Bosnia's ambassador in Belgrade: Republika Srpska ready to 'go all the way'

In an interview for Serbia's Politika daily, Vranjes said that the Serb people in Republika Srpska - Bosnia's Serb-majority part, will have the opportunity to decide on October 25th in a referendum "whether they accept the decisions of the unelected Schmidt and the unconstitutional verdicts of the BiH court against the President of Republika Srpska (RS), based on which his mandate is being revoked."

"If we get the expected answer 'no', it is also a compass for the Serb political elite in which direction to go further, all the way to the right to self-determination," said the ambassador.

Vranjes referred to the State Court verdict to Milorad Dodik, sentencing him to one year in prison and six-year political ban for defying decisions of the international peace envoy Christian Schmidt and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Asked about the fact that the Central Election Commission of BiH intends to call elections for the entity president, even though the entity government has announced it would boycott them, Vranjes pointed out that "the National Assembly of RS has adopted conclusions requiring all political factors, parties and individuals not to register for these possible early elections for the President of RS."

He also added, "these conclusions require all authorities, institutions, officials and responsible persons in the RS not to take any action related to the possible implementation of such elections."

"In other words, the elections will be banned and boycotted, the use of public facilities for the purposes of such elections will not be allowed, and any activity in the conduct of such elections will constitute a criminal offense of 'disrespect or failure to implement decisions of RS institutions or bodies,'" Vranjes stressed.

He also said that "for the purpose of self-defense, RS will have at its disposal a range of possible responses to new attacks by Schmidt's tyranny."

"I wouldn't be surprised if one of the defense mechanisms was to introduce a state of emergency in order to protect the constitutional order, institutions and citizens of RS. This would then lead to further escalation, which seems to be Schmidt's goal," he added.

Vranjes earlier expressed his loyalty to Republika Srpska, rather than the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whom he's supposed to represent abroad, saying he was a "Serb ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina," who was not elected in Sarajevo but was nominated by the RS President as a Serb ambassador of BiH.