Presidents of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic and Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity Milorad Dodik addressed a press conference in Banja Luka, the entity administrative centre, on Friday, the second day of Vucic's visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he and the delegation of Serbia held a series of meetings with the leadership of the Serb-majority part of the country and visited sites of suffering of the Serb victims of war. Pročitaj više

On Thursday, Dodik and Vucic talked to the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije in the northern town of Srbac, but the meeting was closed for media. They briefly addressed reporters and announced a press conference for Friday.

Addressing the media, Dodik said that the cooperation between Serbia and Republika Srpska is not aimed against anyone in BiH, and he accused Sarajevo-based politicians, particularly the Bosniak Presidency member Denis Becirovic, of using such narrative and “giving lessons on history and the future.”

Commenting on the US sanctions, Dodik said that this was one of the topics discussed in the meeting.

The US sanctions are neither easy nor simple, and they come from one of the biggest countries in the world that practice “anti-Serb policy.”

“The US is not the only guarantor of the Dayton Agreement or the only interpreter but they are trying to laterally bring Serbia and Republika Srpska onto a negative side,” according to Dodik.

“Some in Sarajevo think they are in charge of entire BiH. BiH consists of two entities. The sovereignty of Republika Srpska is undeniable on the territory of 49 percent of BiH or 250,000 square metres. RS has its executive government and is responsible for that area,” he underlined.

Serbian President Vucic also commented on the US sanctions, stressing that Serbia will refer to those sanctions against the officials from Republika Srpska as if they do not exist.

He noted that the “still most powerful country” first sanctioned the Serbs from Kosovo, while not punishing anyone from the Albanian side who should, according to Vucic, be punished for many reasons.

The sanctions were then imposed against Serbia's top security agency chief Aleksandar Vulin, then against Bosnian Serb leadership, which, he stressed, is a bad news for the people no matter where they live.

“We cannot say that nothing happened, that this is a child's play, but it is not, these are difficult and not easy things for us. I think it is clear against whom the sanctions were imposed, so that the impartiality and objectivity of those who introduced the sanctions are called into question. (…) We consider the sanctions against the leadership of Republika Srpska inappropriate and undeserved, and we will act as if the sanctions do not exist,” he said.

As for the honouring of the war victims, Vucic said Serbia will always show respect for any victim but will not give up on its own.

Vucic, Dodik lay wreaths at Petrovac Road memorial

“We are not running away from showing the respect for the victims of other people, the Bosniaks, the Croats and any other. We are always ready to show respect towards other victims, but that does not mean we are ready to forget there are the Serb victims or that we will not speak about the Serb victims,” he underlined.