic anti-Dayton ambitions of the Bosniak political elite in BiH.
Moreover, it is pointed out that the recently adopted Declaration on the Protection of National and Political Rights and the Joint Future of the Serb People, which Bećirović tries to present as a Greater Serb manifesto, is fully in line with the Dayton Agreement. It does not challenge the territorial integrity of BiH in any way and certainly does not contain anything that could be perceived as a threat by the Bosniak people, with whom the Serb people wish to have the best possible relations.
The statement concludes that Serbia, led by President Aleksandar Vučić, will continue to insist on strengthening ties with BiH despite the dangerous political messages from Bećirović and his ideological associates and will always be ready to be the first to extend a hand of cooperation and reconciliation.
Source: RTRS
