The presence of Serb member of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović at the United Nations represents significant recognition and demonstrates that the approach toward BiH has changed and that Republika Srpska’s voice has been heard, Acting Director of the Republika Srpska Office for International Cooperation Ana Trišić Babić told RTRS.
“Diplomacy of BiH, of Dayton BiH, does not exist. Officially, it does not exist, and we can now formally declare it dead. What we have instead is diplomacy exclusively representing the Bosniak side and Sarajevo’s political scene, as we were able to see in New York,” Trišić Babić said.
She pointed to the presence in New York of former BiH foreign minister and current head of the BiH Mission to the United Nations Zlatko Lagumdžija, current BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković and Chairman of the BiH Presidency Denis Bećirović.
Trišić Babić strongly criticized Bećirović’s address to the UN General Assembly, arguing that it reflected an outdated political approach.
“It is obvious that they are still living in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, when it was considered extremely important which day you spoke at the United Nations. They therefore made an effort to speak on the first day, but despite that, the hall was almost completely empty,” she said.
She described Bećirović’s speech as containing false claims and said it was rejected by officials in Republika Srpska.
“The speech was not pleasant to listen to because it was full of untruths and falsehoods, and we in Republika Srpska absolutely reject everything Denis Bećirović said in his address to the UN,” Trišić Babić said.
She stressed that Bećirović’s statements should not be regarded as a common position of BiH.
“That is not the position of BiH. It is not the position of the three constituent peoples — neither the Serb nor the Croat people — and I personally do not believe it represents the entire Bosniak political scene either, but only one part of it,” she said.
Trišić Babić described Cvijanović’s presence at the UN as an important moment for Republika Srpska, particularly because it coincided with Bećirović’s presence as chairman of the BiH Presidency.
“After 30 years, we have reached what is, for us in Republika Srpska, a very important moment of which we are extremely proud. We persevered long enough to see, for the first time, the Serb member of the Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, also present in the United Nations building at the same time as the chairman of the Presidency,” Trišić Babić said.
She argued that Cvijanović’s presence was more than a symbolic development.
“It is not merely a sign or a signal, but a fact demonstrating that the policy toward BiH has changed, that our voice from Republika Srpska has been heard and that it still has much more to say,” Trišić Babić concluded.
Source: RTRS
