Serbia opposes any initiatives to change borders in the Balkans and accepted those that were established in 1991, Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, said during his Saturday visit to the northern Bosnian village of Donja Gradina, where the anniversary of the breakthrough of the inmates from the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp was marked.

Vucic met with the Chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency and leader of the ruling party in the country’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) entity Milorad Dodik, as well as with RS President, Zeljka Cvijanovic, RS Prime Minister, Radovan Viskovic, and the mayors of four municipalities – Nikola Janjetovic from Kostajnica, Radenko Reljic from Kozarska Dubica, Milenko Avdalovic from Nevesinje and Dusica Runic, from Drvar.

Vucic spoke about the narrative of border changes in the Western Balkans which has come into focus recently following the publication of a controversial non-paper that sparked outrage in the region.

“Today, we have three things that we must remember for the entire Serb people. Firstly: peace, peace, peace is the most important thing for the Serb people. Second: both Serbia and the Republika Srpska and the Serb people as a whole must be part of the international community, we must never again allow ourselves to be isolated and removed from the world. Third: there is no doubt about this and today we can rightly say that international public law has long been buried, that there is no justice in international relations, that the hypocrisy of governments and double standards govern the policies of the great powers. And I say that here in their face in front of their representatives,” Vucic said.

He argued that “whatever is the rule for Serbs is not the same for others.”

“And when the hypocrites tell you about how they are against changing the borders, don't forget that they changed our borders in the ‘90s, that they tried to change the borders in Serbia today and in 2008, and that today it suits them to say that they are, ostensibly, against changing borders. We do not touch the borders, we acknowledged those from 1991. Just preach about law and justice to us and don't preach about morality,” he said.

The Chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, said that he asked Vucic, for Serbia to help the municipalities of Kozarska Dubica, Kostajnica, Nevesinje and Drvar, which have a systemic problem of financing and development.

“We talked about the state of those municipalities, and I asked the President of Serbia to help these municipalities which have a systemic problem related to financing and development,” said Dodik.

He thanked Vucic for Serbia’s continuous support for Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity and its municipalities.

Dodik said that the reason for the meeting was also to mark the anniversary of the breakthrough of the detainees from the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp.

He said that “this is one of the painful and difficult topics.”

He announced that thanks to Vucic, a memorial area for the victims of Jasenovac will be built in Donja Gradina soon which will integrate all places of the suffering of Serbs, “to make a map of suffering that would be placed there and which would be available to all those who come there.”