The only solution for Bosnia is a "peaceful division" between its peoples, the President of the country’s Serb-dominated half said on Sunday.
As defined in the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the bloody war in the country, Bosnia's internal structure consists of two semi-autonomous territorial entities. One of them, Republika Srpska (RS), is dominated by ethnic Serbs and the other, the Federation (FBiH), is shared between Bosniaks and Croats.
RS President Milorad Dodik has been advocating for the RS to secede from Bosnia for years. The main Croat party in the country, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), led by Dragan Covic, has meanwhile been pushing for the establishment of another, Croat-dominated political entity similar to the RS.
Dodik and Covic have recently announced a coalition.
“Without help from the side (international community), neither the Federation nor Bosnia and Herzegovina can function,” Dodik said.
“If we would hypothetically separate Republika Srpska and if it would get international recognition, it could exist and survive on its own. Nothing else would. That is why we are only victims of the failed story of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
The RS is self-sufficient, he said, adding that the entity has all elements of statehood, including territory, population and an efficient government, as well as that it respects regional and international rules.
The RS President said that those who put the Dayton Agreement together, which is mostly the international community, are now saying it was all just an experiment of multi-ethnicity, to see if peoples who waged war against each other can suddenly live in peace together.
He said he does not think Bosnia will survive and that the country is going to divide peacefully.
He also said there is no honesty in the relations between Bosnia’s peoples.
“The only honest wish we have is to split up, to form our own entities and regionally cooperate based on that. That is the only possible solution. Everything else is only empty talk,” he said.
“Today in Bosnia there is not one joint holiday stemming from out joint history,” he said.
The RS President said in May that the Serb people's “historic ironclad project” is to unite Bosnia's RS territory with neighbouring Serbia.