The newly elected Bosnian Serb member of the tripartite Presidency called on all Serbs working in Bosnia’s state institutions to resign on Wednesday, announcing an overhaul in the country’s intelligence service and declared that Serbia was his real homeland while Bosnia is just where he works.
The pro-Russian leader, Milorad Dodik, has for years been advocating the secession of the semi-autonomous Serb-dominated half of Bosnia, Republika Srpska (RS), and its annexation to neighbouring Serbia.
He has frequently criticised Bosnian Serbs who work for Bosnia’s state institutions and called them traitors.
A day after he his inauguration to the state presidency, he declared he will be working for the interests of Republika Srpska there and announced that he distrusts current Serb officials in state institutions, who are predominantly people chosen by his political opponents in the RS.
“I call upon them to resign. Some of them, maybe, can stay, we will see,” he said.
“And for those who don’t do it, we will find ways to remove them from office,” he said, adding that this will not be an act of vengeance, but that those people first need to prove that they want to cooperate with him.
Dodik further stated that Republika Srpska has the right to defend its constitutional framework, and this will be done by a new institution that he said will be established, the Council for the Protection of the RS Constitutional Framework.
He criticised the work of Bosnia’s intelligence agency (OSA), saying that it has been working against the RS and announced a law that would change “many things” regarding this institution.
RELATED NEWS
Dodik did not elaborate further but announced that “measures will be implemented against anyone who is breaching the (RS) constitutional framework,” adding that the RS has the right to monitor anyone who is working against its constitution.
Although he is a member of Bosnia's Presidency, he will travel using a Serbian passport, he said.
“I have no reason to change anything, I am a Serb. I love Serbia more than I love Bosnia. Bosnia is only my place of employment,” he said.
Earlier that day, Dodik called Bosnia a “failed experiment.”
“We (the Serbs) are forced to be in Bosnia and Herzegovina by an international agreement, which has been breached by the international community. There are nearly no reasons that should keep us within Bosnia,” he said.
