Any threat to the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement would not put Bosnia and Herzegovina into question, but only its Serb-dominated part, said the Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite Presidency on Saturday following statements his Bosnian Serb colleague made in Belgrade earlier that day.
The Serb member of Bosnia’s Presidency visited Belgrade on Saturday and gave a joint speech with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic. He asked Vucic to advocate for self-determination for Serbs and Republika Srpska (RS), the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity in Bosnia, in any future meetings he might have.
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Dodik has for years been either president or prime minister of Republika Srpska (RS) before he was elected to the Presidency in October, where he is currently Chairman. While he served his previous offices, he would frequently call for the secession of the RS from the country and its annexation to neighbouring Serbia.
Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic reacted the same day, saying that Dodik’s Belgrade visit was not a working visit or an official one made in the name of the Presidency, but a “private act”.
“The stances which Milorad Dodik expressed at the meeting with the President of the Republic of Serbia and at the press conference are not, and may not be perceived, as official stances of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Dzaferovic said in a written statement.
Advocating for the ‘self-determination of Republika Srpska’ and asking for support for it from the Serbian President “represents a call for a direct assault on the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” as well as the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the Bosnian war and peace in the region, Dzaferovic’s statement said.
“Threatening the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which existed before the Dayton Agreement, will not be put into question, but the entity of Republika Srpska, which was created in Dayton, surely would,” it said.
There can be no ‘self-determination’ for anybody in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dzaferovic stated, adding that Republika Srpska can “only and exclusively be a multi-ethnic entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
“All while he is serving the function of a member of Bosnia’s Presidency, Milorad Dodik is obligated to respect the Constitution and the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina and advocate exclusively the stances which were agreed within the Presidency,” Dzaferovic concluded.
