Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska (RS), stated on Wednesday in Banja Luka that he will meet with the highest representatives of the Russian Federation in the coming days and will ask them to veto, that is, not to allow the EUFOR Althea mission to remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“Unlike all previous years when I asked for Althea to stay, now I will ask the Russians to veto and not allow a subversive structure that abuses the United Nations (UN) mandate and threatens us Serbs here by bringing in some forces just because Sarajevo demands it,” Dodik said at yesterday’s press conference in Banja Luka, where he spoke alongside RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic and Speaker of the National Assembly of RS (NARS) Nenad Stevandic.
“There is no attack or hardship that I am not ready to endure for RS. Milorad Dodik will do his job, travel, but he will never leave RS. If someone thinks we are cowards, they are gravely mistaken,” he said.
Dodik said they had called for dialogue, but that this dialogue had been mocked. He once again called for talks.
“We still have time for that kind of discussion, and I am giving a chance to those who could accept exclusively a conversation among domestic leaders,” Dodik said.
Support of the people
The president of this BiH entity said he believes that, together with Viskovic and Stevandic, he has the support of the people.
“I call on people to give us even greater support because we are doing all this for them. If we were doing it for our own comfort, we certainly wouldn’t personally be in this position. We have no right to comfort when RS is threatened,” he said.
Commenting on the arrest warrant issued yesterday, Dodik claimed that RS police were being asked to arrest him, Stevandic, and Viskovic.
“I wouldn’t recommend the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) to act, and I believe they won’t,” Dodik said, adding:
“I only trust the RS police, because they want to remove people here who defend the police and its jurisdiction. The next target would be the RS police and its property, and then also the church, that is, the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which would be seized through such procedures, and they would, in some way, blame us again for everything.”
Dodik also had messages for the Romanian EUFOR commander in BiH, Florin Barbu.
“We see that this commander from Romania tried to strengthen his career here through various events and threats. Maybe he saw an opportunity to add something successful to his biography. I am telling him that he will not defeat the people of RS. His tanks are useless,” Dodik said.
Go ahead and carry out your threat
RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic continued to challenge the decisions of BiH‘s state institutions, including the latest decision by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.
“I will never voluntarily go to that court and prosecutor’s office in Sarajevo. Simply because I do not trust them and because I do not expect fairness and a fair trial from them,” Viskovic said, adding that he is willing to answer before any court in the RS entity, regional countries, and the world, but not before the BiH Court.
He added that he is not afraid of threats.
“Go ahead, carry out your threat. You are firing blanks, but you are creating a situation where someone might fire live rounds,” Viskovicsaid.
He stated that he has not “fled” and that he remains in RS and in his position as Prime Minister of the RS Government.
Call for parliamentary immunity
The Speaker of the NARS, Stevandic, also accused the state judiciary and the Office of the High Representative (OHR) of attacking RS and said that he is not afraid for himself but for the lives and property in RS due to attempts to strip the right to self-defense.
Recalling the immunity granted to its representatives by the RS Constitution, Stevandic said that this process is an attack on the RS Constitution.
“We are in an anti-war stance, but that does not mean we will not exercise our right to self-defense,” Stevandic said.
The conference was held during a break in the NARS session, which had on its agenda the proposal for a new entity constitution and the Draft Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order of that entity.
