Drasko Stanivukovic, an opposition MP in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region, called on citizens to join him for a protest in Banja Luka on Thursday where he and his supporters will demand the resignation of the regional Interior Minister who slapped the young lawmaker during a heated debate on Monday evening.
“Anyone can come, as the battle must go on and we must not stop. If we forgive blows, then there will be shots,” Stanivukovic said.
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Lawmakers in Republika Srpska (RS), one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous entities, discussed on Monday evening the ‘Reform Programme’ which Bosnia sent to NATO.
NATO remains unpopular among Serbs since the alliance launched airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and against the Serbian military in 1999 during the conflict between Belgrade and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Opposition parties in the region accused Bosnian Serb Presidency member and leader of the strongest RS party, Milorad Dodik, of pushing Bosnia into NATO and thus betraying Serb interests by agreeing to send the document.
Stanivukovic, a member of the opposition Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), brought little NATO flags to the RS National Assembly session as a sign of protest.
He made loud comments while Lukac, a member of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), was speaking.
The two then got into a heated argument during which Lukac told Stanivukovic he would “end up like the NATO flags” which were laying on the floor, broken.
The Minister then challenged Stanivukovic to approach him.
Stanivukovic did so, and Lukac slapped him.
“He hit me with his fist. The Interior Minister threatened me. This is the man who runs the police, he threatens people. He said I would end up like the broken NATO flags which were laying on the floor. I will sue him,” Stanivukovic said after the incident.
“The demands are clear, I call upon people to come as the situation will only get worse if we sit at home,” he said.
“A lot of blood was spilt here, there were dozens of murders and all of these people are still in the institutions. We were already beaten at the Square and in the RS National Assembly. Those people targeted me. Now they want to set up a border on the Drina river, to turn Serbs against Serbs,” Stanivukovic argued.
