The President of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, sent a threatening message to the EUFOR commander, Florin-Marian Barbo, who is coming from Romania, at a press conference in Banja Luka today.
“We see that these, that one commander from Romania, are trying to strengthen their career with various manifestations and threats. Maybe he saw an opportunity to write something successful in his biography. Tanks are useless to him. I don’t think he has any answers to the eggs in the head and some other things. I wouldn’t even recommend him to check it because Serbian eggs are much harder than some others,” he said and continued:
“He can freely hang his threats, regardless of the fact that he is the EUFOR commander.”
He then said that he would ask Russia to veto the extension of the EUFOR mission in BiH, and in the very next sentence he said that he has nothing against the EUFOR mission in BiH and the increase in the number of soldiers!?
“These days I will meet at the highest level with representatives of the Russian Federation and unlike all the previous years when I asked for Altea to stay, now I will ask the Russians to veto and not allow a subversive structure that abuses the UN mandate and threatens us Serbs to remain. By the way, we do not mind at all – to strengthen our presence and behave in accordance with the mandate.”
Although he said today that EUFOR does not have a mandate to act in case of need by domestic security agencies, this is not true. The Deputy Minister of Defense of BiH Aleksandar Goganović himself, who comes from Dodik’s ranks, said today:
“The role of EUFOR, in accordance with the mandate assigned by the UN Security Council, is crucial, and that EUFOR is a key partner of the Armed Forces of BiH and other BiH institutions in maintaining peace, stability and security in BiH.”
Dodik also said today that EUFOR could bring up to 10,000 soldiers, that he has no problem with that, and then he told the Romanian general “not to mess around”.
“If 1,000 is not enough for you, bring 10,000 people. We have no problem. But stick to your mandate. No Serb will shoot at you or do anything, but Serbs are not ready to tolerate an occupier. And this Romanian general who is faking it is classic proof of occupation. Maybe we will declare him an occupying force, we will see.”, Klix.ba writes.
