Bosnian Serb opposition leader commends Serbian President's messages

N1

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic conveyed fair messages and it was good to have a chance to hear them, Bosnian Serb opposition leader Branislav Borenovic said in N1's programme commenting on the meeting that the Serb political leadership held with Serbia's top officials last weekend.

“Most importantly, Serbia as a state respects Bosnia and Herzegovina, its two-entity system, the constituent status of peoples and the Dayton (Peace Agreement) as a key framework. He calls for calmness, reasonable behaviour,” said Borenovic, the leader of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP).

Major Bosnian Serb parties met on Saturday in Belgrade with Aleksandar Vucic, the President of Serbia, after the main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) passed a declaration outlining the party's future goals.

Those goals included the creation of a democratic, regionalised, lawful and welfare state under the name of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would have state, regional and local governments.

The document triggered fierce reactions among the strongest Serb and Croat parties in Bosnia, who assessed that the SDA's declaration was a call for conflict and that it violated the current Constitution, contained in the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war. 

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“The messages are important, everyone should do their own job. We have many various stands, dreams that we heard about, but there is only one reality. It is the Dayton (Peace Agreement), which guarantees a broad framework for everyone to be able to function,” said Borenovic.

The Belgrade meeting is not disputable, according to him.

“We live in a tense region, talks are needed. We talk the most in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, it is logical. I don't see why we can't talk in Belgrade, we can talk in Zagreb, Istanbul, Washington, Moscow – about how to get out of the turbulent situation we are dealing with,” he said.

Asked why Vucic mentioned conflict, the opposition leader replied that the President of Serbia actually said that each tension carries along some turbulent dimensions which might be dangerous for the region.

“That's something hanging in the air all the time but it is necessary to act reasonably and rationally, and to insist on cooperation. Political conflict disturbs and damages political relations,” said Borenovic adding that he could not tell if someone was referring to war conflicts.

A new conflict must never be allowed in Bosnia again, he added.