After the Interior Ministry of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity banned the celebration of BiH Statehood Day in Banja Luka, members of the veterans' organization of the RS held a rally today in response to the announcement that an event is being organised to mark the holiday at the Marriott Hotel. The RS veterans said that "they will not allow this humiliation” and that the holiday “means nothing” to them.
The veterans first gathered in front of the m:tel building in Banja Luka and then walked to the hotel where the Statehood Day event is taking place. They stayed there for a short time and headed towards Borik neighbourhood, where the headquarters of the SDP in Banja Luka is located.
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They carried RS flags, and sang nationalist songs, chanting “This is Serbia”. The rally orgnaised by the RS veterans was not approved by the RS Interior Ministry.
The president of the Republika Srpska Veterans Organization, Radan Ostojic, said that in this way they want to show their dissatisfaction with the initiative to celebrate BiH Statehood Day in Banja Luka.
“When we found out that it would be marked, we sent a letter to the Interior Ministry of the RS. Although it was banned, they have announced that they will still gather and we want to say in a democratic way that we are against it. This is an insult to us fighters who fought for the RS”, he said.
He argued that the RS and Bosnia and Herzegovina as it is described in the Dayton Agreement have “nothing to do” with the declaration of the ZAVNOBiH antifascist liberation movement from 80 years ago.
“They come with the intention of provoking us and that will not bring anything good to anyone. For the Serb people, peace is imperative and the RS has no alternative, and we will fight for that idea. We will send a clear message and we will certainly not create an incident that would destabilize the situation. We have a special tolerance, but we perceive what has been happening lately as a humiliation,” he said.
The BiH Statehood Day is officially only observed in the country’s Federation (FBiH) entity. The BiH Foreign Affairs Minister, as well as the Minister of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts in Bosnia's FBiH entity, have meanwhile arrived at the hotel in Banjaluka to attend the event. Members of the RS Interior Ministry set up a corridor in order to prevent the protesters from accessing the building.
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