Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac said on Thursday he did not regret having participated in ceremonies marking the day of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska last weekend, insisting that his attendance was not of a political nature.

“There was nothing in my attendance and my intention that I should regret,” Pupovac said in Vukovar following a formal meeting marking the anniversary of the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia following the 1991-1995 war.

He went on to say that his presence in Banja Luka did not mean that he either agreed or disagreed with politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina engaged in heated debates on how Bosnia and Herzegovina should be organised.

Pupovac said that he had been there in his capacity as the president of the Serb National Council (SNV), an umbrella organisation of ethnic Serbs in Croatia.

He said he had attended a ceremony on 8 January, that is the day before 9 January, which is observed by the Serb entity as Republika Srpska Day.

Republika Srpska authorities organised a parade in Banja Luka last Sunday to mark 9 January as Republika Srpska Day. The date is a public holiday in the Bosnian Serb entity even though it has been declared unconstitutional.

Pupovac said his participation in the 8 January event should be seen in the context of cooperation with RS institutions.

He also mentioned the humanitarian assistance provided by the Serb entity to people in the quake-hit Banovina region in Croatia, cultural cooperation, and settlement of the status of ethnic Serbs who had fled Croatia in the 1990s and settled in that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pupovac said that the SNV would continue cooperating with the RS institutions, adding that he regretted that some people saw cooperation with one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or any form of cooperation between Croatian Serb representatives and the Bosnian Serb entity or Serbia, as a problem.

Pupovac said that Croatian Serb leaders never got into discussions on what was constitutional and what was unconstitutional in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“We do not apply double standards either to the Croats or the Bosniaks or the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said, reiterating that he had gone to Banja Luka as a representative of the Serb community and not as a state official.

He said he shared concerns with others over developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.