Regardless of what foreigners might think, it is only natural that Serbs from all over the world care about Serbia and the Kosovo issue and no one can do anything about that, Bosnian Serb leader and Presidency Chairman, Milorad Dodik, said after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, on Thursday.
“Foreigners in Sarajevo and Banja Luka often ask me this, and I think that it's critical that we care about Serbia. However it’s hard to explain why the West allows the unification of Kosovo and Albania, and yet they allow the taking away of autonomy which the Dayton (Peace Agreement) and the Constitution provide to the Republika Srpska (RS) entity,” Dodik said. “Therefore, it is logical that the RS should defend its Constitutional rights.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina went through a war which lasted 1992-1995 and was ended by the Dayton Peace Agreement. Then, the three sides in conflict, Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, as well as Serbian and Croatian presidents agreed that the war should end and that Bosnia should consist of two semi-autonomous entities and a district.
Thus the Republika Srpska entity became the Serb-dominated entity, while Bosniaks and Croats shared the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). The District of Brcko remained out of control of either of the entities and is not dominated by either of the three constituent peoples in the country.
Speaking about the meeting with Vucic, Dodik said it was just a regular meeting where they discussed the current situation in Serbia, regarding Kosovo and that he familiarised Vucic of all the important things for the RS and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Milorad Dodik, who is the leader of the strongest Serb nationalist party in the RS, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), is well known for his anti-Bosnian sentiment, saying that Bosnia never brought any good to his entity and that the RS will always strive for independence from Bosnia.
In spite of his anti-Bosnian statements, he ran for Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency during the October general election, winning a landslide victory for the Serb Presidency member.
Even though this position stipulates that the three members only represent the peoples they come from and that they must put the country’s interests first, Dodik immediately said he would primarily serve the Serb and RS interests and then those of the State.
Speaking about other topics of he discussed with Vucic in Belgrade, Dodik said they assessed different ways in which Serbia could help the RS.
